“Festival goers will enjoy the NBDB Book Bar, the Tabuan Food Hall, Guhit Pambata Exhibition, and the National Library of the Philippines’ Rare Book Exhibition”
AS I wrote in a previous column, April is Literature Month and the literary and book-related events are crammed thick over the following two weeks.
Kicking off tomorrow is the National Book Development Board’s 2nd Philippine Book Festival at the World Trade Center Manila, lasting until April 28, running from 8 to 8 (8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.).
This year, the NBDB reprises its colossally successful take in cooperation with other government agencies and private companies, as well as publishers, writers, illustrators, and other stakeholders of the book industry.
The Philippine Book Festival 2024 brings together the country’s most popular authors in one event. (Poster courtesy of NBDB)
They are bringing back the four main sections of the Book Festival: Kid Lit (for children of all ages, 14 stalls), Booktopia (various genres, 40 stalls), Komiks Land (graphic book lovers, rejoice! with 34 stalls of komiks), and Aral Aklat (textbooks and educational resources, 22 stalls).
Many of the books will be sold at discounted prices.
This is good news not only for avid readers but also for teachers who will be looking for textbooks that they can recommend to their school librarians for purchase, or for volumes they can add to their personal bookshelves.
In addition, festival goers will enjoy the NBDB Book Bar, the Tabuan Food Hall, Guhit Pambata Exhibition, and the National Library of the Philippines’ Rare Book Exhibition.
Last year was the inaugural staging of this event, and it was phenomenally successful.
The Book Festival was conceptualized by NBDB Executive Director Charisse Aquino-Tugade, who with her team opened the doors to a wonderfully immersive literary experience that redefined the meaning of ‘bookfest.’
When I say ‘immersive,’ I mean there weren’t just book stalls where one could shop.
I mean there were activities for participants that drew them in and at least for several hours made the regular reader an integral part of a vibrant and dynamic book industry, with talks, interviews, forums, storytelling sessions, exhibits, book signings, workshops, panel discussions, and more.
I’d never had as much fun at a bookfest and it certainly set the bar higher for the other organizers of such events. NBDB’s success in Manila was followed by a PBF in Davao last July, another exciting engagement of books with readers from the south.
This year, the NBDB has arranged even more interesting activities, some of them celebrity-crammed.
Actors from the GMA Prime show “Encantadia Chronicles: Sanggre” – Faith da Silva, Bianca Umali, Kelvin Miranda, and Angel Guardian – wil stage a read-along at the WTC Main Stage on April 25, Thursday, at 2:00 p.m.
The following day, April 26, Friday, at 12:00 noon, same venue, the book “Si Gren, ang Kaibigan Kong Alien” will be launched by actors Gabby Concepcion, Marian Rivera, and Raphael Landicho.
Celebrities bridge broadcast and books with live readings at the NBDB’s Philippine Book Festival. (Photo courtesy of NBDB)
Esteemed writers will also attend the event, among them National Artist for Film and Broadcast Ricky Lee and popular historian Ambeth Ocampo, who will also be speaking on the Main Stage on April 26 and 27 respectively.
Literary rock stars National Artist Ricky Lee and best-selling writer/historian Ambeth Ocampo will be speaking about their most popular books. (Photo courtesy of NBDB.)
Visit the NBDB Facebook page for the event schedules and registration links.
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The University of Santo Tomas (UST) Center for Creative Writing and Literary Studies (CCWLS) is hosting a lecture-workshop on poetry and visual arts to be steered by an acclaimed international poet.
“Open Forms with Roy Voragen,” set for April 26 to May 4, 2024 at the UST Beato Angelico Gallery, features a public lecture by Voragen followed by a seminar-workshop for students on experimental or hybrid poetry combined with visual and other forms such as video, photography, collages, and performances.
Poet and curator Roy Voragen will spearhead “Open Forms”, a poetry/visual arts workshop at the University of Santo Tomas. (Poster courtesy of UST CCWLS)
Voragen, based in the Netherlands, is also a writer and curator who lived in Southeast Asia from 2004 to 2019. From 2003 to 2017 he resided in Indonesia while visiting and sharing his art in other SEA countries including the Philippines. From 2017 to 2019, he was curator of 1335MABINI Gallery in Ermita, Manila.
In his lecture for “Open Forms,” Voragen will speak about the relationships between language, body, and city, linking his practices as a poet and curator to show connections between the visual arts and writing.
For the workshop, Voragen will guide participants in engaging with the city and its languages, gathering the found languages of the streets and using these as material to create new modalities and fresh expressions of art.
“Language comes in many different rhythms, forms, and shapes. Languages leak through our bodies. Languages are ubiquitous… Poetry can become an anthropological tool to relate to and engage with the city,” he wrote in “Poetry (Not Poetry).”
“And the city isn’t just a collection of buildings with empty spaces in between. A city is us – and our languages.”
Voragen will deliver his lecture on April 30, 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. via Zoom from the Netherlands, and he will conduct the workshop the same way, in a hybrid setup of online and onsite audiences.
The lecture is open to the public onsite; it will not be livestreamed. Visit the UST Center for Creative Writing and Literary Studies page for the link to register for the lecture.
“Open Forms” is spearheaded by UST CCWLS Resident Fellow, Assoc. Prof. Nerisa del Carmen Guevara, with the cooperation of Asst. Prof. Mary Ann Venturina-Bulanadi, PhD, of the College of Fine Arts and Design.
The event is part of the UST International Writers and Scholars Lecture and Conversation Series consisting of formal lectures and informal conversations by international writers as guests of the UST CCWLS.
Previous speakers include Filipino writers and scholars based abroad, among them Ninotchka Rosca, Sabina Murray, Gina Apostol, Miguel Syjuco, Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, R. Zamora Linmark, Eugene Gloria, Marivi Soliven, John Blanco, Lara Stapleton, M. Evelina Galang, Fidelito Cortes, Nerissa Balce, Amalia Bueno and Robert Nery; and foreign nationals, like Robin Hemley Tim Tomlinson, Dennis Haskell, Xu Xi, and Yukari Yoshihara. ***
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