Culture and Arts Notebook

A POEM AND A BACKSTORY     Imprisoned by an unseen virus, Days went by, enclosed, barren and bereft.   When the body is shackled The mind wanders, If not to future hopes Dimmed by a closing in of the…

POEM   The work of a poet is to look up in the sky in its unchanging morning azure and ask why its color never languished, never turned into crimson. Or into verdant maybe, because it gave all those to…

Sorsogon City, Philippines—  The Kurit-Lagting Art Collective in partnership with the Concerned Artists of the Philippines Bicol Chapter will hold an online workshop for teachers in Sorsogon City on December 5, 2021 via Zoom. In a Facebook post by the…

ESSAY We must safeguard the web of life and care about the other living species that we share this planet with. Pygmy tarsiers eat and host bugs that we’ve seen at home — insects, spiders, lizards, bedbugs, lice, fleas, roundworms,…

POEM     I dream of leaving this blighted land. Here, abundant waters rise up to the heavens But no rainfall returns to nourish the earth. Jungles give way to burnt-out mountains Trees felled and fettered as logs en route…

VISUAL ART Bikol Youth Groups and a broad alliance of artists and cultural workers to launch a mural project visualizing people’s agenda and good governance; calls on Sorsoganon youth to discern the signs of times The 1Sambayan-Sorsogon Youth, in partnership…

On Older Persons/Centenarians     by Genevieve Balance-Kupang The Second Centenarian in the Tikidan Family The atmosphere at the Centenarian Award ceremony was filled with celebratory excitement, joy, hope for good health, and longevity for the awardee. All stakeholders gathered…

I learned to read by reading the Bible. For me, the Bible was a giant black book with the engraved image of the Sacred Family on the cover. I used to love the words printed there with straight letters. Gold…

 POEM     How do I reconcile you sweet slice of juicy pineapple pampered and protected from the Northern frost happily settled in a crystal cradle shared by raspberries blackberries and papaya deploying perfumes seducing the palates of executives conferring…

BOOK REVIEW   One Humanity and the Remaking of Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution, by Mahboob A. Khawaja, Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany, 12/2019, 537 Pages   Mahboob A. Khawaja, Ph.D. in interdisciplinary Social Science (Syracuse University, New York, USA),…