Augustitnian the
Volume LXVI NOVEMBER 20, 2020
FeATURes FOLD feature • pag e b5
feature • pag e b 6
sPeCtaCle • page b7
LOVE, PASTIMES OF THE PAST
WHAT’S CRAZY IN THE FANDOM CRAZE?
Over The Moon
Given a chance to relieve a life in the 1990’s compared to the present, there are some who prefers to be in the former.
With COVID-19 emptying churches and disallowing crowd gathering, religious Filipino traditions have taken an unfamiliar route.
Regardless of anyone’s sex, gender, race or any unique unalterable traits, no one deserves to be pigeonholed to what society wants them to be.
LIFTInG SPIRITS and oVeRCoMInG PandeMIC BLUeS Br inging fr ee d om , hop e, lov e , and s ens e of com m unit y t hr oug h ar t BY PAULINE MARIE C. ARADA AND GLAIZA RAE D. AMABLE “Can prison be a healing place?” While the metal strings of the guitar vibrate, a voice came into words being said, “at the end of dusk on the verge of night fall, everybody in panic gather in the roll call, desperately looking for a bed of carton to squeeze in oneself wherever to sleep on...” This is one of the many stories that were told on the 30th of October 2020. Narratives on double lockdown during COVID-19 pandemic created by women congested inside one holding cell expressed in visual narratives, poetry, performance art, and novelty art products as a process of trauma healing intervention and mental survival kit. These women deprived in liberty are from the Iloilo City District Jail, Female Dormitory, whose stories of experience, disaster, survival, and resilience inspired the event, Prison Theater of Compassion, a restorative recovery process project from the pandemic.
u Sa f ile pHOTO • u Sa lT a nd ma . rO Sali e a beTO Zer ru dO
PRISon LULLaBIeS Prison Theater of Compassion is part of an established event, Palangga bARTer Healing Art Playfest with the theme, “Double Lockdown Showdown.” This is in collaboration with the Fine Arts Major Organization (FAMO) and the University of San Agustin Little Theater (USALT), led by Project Director Ma. Rosalie Abeto Zerrudo and Artistic Director Eric Divinagracia. It is where women can express freedom through the stories of objects. It is rooted for the empowerment and inspiration of artistic content for the exchange of talents in times of pandemic. “The women that we are talking about are the women in prison,” shared Zerrudo, adding, “It is really actually telling different kinds of persona and characters of women who are trying to reclaim back their dignity and lives.”
“the priSon iS not a dead end, rather a reStorative Space with living narrativeS of human StorieS through obJectS, a Space of compaSSion with overflowing bodieS Sharing the politicS of tolerance, compaSSion, and love,” - Zerrudo. Inspired by the predicament of women in disaster, Zerrudo’s and FAMO’s mission is to use transcendence and beauty to break through the darkness, anxiety, and depression that these
incarcerated women artists are experiencing behind bars. PoeTRY In MoTIon “Kung mayroong tunog na nakakabingi, mayroon din’g nakakagaan ng pakiramdam, sa t’wing naririnig mo at para kang dinuduyan—o’kay sarap pakinggan.” In the film “Tunog ng Buhay” or “The Sound of Life” by Quezzy Claire Pedregosa, an alumna of the USALT, the abrupt change of lives during and after the pandemic was showcased. The theme focused on love, based on Nori’s “Inspiration” and poetries of Jart where they got the title of the film. The film further depicted the experiences of every Ilonggo artist during the lockdown. “It is going to show how artists experience double lockdown in the time of the pandemic; how the character is able to find that sense of empowerment amidst the growing feeling of helplessness,” explained Pedregosa. “Gakadulaan paglaum ang akon kaugalingon.” This was the line of a mother who was separated from her children in the film “Ili-Ili sang Paglaum” or “A Lullaby of Hope” by Ron Matthews Espinosa, who is also an alumna of USALT. The story revolved around the point of view of a mother who was silently suffering from the four-cornered prison cell and was away from her family. It showed the routine between two different perspectives and what could have been happened if she was not isolated from the outside world. “We are caged in our own space—we work around with those different spaces, but happened in the same during the pandemic,” shared Espinosa. “Kung kahanduraw, mga pinalangga nga indi makita, sa akon paghibi, rehas kag pader makabati.” Finally, a heavily inspired film from a poem “Rehas kag Pader” or “Railings and Walls” by Je-ann Palmaira portrayed a relating story of today’s generation and how were they able to cope up with rampant phenomenon currently happening and somehow imagined of what it is like to experience in a double lockdown. “For me, this is an awareness, and the world is ready to listen, to know, and to learn from you. I hope nga masuki-an namon ang inyo ng aging hatag nga barter sa amon,” said Howard Villoso, an AB Communication student of University of San Agustin.
BodY MonoLoGUeS “Gatulo ang luha ko, hindi na maisip. Gahulat sang ti-on nga ako makalaya...” Another series of exciting workshops were part of 2020 Busan Asia Cultural Diversity Forum with the theme, “Beyond Isolation, Disconnection, Discrimination, and Exclusion in the Era of COVID-19.” These activities bring artists together, breaking barriers from the walls of prison in Iloilo City to New York, New Mexico, Alaska, Javanese Village, and South Korea. “For me, dance is about how we understand our moves. We need to understand how the body moves, not about the form or how your hand is right or not, but how the hand moves with your heart,” expressed Agung Gunawan, co-director of Sampang Agung Centre for Perfoming Arts (SACPA) in Java, Indonesia. One of the actors in the play, Elaisha Pomida described her experience with the event as
“thiS whole proJect waS an eye-opener. aS we tell StorieS of women in priSon and feature their workS of art, we get a glimpSe of their eXperienceS. thiS makeS uS think about what we can do for them,” -pomida. a “very purposeful experience” as it reminded to always fuse passion and drive amidst the pandemic. FRoM SURVIVInG To THRIVInG Art can take many different forms and can collaborate in many areas. For women being locked inside the prison and those who took part in these events, it is art that serves as an antidote in times of chaos, a roadmap for greater clarity, and a force of resistance and repair, creating new languages and new images to think about. Through these projects, one can feel a sense of belongingness and movement from just barely surviving to thriving. Palangga bARTer Healing Art Playfest is one of the many projects that have been done for people, granting them the freedom to breathe, to love, to hope, and to work with the community.
