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Poetry Wednesdays

Poetry Wednesdays

Cebuano Poetry: Marlinda Angbetic Tan Reads “Bomba”

Over a year ago, I met Marlinda Angbetic Tan in Cebu. I had “met” her via email, intially, and whe was, sight unseen, incredibly warm and supportive of this Sari-Sari Storybooks venture. It was wonderful to meet her in person then.

Marlinda is a writer, and the former Lifestyle Editor of “The Freeman” (a Cebu City newspaper). Here she reads “Bomba,” a poem based on a bombing.

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Poetry Wednesdays

Waray Poetry: Janis Salvacion Reads “Kahayag” / “Light”

Next up in the Poetry Wednesdays series is Janis Salvacion, reading her luminous poem about her grandmother, “Kahayag.” It’s not evident in this recording, but Janis carried on through the sound of trikes and motorcycles revving past her bookstore (where we snuck in this recording).

Janis opened Bookstorm about a year ago in downtown Tacloban, some months after Typhoon Yolanda destroyed the books she had collected over the years. It’s the only indie bookshop in Tacloban. 

When asked if this had been a dream of hers, if she had always wanted to run a bookstore, the answer was no. She just felt the need to open a bookstore, post-Yolanda. That urgency is something I heard echoed by other new Tacloban entrepreneurs I met, like Trixie and Jacques Palami of Yellow Doors Hostel, and one of the Alunans, who opened Pizza Canto within months of the storm.

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Poetry Wednesdays

Waray Poetry: Voltaire Oyzon reads “Gab-i” / “Night”

For the second installment of Poetry Wednesdays, here’s Tacloban-based Waray poet Voltaire Oyzon, reading “Gab-i.”

Voltaire is also one of the minds behind the Corpora Project, a database of texts in various languages. It’s purpose is to preserve language and provide structural analysis that can be used to classify texts according to comprehension level for use in mother tongue-based multilingual education (MTBMLE). Check it out at http://corporaproject.org/

 

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Poetry Wednesdays

Cebuano Poetry: Jeremiah Bondoc reads “sa menteryo sa carreta dihang nangutana ka og unsaon ang balak sa pagbasa”

Welcome to Poetry Wednesdays on the Sari-Sari Storybooks blog.

As I travel around the Philippines to work on this children’s book series, I’d like to share some of the poets I meet, writing in Cebuano, Waray, Meranao, Hiligaynon, Tagalog and other Philippine languages. I hope you’ll enjoy hearing the multiplicity of Filipino poetry in the world.

We’ll start with Cebuano poet Jeremiah Bondoc (president of Bathalad, a Cebuano poetry organization),who read this back in February 2014, on my last trip here. This is “sa menteryo sa carreta dihang nangutana ka / og unsaon ang balak sa pagbasa” (how a poem should be read you asked me/ at the carreta cemetery).

Check back in on Wednesdays to hear more poets.

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