Culture and Arts Notebook
Sacred Spaces
VISUAL ARTS: PHOTOGRAPHY Photographs by Boldy Tapales/Text by Karina Santillan Sometimes, you enter a place, and somehow you are imbued with a feeling, a sensibility, an experience that you have penetrated a space you could call sacred. Different from the day-to-day, the mundane. Maybe, a feeling… »
Wherever you look back
POEM by Rem Tanauan WHEREVER YOU LOOK BACK, there’s haiku. In fact, it’s there in the moss on the wall blessed by rain. In the fallen jasmin, like an upturned umbrella on a grimy road. In the leaves of shiny bush, on the foot of newly grown… »
What is it Like to be Trapped in a Desert Jail For 20 Years? The Oufkir Family Story
BOOK REVIEW Stolen Lives by Malika Oufkir Book Review by Mona Gonzalez https://www.amazon.com/Stolen-Lives-Twenty-Desert-Oprahs/dp/0786886307 I read Stolen Lives twice. The first time, I couldn’t put it down because it was just shocking. The second time I read it, (for this review), I found new… »
Art Exhibit at the Giant Dwarf Art Space, Angono, Rizal
VISUAL ARTS by Saki (Ishak Binudin) As a phenomenon of life, regeneration takes on different forms, captured by the diverse paintings and artworks presented by five artists of different generations, using different aesthetic techniques and approaches. As renewal or restoration, regeneration is equally observed in the… »
A Cab Fare to John Lennon’s
SHORT FICTION By Jhon Sanchez Thanks to Martha Hughes, Sam Ferri, Nan Fryland, and Emma Komlos-Hrobsky for their editorial comments Without paying attention, Gonzalo heard what the woman in the passenger seat said, “At least you must have music in this cab, or don’t you have… »
Beyond Lake Sebu: Blaans’ rich indigenous dreamwoven tabih and its master weaver, rituals, dances, homestays, at Blaan Wellness and Tribal Village
INDIGENOUS CULTURE/NARRATIVE Narrative by Claire Madarang I have always associated South Cotabato, a province in the Philippines with the serene Lake Sebu and the dreamweaving T’boli indigenous people and their masterpiece, the t’nalak. South Cotabato is in fact known as the “Land of the Dreamweavers.” However,… »
Experimental Art Photos at the Exile Pattern Exhibit
VISUAL ARTS Exile Pattern is a collection of experimental art photos by photo patternist Bereket Alemayehu, a native Ethiopian who came to South Korea in 2014 and now resides in Seoul. The photographs, which were on exhibit at Urban Pluto Gallery, Seonyudo Seoul from February… »
The Stargazer
POETRY/ARTIFACT The shape of each life that has passed Through this tunnel of time Must mean something in the scheme of things If human beings leave behind bones, books Vases, paintings, all manner of artifacts Proof of existence and intention What are… »
The Girl Who Found Her Ancestors
TALE by Liz Medina There was once a little girl born on a faraway island kingdom, in a small hut, all by herself. No one could tell her who her parents were. In fact, no one in the tribe knew how she got there, and the medicine… »
Sun: A first offering of the year
POEM This was the first poem of 2021 that whispered to me, upon seeing this photograph by Aze. A photograph she sent on New Year’s day with a New Year wish for everyone. SUN by Rem Tanauan I knit the entire universe using fibers of light. … »