Culture and Arts Notebook

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),…

POEM     The tombstone marks the name and the years of a life To remember that death like a shadow, follows. But, even for a day, they are alive in memorials and memories.   Flowers are placed, candles are…

INDIGENOUS CULTURE   by Genevieve Balance-Kupang  On Spirituality (Season of Creation, and Indigenous Peoples Month)   “Kullipan” is an Indigenous Tinggian chant that appropriates the sound of an eagle (Kuling) in flight, the “master of the skies.” What, with the…

PERSONAL NARRATIVE      Over thirty years ago, I was blessed enough To come in contact with a current of thought, A way of thinking, feeling and acting in the world That has, since then, served as direction and foundation…