The UP Visayas Tacloban College (UPVTC) celebrates Literature Month 2021 with the theme “Quinientos Katuig nga Pagsurat han Filipino nga Kalibutan.”
The month-long celebration coincides with the quincentenary of the first circumnavigation of the world. Included in the schedule of events are literary discourses, a dramatic performance, and a storytelling session.
Tsika-LIT, the first feature, is a continuation of the literary conversations started as part of UP Tacloban’s celebration of National Arts Month (February). The Tsika-LIT episode for Literature Month will feature students from the BA Communication Arts (BACA) program discussing selected poems. It will be broadcasted via Bátì UP Tacloban, the college’s community internet radio.
Next is a conversation about the idea of “history as literature” with insights drawn from the MA thesis of Assistant Professor Efmer E. Agustin. This third “Mana-bana” episode of Bátì UP Tacloban, entitled “The Marvelous: History and Literature”, is part of the conversation series Kaagi, Kabilin, Kultura, one of Bátì’s essential programs.
On the third week of April, the celebration will spotlight an experimental mediatized verbatim theatre performance. “XXX-sakto nga mga Pulong,” directed by Assistant Professor Popo T. Amascual engages with the elements of a theatrical form to expose stories of online harassment. This show will involve students’ talents taking the Theatre Arts strand of the BACA program.
Rounding out the Literature Month celebration is “Susumaton,” a pre-recorded storytelling by the students of the Literature 170 (Waray Literature) class of Assistant Professor Jessa A. Amarille. The presentation illuminates the importance of oral narratives, including local myths, legends, and folk tales, which the students retrieved and documented themselves.
The official social media account of the Division of Humanities will serve as the primary platform for this series of events. As we continue to navigate these trying times, celebrating the arts is certainly one way to keep us afloat.
Article by PT Amascual.
