National Literature Month Celebration 2019

| March 20, 2019

In accordance with Proclamation No. 968, signed in 2015, the National Literature Month (NLM) is celebrated every April, under the auspices of the National Commission for Culture and Arts (NCCA), Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) and the National Book Development Board-Philippines. This year’s theme was BUKLUGAN PANITIKAN, a phrase adapted from buklog, the Subanen ritual for community-bonding and thanksgiving. 

In Cebu, under the initiative of the USC Cebuano Studies Center, headed by its director, Dr. Hope Sabanpan-Yu, the literary community celebrated a three-day festival called Joy to the Word, where readings, workshops, presentations and discussions were held in the Wrocklage Yard of the University of San Carlos-Downtown Campus last 4-6 April 2019.

Readers had a chance to meet long-admired authors as well as discovered upcoming writers in a segment called Up Close and Personal: Conversations with Cebuano Writers. They witnessed Cebuano plays being read, new works being staged, and poetry performed by the poets themselves. Attendees got to listen to talks on Storybook Illustration by Josua Cabrera, Blogging by Erik Requina and Hazel Cesa, Vlogging and Film Making by Bradley Tenchavez , Zine Production by Erik Tuban and Zine Design by Jay Nathan Jore.

A book fair and photo exhibit featured writers’ organizations in Cebu such as the Women in Literary Arts-Cebu (WILA-Cebu), Mga Anak sa Dagang (MAD), Tinta, The Stray Poets Collective, and Bathalan-ong Halad sa Dagang-Sugbo (Bathalad-Sugbo), which is the recipient of the Gawad Pedro Bucaneg 2019 conferred by the Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas. The festival also featured Book Swap Cebu, Inc. and the translators’ group InOtherWords Incorporated (IOW)

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Category: Past Events