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.
Anne Rosario studied Accounting, but somehow ended up teaching herself to be an illustrator. Which is a lucky thing for Sari-Sari Storybooks, as she’s illustrating the Cebuano story “Kalipay and the Tiniest Tiktik” beautifully. Anne’s holding up character sketches of Kalipay and Gamay here. She said they’re based on her two nieces in Pangasinan (one is calmer and quiet, the other a bit naughty). This is a work in progress, so the character sketches will change somewhat. Like so many work meetings in Manila, this one took place at a mall.
Working on this passion project is not without its stumbling blocks. I often say it feels like I’m making it up as I go along. But it also has a serendipity to it, an energy it generates on its own.
I came to Cebu City to record a voiceover for the ebook version of “Kalipay and the Tiniest Tiktik,” the Cebuano story in this series. (For those who aren’t Filipino, a tiktik is a creature from Philippine folklore—a funky sort of vampire, though “viscera-sucker” is more accurate.) I found an actor within 24 hours of landing here (the expressive Yon Maningo), via a fellow Brooklynite (playwright Linda Faigao-Hall).
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.