Archive - Arts & Culture

Watching Jun Lana’s “Big Night” is like watching a Senate hearing on the police’s anti-drug operations in the country.

Reading Tikim again today feels fresh and relevant, even after it was first published 27 years ago.

In the news lately was the strong position that the recipients of the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Thirteen Artists Award (TAA), led by National Artist BenCab, took against the possible return of the Marcos and Duterte families in Malacañang. Together, the more than 100 awardees called their position paper their “Stand for Freedom and Democracy.”

With a Covid-19 death in the family, the unthinkable in Philippine life has happened. No wakes, and not even a last look and a last goodbye. Cremation must be done within 12 hours of death. Only an urn is handed back to the family. Such is the reality of the pandemic amongst us.

The health care sector took among the heaviest beating in this pandemic. And yet, the frontline workers from doctors to medical staff like janitors are also the most overlooked. The recent premiere of the milestone music video “Heroes Unmasked,” composed by National Artist Ryan Cayabyab and sung as a duet by Lea Salonga and Gary Valenciano (a first-time collaboration), served to correct this oversight.

If you’ve never been to Iloilo yet, what’s your idea of Iloilo food? Typical answers would include the ubiquitous batchoy, pancit Molo, or the catchall seafood.

He is more known as a practitioner of celebrity journalism, having covered rising and established talents in the arts and entertainment field for half a century. But it was his series of soul-wrenching poems that initially appeared in Facebook after the COVID-19 lockdown that drew him the widest and most receptive audience he has ever known. So wide that even the young American poet laureate Amanda Gorman posted one of his poems, “The Poet Is a Lonely Hunter,” on her FB timeline.

The early months of the COVID-19 pandemic were periods of anxiety, fear, paranoia, even plain cluelessness.

The Ateneo Art Gallery (AAG) has announced three winners of the 2021 Ateneo Art Awards, namely, Nice Buenaventura, Christina Lopez, and Jo Tanierla.

Traditional baskets are familiar objects that we do not give them much thought. Until one bilao was advertised as a rustic art décor for US$ 299 by an international furniture company, and the news went viral. Indeed, an arty price for an ordinary bilao!

Pigafetta’s Philippine Picnic: Culinary Encounters during the First Circumnavigation, 1519-1522 by Felice Prudente Sta. Maria is a retelling of Ferdinand Magellan’s (c.1480-1521) expedition in search of the Spice Islands (Maluku Islands, Indonesia). The expedition sighted the Philippines, then named as the Archipelago of St. Lazarus, on March 16, 1521.

Bilang paggunita sa ika-64 kaarawan ng batikang mamamahayag at guro na si Lourdes “Chit” Estella-Simbulan, narito ang “Tatlong Kuwento Para Sa Batang Pilipino,” isang libro na naglalaman ng mga kuwentong pambata na isinulat ni Chit para sa kanyang tatlong pamangkin noong siya'y nabubuhay pa.