STS Baguio: Teaching Poetry + Mines View + Ayuyang + Videoke

Abril 17-18, 2010: Pagtuturo namin ng tula sa mga guro ng Baguio City. Bago nito ay ang liwaliw sa Session Road, Mines View Park, Good Shepherd Convent, at Ayuyang Bar. Sponsored ng St. Louis University ang aming accommodations at pagkain (salamat po ma'am Jane!).

Ang STS Baguio ang 2nd leg ng Sining ng Tugma at Sukat 2010 project ng LIRA & NCCA na ginagabayan ko bilang Direktor. Nauna dito ang STS San Fabian.

In lieu of the full album, heto muna ang ilang patikim piks mula sa aming trip:

Videoke sa Kamuning. Punuan kasi sa Victory Liner kaya 3 oras pa ang inantay namin para sa trip.

A sight that never fails to ease the exhaustion of a sleepless six-hour-long bus ride.

Lakas ng trip ng gumawa nito. Jerry the mouse rides the tail of a dragon.

Debbie, Jere, sir Egay, ako, Ynna, Carla sa Mines View Park. (Pic taken by Mel.)

Debbie, Jere, Ynna, me, sir Egay, Mel with two gracious ladies of the Cordilleras. (Pic taken by Carla.)

Ako at isang St. Bernard. (Ang laki niya ikumpara kay Janggeum!)

Ynna, Debbie, Carla, Jere, sir Egay, Mel sa Good Shepherd Convent.

Kami sa Ayuyang Bar kinagabihan.

Prof. Edgar Samar, our lecturer for STS Baguio.

National Artist for Literature Virgilio S. Almario ("Rio Alma") and Edgar Samar.

Mel helps a teacher write her own poem in the traditional form tanaga during the workshop.

Me, SLU School of Teacher Education Dean Maria Corazon O. Bomogao, Prof. Edgar Samar, National Artist Virgilio S. Almario, SLU Filipino Department Chair Jane K. Lartec.

Me being interviewed by some teachers who are students in sir Rio's SLU summer class.

Ms. Beng, Carla, Ynna, sir Egay, Mel waiting for our bus ride to Manila at the Victory Liner terminal.

* * * * *

Heto naman ang press release namin:

National Series of Poetry Seminar-Workshops Visits Baguio

The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and the celebrated Filipino poetry group Linangan sa Imahen, Retorika, at Anyo (LIRA) held the second leg of the nationwide “Sining ng Tugma at Sukat (STS; Art of Rhyme and Meter) 2010” in Baguio City last April 18, 2010 in the Gonzaga Campus of the St. Louis University.

SLU’s School of Teacher Education through Dean Maria Corazon O. Bomogao and Filipino Department Chair Jane K. Lartec served as the event host. One hundred thirty (130) teachers from different public and private schools from all over Benguet and the Cordilleras attended the day-long seminar-workshop presided over by renowned poet-novelist Professor Edgar Calabia Samar of LIRA and Ateneo de Manila University.

In the morning, Prof. Samar, along with the young LIRA poets who facilitated the event, taught the basics of rhyme and meter and the traditional forms of Filipino poetry. Along the way, the delegates were informed of the misconceptions being promulgated by errant textbooks.

National Artist for Literature Virgilio S. Almario (a.k.a. Rio Alma) also gave several mini-lectures throughout the day. The afternoon saw the delegates crafting short poems of their own in the traditional tanaga and awit forms.

After the workshop, Almario, Bomogao, Lartec, and LIRA President Phillip Kimpo Jr. awarded the certificates to the delegates.

The STS is a series of free seminar-workshops on poetry in Filipino to be held in nine towns across nine provinces of Luzon from March to December 2010. It is on its second year, with the first edition being held in 2008 when LIRA and the NCCA taught poetry to around 430 delegates in ten towns across Luzon.

For 2010, the inaugural leg was held in April at San Fabian, Pangasinan. The STS is also scheduled to make the rounds of Sagada, Mountain Province; Vigan City, Ilocos Sur; Lucban, Quezon; Bataan province; Naga City, Camarines Sur; San Antonio, Zambales; and Tuguegarao City, Cagayan.

The STS 2010 is one of the fifteen projects for LIRA’s year-long 25th anniversary celebrations. Founded in 1985 by the National Artist for Literature Virgilio S. Almario (alias Rio Alma), LIRA is the premier institute of poets in Filipino.

The programme.