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A community pantry of art performances

YOUNG creators, writers, artists and performers will share a series of performances at the Community Pantry of Joy, an online show that features original songs, music videos, and photo essays, as well as jokes, monologues, and even prayers to bring hope and comfort amid trying times. Inspired by the Maginhawa Community Pantry, the event exercises the redemptive nature of the arts as it feeds the souls of the audience. Hosted by the Benilde Arts and Culture Cluster of the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, it will introduce a diverse line-up of entertainers from various disciplines. The event will be curated and moderated by cultural producer, interdisciplinary performance scholar, thespian, film artist, arts advocate and artistic director of DeviDiva Productions, Dr. Sunita Mukhi. The former Associate Dean for the Benilde Arts and Culture Cluster, she now serves as an instructor and consultant. The Community Pantry of Joy is free and open to the public. It will be livestreamed on May 27, 3 to 5 p.m. via Zoom. Interested participants may register through https://forms.gle/RBX4avSYUfM9pCDW7. For inquires, visit the official Facebook page of Benilde Arts and Culture Cluster at https://www.facebook.com/benildearts/.

Bersong EuroPinoy goes to Manila

THE CHARM and romance of the European and Filipino languages continue as Bersong Euro-Pinoy goes to Manila on May 28, 5 p.m., via facebook.com/EUDelegationToThePhilippines. Together with the Embassies of Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, France, Hungary, Austria, Poland, Finland, and Spain, and Instituto Cervantes de Manila, the Philippine-Italian Association, and De La Salle University Manila (DLSU), the European Union Delegation to the Philippines is mounting the poetry recital Bersong Euro-Pinoy — Pagkakaibigan at Bayanihan: Verses Versus the Virus, in Manila. This time, Filipino literary luminaries mobilized by DLSU will join European poets and readers. Poems to be recited adhere to the theme of “Pagkakaibigan and Bayanihan.”

Exhibit of magazine covers illustrates ‘Peace Time’

THE ORTIGAS Foundation Library presents an exhibit of magazine covers called “Peace Time in the Country: 1930 to 1941” at the BenCab Museum in Baguio. The exhibit — which features the Ortigas Library collection of covers of a magazine that was progressive for its time — will run from June 12 to Aug. 1. In the span of less than 20 years, the editor and owner of Philippine Magazine, A.V.H. Hartendorp, invited the budding and rising stars of the literary and art world to publish in the magazine or on its cover. Many would become, 40 years later, National Artists. The covers give a sense of how the land, and its people were treated, looked at, and written about in a period called “Peace Time” before the horrendous “War Time” a decade later.

Penguin Random House SEA publishes thriller

WHAT happens when an innocent prank goes horribly wrong? That is the question tackled by author Nidhi Upadhyay in her new psychological thriller That Night: Four Friends. Twenty Years. One Haunting Secret, published by Penguin Random House SEA. Natasha, Riya, Anjali and Katherine were best friends in college until that night, which began with a bottle of whisky and a game of Ouija but ended with the death of Sania, their unlikeable hostel mate. The friends vowed never to discuss that fateful night, until, 20 years later, someone threatens to reveal the truth that only Sania knew. Is it a hacker playing on their guilt or has Sania’s ghost really returned to avenge her death? Author Nidhi Upadhyay is a Singapore-based engineer-turned-headhunter who spent her nights reading thrillers, until her husband pushed her into writing one. That Night is her debut novel. Penguin Random House SEA was established in 2018 to discover and publish local and international voices across English-language adult and children’s fiction and nonfiction formats for Singapore and Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Brunei, and Myanmar.

Original tribal stories digitized

THE ORIGINAL indigenous stories of Tagum City’s cultural communities found new platforms for massive distribution by adopting digital tools that are attuned to the times. The Tagum City Historical and Cultural Center launched on May 21 the Digital Oman-Oman Series Project which aims to digitize the various tribal stories — or Oman-Oman in the language of the Tipanud — of the indigenous cultural communities of Tagum. A by-product of the Community-Based Pag-Indo Program, the project compiles hundreds of indigenous stories into various formats — a podcast hosted on Spotify, a fully illustrated children’s storybook, and a coloring book. Highlighting the launching event was the inaugural story entitled Kumang and Pait, an original Ata-Manobo fable as told by Bae Hermenia Maitem. The children’s storybook was conceptualized by Tagumenyo illustrator Precious Jade Asumbrado. Each month, an indigenous story will be uploaded on Spotify, along with the coloring book and storybook produced by Tagumenyo visual artists. The podcast can be accessed through bit.ly/kumangpait, while the illustrated children’s storybook and supplementary coloring book can be accessed at bit.ly/kumangmaterials.

Designer Ditta Sandico reinvents herself

FAMED for her ‘banaca” wraps, designer Ditta Sandico is launching an art exhibit, “METTA • MORPHE,” featuring a series of deeply personal paintings that tell her story of recovery, rediscovery, and rebuilding. Meticulously sculpted by hand, each painting is a joyful expression of a woman who is celebrating a second chance at life, blossoming out of a cocoon, and being wholly and unapologetically herself. Each woman is dressed in gracefully crafted indigenous fabric, woven by women of the Mangyan tribe and carefully draped by the designer’s expert hand. With the exhibit, Ms. Sandico continues to push the boundaries of Philippine heritage by bringing architectural pieces made of banaca fabric and habol weaving to life, radically stretching the limits of what indigenous fabrics can do and what they can express in fashion and the arts. “METTA • MORPHE” will go on view on May 26 May at the Dolce Ditta Gallery, No. 5 Mabolo St. corner Balete Drive, New Manila, Quezon City. To arrange for a private viewing, please contact (02) 8571 8922.