The Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) will hold Performatura 2015, Performing Literatures on November 6, 7 and 8 in various venues of the CCP to celebrate its 46th year. The three-day event is free or open to the public.
“Performatura 2015 forms part of the literary programs of the CCP spearheaded by the Intertextual Division,” CCP Vice President and Artistic Director Chris B. Millado said. “We have opened the event to the general public specifically for the young people to realize our vision of ‘Art matters to the life of every Filipino’,” he added.
Herminio S. Beltran, CCP Intertextual Division Chief, said that the primary goal of the three-day event is to define “intertextuality” through the pocket events. “One of the many definitions of intertextuality is the relationship of the literary text to other texts, and the relationship of writers and readers where the readers or the audience members in this case take primacy,” Beltran explained.
The event name “Performatura,” coined by Vim Nadera, multi-awarded writer, performer, and educator and Festival Director of Performatura 2015, is intertextuality at work where the terms “performance” and “oratura” had been combined. “Oratura” was derived from another coined term “orature” by Pio Zirimu, a linguist from the Republic of Uganda, who wanted to put oral literature at par with the written word and not treated as something inferior to the latter.
Like Uganda, the Philippines has a rich oral tradition that predates the Spanish colonization. The Hudhud of the Ifugao and the Darangen of the Maranao have been proclaimed as “Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity” by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2001.
Highlights of Performatura 2015 include the Epic Center, Coffee & Conversations with National Artists hosted by the likes of Lourd de Veyra and Gloc-9, Chromatext Rebooted curated by Krip Yuson, the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s “Inquirer Read-Along”, and a day-long summit of performances from young poets.
These young writers are members of the Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (UMPIL), the Linangan sa Imahen, Retorika, at Anyo (LIRA), Romancing Venus, Words Anonymous, Baguio Writers Guild, and the University of the Philippines Writers Club. Other participating young poets are students of the University of Santo Tomas (UST), the Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU), the De La Salle University (DLSU), the Far Eastern University (FEU), the Philippine High School for the Arts (PHSA), to name a few.
The three-day event will feature daily workshops on the Balagtasan, speech choir, and ventriloquism. There will also be daily Park Poetry performances in the early evenings that will feature poems on love, gender, and protest by Gemino Abad, Jose “Pete” Lacaba, and Joey Ayala, respectively, among many other performances.
In addition to the Hudhud and the Darangen epics, Performatura 2015 will also feature the animation and other works of art of Liby Limoso on the Sugidanun epic from the Panay Island. The UP Press will also launch the sequels to Dr. Alicia Magos’ study on “Tikum Kadlum and Amburukay” which will be performed by Mr. Federico “Tuohan” Caballero and Teresita “Abyaran” Caballero-Castor. The epics will also be the focal point of the Oral Literatures Art Exhibit.
Performatura 2015, Millado said, carries a unique feature that underscores the involvement of the CCP employees as Performatura ambassadors. Last August 28 at the CCP, employees participated in the first of a series of Performatura workshops where they performed literary works. The second leg of the workshop series will be held sometime in September for public school educators. Performatura Festival Director Nadera is facilitating the workshops.
“We are harnessing the Center’s 300 workforce by further developing their appreciation of Philippine letters and honing their performance skills, and in the process become cultural ambassadors. We know that our people are the main agents in fulfilling the CCP vision,” Millado explained. A commitment to human resource development is etched as one of the cultural objectives of the institution.
(From Cultural Center of the Philippines)