Berso sa Metro: La poesía viaja en jeepney was a huge success!

¡Hola a todos! ¡Muchas gracias por todo! Our event last Saturday, April 17th, the Berso sa Metro Poetry Jeepney Tour was a smashing success. Thanks in large part to Instituto Cervantes de Manila, the Cultura department, our partners in ICSC and all of our sponsors, the poets and to most especially to you--the audience. From Serendra, to Greenbelt, and finally to Katipunan, all three locations enjoyed a full-house. It was a day like no other in Manila, a day that honored poetry in its purest form. No pretenses, no frills--just the simple joy of literature made available to all.

The day started off in A Different Bookstore, Serendra. The poets arrived in the newly minted Berso sa Metro electric jeepneys. As the next step in the promotional reading campaign, the partnership of Berso sa Metro and the electric jeepneys hit two birds with one stone by not only tackling the issue of literature but also of climate change--reading, going green and living in a sustainable city.

The theme for the first stop was "City Life" and the poets recited their original works. The poignancy of old Manila was captured in the poetry of RayVi Súnico and Mookie Katigbak, whilst the multifaceted history of EDSA was recounted by Marra Lanot. After the slew of individual poets, the stillness of the recital was broken by the strength and comedy of the balagtasan between Vim Nadera and Michael Coroza. The audience was wowed into applause, it was the perfect ending, instantly becoming the crowd favorite for the rest of the day.

The second stop talked about "Memories, Dreams and Nightmares" staged at Power Books, Greenbelt 4. The venue was definitely bigger than the first, yet the crowd matched it equally--they just kept coming and coming. The excitement didn't stop as Joel Toledo described his heart, as it skips a beat and syncopates against frailty and earnestness. The theme of sound was pervasive in the reading. Our Spanish poet José Luis Gómez expounded on flores amarilla y las sombras in his works. Similar to the first event, the balagtasan ended this leg on a high note.

The third and last stop was quite the journey from Power Books, Greenbelt to Mag:net Café in Katipunan--quite the departure from Manila. But this didn't stop the people from coming, the place once again was packed; eagerly anticipating the final theme of "Poet's Choice" as each and every poet was given the freedom to pick and choose the work that speaks strongly to them and to share it with the poetry lovers in the audience. It was short and sweet, poignant and dynamic. The poetry spoke volumes at times, vociferous yet calculated--it made us laugh, it made us sad, it made us think. The sheer power of words had not been more evident.

It was truly a night among nights in the cultural landscape of Manila: a gathering of 9 poets, in three different stops, celebrating the joy of literature while simultaneously creating awareness for eJeepneys and climate change.Cultura en Manila thanks you for being part of this activity which we hope to repeat in the near future, without you this would not have been a success. As a recurring theme in this blog, the creation of culture is definitely a two way thing--an exchange. Spread love for the arts, for the written word, for the spoken word, for music, for film, for language; all of the above!

Think out of the box, think culture. Subscribe and stay tuned for more updates and videos on the coming weeks, especially this Saturday as we celebrate the Día Internacional del Libro 2010! We hope to see you there!

Y tú, ¿qué opinas? ¡Hasta pronto!

P.S

Check out the newspapers for April 19, 2010, we came out in The Inquirer, The Philippine Star and The Manila Bulletin.