The country’s best writers and cultural institutions paid homage this year to the 100th anniversary of the late National Artist Nick Joaquin.
Ironically, had Joaquin been around, he might never have allowed the tributes and accolades given in his honor. Or maybe, he would, but at great discomfort.
Said writer Jose ‘Pete’ Lacaba, “Sinasabi sa amin ni Nick pag dumadalaw kami sa mga burol ‘ayaw ko ng mga tribute-tribute. Ibalot niyo na lang ako sa banig, itapon niyo ako sa Pasig River.’ Pero tinatanggap din naman niya pag binigyan siya ng award [Nick would tell us whenever we were in a wake, ‘I don’t like tributes. Just wrap me in a mat and throw me in the Pasig River. But he still would accept every time he is given an award].”
Europe, the seat of everything that was grand, powerful, and prosperous, was caught in the teeth of the First World War, the year Nicomedes Márquez Joaquín was born on May 4, 1917. It was half a world away from a boy who would emerge half a century later as one of the greatest literary minds in a poor and exploited country still caught in its own, long drawn-out war of independence in 1917.
“Our sense ... of our country is a sustained act of imagination. From that vantage, it can be said that our writers and artists, who are men and women of imagination, create our country (italics mine). That is to say: they evoke those images of ourselves as we live life day and night, those images of ourselves which we share and by which we recognize our nativity. We are our own best interpreters of our history and culture because it is we who have lived through that history and created our own values by which we live.”
—National Artist for Literature Gemino Abad
It’s a four-year-old book of poetry—a slim book, all of 90 pages, with 55 poems published in 2022, ready to be read and absorbed.
And for English-proficient third-millennium Filipinos—whether aspiring for comfort or already living in ease—the images spun by 16 of the 55 poems hark back to a time beyond their consciousness.
That is why Jim Pascual Agustin’s Bloodred Dragonflies can be the metaphorical blood transfusion required to pump poignant, visual, and painful cells of old memory into the veins of the unconcerned and unaware.
Eight years ago, Rosario “Chat” Lachica, 58, made her first visit to the Libingan ng mga Bayani. She was there to pay her last respects to National Artist Nick Joaquin who died in his sleep on April 29, 2004.
Each stage of grief gets its own stage as five OPM icons are set to perform at the Broken Hearts Club Music Festival on January 7, 2026 at the SM MOA Arena.
Ebe Dancel reminisces on feelings of love during the Denial stage of the Broken Hearts Club with hit songs “Burnout” and “Halik sa Hangin”.Kamikazee is here to bring out your inner inhibitions for the Anger Stage of the Broken Hearts Club with iconic songs “Huling Sayaw” and “Halik”.This Band makes overthinking an uphill experience for the Bargaining Stage of the Broken Hearts Club with hit songs “Kahit Ayaw Mo Na” and “Hindi Na Nga”.Asia’s Diamond Soul Siren Nina makes the venue shake during the Depression Stage of the Broken Hearts Club with melancholic songs such as “I Love You Goodbye” and “Someday”.Rico Blanco makes every Stage of Grief worth the pain at the Acceptance stage of the Broken Hearts Club with songs like “Kisapmata” and “Wag Mong Aminin”.
Demo Power brings a lineup of the greatest OPM artists who will make you feel all kinds of emotion—from your first heartbreak to your biggest breakup recovery stage.
Started in 1927, the Philippines Graphic is the longest-running printed magazine of national circulation that provides relevant news and features and promotes Philippine literature.
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