This week, our editors on the ground report on the loss of a pivotal figure in the indigenous literature of the Philippines, the Palestinian Book Fair held amidst the politics of occupation, and the Autumn Salon of the Arts in Plovdiv. Read on to find out more.
Alton Melvar M Dapanas, Editor-at-Large, reporting from the Philippines
The Philippine literary community mourns the passing of Higaonon Manobo novelist, poet, and translator Telesforo S ‘T.S.’ Sungkit, Jr. Sir Jun, as we fondly call him, also wrote as Anijun Mudan Udan, and his work represented the voice of the Higaonon, one of the eighteen ethnolinguistic indigenous peoples groups collectively known as Lumad, original inhabitants of the southern Philippine supraregional island Mindanao.
Writing in and translating from four languages, Higaonon (sometimes referred to as Binukid), Cebuano Binisayâ, (Tagalog-based) Filipino, and English, Sir Jun received fellowships from the 2005 IYAS National Writers Workshop (De La Salle University—Bienvenido N Santos Creative Writing Centre) and the 12th Iligan National Writers Workshop (Mindanao State University-IIT and Mindanao Creative Writers Group). His first novel, Batbat hi Udan [Story of Udan], came out in 2009 and was considered as the first epic novel from Bukidnon, his home province. In 2007, he won the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) Writers Prize for another novel Mga Gapnod sa Kamad-an [Driftwood on Dry Land] first serialised in Bisaya Magasin and later, self-translated into the English under the University of Santo Tomas Publishing House in 2013. Just this year, a translation of this novel from the Binisayâ into the Filipino secured the Rolando Tinio Translators Prize for the novel category.
Sir Jun’s third novel Ang Agalon sa mga Balod [The Lord of the Waves] bagged another NCCA Writers Prize in 2013, and is forthcoming from the University of the Philippines Press as Panginoon ng mga Alon—self-translated into the Filipino. (An excerpt is available from Likhaan: The Journal of Contemporary Philippine Literature.) In 2014, another novel Mga Tigmo sa Balagbatbat [Balagbatbat’s Riddles] received a National Book Development Board grant. In most of his short stories and novels, the structure veers away from the generic Western plot, being instead influenced by the nanangen oral storytelling ingrained to the Higaonon people and other Lumad. Other works of his can be read in Kabisdak: Cebuano Literary Lighthouse and BukidnonNews.net, where he once served as literary editor. (You can read his well-anthologised poem “I, Higaonon” from Australia-based Cordite Poetry Review here.)
Much could be learned from Sir Jun’s last blog entry, dated November 26, 2020, which were ruminations on mortality during the pandemic and tropical storms. On the impetus behind his reminiscing, he wrote, “Ang bawat araw ay buhay at kamatayang pakikibaka upang mabuhay sa mundong ibabaw” [Each day is a life-and-death struggle to live].
Sir Jun is survived by his wife, Liza, and two children, Ananaw (The Beloved) and Anijun (The Shining One). His cremains had been brought to his hometown in Malitbog, Bukidnon.
Carol Khoury, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Palestine
On a hilltop in the outskirts of Ramallah, a huge dome-like steel structure pavilion is erected next to the palace. What used to be the Presidential Hospitality Palace was altered to become the National Library about five years ago. The building itself is still largely empty, but its vast, walled surroundings is the venue for Palestine International Book Fair for the second time this year—the first being in 2018.
Held under the slogan “Palestine, the homeland and Jerusalem the capital”, the 12th edition of the ten-day event kicked off on September 14, with Tunis being this year’s guest of honor.
After a hiatus caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the organizers of this year’s festival are proud of the extensive participation and the intensity of the accompanying cultural program. As many as three hundred and fifty publishing houses and hundred and fifty poets and writers—representing sixteen countries—are participating in the fair. The program includes seminars, poetry evenings, book launchings, musical shows, and other cultural events. It also includes an exhibition of a hundred paintings by forty Palestinian artists from Gaza and the West Bank.
Established in 1995, the fair is held every two years. Because of the Israeli invasion, it was halted between the years 2000 and 2005, and the 2022 edition was also postponed due to the pandemic. This year, the various sections and halls in the pavilion are named after cities from across historic Palestine. In past editions, especially that of 2018 and 2016, the fair faced considerable logistical challenges, as whole publishers’ shipments were denied entry to Palestinian occupied territory by Israeli authorities.
As with anything else under occupation, even such a cultural event is overshadowed with politics, both internal and international. With wider segments of the Palestinian society joining the BDS movement and boycotting Israel, many have voiced their dismay regarding Arabs intellectuals normalizing relations with the occupation upon receiving Israeli permits to visit the Palestinian occupied territory. Nonetheless, such an event remains the only window to hundreds of thousands of readers who cannot visit a number of Arab countries, let alone receive books by mail from those with no relations with Israel.
Andriana Hamas, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Bulgaria
A couple of weeks ago, a conspicuous Plovdiv building was illuminated by an even more conspicuous sign: “The Art Today Association presents The Weight of Being: contemporary artistic interferences with the public space.” This is one of the many random messages that have appeared recently at surprising locations, confounding the average passerby. It is no surprise, however, that the month of September bears witness to this intense creative impulse. After all, even before the leaves had started changing their colors, municipality representatives announced the beginning of the Autumn Salon of the Arts.
According to the official statement: “If summer belongs to the sea and winter to the mountains, then autumn belongs to Plovdiv and, as always, the city is ready to expose the senses to a stunning array of multi-genre, provocative, and engaging cultural events.” This year’s edition of the festival is held under the motto “Kaleidoscope of Emotions,” and is hosted by the Academy of Music, Dance, and Visual Arts “Prof. Asen Diamandiev” in partnership with the local Department of Culture, the Consortium “Art and Education,” the State Opera Plovdiv, and the State Puppet Theater Plovdiv. The event is financed by the Plovdiv Municipality and is part of the city’s Cultural Calendar of 2022.
The program brings together a myriad of performances that celebrate music, theatre, dance, literature, and the visual arts. Among the highlights are the exhibitions taking place inside some of the Old Town’s most iconic buildings (the Balabanov House and the Hindliyan House). United under the common theme “Shared Spaces,” the artists offer a creative interpretation of the phrase through various mediums, including painting, graphics, and sculpture.
Conceived to inspire and challenge, Plovdiv’s Autumn Salon of the Arts is definitely worth a visit!
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