Despite the global health crisis, the University of the Philippines Visayas Tacloban College (UPVTC), through the Division of Humanities (DH) and its student organization, the UP Ideopraxist, pushed through with the celebration of the National Arts Month with AGHAT ARTE: Panuratan ngan Pasalida para han Katilingban. The month-long series of activities aspired to not only underscore the enduring quality of art-making and scholarly endeavors in the humanities but also to use the power of creative productions to boost the morale of art practitioners and enthusiasts of the region, as well as to heal the community at large with a variety of artistic works.
The four weeks were stacked with four major activities delivered online with different academic discourses and creative performances. These activities were: 1) Mga Pasalida para han Bag-o nga Panahon, performances exploring the use of virtual space as sites for online performances; 2) Tsika-LIT: Literary Conversations, a presentation, and discussion of a poem, and excerpts of a short story and a dramatic piece via Bátì UP Tacloban, the community internet radio of UP Visayas Tacloban College; 3) Panidaysiday: An Online Poetry Workshop; and 4) Sayaw Pakaritay: A Hip-Hop Dance Challenge.
The opening of UPVTC’s Arts Month celebration aligned with the debut of the official Facebook (FB) page of DH. This page served as the viewing site for all the Arts Month 2021 activities. AGHAT ARTE was launched February 1 with a video montage highlighting the events done in celebration of the Arts Month through the years.
For the first week, AGHAT ARTE presented four performances of the Theatre Arts 101 (Introduction to Theatre Arts) class that sought to explore the concept of virtual space as a site for theatrical performances. Through these four videos posted one after the other, the role of the online interface was elevated from a technical aspect in the delivery of the performances to a more artistic component in the concept of every piece. This set of performances engaged with the impact of social media trends and the digital mode of corresponding with Internet users as they depicted the temporality of these virtual modes as well as the corporeality of online bodies.
As for Tsika-LIT: Literary Conversations, the aim was to explore and analyze three literary pieces to develop an appreciation for distinct literary forms via Bátì UP Tacloban, the community internet radio of UP Visayas Tacloban College. Mr. Mars Edwenson Briones served as the program host of the series, with the first episode broadcasted on February 10. This pilot episode featured a discussion of the poem “Testigo” by Vicente “Jojo” Soria de Veyra, with the guest resource person, Asst. Prof. Jessa Amarille noting the different possibilities by which the piece can be interpreted and the structure of the poem based on its logical flow of ideas. “The Witch” by Edilberto Tiempo was read and discussed with Asst. Prof. Efmer Agustin in the second installment of Tsika-LIT. Here, how the title of the piece resonates different situations in which a person may be feared or ostracized from society was unraveled. In the last episode, together with Ms. Popo Amascual, an exchange about the elements of drama, a detailing of the process of staging the performance, and a discussion about the themes of Iluminado Lucente’s Fifty-Fifty followed the staged reading of the aforementioned piece.
On 24 February, Panidaysiday: An Online Poetry Workshop gathered seventeen (17) budding poets throughout the region with participants coming from as far as Pambujan, Northern Samar, and even outside Eastern Visayas with two fellows coming from Cebu City. The resource person, Prof. Antonino Salvador S. de Veyra of UP Mindanao, engaged with senior high school students eager to learn about the different techniques in writing poems. The students were made to write a verse in a writing exercise, and questions about poetry writing were addressed during the open forum.
The last activity was the hip-hop dance challenge, “Sayaw Pakaritay”. Four dance enthusiasts from different parts of region eight participated in this online dance contest. Mr. Elli Yaona, a UP Tacloban student, placed third. Mr. Gerrymark Luna earned second place, and Mr. RJ Laguilles won first place. Both Luna and Laguilles are dancers who belong to hip-hop groups in the region.
AGHAT ARTE is UPVTC’s Division of Humanities’ attempt at exploring online platforms as sites for performance and dissemination of artistic works. With the pandemic that prevents gatherings in common spaces, the virtual world proves to be a useful tool or venue of creative expression. The Division intends to continue engaging with this venue to be able to come up with innovations in instruction, research, creative work, and public service.
