POETRAIN 2 (January 11, 2010)

The Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) has been hugging headlines recently for doing the right thing.

Perhaps since last year when it began allowing to board its trains barefoot passengers who celebrated the Black Nazarene Day.

Until last Saturday when it did not just field 18 but 24 trains, plus two spares, for their regular passengers, including the said devotees estimated to be around 3.5 million.

“We are very flexible” could be the mantra for LRTA Administrator Mel Robles' miracles.

Which is why the National Book Development Board (NBDB), Optical Media Board (OMB), and Book Development Association of the Philippines (BDAP) find its partnership with LRTA a blessing.

That deserves a repeat!

Again, that is the LRTA's way of entertaining and educating its commuters via Tulaan sa Tren.
Last year, they did it by opening doors to “aspiring poets a chance to have their poems posted in LRT trains.”

So they had a poetry writing competition until 22 July 2009 to all Filipino citizens of all ages who can submit one entry in English, Filipino, or any of the regional languages, with up to 200 words.
Judges, Gemino Abad and National Artist Bienvenido Lumbera, selected Pan-Rush Hour by Joselito delos Reyes (first); Sa Metro Linea 3 by Gexter Ocampo Lacambra (second); and Tren, Tren, Tren by Abdon Balde Jr. (third) with Dahilan ay Ikaw by Danilo Diaz and Amay Nang Magdiklom (Maaga Nang Dumilim) by Kristian Sendon Cordero as runners-up in the Filipino Category while Bus Trip by Raymond G. Falgui (first); A Train Window Picture Show by Louella Santiago Suque (second) and I, Migrant by Raymund Reyes (third) in the English Category.

January 16, 1p.m., at LRT2 Santolan Depot, will be the launch of the new poems and new celebrity readings of these poems which will be seen and heard inside the train, aside from its new poetry collection called Off the Beaten Track.For its Year 1, we had the chance to supervise the poetry reading, or rather recording, of celebraties like Christine Bersola-Babao, Lyn Ching, Edu Manzano, Miriam Quiambao, Rhea Santos, among others.

One of the best for us is one of the most hated contrabidas in the 60-year history of soap opera in the country -- Maria Carminia Lourdes Cynthia Arnaldo Gutierrez – or Chinchin Gutierrez!

Before she became a bad-to-the-bone Patricia Aragon-Alferos in ABS-CBN's Dahil May Isang Ikaw, we had been watching her in our Philippine Institution 100 class: both on-screen as Maria Clara de los Santos in Cultural Center of the Philippines' Noli Me Tangere (1993) and in person while we did educational tour with Lakbay Kalikasan in Mt. Banahaw.

In 2006, we had the chance to work with her when she agreed to model for our book project Kayumanggi, wherein our poems were designed in clothes by Lorina Javier and photographed by Dominique James who was supposed to do the layout in his Mac that eventually encountered a “hardware problem.”

Since it would require us $3,500 to repair it, we have been temporarily setting our trapped poems and photos aside, unconsciously, for four years!

Anyway, ever since we became her instant admirer, especially last year she literally performed inside the studio of Isis International Manila.

As if she was re-doing her self-produced musical album Uyayi: A Collection of Philippine Lullabies that bagged the Catholic Mass Media Awards for Best Secular Album in 2004 when she also was chosen one of The Outstanding Women in the Nation's Service (TOWNS) for environmental advocacy.

In fact, long before Efren Peňaflorida became the CNN Hero of the Year, there's Chinchin being hailed by Time Magazine as Asian Hero in 2003.

Currently enrolled at the Southeast Asian Interdisciplinary Development Institute (SAIDI), where she is pursuing her combined M.A. and Ph.D. in Organizational Development, major in Transformative Spirituality -- Chin-chin is indeed serious.

As an advocate, she as early as 2006 established Alaga LAHAT, an ecological organization committed to preserving the integrity of Creation in all aspects of life.

As an artist, she had her first solo exhibit Whispers of A New World: Canvasses and Canticles in May 2006 but her entire collection -- including earlier works -- were all lost in December that year in the fire that completely burned down her home so in June 2009, she had the opportunity to exhibit her new (post-fire) works, again at Bliss Cafe in Baguio City, in the show Hedgestones of Faith.

Last January 6, upon the invitation of her friend Chef Jessie Sincioco, she unveiled, in honor of the Year of the Two Hearts of Jesus and Mary, her latest art pieces in Altars of Love, which will run at Le Souffle-Top of the Citi, 34/ f Citibank Tower, Paseo de Roxas, Makati City until January 29.

By the way, one of the voice coaches who helped us during the first Tulaan sa Tren recording was performance scholar, Dr. Belen Calingacion who is now directing Palabas! Palabas! -- a series of activities/performances that will feature the works of our National Artists and other great Filipino writers at the University of the Philippines.

Beginning Friday, January 15, at 7 p.m., there will be a Poetry Jam -- a night of poetry performance by students taking Oral Interpretation (Speech 121) together with members of U.P. SPECA, UGAT and QUILL – will feature poems of Virgilio Almario, Francisco Arcellana, Amado V. Hernandez, Bienvenido Lumbera, Edith Tiempo, and Jose Garcia Villa at the College of Arts and Letters (CAL) Building Atrium, U.P. Diliman.

On January 21, another Oral Interpretation class will present a Reader’s Theatre production featuring the plays of Dr. Lumbera with other playwrights Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero, Severino Montano, and Rolando Tinio at C.M. Recto Hall, Bulwagang Rizal (Faculty Center), UP Diliman at 2:30 p.m.

The Speech 122, a class on Interpretation of Children’s Literature, will have storytelling sessions featuring the works of Rene Villanueva at Hardin ng mga Diwata, on January 22 at 11.30 am.
Finally, a chamber theatre production of Nick Joaquin’s May Day Eve and Arcellana’s Wing of Madness (II): The Yellow Shaw will highlight students of Speech 124 at the Teatro Hermogenes Ylagan on January 28 and 29, 6 p.m., and January 30, 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.
For more inquiries call 02-9243224/ 02-9248589.

TEXT SUPPORT:
If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib.

CONSIDER THIS:
Do not worry about avoiding sexual temptations. As you grow older, they will start to avoid you.