By Jenny Ortuoste
The Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), through its Intertextual Division (CCP-ID), held a successful launch for the latest edition of their official literary journal, Ani, on Wednesday (April 7).
The launch was held virtually on Zoom and featured live on the CCP and the CCP-ID’s official Facebook pages starting at 2:00 p.m.
Ani is published yearly and features themed works from writers and artists from all over the country. This year’s theme is “Lakbay” (travel), and this is the publication’s 41st issue.
CCP Chairperson Ma. Margarita Moran-Floirendo said, in her message for the journal, that Ani is proof that artists can continue to make excellent art under all sorts of conditions, even the most adverse.
“Since its inception in the 1980s, Ani has consistently harvested the best and the most relevant literary works from both novice and veteran creative writers from all the regions in the country,” she wrote.
“This journal is proof that art-making is truly unstoppable. The CCP Intertextual Division was in the middle of gathering works when the national lockdown was declared. Conceived amid the social unrest, writers do really fight the virus with their pens.”
According to CCP Vice President Chris Millado, “thousands of submissions” were sent in
after the call for manuscripts for Ani:41 went out. From among these were chosen seven artworks and 146 multilingual works of poetry and prose, including children’s stories.
The volume was edited by award-winning writer and editor Herminio S. Beltran, Jr., with Mia P. Tijam editing the special section containing 13 works contributed by persons with disability and persons affected by disability.
In his message, CCP President Arsenio Lizaso touched on how books are related to travel and are significant to a full and meaningful life, citing: “Anna Quindlen, author of the book ‘How Reading Changed My Life,’ wrote: “Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home.”
Among the writers who contributed to the volume are University of Santo Tomas professors Dr John Jack Wigley and Nerisa del Carmen Guevara; CCP production manager Dominique Garde-Torres; writer and journalist Yvette Tan; literary and cultural critic E. San Juan Jr.; and many other writers from across the regions.
Ani 41:Lakbay is free to download at http://bit.ly/Ani41Lakbay.
The virtual launch
The launch program featured performances by a talented lineup of artists. Among them were Philip Jose Galit, better known as ‘Shadow Ace,’ who staged a puppet shadow play of Paul John Padilla’s ‘Si Gol at ang Gintong Barko,’ narrated by Posh Develos and Sofia Jaira Manalo, a six-year-old prodigy who stole the show.
Nerisa del Carmen Guevara, one of the country’s very few and most noted performance artists, performed her poem ‘Chicken Little’ along with Stacy Anne Santos of the CCP-ID, while Bacolod-based singer Ma. Margaret gave a soulful rendition of an excerpt from the works ‘Inertia’ and ‘At Least?!’
There were also poetry readings.
The full show may be seen on the CCP-ID Facebook page.
