Four Universities.
Four literary organizations.
One folio.
One goal—to unite the four universities through art and literature.
Last month, the literary organizations of the “Big 4” universities collaborated to form a folio of original literary and art works of Ateneans, Lasallians, UPians and Thomasians.
The Ateneo Heights of the Ateneo de Manila University, Malate Literary Folio of De La Salle University, UP Writers Club of the University of the Philippines, and Thomasian Writers’ Guild of the University of Santo Tomas launched the first volume of Buklod last July 14 at Conspiracy Garden Café in Quezon City.
Work of word, work of art
The collection of literary works in the folio is composed of both prose and poetry. The works of poetry are of diverse themes. There are poems which divulged on the issue of love, while some expressed fascination of nature. It can be seen that the poetry are of great depth and possess intrinsic value in every word.
On the other hand, the types of prose in the folio are mostly short stories and essays. “On Sleeping with Someone,” written by Pocholo Anton Torres of Thomasian Writers’ Guild, narrates a tale of unrequited love.
Buklod also features artworks created by members of the literary organizations. Most of the artworks were crafted by members of the Heights and Malate. Some used the conventional way such as using oil on canvas and watercolor on paper, while some works made use of the modern media such as film and digital photography. Heights’ Juan Viktor Calanoc carved three-dimensional figures in a stack of index cards. He used 100 pieces of index cards and carved figures in different formations and called it “Permutation.”
Awesome foursome
Collaborating with Ateneo, La Salle, and UP is surprisingly easy said Karen Valera, secretary of the Thomasian Writers’ Guild.
“It was fairly easy to collaborate and coordinate with the other three universities, as they had treated the project in a professional manner,” Valera said. “The event had been planned about a year ago, initiated by the four organizations in order to expand each relation of their writers to other universities.”
Literary works in Buklod are written in English and Filipino. The literary works are all original and written by current members and alumni of the organizations.
“It took us about a year to publish the first volume of Buklod,” Valera added. “It includes poetry by current members and alumni of the writing orgs, also some art.”
Buklod is a Filipino word which means “bond.” This joint venture served as a bond between the litterateurs and artists of ADMU, DLSU, UP, and UST. Who knew that art and literature can create a binding tie between these four universities?
Volume Two
What to expect in the upcoming volumes of Buklod? According to Valera, more genres will be explored in the next volumes.
“Well as it is a literary folio, you can expect a wider variety of literary genres exposed and explored by the budding Filipino young writers of the writing organizations,” Valera said.
As for the launch of the second volume of Buklod, we have to wait for one year before we get to quench our thirst for more literary and art works from the members of the four organizations.
“The second volume should be published at around the same time the first one was,” Valera added. “About a year-long of wait, but it’s totally worth it.”
By Jan Angelo Yvan L. Cabantog
