Cagayan de Oro City will be celebrating International Pride Month through literature in back-to-back events on June 29, 2018.
This will begin with the launch of the Libulan Binisaya Anthology of Queer Literature from 1 to 5 PM at the Xavier University Little Theater. The first of its kind in the southern Philippines, the anthology celebrates queer perspectives captured eloquently in the Binisaya language. Its CDO launch will feature talks and a writer meet-and-greet from contributors, Kei Valmoria Bughaw and Arnie Q Mejia, as well as co-editors Alton Melvar Dapanas and R Joseph Dazo. Limited copies of the anthology will be available during the event.
In the evening, this will be followed by CDO Poetry Night, the city’s premier spoken word event at 6 PM at SM Downtown Premier. The event will feature peformances by Northern Mindanaoan writers, queer and allies alike, under the theme “couRAGE”. “couRAGE” is in tribute to both the passion and outrage of the city’s queer community in the struggle against discrimination and the fight for equal rights.
The joint objective of these two events is to celebrate LGBTQIA+ narratives through literature in an attempt to promote acceptance and understanding regardless of gender.
The Libulan Book Launch and CDO Poetry Night are co-organized by the Nagkahiusang Magsusulat sa Cagayan de Oro (NAGMAC) in partnership with the Libulan Queer Collective, XU Press, the Xavier Center for Culture and the Arts (XCCA) and Payag Habagatan. NAGMAC is a young artists collective of emerging and established poets, essayists, fictionists, and playwrights born and/or raised in Northern Mindanao. The organization established CDO Poetry Night in February 2014 as a quarterly event to serve as a venue for local writers to share their works and realize the social relevance of literature in today’s society.
For more information and updates on these events, please visit NAGMAC’s facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/cdopoetrynight or follow the event at https://www.facebook.com/events/2074093372864162/
(Hazel Aspera/NAGMAC)
