BWG recharged by chap chae, bread, carrot cupcakes, veggie sticks, etc.

In 2015, I was sick and spent my 60th birthday in the hospital. It was a lugubrious time in my life, but I think I'm over that so whenever I can, I try to celebrate my birthday with family and friends now that I've made it to my 60s.

To-die-for cupcakes from the kitchen of Toottee Pacis. After the fourth cupcake, I'm ready for a diabetic coma!

The Korean chap chae has increasingly replaced the pancit guisado as birthday noodles.

Healthy feast

Yesterday, though not my birthday yet, I decided to treat the members of the Baguio Writers Group to the traditional noodles (chap chae made by longtime painting companion and baker Toottee Chanco Pacis and her Girl Friday Joy), home-baked bread with cheese pimiento (also from Mamita Toottee's bustling kitchen) and carrot cupcakes with thick butter icing--the last were Toottee's birthday gift to the June borns in the group. The other girl marking another milestone in her life is Padma Perez although she wasn't present. It was actually her birthday yesterday.

Our host, Luchie Maranan, also prepared assorted teas and coffee, vegetable sticks with pesto and garlic dip, slices of orange and an Ad'laine roll brought by Junley Lazaga.

A portion of BWG having their snacks (food comes first but always) before the meeting

Allan Carino and EV Espiritu seated near the altar where candles are lit in memory of Edgardo B. Maranan and his parents

It just took the green tea or coffee to get us going with our supposed general assembly. Junley, our current president, declared a "failure of elections" because we didn't have enough members present for a general election. BWG officers serve a term of three years. Nevertheless, we soldiered on with the agenda put before us. Diego S. Maranan, son of the late writer Ed, whose 40th day of demise we were also observing yesterday, met with us to tell us about how Ed's heirs and BWG can work together to perpetuate his Tatay's memory.

The meeting closed with a poetry reading by treasurer Merci Javier Dulawan and Luchie. The latter's poem struck a chord because it was about the vicissitudes of ageing from forgetting where one placed one's eyeglasses to the chest constriction one feels after climbing a flight of stairs. When one hits 63, it is indeed time to ask, "Where did my youth go? Did I waste enough of it?"

So this early we can announce that the members will hold a how to make a poem workshop facilitated by Allan on July 20 at one of the rooms of the University of the Philippines Baguio that is accessible to weak-kneed senior citizens (I ought to be one of them). Basic requirement before the whole-day workshop proper is to write a poem for critique-ing, followed by shaping a poem based on the prompt/s Allan will give.
To the absent BWG members who are interested in joining the workshop, please indicate your participation to Junley for the head count.

Photos by Luchie Maranan and Junley Lazaga

Where's Waldo?

Mid-October I joined as saling pusa the For Love of the Word workshop of the Philippine Center of International PEN at the University of the Philippine Baguio's Sarmiento Hall. The workshop aimed to equip high school and college literature teachers with skills in teaching The Word, particularly Philippine lit, made flesh. In this group photo, the panelists for the first day are seen on the first row, among them, short story writer Maria L.M. Fres-Felix or "Dada" to us, playwright Malou Jacob, essayist-poet Priscilla S. Macansantos. Behind them are Baguio's Rachel Pitlongay and Frank Cimatu. Playwright-actor-teacher Glenn Sevilla Mas is somewhere on the third row. Standing at left is Iluko lit scholar Junley Lazaga from whose camera this picture came from. Before the month ends and November claims my attention, I thought I'd commemorate that special learners' day with this photo entry.

BWG reloaded: Let's volt in

Congratulations and best wishes to the new officers of the Baguio Writers Group (BWG) that has opened itself to wider membership to infuse it with new and creative (read: out-of-the-box) ideas. All towards strengthening writing in this northern region and keeping its reputation as a voice in the Baguio and by extension the national community. Hip hip hooray to new BWG president Jenny Cariño who presided at the general assembly at another Baguio institution, Mandarin Restaurant on Session Road.

We started Saturday afternoon with a small table. From left are: Frank, Jenny, Grace Subido, Scott Saboy, Roland Rabang and Martin Masadao

Then more streamed in: Luchie Maranan, Baboo Mondoñedo and Junley Lazaga.

Among our recruits are Rose Urquico, Toottee Chanco Pacis and Auring Bautista

Audrey Beltran, Desiree Caluza, Pryce Quintos, Merci Javier Dulawan, Padma Perez and Frank again

Same gals from above listening to others introduce themselves this way: what I write, what I still want to write and what I expect from BWG and how I can help it

Retired economics professor Ben Tapang (seated fourth from left) says there must be more to life than the field he spent 50 years of his life on. This must mean that creative juices are still roiling within, waiting to be expressed. Photos by Babeth Lolarga

Thank you, Frank Cimatu, for graciously hosting a merienda of pancit bihon (with extra pechay toppings, as per his instruction to the waitress), lumpiang Shanghai and a round of drinks.

A spread like that is conducive to the concoction of plans. Among these are reviving the Kulitan workshop (these are bi-monthly manuscript clinics fueled by coffee for the critique-ing of works in progress by the literature profs and literary critics in the group), young adult writing workshops (open to 12 to 16 year old kids, one is coming up May 24-25 at the Frangeli House on Bakakeng road), a spoken word workshop that'll train young poets to perform and pit themselves in the Third Monday from the Sun readings/performances at Mt Cloud Bookshop (Jenny is worthy resource person for this activity), an online and refereed literary journal, among others.

We started the meeting with one large round table. As Saturday afternoon wore on, Luchie Maranan exhorted us to "let's volt in." It meant connecting two additional round tables but still it was standing room only!

What excites me about the enlarged composition of BWG is the variety of experiences, knowledge and skills that the new members are bringing in. Some of them come from civil society (human rights and indigenous people's orgs), others from the worlds of visual arts (steeped in art and comic-book writing) and local journalism. There is one who writes for an evangelical magazine as she is a theology teacher. We didn't limit ourselves to purely creative or literary writers.

Shall we sing "Happy Days Are Here Again" or "Ain't No Mountain High" to Jenny, Junley Lazaga (vice president), Scott Saboy (secretary), Merci Javier Dulawan (treasurer)?