Markets of Resistance

Market places buzz with electric, sometimes frenetic, energy during their waking hours. This week until November 9, the currents of a different kind of energy are radiating through the Baguio Public Market.

Markets of Resistance is a "multi-disciplinary collaborative art and cultural project between the Institute for Heritage, Culture and the Arts in the School of Fine Arts and Design (SFAD) at Philippine Women's University and the Ax(is) Art Project, spearheaded by Angel Shaw, Institute director, media artist, teacher and cultural activist. 70 plus SFAD students, Baguio and Manila artists, poets, scholars and community cultural workers will launch a unique two-week exhibition in Baguio City market stalls -- painting, photography, media installations, mixed media works, zines, performances and a spoken word event.

"The artworks will not be for sale in the traditional form of a monetary exchange. Instead, an interested buyer must negotiate with the artist about what he/she deems to be the equivalent value in terms of goods -- the artist's needs in daily life..., which the customer must purchase themselves and then give to the artist in exchange for his/her work."

I bartered a wooden spoon handmade by Jason Domling for a kilo of potatoes. A friend of mine got herself a handwoven binakol bag for two kilos of longganisa. Another friend bartered a hand-printed t-shirt for a kilo of beans. Rocky Cajigan is bartering half a kilo of food produce for one of his matchboxes-turned art-piece. Dumay Solingay is accepting crocheting materials in exchange for handmade chap books of her poetry.

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Good mother, good academic?

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Lola of Maipon

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Cordillera Folktales and Story-telling

It was cold and wet outside on the day of the launching of The Golden Arrow of Mt. Makilkilang and other Cordillera Folktales . But inside Mt. Cloud Bookshop we were warmed by stories read and performed by the Aanak di Kabiligan community theater group. Storytelling on a stormy afternoon. Paco Paco. A Benguet story from the book, published by the Cordillera Green Network. Aanak di Kabiligan means children of the mountains. The theater group was born out of the Cordillera Green Network's eleven years of conducting workshops in which children transform their grandparents' stories into theater productions. Here they perform the title story of the Golden Arrow of Mt. Makilkilang and Other Cordillera Folktales.

Now/here no/where woman

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