August 23 · 4:00pm - 6:00pm
Recto Hall, Faculty Center, UP Diliman
"Bulaklak sa Tubig: Mga Tula ng Pag-ibig at Himagsik" /
"Flowers in Water: Poems on Love and Revolt"
Praises for the book:
"Giving voice to victims of violence, the workers, the women, the disappeared, these are courageous love poems that address the paradoxical nature of nation, of struggle, and of the deeply personal. Often in the voice of woman, Barrios’ poems are exquisite guerilla forays into the theater of contemporary cultural wars; we emerge from them having learned that love’s secret name is justice." -- Sylvia Tiwon, University of California Berkeley
"One of the most influential and major voices in Philippine feminist poetry, Joi Barrios powerfully and tenderly speaks the twin passions of personal desire and social revolt that have propelled the radical national struggles for freedom and justice, in which she has long been an important cultural actor and activist. In bringing together the unforgettable laments and protests, cries of anger and consolation, and songs of love and solidarity that she has penned and performed over the last few decades of feminist and nationalist struggle, Barrios offers us a poignant, vivid and inspiring chronicle of the life force of sentiment that is the hidden and yet indispensable force of political commitment and community." -- Neferi Tadiar, Columbia University
"Joi Barrios' metaphors, images and words attempt to capture the impossible — "bare life" as a Filipino condition. In her lush Tagalog verse, we encounter hopeful lovers, murdered farm workers, grieving mothers of missing activists, Jose Rizal's radical but lesser-known sister, and countless Filipino immigrants. There is love and loss, brutality and beauty, history and memory in her elegant poems that beg to be read in both languages." ----- Nerissa S. Balce, Stony Brook University
About the Author and the Translator
Joi Barrios teaches Filipino and Philippine literature at UC Berkeley while on leave as Associate Professor at the University of the Philippines. She has won the Palanca Awards for poetry, drama, and the essay; and was a recipient of the TOWNS award (The Outstanding Women in the Nation's Service) in 2004. This is her third poetry collection.
Mark Pangilinan is a poet and translator currently in his fourth year of graduate study at the University of California, Irvine. He studies translation, postcolonial and trauma theory with an emphasis on twentieth-century literature of both the US and the Philippines. Pangilinan translates to and from Filipino and Spanish, and hopes to complete his Ph.D in the spring of 2011.
More information here.
