USTingan 2018 on the Spoken Word and Performance Poetry
JUAN MIGUEL SEVERO and VIM NADERA SPEAK IN UST
Juan Miguel Severo, foremost figure of the Spoken Word phenomenon in the Philippines, and V.E. Carmelo “Vim” Nadera, Jr., SEA Write recipient and Director of the Makiling High School for the Arts, were the featured speakers of the USTingan Roundtable Discussion on Performance Poetry and the Spoken Word on April 28, 2018, Saturday, 3:00-5:00 PM, at the Thomas Aquinas Research Center (TARC) Auditorium, University of Santo Tomas, España Blvd., Sampaloc, Manila.
The event, aptly titled “Ang Tula Bilang Bigkas at Palabas,” is organized by the UST Center for Creative Writing and Literary Studies (UST CCWLS), with the cooperation of the UST Literary Society.
USTingan is the semestral informal gathering of writers, teachers, students, and lovers of literature, at which certain topics of contemporary interest — involving writing, publishing, and popular culture — are discussed. This semester’s USTingan, which will focus on the Spoken Word and Performance Poetry, is the UST CCWLS’s contribution to the National Literature Month.
Juan Miguel Severo is a spoken word artist and actor who rose to fame with his performances that usually focus on unrequited love. He started performing in Sev’s Café in 2014, where he met Words Anonymous, a very active group of spoken word artists, of which he is now the most popular member. His fan base further increased when he played Rico in the Jadine hit romcom TV series On the Wings of Love. His loves poems, like “Ang Huling Tula na Isusulat Ko para sa Iyo,” had been going viral in the Net. Severo describes himself as “a writer who performs and a performer who writes.”
Vim Nadera is considered the “father of performance poetry in the Philippines.” He has represented the Philippines in various international literary festivals, seminars and conferences. He is a member of the UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines Culture Committee, Philippine Center for Gifted Education Board of Directors; Commission on Higher Education Technical Committee on Literature; and Philippine High School for the Arts Advisory Council. Aside from the SEA Write, he has received numerous awards, including The Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) and Natatanging Anak ng Quezon, the Philippine Centennial Literary Awards for both the epic and the novel in Filipino, the National Book Awards, and the Carlos Palanca Awards. A prolific editor, critic, columnist, translator and author, he has published numerous books in various literary journals.