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BY RHICK LARS VLADIMER ALBAY
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A seat at the table
EVEN as a very young boy, I wanted to be seated at “the adult table.”
Not with the cousins who shared my age, but with the family elders discussing whatever they deemed mature or relevant enough to be talked about when the entire extended family is all in the same place.
They often sat at the dining room at the large glass table while we the children were relegated to makeshift cobbled-together counters and plastic chairs in the front yard.
I hated not being part of the conversation.
Eventually my cousins and I broke through that glass table — I mean, glass ceiling — and were adjudged old enough to listen in on our parents, aunts and uncles — only to find out that they were just gossiping and arguing.
But growing out of our household, I found that there were other tables that I still felt unwelcome.
I recently spoke with a fellow young and aspiring writer, and surprisingly, we shared the same sentiments: the literary circle of Iloilo can often be exclusive to just a few people.
In the past few months, we’ve witnessed young Ilonggo painters and sculptors breakout and even outshine their older, more veteran counterparts, as the city’s art scene became more welcoming to emerging talents.
The younger crowds has lent to the Iloilo art scene a more accessible and collaborative atmosphere, shedding the haughty elitist pedestals and encouraging more people to flock to the many new venues for artistic expression around the city.
Although I’ve had the privilege to join some local writing workshops recently and attend the Tabo-an Writer’s Festival in October, Iloilo’s literary circle doesn’t share the same live-wire vitality as that of the city’s art scene.
One of the most inspiring nights I’ve had recently was when the exhibit “Turns in Form” — curated by Dr. Patrick Flores of the Venice Art Biennale fame — opened at the UPV Art Gallery.
You could feel the electricity in the air: people of varying backgrounds rubbing shoulders and admiring art, painters and sculptors passionately speaking with uniform-clad high school students about their craft, teenagers uninhibitedly interacting with one of the installation pieces. It almost felt like a party.
While at the University of the Philippines High School, we’d often be required to pay a visit to that same gallery whenever there was a new exhibit, which would usually compile art by the masters or people already dead. Back then art seemed inaccessible, something for intellectuals to discuss and the rich to collect. We felt like unwelcome outsiders.
Now the Iloilo art scene tells a largely different story.
This is why we young writers would really love it if the old guards and the decorated literati of Iloilo took down the locks and the bars to their lofty realm and let us in. We know we have a lot to learn from you, but we know we can lend some much needed energy to the ailing art form.
We’re seeing writers’ villages like Dumaguete and Bacolod being revitalized by young writers. Why can’t Iloilo? If only you gave us a seat at the table./PN
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