On the 25th year of passing of trilingual poet and artist Maningning Miclat, the Art Foundation named in her honor presents “Alaala/Alang-alang sa Sining 2025,” a dual event that will award prizes in its biennial poetry contest and launch the deluxe edition of Mario I. Miclat’s autobiographical novel, Secrets of the Eighteen Mansions (published by Erehwon Center for the Arts) on Sept. 29 at 4 pm at the University of the Philippines Asian (UP) Center GT-Toyota Auditorium at the UP campus, Quezon City.
The book has been hailed by National Artists, writers, and critics. “The fiction is Truth alive,” wrote Gémino H. Abad, National Artist for Literature, while another National Artist for literature, Virgilio S. Almario, said, “Mario’s memoir/novel is one of the most creative histories of the rise and fall of the Maoist movement in the Philippines. It is a bold analysis of the strength and weakness of a revolution in modern times, of the expected flexibility and significance of Marxism in our society, of the tragedy of blind submission to ideology, of the need for right education even for cadres of the revolutionary movement, and the morality of the revolution.”
Marjorie A. Evasco, poet and literature professor emeritus, said, “Mario’s novel seeks to open for its readers the China of Filipinos who were inside the so-called ‘bamboo curtain’ before, during, and after the Marcos dictatorship. Rich in evocative detail and animated by characters sharp in their ironic sense of the unrepeatable in human experience, the novel lays bare the secrets and moves us into new knowledge of a world made larger and deeper in its complexities.”
Novelist Ninotchka Rosca wrote, “Mario’s book has been difficult to get into, probably because it is a familiar experience—that of trying to reconcile the dissonance between revolutionary values and revolutionary practice. The book is so filled with sadness.”
Meanwhile, another novelist, Charlson Ong, said, ““Secret lives. Secret loves. Secret wars. The 18 mansions betray secrets that are as cruel as the fate of nations, as enduring as a people’s spirit, as fragile as the human heart. This too is our History, our Exile.”
The program will feature a prayer by Fr. Robert Reyes, remarks by Asian Center Dean Noel Moratilla, introduction on the author and the book by former Dean Joefe Santarita, and special numbers by Calle Manu, Aba Dalena, and Banaue Miclat.
The finalists for the Filipino poetry category are Andro Blancada, Ronel Osias, and Tresia S. Traqueña. There are four finalists for the English poetry category: Graciela Acedera, Vince Raphael V. Agcaoili, Kei Edyl Angelo Gemora, and Avril Shakira Villar.
The event is open to the public, but visitors must register first at this link/website:
https://ac.upd.edu.ph/index.php/news-announcements/3582-alaala-alang-alang-sa-sining-2025
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfu_7kt3uM9SvjzJpFpuTCW–OYks5K7F2WavRyli-yJDSrSw/viewform
