By Freeda Ko Quejada+=Road Map Series, Vol. 6, No. 4, n.d.Blue Iguana Computer Consultancy Services. Davao City, 2021Maven Media Asia, Zamboanga City, 2021 remarked after attending the opening of the Mindanao Book Festival last June 13, 2022: “the energy, the range of materials and local publishers represented are awe inspiring!”
Following the tradition of the Road Map Series – initiated by the distinguished Tita Lacambra Ayala, the pioneering doyen of Mindanawon letters – the works of Quejada and Mascariňas are laid out in a unique manner tapping into the talent of graphic designers. Whereas the latter’s collection is all in poetry, the former has both poems and short stories in her works. A background check reveals both are also into other fields of art: Quejado in music and visual arts and Mascariňas in films.
The field of visual arts across Mindanao has seen a remarkable growth in the explosion of talents, the number of exhibits mounted despite the pandemic and the choices made by the artists in terms of genres and subject matters. It is no wonder that those in the literary arts would tap into the resources of the visual arts to enhance their publications’ appeal. The four publications reviewed are only a few of the many books in this exhibit that allow the various fields of art to converge.
The 101 poems – written in fluent Cebuano language spoken by those who claim this as their mother tongue – are distributed through three sections of a specially designed book namely The book’s design is pleasing to the eye with lots of breathing spaces, the lines are fluid and easy to read. There is not a single word that is wasted; and one can only be impressed that poems of just one lines can spark so many images.