THE Women in Literary Arts-Cebu (Wila-Cebu), a group of women writers based in Cebu City that is now celebrating its 26th year, will launch the books of two of its members at 2:30 p.m. of November 18.
The book launch will be held at the Cebu City Museum, which is located at the Rizal Memorial Library and Museum Building on Osmeña Blvd., Cebu City. It will be done in honor of Wila-Cebu's founding president, Erma Mangubat Cuizon, who recently passed away.
Sponsors include the Fairtrade Shop, STC-Bantawan, Baye, Noel Tabasa, and the Cebu Historical Affairs Commission (Chac).
The group will launch "The Winter Lady," a collection of English poems authored by Malou A. Alorro, and "Pagsubang sa Bangaw, Pagsidlak sa Bulan," a collection of Cebuano poems, authored by Desiree L. Balota.
Alorro's "The Winter Lady" versifies the lives of women who find romantic relationships at the internet with foreign men. It explores the delights, pitfalls, decline, and in some cases, rebirth of loves that defy and bridge distance, yet are grounded on realities.
The poems serve as a wake-up call to would-be Winter Ladies. It is about the dynamics of loss -- innocence and love -- as a metaphor for the perils of a woman's world where heartbreak is not entirely weakness or defeat as long as it fast-tracks a way to wisdom -- a heightened awareness that internalizes the private instance and the public issue of victimization through the prism of gender and geopolitics.
Balota's "Pagsubang sa Bangaw, Pagsidlak sa Bulan" is a collection of poems that walk readers through the journey of doubt and resignation, awareness and awakening, victory and conviction. Speaking in shapes, colors, or narratives, the speakers in the poems present the consequences of the social construct of superiority; thus, justifying oppression and mockery, and the triumphs in the realization of capability and worth.
With images and stories that give attention to commodification, environmental destruction, and gender bias and verses that mirror the significance of a personal and collective revolution in thought, word, and deed, the poems in "Pagtultol sa Gilaw" and "Paghangop sa Pagsubang," the first and second sections of the book, trace a testimony of reservation and resolve, empowerment and evolution.
For more details, contact Malou Alorro at 254-9004 and 09075005381. (PR)