About the Event
Performatura 2017: Performance Literature Festival, a project of the Cultural Center of the Philippines through the CCP Intertextual Division, was introduced in a press conference held recently at the Diamond Hotel. The said Festival will be held from March 31 to April 2 at various CCP venues. The festival features poetry readings, cultural performances, film showings, marathon readings, book fair, and interviews with renowned artists and writers from 9am to 9pm. Entrance to the festival is free and open to the public, but audiences are also encouraged to donate a book as a price for admission. Each donation will go to the Center’s Aklatang Bayan, a project of the CCP Library. Mr. Vim Nadera is the festival director.
Performatura 2017 is a performance literature festival celebrating the intersections of the written word and performance. The word Performatura is a mash up of the word performance and orature or oral literature. Orature is a term coined by Ugandan linguist Pio Zirimu who wanted to raise oral literature to the level of written literature.
The festival theme is “Sa Loob at Labas ng Bayan Kong Sawi” (Within and Without My Sorrowful Country), a direct quotation fromFlorante at Laura, the masterpiece of Francisco “Balagtas” Baltazar. Balagtas’ spirit likewise animates Performatura as various artists give live to his body of work.
(Photo by Kiko Cabuena)