January 30 – February 1, 2019
College of Fine Arts, UP Diliman
Bartlett Hall, Emilio Jacinto Street, 1101 Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines
The 49th Anniversary of the FQS of 1970
SIGWA / National Festival of People’s Art and Literature
Celebrating the Resurgence of Filipino Culture and Identity
PROSPECTUS
This event is spearheaded by the First Quarter Storm (FQS)@50 as proposed by the Tag-ani Performing Arts Society and the Arts, Research and Training Institute in Southern Tagalog (ARTIST, Inc.). It is supported by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA).
It continues the countdown of activities leading to 2020, the 50th anniversary of the historic FQS of 1970. The FQS Movement, an organization of activists in the 1960s and 1970s, formed the FQS@50 Coordinating Committee which is implementing the festival in cooperation with a host of organizations, including the formative Surian ng Sining (SUSI), Concerned Artists of the Philippines, Erehwon Center for the Arts, and the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts.
INTRODUCTION
Philippine society circa 1970 had been likened to a volcano on the verge of a violent eruption. This was so because over time, the rule by oligarchic families and their cronies engendered a situation where the poor grew poorer and the rich, richer – with everything else in the lives of the common folk turning from bad to worse. In this milieu, the youth became fired up with a new-found sense of nationalism, democratic fervor, and the militant spirit of serving the people.
The youth of 1970 studied and learned the bitter lessons of our colonial and neocolonial history, described by author Renato Constantino as a “continuing past” because it persisted in defining our present. Unless the youth acted on it, it was bound to condemn our future as well.
They did – and protested the prevailing system — which they condemned as semicolonial and semifeudal — like there was no tomorrow. It turned out to be the rebirthing of the nationalist and democratic movement in the country.
In the first three months of 1970, the movement heightened its campaigns in the previous decade by organizing in schools, workplaces, and communities and facilitating mass education. They launched boycotts and strikes in campuses. They demonstrated in and out of the presidential palace, Congress, the US embassy. They conducted people’s assemblies in the streets even as they suffocated in tear gas and had to dodge bullets fired by the riot police and army troopers. They got mauled and arrested and killed.
The phenomenon, now encoded in history as the First Quarter Storm (FQS) of 1970, had been the youth’s great enduring school where they learned more about society from the masses than in classrooms, and where they imbibed a deep sense of justice for their rebellion. They pursued their reeducation by linking up and integrating with the workers and the peasants. It was subversion, so declared the government.
Indeed, they had become subversives whose mission it was to subvert the antipeople establishment by striking at the roots of our people’s enslavement. It inspired them to serve the masses far and wide in cities and countryside in Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao.
In the process, many of them made the supreme sacrifice.
The FQS of 1970 descended upon society like a storm that it was and stirred a resurgence of the Filipino culture in revolutionary struggle and a redefinition of our national identity just as it empowered the people. The rest is history.
In 2020, it shall be 50 years past.
In these trying times of historical revisionism, fake news, despotism, Red-tagging, and the persistence of tyranny and authoritarian rule, it behooves us to celebrate the spirit of the FQS of 1970 to learn the lessons of the past and prevent the return of the evils of history.
As people’s artists — then and now, the best way we know how is through the arts.
TITLE, DESCRIPTION, AND THEME OF THE FESTIVAL
The 49th Anniversary of the FQS of 1970
S I G W A
National Festival of People’s Art and Literature
Celebrating the Resurgence of Filipino Culture and Identity
INCLUSIVE DATES OF THE FESTIVAL
30-31 January until 1 February 2019
January 30-31 is a high point in the FQS of 1970, when the Battle of Mendiola in Malacañang raged.
Participants arrive on January 29 and depart on February 2 after the Pasinaya at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) and the Tribute and Solidarity Night.
PRINCIPAL VENUE. College of Fine Arts, University of the Philippines campus in Diliman, Quezon City
OBJECTIVES OF THE FESTIVAL
We aim to commemorate the 49th anniversary of the FQS of 1970 as a prelude to its 50th by gathering together artists, artist-teachers, and cultural organizations whose commitment is to serve the people. In Sigwa/National Festival of People’s Art and Literature, they will:
1. Tackle the impact of the FQS of 1970 in the development of the Filipino consciousness and identity in and through the arts, deriving lessons from it and understanding linkages between past and present;
2. Discuss the current state of people’s art and literature and movement given the legacy of the FQS of 1970; construct a preliminary report to initiate a deeper study;
3. Showcase works of art in the context of the FQS of 1970;
4. Pay tribute to, and emulate, people’s artists and their organizations who fought the Marcos dictatorship; and
5. Establish a mechanism to support people’s artists and their organizations in the mass movement and facilitate interaction, collaboration, and the development of a nationwide cooperative network for people’s art and literature.
COMPONENTS OF THE FESTIVAL
- Conferences
2. Photo and art exhibit
3. Performances
4. Books and song album launch
5. Film showing
6. National launch of SUSI
7. Tribute and solidarity night
Dr. BienvenidoLumbera, National Artist for Literature and an outstanding FQS activist, will present the keynote paper, “The Impact of the FQS of 1970 on Philippine Art and Literature” in the opening conference.
SIGWA FESTIVAL SCHEDULE***
JAN 30 (Wed) DAY 1
7:30- 8:00 AM Registration
8:00- 9:00 AM Pasinaya ng Eksibit at Tyangge
9:00-10:00 AM Pambungad na Plenaryo
“The Storm Then and Now”
Bonifacio P. Ilagan, Sigwa Directorate
Keynote Address: “The Impact of the FQS
of 1970 on Philippine Art and Literature”
Dr. BienvenidoLumbera, National Artist
2:00- 6:00 PM LIBRENG PALABAS
Sigwa ni Joel Lamangan
at Portraits of Mosquito Press ni JL Burgos
Venue: Cine Adarna/ UP Film Center
7:00- 8:00 PM LIBRENG PAGTATANGHAL
“Bagong Sigwa” ng ARTIST
Venue: Abelardo Hall, UP College of Music
FEB 1 (Fri) DAY 3
3:00- 4:00 PM Paglulunsad ng SUSI
College of Fine Arts, UP Diliman
4:00- 6:00 PM LIBRENG PAGTATANGHAL
Pagsambang Bayan The Musical
Venue: Abelardo Hall, UP College of Music
7:00- 9:00 PM SOLIDARITY NIGHT
Venue: Abelardo Hall, UP College of Music
*** Imbitado ang lahat sa mga iskedyul na nakapaskil. Libre ito para sa mga interesadong dumalo (classes, communities, visitors, and friends). Para sa inyong mga katanungan, kontakin lang ang Sigwa secretariat sa 0929.3122972 o mag-iwan ng mensahe dito.
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