GROW THAT CULTURE BY CRITIQUING IT!

Kritika Kultura, an on-line journal published by Ateneo de Manila University, is worth noting for several reasons.

On a personal note, the first two articles which revolve around Jose Garcia Villa, reference the book I edited on him, The Anchored Angel (Kaya, 1999). There's a sense of passage here for me. I've never considered myself a critic -- but as a cultural activist on behalf of Filipino poetry, I'd felt the need in the past to take on tasks usually taken on by *professional* critics because no one else was doing so (for instance, there's really no reason why I had to be the one to edit a recovery project like The Anchored Angel, when so many poets and critics among my peers knew him better....well, there's something to be said about the more objective voice, I suppose, but I digress). As I've discussed a number of times with various Filipino scholars, creating poetry is one thing but drawing global attention to Filipino poetry on a sustained basis would be aided significantly by the involvement of more scholars. I should note here that Timothy Yu's articles on Villa also are referenced by Kritika Kultura. (I'm also enjoying Tim's recent takes on the presidential campaigns.)

Anyway, all to the good to see these criticisms come up involving Filipino poetry. I just hope that critical expansion will get beyond the Modernist constraint (that, too, is limited). Still and all, a lot of meat here (check out the forum on Vicente Rafael's latest book), so do check it out!