Czech poetry jukebox now playing at BGC

AS part of its continuing efforts to make Philippine and Czech literature more accessible to the public, the Czech Embassy in the Philippines has installed in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City a “poetry jukebox” that invites passersby to stop, press any of its buttons and listen to any of the 20 recorded Filipino and Czech poems in English or Filipino being recited.

Unveiled by Czech Ambassador to the Philippines Jaroslav Olša Jr., National Commission for Culture and the Arts Chairman Virgilio S. Almario, and Taguig City Mayor Lani Cayetano at One BHS Park on November 8, the poetry jukebox

(poeziomat in Czech) is the first of its kind in the country and in Asia. It is also the latest after those in Europe, Israel and, most recently, New York.

The poetry jukebox features the works of Filipino poets Almario, Gemino H. Abad, Mikael de Lara Co, Joselito D. delos Reyes, Jerry B. Gracio, Mookie Katigbak Lacuesta, Allan Pastrana, Ildefonso Santos, Rolando S. Tinio and Alfred Yuson; Czech poets Václav Hrabě, Jan Křesadlo, Vítězslav Nezval, Jiří Orten, Jaroslav Seifert, Antonín Sova and Fráňa Šrámek; and Slovak poet Eleni Cay.

Almario and Co translated some Czech poems into

(From left) Czech Ambassador to the Philippines Jaroslav Olša Jr., Czech inventor Ondřej Kobza, Taguig City Mayor Lani Cayetano, and National Commission for Culture and the Arts Chairman Virgilio Almario pose with the poetry jukebox at One BHS Park in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City on Nov. 8, 2018. Filipino for the poetry jukebox. Lacuesta’s husband, award-winning author and publisher Angelo R. Lacuesta, chose the Filipino poems and was involved in producing the recordings of Co, Pastrana, Yuson, Lourd de Veyra and Indra Cepeda reciting those poems.

According to Olša, the poetry jukebox is a gift to the Filipino people given to permanently mark the 100th anniversary of the independence of the modern

Czech state this year.

The poetry jukebox also aims to show people that poems are charming and inspiring, and part of a country’s culture and heritage.

The “poetry jukebox is a bottom-up approach to urbanism, as opposed to the traditional top- down strategies,” said its inventor, Czech cultural activist Ondřej Kobza, who attended the unveiling.

“I hope that the poetry jukebox will gain popularity

among the people of Taguig and the whole of Metro Manila,” he added.

Kobza has initiated various artistic and cultural activities in unlikely venues in his country and beyond with the goal of changing urban spaces into artworks and introducing a new paradigm of social interaction through public cultural interventions.