Mt. Cloud hosts Poetry Slam

A BOOKSHOP gives a voice for the HIV awareness.

Mt. Cloud Bookshop hosted the 4th Scarlet Letters Poetry Slam at Café by the Ruins DUA llast week where 10 poets faced off.

Hailed top poets were Jessica Faye Marino, Novie Grace Jayme, and Kislap Alitaptap with each giving their own style and interpretation of the theme.

In the final round Marino bested others with her piece about her mother and performance that won over both the judges and the crowd.

“We wanted to raise awareness and to rid the stigma on HIV and Aids. There is a lot of stigma when society finds out someone has Aids there is a lot of discrimination. By raising awareness and incorporating writing for advocacy we wanted to end the stigma,” Feliz Perez, coowner of Mt. Cloud Bookshop, said.

Mt. Cloud’s Scarlet Letters poetry slam started in 2011 when ASP approached Mt. Cloud for an event about Aids awareness. The event’s purpose is to remove the shame that comes with the topic of HIV-Aids through the spoken word medium.

The first round was based entirely on the poet’s performance. Additional points were given if their piece touched on the aspects of HIV and AIDS while in the second round, poets had to perform an original piece that followed the theme of losing a loved one to AIDS. The final round of the slam, remaining poets were held in isolation for 15 minutes to write a new poem.

Judges of the slam included Aids Society of the Philippines (ASP) representative Dr. Elizabeth Nugui, Mt. Cloud Bookshop co-owner and author Padmapani Perez, and author Luchie Maranan.

The event is cohosted by the AIDS Society of the Philippines and Café by the Ruins DUA. Poets performed their own original pieces related to the theme and aspects of HIV and AIDs. The poetry slam was composed of three rounds. Louie Anne Mapa/ University of the Cordilleras intern