Poetry readings and musical performances will be shared by friends and family in the two-hour “Morning of Loving Memories: A Tribute to Edith Lopez Tiempo" on Sept. 7.
The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) are organizing the tribute for National Artist for Literature Edith Tiempo, who passed away last August 21 at the age of 92.
A CCP statement said the event will be held at the CCP Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino (Little Theater) at 10 a.m.
Tiempo was laid to rest in Dumaguete City last August 29, the first state funeral for a National Artist held outside Manila.
Courtesy of CCP The death of Edith Tiempo, fondly called “Mommy Edith," saddened the Philippine literary community.
Malacañang also mourned the loss of one of the country’s foremost literary figures. Tiempo is best known for nurturing Filipino writers in English through the Silliman Writers Workshop together with her husband Edilberto Tiempo, who passed away in 1996.
Given the widespread response, the CCP is expecting a good number of people to attend the tribute, which was moved to the 400-seater Little Theatre from the original plan of simply holding the event at the Main Theatre lobby.
Ed Cabagnot, officer-in-charge of CCP’s Literature Division, considers the opportunity to help out in the event as “a humble payback to Mommy Edith Tiempo's (and Doc Ed's!) 50 year-old gift of 'flight' to generations of Pinoy writers."
Cabagnot is just one of over 600 writers that Edith Tiempo closely worked with as the director of the Silliman University National Writers Workshop. Cabagnot was a workshop fellow in 1984 and was introduced to Philippine literature through the Tiempo couple. His full-length play The Theatre of Director Julius Opus, which he submitted in the workshop, won first place at the Palanca Awards the same year.
Since 1961, selected writers have participated annually in a three-week intensive training in Dumaguete City with the Tiempos and other leading writers in the country. In the Silliman University website, the workshop is described as the oldest creative writing program in Asia. They receive support from international writing groups, and in 2010, they started to invite international guest speakers.
May 2011 marked the 50th anniversary of the Workshop. Palanca Hall of Famer Alfred Yuson wrote in his weekly newspaper column that when Tiempo was asked to say a few words after the workshop, she said: “Let’s do it again!"
Yuson, who frequents the Dumaguete workshops, wrote: “Oh, yes, we’ll do it over and over again, Mom. Every one of us will keep on honoring you, even those who have not partaken of the beneficence that is the Maytime workshop. Your words, on paper, will live on and shine wisdom on the chaste reader." - Gayna Kumar/YA,
