Spoken Word phenomenon Juan Miguel Severo and Makiling High
School for the Arts Director Victor Emmanuel Carmelo “Vim” Nadera, Jr.,
Ph.D., were the featured speakers in the USTingan Roundtable Discussion
that were held on April 28, 2018 at the Thomas Aquinas Research Center (TARC) Auditorium, University of Santo Tomas, Manila.
The event, “Ang Tula Bilang Bigkas at Palabas,” was organized by the UST Center for Creative Writing and Literary Studies (UST CCWLS), in cooperation with the UST Literary Society. USTingan is the bi-annual gathering of writers, teachers, students, and lovers of literature, at which certain topics of contemporary interest — involving writing, publishing, and popular culture — are discussed. This term’s USTingan, which focused on the Spoken Word and Performance Poetry, was the UST CCWLS’s contribution to the National Literature Month celebrated in the month of April.
Juan Miguel Severo is a spoken word artist and actor who rose to fame with
his performances that usually focus on unrequited love. He started performing in Sev’s Café in 2014, where he met Words Anonymous, a very active group of spoken word artists, of which he is now the most popular member. His love poems, like “Ang Huling Tula na Isusulat Ko para sa Iyo,” had been going viral online. Severo describes himself as “a writer who performs and a performer who writes.”
Vim Nadera, SEA Write awardee, is considered the “father of performance
poetry in the Philippines.” He has represented the Philippines in various
international literary festivals, seminars and conferences. He is a member of the UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines Culture Committee, Philippine Center for Gifted Education Board of Directors; Commission on Higher Education Technical Committee on Literature; and Philippine High School for the Arts Advisory Council.
He has also received numerous awards, including The Outstanding Young
Men (TOYM) and Natatanging Anak ng Quezon, the Philippine Centennial Literary Awards for both the epic and the novel in Filipino, the National Book Awards, and the Carlos Palanca Awards. A prolific editor, critic, columnist, translator and author, he has published numerous books in various literary journals.
