Carlos Bulosan's "America is in the Heart"

“I know deep down in my heart that I am an exile in America.

I feel like a criminal running away from a crime I didn't commit.
And this crime is that I am a Filipino in America.”

- Carlos Bulosan in America is in the Heart

2006 marks the 60th year of the publication of
Carlos Bulosan’s
AMERICA IS IN THE HEART.

The semi- autobiographical masterpiece unflinchingly chronicled
the oppressive poverty that drove him from his homeland,
the brutality of the immigrant experience of the 1930s-40s and
the struggle for full humanity of the marginalized protagonist.

In celebration of this literary legacy, Likhanan invites you to a PUBLIC READING & OPEN MIC of passages from the book and other Bulosan writings on November 16, 2006 (Thursday), 7-9:00 p.m., Bistro 70s, # 46 Anonas St., Proj. 2, Quezon City.

Please invite your friends. FREE ADMISSION.
You can sign up to do a reading at the Bistro 70s on the same day or email likhanan @gmail.com before the event.

Likhanan publishes "Vocalese (Poems) by Aldus Santos

True to its vision of building a community of Filipino creatives, Likhanan is proud to publish Vocalese (Poems), the first book of poems by Aldus Santos, an independent poet and musician whose work with independent rock act The Purplechickens has been deemed as “some of the best lyrics ever to grace a rock song” (Pulp).

In his first collection of verses, Santos veers away from the succinct paradoxes of his lyrics without losing his penchant for phonetic lyricism, irony and situation. Vocalese is replete with fictitious retellings of the lives of some of the most misunderstood icons of science and art—Albert Einstein, Tycho Brahe, Jonathan Swift and Neil Young, among others. In poetic strophes brimming with humor and scandal, Santos attempts to marry popular subject matter with legitimate poetic inquiry. The end-result is antonymous to the soullessness of yellow journalism or public trial; it is deconstruction…mad, mute, mellow.


"Vocalese (Poems)" cover art by Adrian Arcega

The first print-run of Vocalese will start on November 20, 2006. Its launch is set on December 12, 2006 at Conspiracy Bar+Garden on Visayas Avenue in Quezon City. For inquiries, please leave a "comment" for this post.


“The book’s scope is wide, almost catch-all, dipping into science, history, and popular culture. It’s a club full of interesting characters that range from Tycho Brahe and Charles Darwin, to Victor Hugo and Neil Young, to Don Quixote and Pepe Smith. But, strictly speaking, they’re all to be found only on the guest-list and are not the main performers. The headliner, so to speak, is Santos’ intelligent, steady prodding.”

—from the Foreword by Mayo Uno Martin, author of Babel








Aldus Santos, author of "Vocalese (Poems)"
Photo by Grace Mirandilla