High Chair and the Maguindanao Massacre

Call for submissions for the second installment of High Chair 12

How could poetry be written/art be made so that it has value to the Maguindanao Massacre?

Or, if art is an inadequate response—offering no sufficient answers, effecting no significant change, if not trivializing horror in the service of aesthetic exercise—is no response the only generous response? Should art even be asked for a reply?

We are inviting poets and artists everywhere to submit responses to these questions and/or the responses published in the first installment. We are interested in poems (whether old or new, unpublished or previously published) that offer ways of thinking about terror, horror, and other pertinent ideas/terms. We are interested in essays and reviews that examine the role and state of Philippine poetry and art in the context of the Maguindanao Massacre.

We recognize the need to engage with the Maguindanao Massacre and to ensure, through an ongoing discussion, that the event remains current and urgent. Thus, High Chair 12 is a work in progress, with content uploaded by installment, from mid-December to mid-February. The deadlines for submission for possible inclusion in the next three installments of High Chair 12 are December 31, 2009, January 15, 2010, and January 30, 2010.

We welcome submissions in Filipino and English. Please send no more than five pages of poetry. There is no page limit for essay contributions. Email your submissions or queries to highchair@gmail.com (subject heading: High Chair Issue 12).

Feel free to circulate this call for submissions to other interested parties. Thank you.

Conchitina Cruz and Adam David (Issue Editors)