Manila International Book Fair 2017 and Matty's Mixtape for Moving On Relaunch
MIBF & Relaunch doodles by yours truly
a.k.a. one of the best Saturdays of my life so far. I've been anticipating this year's Manila International Book Fair ever since 2017 rolled in and I've been doing nothing but studying the past few weeks since it's CETs season, so I thought it would be nice to take a short break from all the stresses of being a senior, and go home.
Home is a distant island in a different planet, home is the second star to the right and straight on 'til morning, home is in between the pages of a book. I'm not one for big crowds, but book fairs are my zone, and this year, even though there was a quite literal sea of people, it was okay. I was home.
Manila International Book Fair is Philippines' biggest book event. This year it ran from September 13 to 17, 2017 at the SMX Convention Center, Mall of Asia Complex, Pasay City.
Now on its 38th year, the MIBF continues to be the country’s biggest and longest-running book fair. It showcases the largest and most varied collection of literature for leisure and academic reading. Everything you need from fiction bestsellers, to textbooks, to graphic novels, and even educational materials are all under one roof. Moreover, the MIBF is also the go-to venue for this year’s most awaited book launches and signings, dialogues with readers, contests, and other literary events.
Running for almost four decades now, it has evolved from an event for the publishing industry and the academe to one of the most-awaited exhibitions for all sorts of readers. The MIBF has become a gathering of sorts for bookworms of all ages and walks of life to celebrate the joys of reading and the knowledge each book brings about. It has also been providing a venue for the exchange of ideas amongst players in the publishing and academic industry.
On the morning of the book fair, I had to get up early and go to school for my report card. I went with my mom (which was the best idea ever). I didn't know that along with the report cards, they would also be giving out the class rankings. For some miraculous reason, I was ranked 4th in my class, which of course, made my mom very proud and agreed to give me more money for the book fair as a reward (see, best idea ever). After receiving my card, my mom drove home and I went to my friends whom I'd be spending the rest of the day with.
The entire day with them was honestly so wylde (yes, so wild that it's already spelled differently); I forgot my ticket to MIBF so we had to go to Fully Booked to get another one, the train we rode to the venue broke down in Ortigas (which was still quite a distance from Pasay), so we had to get on a bus, the line to enter the venue (when we finally got there 2 hours later) was so long, when we finally got inside, there were too many people in the Summit Media booth so we weren't able to attend Reese Lansangan's book signing (sad reax only), but we saw her and that was enough 💖.
We decided to start looking for the books we wanted. There were so many people. I kid you not. It was like a battlefield. We headed to National Bookstore first and I picked up Our Dark Duet by Victoria Schwab, which was the final book in her Monsters of Verity duology. I was so excited to see it there and it was on a 30% sale (like most books at the fair). We moved to Fully Booked's booth after and one of my friends picked up Jonny Son's Everyone's a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too and I picked up Nimona by Noelle Stevenson. I cannot fully express how excited I am for this book, I swear.
Due to the rapidly increasing amount of people inside the first floor of the convention center and the fact that we only had about 3 more hours 'til we had to go to Katipunan for a book relaunch, we decided to head to the 2nd floor of the convention center. The 2nd floor was where the Children and Young Adult section was, and it had significantly less people so that was very neat. There was another National Bookstore booth there and I was able to pick up some pastel highlighters and History is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera. I am so ready to cry over this book.
Since the 2nd floor was a lot less congested, we were able to walk around and look for books that weren't on our lists, but seemed interesting. Me and my friends found Eros Atalia's Ang Ikatlong Anti-Kristo and we all pitched in for it. I'm not really a big fan of horror books, but I was psyched to read a contemporary novel in Filipino. It would also help a lot with my UPCAT preparations.
When we realized that it was already 5PM, we decided to start our journey to Katipunan if we wanted to make it to the venue before 7PM. A little background on what was supposed to happen in Katipunan...
Roch Lazarte of Words Anonymous, a team of Filipino performance poets, was relaunching her book Matty's Mixtape for Moving On with a brand new cover, bonus content, and merch at Roots Katipunan. The relaunch had a portion called #DearKate where people could read letters they wrote to the Kate in their lives; "those you weren't able to tell your feelings to or never got closure from. whether it's about you finally moving on or just starting to acknowledge the fact that, actually, you weren't OK with what happened, it's alright. the relaunch is a safe space where you can share your feelings and previously unsent letters if you're brave enough to go up on that stage." -Roch
And so I signed up to read my letter to the Kate of my life.
Right, okay, back to the book fair.
When we stepped out of the Convention Center, we were greeted with a store branch of Fully Booked. Me and my friends were tempted to go in and search for the books we didn't find at the convention and well, let's just say we weren't strong enough to resist the temptation. My friend picked up a classic (I forgot the title!), even though the line was so long.
We exited Fully Booked at around 6PM. By then, we realized an hour was definitely not enough to get to Katipunan. And since I am a master at panicking, guess what ya girl did? Yepp, she panicked her ass off. Good thing I had sensible people with me hahahaha! I thanked all the gods above for my friends. The jeepney ride to the Taft Station was so long, so we asked one of our other friends back in Quezon City to book an Uber for us.
After about 30 minutes, we were in an Uber on the way to the station. We had exactly 30 minutes to get to the venue and this was what we had to do to get there: after the ride to Taft station, we would board the train to Cubao, and then switch to an LRT to go to Katipunan, and then ride a tricycle to Roots Katipunan (the actual venue) since it was too far to walk.
Long story short, we didn't make the 7PM cut. We did, however, make it in time for the event! I was so nervous about reading my letter to Kate, but watching members of Words Anonymous read pieces of the book to us, and fellow poetry enthusiasts read their letters to their Kates, plus a little push from Jihad, I was, thankfully, able to get up and read my letter.
That was the first time in my entire life to share something personal, my own piece, to strangers - well, they weren't really strangers, some were people I looked up to, but you get the idea. It felt amazing to be able to get those words out. This was what pushed me to publish the piece here as well, even though I'm extremely insecure about my writing, as well as the fact that the piece was so personal and dear to me. The relaunch was my safe space, but this blog is also one of my safe places, so there. If you haven't read my Dear Kate letter yet, it's over here.
The rest of the night went incredibly well. My friends ended up reading letters to their Kates too (thanks, Jihad!), and it just felt so nice to be surrounded by such amazing people. Everyone was so kind to one another and sitting there, with my newly bought books with me, with friends surrounding me, I just felt at home.
May this be the first of many more moments like this.
Andrea
That blog post was so freaking wordy, here have some pictures of beautiful books!
Sadly, I don't have pictures from the relaunch. But if you're interested in reading Roch's book, Matty's Mixtape for Moving On, which I highly recommend you do, it's on Amazon! Clear here to check it out :)
Other links that you might want to visit:
(These aren't all of WA members, but here are the twitter links of those that were at the relaunch)
(Just click on them and it'll lead you to where ya wanna go. I am yet to find out how to change the colors of texts that are linked HAHA)
2 comments
Write commentsOmg this all sounds amazing. I wasn't able to attend MIBF this year though, and reading about your experience made me regret not going even more.
ReplyMatty's Mixtape for Moving On sounds like a great book, though this is the first time I've heard of it. I wish I've known about it and the relaunch sooner, I would've loved to attend as well :(
On another note, Nimona by Noelle Stevenson has a really cute cover as well lololol
There's always another one the next year so that's something to look forward to! :D
ReplyIt is a great book, I promise! I hear Roch is working on a little something new sooo maybe I'll see you on the launch of that one? Haha!
Nimona (the character & the book itself) is just as cute as the cover, that I can definitely testify. :)
May the comments be ever in my favor (or not)