Remembering... Maningning Miclat

Maningning C. Miclat is the niece of Tita Lyn Miclat-Pelina, my Parent�s highschool classmate and a close family friend. On September 29, will be her fifth death anniversary. She died at the height of her literary and artistic powers: a published author, multilingual poet, prize-winning artist, an interpreter and art teacher.

Still missing a great individual� peace for Maningning�s soul.


In memory of Maningning, young poet and artist
By Amad�s Ma. Guerrero, Contributor
Inquirer News Service

She died at the height of her literary and artistic powers: Maningning Miclat, 28, poet in three languages and award-winning painter. You might say that, like a true poet, she died for love. One recalls the poignant line from Gabri�l Garcia Marquez: "�la encontro muerta de amor en la cama con los ojos radiantes y la piel de reci�n nacida." (�she was found dead of love with eyes radiant and her skin like a newborn).

Her young life, so filled with accomplishments, is the stuff of legend.

Born and raised in Beijing, China, during the Cultural Revolution, because her parents Mario and Alma Miclat were based there then, Maningning became fluent in Mandarin (which she later taught at the Ateneo University), English and Filipino. And she published poems, short stories and essays in these three languages.

In 1987, she published her first book of poetry in Chinese, "Wo De Shi" (My Poems). Three years later she became a Fellow of the University of the Philippines National Writers Workshop, where she won an award and a Julie Lluch trophy for a one-man play in Filipino.

Her poems in English, on the other hand, made her a Fellow of the Silliman Writers' Workshop. And she followed up her first book of poetry with "Voice from the Underworld" (Anvil Publishing).

An anthology which came out in Beijing counted Maningning as one of the 39 Top-Rated Women Poets in Chinese.

The young writer's accomplishments in painting are just as remarkable, if not more so, considering her age then.

In 1987, 15-year-old Maningning held a first solo show of traditional paintings, the first of five such five one-woman exhibits. And while still a student at the UP College of Fine Arts (later graduating with a cum laude standing), she won the 1992 Art Association of the Philippines Grand Award for nonrepresentational paintings with her abstract work, "Trouble in Paradise."

The young poet-painter later took up Masters in Fine Arts at UP, and taught art at the Far Eastern University. There, on Sept. 29, 2000, the angel of death caught up with her.
Another major work, "Soliloquy" (8 x 44 feet) was exhibited posthumously at the Cultural Center of the Philippines and at the GSIS Museum in 2002.

Since her death, the Maningning Miclat Art Foundation (maningningfoundation@gmail.com and www.maningning.com) has been holding annual literary and cultural activities to perpetuate her memory.

This year it will be a "Tatluhan/Triptych" concert at the CCP's Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino (Little Theater) on Sept. 25, during which the winners of the 2005 Maningning Miclat Poetry Award in Filipino, English and Chinese Divisions will be announced. The winners (who should not be older than 28) will receive P28,000 each and a Julie Lluch sculpture trophy.
The concert will feature renowned musical artists Raul Sunico, pianist, and Renato Lucas, cellist, and a rising young star on the concert scene, Regina Buenaventura, granddaughter of National Artist Antonino Buenaventura. Proceeds of the concert will go to the future projects of the foundation, as well as the CCP's Sagip Baryo Project.