UP Piccola Italia: DANTE: Unleash The Poet in You (November 14, 2015 at Fully Booked: BGC)

Last November 14, 2015, Ms. Beth Sia of Meow Pow Marketing Services Inc. invited me to witness UP Piccola Italia's event called DANTE: Unleash the Poet in You - La Settimana 2015. The event was held at the function hall of Fully Booked, Serendra, BGC at 10 am. About 15 participants from different schools and universities across the country brought out their wits, charm, and sarcasm to convey their message in the form of English or Filipino poetry. These contestants truly gave out a part of their personal observations and experiences as they discussed themes ranging from love to the upcoming elections.

With respect to the contestants, I do like the fact that they really gave it their best shot. I found the oral declamation made by Ms. Beverly Cumla of the Lyceum of the Philippines to be the most insightful and most powerful of all the contestants'. She described the typical Filipino apathy toward reforming the electoral process and our insistence to blame others for the bad leaders we have elected. I found her poetry to be very powerful due to its timeliness and its frankness. It made me think about how the deadliness of our indifference and focus on self-interest as opposed to the public good.

The judges for this contest were Ma'am Audrey Rose Mirasol, Instructor from the Department of English and Comparative Literature, Ma'am Kristine Cabling - Instructor and Coordinator of the Italian Section from the Department of European Languages, and Sir Alessandro Iellamo - Chairman of Società Dante Alighieri.

The winners of the contest were:

3rd placer, Ivan Dhave Iwakiri from the University of Makati,

2nd placer, Simone Marie Sales from Ateneo de Manila University, and

1st placer, Beverly Cumla, from the Lyceum of the Philippines University

UP Piccola Italia's generosity was highlighted when participants and members of the audience received premium gift items as part of the raffle. They won:

1,500 pesos in cash

30 hours of Italian Language Classes with Societa Dante Alighieri

1,800 pesos worth of Cooking classes from Back of the House

3 month subscription from EXPLORE Magazine

20% idscount of "Penne for Your Thoughts" shirt of UP Piccola Italia

A Dante Alighieri Wire Clock from Maikala Concepts

An AAM23 Alessandro Wine Opener from Alessi,

None of these could have been made possible without the invaluable help of the Italian Embassy, Società Dante Alighieri, Philippine-Italian Association, and the Italian Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines. The program was also supported by Fully Booked, Bonifacio Global City in partnership with UP Le Club Francais. Other supporters include: UP Circulo Hispanico, UP Deutscher Verein, UP EURO. Official Media Partners Include: DZUP 1602, When in Manila (wheninmanila.com), and

Mindanao Business Week

Special thanks to the sponsors of this month long celebration go to: Fedrigoni, Inc, Seda Hotels, Qatar Airways, Maikala Concepts, Trevi, Back of the House, Elberg Shipping, Mega World International, Amici Group of Restaurants, Antica Murina, RFM Corporation, SMDC, Sunny Sonny Project, CMC, Alessi, Explore Magazine, Selecta, and Sunkist.

Acknowledgement:
Ms. Beth Sia and Ms. Betsy Lavadia for the invite.

The story in pictures: