Empowering students to create “hugot with a purpose,” Hugot Unplugged: spoken word poetry and dance competition was held at the Arrupe Hall, last February 12, as one of the highlights of the Festival of Excellence 2020 with the theme, “Celebrating Cultural Diversity, Sharpening Artistry and Invigorating Spirituality”.

With a powerful piece highlighting the struggle of the Lumads, especially the women and young children, representatives from the School of Education bagged the first place followed by the Humanities and Letters cluster and the School of Nursing in second and third place, respectively.

The School of Education interpreted Baying Magani or “Female Warrior,” citing the issues of ancestral domains and the oppression experienced by the Lumad.

The said competition was designed to use spoken word poetry as a literary vehicle and dance as an expressive medium of inspiring others to exemplify awareness on the social issues concerning Mindanao.  This objective was exemplified in the written pieces of the spoken word poetry artists and dance interpretation from the various clusters.

Dianna Tagalog, representative of the School of Education, expressed how significant the event was for her and the Ateneo community.

 “Aside from natagaan mi’g platform na i-share among talents, natagaan pud mi’g time na maingon ang mga narratives na dapat madunggan sa laing tao. Through that, mas ma-understand nila ang concept [social issue] and maging mas sensitive sila, especially regarding sa situation sa atong Lumad brothers and sisters,” Tagalog said.

The official announcement of winners will be done during the culmination and awarding ceremony of the Festival of Excellence 2020 to be held on February 20.