Melody as Lola Basyang

Parts 1 to 3 will follow, but first here's the 4th of 4 parts of our report! We were there last Monday March 27 at Jayme's Grill at The Fort. And there she was. A hunched over old woman - white hair tied in a bun, eyeglasses perched on her nose, wearing a white kimona and a red patadyong, clutching a crooked walking stick, and with a book in hand... why, it's Lola Basyang herself!

For a while there, storyteller Melody Remorca had everyone entranced, young and old alike. The occasion was the launch of yet another Lola Basyang book - selected and edited by Lola Basyang expert Christine Bellen, designed and illustrated by Felix Mago Miguel, and published by Tahanan Books.

Lola Basyang is actually the pen name of the late Severino Reyes, a member of the privileged ilustrado class in 19th century Philippines. According to children's author and Lola Basyang expert Christine Bellen, Reyes is the Filipino equivalent - and more - of Hans Christian Andersen. He wrote up to 500 Lola Basyang stories, and these were first printed in 1925 in Liwayway, the longest-running Tagalog magazine that Reyes himself founded and edited. Read the whole fascinating article by Nilo A. Yacat at http://www.petatheater.com/news2.htm -Beaulah in Manila

Photographs by Mark Taguiwalo licensed as follows
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/