JESUS MANUEL SANTIAGO
a.k.a. JESS SANTIAGO: poet, singer, songwriter,
cultural organizer, translator, newspaper columnist,
workshop facilitator, book designer.
He was guest performer and co-organizer of cultural
events at the EndWTO Week of Action in Bali,
Indonesia, December 1-6, 20013. He sang at the
fundraising event for Typoon Yolanda victims, organized
by CNN Hero of the Year Robin Lim in Ubud, Bali,
Indonesia, December 9, 2013.
He performed at the Concert for Food Sovereignty,
organized by the Youth Food Movement Indonesia in
Jakarta, June 12, 2013.
He was nominated for Best Music in the 34th Gawad Urian (2011), an annual selection by
the country’s most respected film critics, for his work in the independently produced film
Ang Paglilitis kay Mang Serapio / The Trial of Mang Serapio, in which he also played the
leading role.
.
He produces and hosts the Asian Village Radio Show, an online radio program featuring
songs and interviews with artists from the region.
He was guest performer at the opening and closing ceremonies of the Asean People’s
Forum (APF) in Jakarta, Indonesia (May 2011) and Hanoi, Vietnam (September 2010).
He was delegate to the Asean People’s Forum (APF) held in Cha-am, Thailand, October
2009. He organized, directed, and performed at the APF cultural night.
His video, A Village in the Making, was screened and discussed at a music interaction
workshop in Jakarta (2011) and at Chulalongkorn, University (Bangkok, October 2009).
He wrote and performed the theme song for Kinulayang Kiti (Hand-painted Feathers),
Winner, Jury’s Prize, Pandayang Lino Brocka Political and New Media Film Festival
2010 and Nominee, Muhr Awards for Excellence, Dubai International Film Festival 2009
/ World Premiere.
He won the 2009 Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature for his folio of
poems for children, Kuwentong Matanda, Bersong Bata (Old Tales, New Verses).
He was director, producer, scriptwriter, musical scorer, videographer, and narrator of a
series of video documentaries on people’s music in Asia, namely:
1. A Village in the Making: The Song as Venue for Developmental Education
and People’s Advocacy in Okinawa, Chiang Mai, and Yogyakarta
2. Sanshin and Songs for Peace: Okinawa’s Roots and Wings
3. Songs for Life: People’s Music Movement in Thailand
4. Music and Humanity: The Kiai Kanjeng Experience
5. Music as a Weapon: The Caravan’s Journey
He was writer-in-residence of the Palihang Rogelio Sikat, a national writers’ workshop
(Nueva Ecija, May 2009).
He was awarded a fellowship to the Salzburg Global Seminar on Literary Translation
(Austria, February 2009).
He was guest speaker of the Archeological Society of the Philippines, February 2009,
University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City.
He released the third collection of his own compositions, Puso at Isip (Hearts and Minds)
in December 2008.
He was guest performer at the Asean People’s Integration Open-air Concert sponsored by
the Institute for Global Justice in Jakarta, Indonesia (August 2008).
He translated and dubbed in Filipino Al Gore’s Oscar-winning documentary on climate
change, “An Inconvenient Truth” (2007).
In 2007, he was co-writer, co-producer, translator, voice talent, and/or musical scorer for
several of the Free Jonas Burgos Movement’s video documentaries on enforced
disappearances and extrajudicial killings.
He did a research on “The Song as Venue for Developmental Education and People’s
Advocacy in Okinawa, Chiangmai, and Yogyakarta” as a senior fellow of The Nippon
Foundation’s Asian Public Intellectuals (API) Fellowships Program (2005-2006).
He was guest performer at the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2006 Seoul
International Human Rights Film Festival. He attended and performed at the First
International Peace Camp in Gwangju, South Korea held in May 2006.
He organized the Kulturang Kalye 2000 (Street Culture 2000), an 18-hour cultural
festival and the Kulturang Kalye: Sining Bayan sa Q.C. 2003 (Street Culture: People’s
Culture in Quezon City 2003) a month-long arts and culture festival which involved the
participation of hundreds of artists from the different disciplines. Both festivals were
jointly sponsored by the National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and the
Quezon City government.
In 2002 he received the Gawad Nuno ng Tbak “Gawad Kaliwanagan” (Enlightenment
Award) from the Tbak Foundation in recognition of his contribution through songs and
poetry to the enlightenment of the Filipino people during the Martial Law regime. He was
declared “Most Outstanding Citizen of Bulacan in Music and Literature” (1998) by the
provincial government of Bulacan. He was the first recipient of the Gawad Inangbayan
(Mother Country Award) for Music from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines
(1991). He was “Most Outstanding Citizen of Obando” (1986) and National Fellow for
Poetry of the University of the Philippines Creative Writing Center (1989-90).
He represented the Pambansang Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (National Union
of Writers in the Philippines/Panulat) at the International Writers Convention held in
Dhaka, Bangladesh in March 1996. He attended the Peoples’ Plan for the 21st Century
(Japan, 1989; Nepal, 1995), Asian Writers’ Conference (Bangladesh, 1995), South Asian
Peoples’ Theater Workshop (Nepal, 1995), Asian Peoples’ Theater Conference (Sri
Lanka, 1982), and the Earth Citizens’ Assembly in Sao Paolo, Brazil in December 1997.
He represented the Philippines at the Asian Music Festival held in Hirakata City, Japan in
1987. He has performed his music and poetry in most parts of the country and in AsiaPacific (Japan, Nepal, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Korea,
Hongkong, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand) as well as in
Western Europe (the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Sweden, England, Ireland,
Switzerland, Austria, and Italy.) He was the only foreign performer at the Kwangju Street
Music Festival held in Kwangju, South Korea in May 1994. He performed in Sao Paulo,
Brazil in 1997.
Regarded as one of the pioneers of the people’s music movement in the country, he was
co-founder and executive director of Musika Philippines, a resource center for people’s
music. He co-organized the Musicians for Peace, an association of songwriters and
musicians involved with the people’s movement. He has previously recorded two albums
of his own songs, Halina (1991) and Obando (1993). He wrote and recorded The Village,
the anthem of the Alliance for a Responsible, Plural, and United World.
He was musical director of Lino Brocka’s Kapit sa Patalim, Grand Prize winner at the
British Film Festival in 1984. He has written music for several stage plays and
documentary films. He is a member of Societe des Auteurs, Compositeurs et Editeurs de
Musique (SACEM).
Over the past thirty years, he has conducted several poetry and songwriting workshops.
He organized the first (1986) and second (1988) Asia-Pacific Regional Consultation on
People’s Culture. He conducted a songwriting workshop for Filipino migrant workers in
Hongkong (1991).
He was formerly the regional coordinator of the Cultural Action Programme of the Asian
Cultural Forum on Development (ACFOD). He co-edited Mandala, the ACFOD
quarterly publication on people’s culture.
He was declared “Poet of the Year” for two consecutive years (1978, 1979) by the
Institute (now Commission) of National Language. He has won the Don Carlos Palanca
Memorial Awards for Literature, the Cultural Center of the Philippines Literary Contest,
and the Palihang Aurelio V. Tolentino Playwriting Contest.
His poems and songs have been published in national and international magazines,
textbooks, and anthologies. Several of his songs and poems have been translated into
other Philippine languages as well as into English, German, Dutch, French, Japanese,
Nepalese, Tamil, Portuguese, Indonesian, Korean, and Thai.
He was area editor of UP Diksiyonaryong Filipino. His Filipino translation of Ernest
Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea was released by the Sentro ng Wikang Filipino
in 2003. He has translated into Filipino Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and some
works by, among others, Lu Hsun, W.H. Auden, Victor Jara, Gabriel Garcia Marquez,
Naowarat Pongpaiboon, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Takashi Arima, and Kim Min’gi.
His book, Gitara: Poems/Mga Tula 1975-1985, came out in 1997. He wrote a weekly
column-in-verse for Pinoy Weekly (2002-2005) and Planet Philippines (a forthnightly
published and distributed in several states in the US, Canada, Hongkong). He also wrote
regularly for the on-line magazine Archipelago, the daily tabloid Taliba (Vanguard),
Bagong Umaga, Hoy, and Pinas. He was managing editor of SIKAP Publications.
He has designed books, brochures, newsletters, and other publications for the University
of the Philippines Press, Sentro ng Wikang Pilipino, Accion Contra el Hambre (Action
Against Hunger)—Philippine Mission, Pasig River Rehabilitation Center, Sipat
Publications, Anthrowatch, Fair Trade Alliance, Legal Resource Center, and other NGOs
and publishing houses.
Contact information
Residence:
Lot 3 Block 4 Romans Street
Jordan Plaines Phase III
Novaliches, Quezon City 1123
Philippines
Telephone: 632-9300268
Mobile phone: +63 939 8307282
email: jessant@rocketmail.com