Freeway F. Sionil Jose NAC Launch

National Artists have always been close to my heart. My godmother sits at the National Artists Nomination secretariat and I've had first dibs on who was in line to receive the award. Of all the National Artists however, one of my favorites would have to be F. Sionil Jose-- maybe because he's a writer; or maybe because he's always been so active in the community (I've chanced upon him in a number of events before), whatever the reason, to put it simply, I just like the man. He's smart, relatively down-to-earth (from my observation) and undeniably talented.

When Freeway announced it was going to honor F. Sionil Jose, I wasn't surprised anymore. It was inevitable for a man of his calibre to be picked.

...and so yesterday, 31 May 2011, Soan and me trooped to the Row, Glorietta 5 for the official  launch of Freeway's F. Sionil Jose National Artist Collection!

Pretty ballerina Lisa Macuja hosted the event. This lady is so charming! I especially love how cute her eyes look when she smiles :)

In true Freeway tradition, a tertulia was held with Ms. Cherie Gil and Lourd de Veyra reading excerpts from F. Sionil's more popular works.

Cherie Gil was captivating! Her reading of Sionil Jose's Ermita was remarkable!

Lourd was equally fantastic! He enunciated the words really clearly and I seriously won't mind listening to him tell me stories each night. He has such a calming manly voice

After the readings, F. Sionil Jose was invited for a no-holds barred interview

He was so fascinating! He was funny and witty and really interesting! His answers elicited laughter from the audience. Truly, he has a way with words!

Of all the items we saw on display, our favorite would have to be this amazing white skirt:

Isn't it a beaut? The cut is very corporate and work-appropriate but the design just screams t-r-e-n-d-y!

Believe us when we say you have to check ALL the clothes from the collection. Everything looks so pretty, I personally don't know what to start picking out from the racks!

Before we end this entry, allow us to give a big THANK YOU to Freeway for the amazing freebie! I cannot believe I have my own autographed F. Sionil Jose book!

Was so ecstatic when I opened the flap and saw my name! Thank you, thank you from Soan and me!

To finally end this post, I leave you here a picture I took of F. Sionil Jose's bookstore in Padre Faura. S and I were both excited about it co'z we passed by the bookstore numerous times in college, without even putting any special regard to it (hey, we didn't know he owned it!) Now, the store is one of the more special places in my list!

For more on the collection, check out the following sites:
Freeway online
Freeway on Facebook