Katrina Stuart Santiago is an independent writer of the essay in its various permutations, from art, theater and movie reviews, to popular iconographies and culture criticism, all bound to Third World Philippines, its tragedies and successes, even more so its silences. She had her start as a contributing writer for the arts and culture beat of the Philippine Daily Inquirer in 2009, and built a body of work with GMA News Online for three years, from 2010 to 2013. She also maintained an opinion column with The Manila Times from 2013 to 2017. She continues to write feature stories and reviews for various magazines.
She won second prize in the Essay Category of the Palanca Awards in 2008, holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Comparative Literature, and a Master’s Degree in Araling Pilipino focused on popular culture and feminism. She released her first book of creative non-fiction, Of Love And Other Lemons, in 2012. Two books of edited and curated essays, Rebellions: Notes on Independence and Romances: Variations on Love, will come out with the Ateneo de Naga Press in December 2017.
The years of writing and academic study have fueled her cultural activism that cuts across issues of cultural production and cultural work, institutional dysfunctions and systemic crises. The goal is to build an organization that will protect cultural workers’ rights and unite us on specific and urgent issues within the cultural systems we work in, and the national politics we are inevitably affected by.
She’s been blogging at www.radikalchick.com since 2008, and is radikalchick online. She lives in Mandaluyong but spends as much time as she can in Tiaong, Quezon.
— KSS, 2017.
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2008
Kay tagal kong pinag-aralan
ang puno’t dulo
ng digmaan.
Sa huli’y naunawaan,
na ang pagiging babae
ay walang katapusang pakikibaka
para mabuhay at maging malaya
— Joi Barrios, 1990.
Si Katrina Stuart Santiago ay manunulat-guro-aktibista-babae.
Patuloy siyang nabubuhay sa tunggalian, sa pakikibaka, sa
araw-araw na nagagawa rin niyang chumika, magsulat, mag-aral,
manood ng TV at sine, magbasa, makinig sa OPM, tumawa,
umiyak, mag-rally, magkasya sa skinny jeans niya, mag-kape
sa Starbucks, maglagay ng moisturizer, magmaneho sa marurumi
at magugulong kalsada ng Metro Manila, makisalamuha, mag-isip,
magturo, matuto.
Ang mabuhay ng araw-araw sa Pilipinas, nang mulat at malay,
nang may pakiramdam at panlasa at pang-amoy, nang hindi nahihiya,
at nang may kakayahang tingnan sa mata ang kanyang mga
kausap — ito marahil ang pinaka-radikal sa kanyang mga gawain.
At oo, isa siyang chick. Dahil babae siya. At inaangkin niya
ang label na ‘yan, at ginagawa itong makapangyarihan. Yan na
mismo ang radikal.