Galing Cine Cafeʹ

This slim yellow volume of gay poetry in Filipino by Nestor De Guzman ruthlessly maps out the complicated terrain of gay love and desire. Each poem tells a story in very accessible language—the physical and emotional geography thoroughly Filipino. His characters are encountered in such locales as old movie houses, blue cafés, and desolated parks, and because readers will be privy to the subtle drama that his poetry uncovers there, these locations become spaces for displacement, desensitization. Also interesting is the visual portrayal of male beauty in this book. It uses otherwise “common” men as “models” (there is a nude photo of a balding, pot-bellied man). A copyeditor of the University of the Philippines Press, the author earned his degree in English Studies (Imaginative Writing) from UP Diliman, where he also took graduate courses in Filipino language. He is a member of Katorse Writers Group. Galing Cine Café is his first book.