Marjorie Evasco: Weaving poetry, advocacy and empowerment

Columnist's note: This is a modified version of my essay "Mainstreaming Violence Against Women and Children in Marjorie Evasco's 'Caravan of the Waterbearers'" in Rhizomes and Rhythms, an e-Festschrift for Marjorie Evasco. Edited by Gerardo Largoza and Dinah Roma in September 2024.

MARJORIE "Marj" Evasco is not only an internationally acclaimed poet but also a respected professor and university fellow at De La Salle University (DLSU). Despite not working in the same department, we quickly became friends: we're both migrants from the South and native Cebuano speakers. Marj's brilliance as a poet is matched by the sincerity she showed to students, colleagues and even the social scientists from the Behavioral Sciences Department (BSD), to where I belong. When I asked a colleague what traits of Marj she remembered most, she immediately responded: "Gentle and kind."