Check out its pilot issue

While our second take on enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) produced social media jokes about rekindling our love for Dalgona coffee, ube pandesal, and many other 2020 food trends, the rewind and repeat certainly brought a lot of disappointment to many Filipino creatives. But instead of cooking more kitchen projects, some took a creative route to channel their frustration.

Established on March 2021, “The Maginhawa Street Journal“ is among the many artful creations that emerged from the recent ECQ. Led by its editorial members Mads Bajarias, Lu-Ann Fuentes-Bajarias, Robert JA Basilio Jr., Jay Bautista, and Alcuin Papa, the digital magazine features stories depicted through art, literature, and photography by Filipino artists and writers.

“Creating a literary and art e-magazine was one of the ways we self-helped, an effort to transform collective challenge into creative expression that hopefully helps others, too,” they posted. “Maginhawa being Tagalog for relief, rest, and comfort, the hope is we all get to live, so to speak, on Maginhawa Street.”

Its pilot issue, dubbed “Traumas,” was published online on April 11, 2021 and presents Filipino artist Anthony Victoria’s etching on aluminum artwork, “Robot,” on the cover. On its pages are essays about human’s relationship with earth, images of natural wonder, the media’s state during the pandemic, and more.

Check out the first issue of the “The Maginhawa Street Journal” here.