Juan Miguel Severo, an actor and spoken word poet, recently took to Twitter to call out a certain mall asking artists to perform for a Buwan ng Wika event in exchange for a free meal. He was quite blunt in his disappointment of the company’s treatment towards artists and their craft. Severo candidly wrote: “I know I’m poor but b*tch???”
https://twitter.com/therainbro/status/1157235144928817152
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In a follow-up tweet, Severo posted the conversation he had with the organizer. An ‘exdeal’ was mentioned by the organizer, pertaining to Severo performing for the event in exchange for some ‘meals’. Severo handled it maturely by responding: “Sorry, I find this invitation disrespectful to my craft and to artists. Be better, [redacted]. You don’t celebrate Buwan ng Wika by exploiting artists that promote our national languages all year long.”
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Yet another tweet has Severo offering a public service announcement to anyone seeking to avail of an artist’s services:
https://twitter.com/TheRainBro/status/1157244807179190272
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A series of replies to a now-deleted tweet further explains his perspective. While he acknowledges that his talent is free he defends that his time is not and those able to pay for it should be willing to. He may offer his time for free to causes he deems worthy like benefits and rallies but a mall is a different story. For him, “knowing your worth is inspiring.”
What do you think about this?Â
