In the car: planet rock
On the page: black and white and read all over by Tony Keeton
Where I'm at: Leicester Shindig and Find The Right Words
Onscreen: Spider-Man 3
In recent weeks I have been to events designated as writers' networking events, a festival of writing and several readings/ open mic events.
The issues at the networking events tended to revolve around selling and money in one form or another.
The networking aimed at individual writers had questions around the themes of getting published, deciding print runs, marketing of published work, falling poetry sales and so on.
The poetry organisers' networking looked at how much poets should be paid as performers, how to build audiences, how to bring money into the poetry world.
It strikes me that the biggest problems don't lie in what kinds of events we have, or how they are funded, but in sheer communication problems, some of which relate to the way that the arts are funded and how the funding is used.Funding tends to be by county or, more recently, region. Funding is used for specific projects, for a set period of time.
So we have Writing East Midlands and Writing West Midlands, both tend to have many city based events on the assumption that the centres of population are also the centres of interest. Is there any joining up of the Midlands? From a funding and organisational point of view, it seems there is very little. For people, yes. I see a big overlap in the faces at events in both areas.
Organisers should talk more to each other across these artificial borders, not just within them. We all know poets suitable for each others' events, lets start networking properly, lets really use this Internet as a tool, not jus for publicity.
I agree, Gary. As a poet who attends poetry events/reads across the midlands, it's a shame that funding, opportunities, mentorship, events and the publicity for these are split.
ReplyDelete