Writer, essayist and editor, Paul Liam has lamented the rise of ‘mushroom’ arts and culture festivals organized by young, inexperienced writers.
In his piece, ‘Note To Emerging Arts and Festival Curators’, Liam said that young writers and creatives, for the sake of being identified as curators, take on the herculean task of hosting art and literary, which they lack the knowledge, network and emotional maturity to pull off.
The above results in the embarrassment of invited festival guest writers and speakers, who are left without proper accommodation due to their poor organizational and management skills.
Young creatives, he advised, should either go study the art of curating festival, or intern with professional and successful festival curators like Lola Shoneyin, founder of Ake Book and Art Festival, the maiden director of Kaduna Book and Arts Festival (KABAFEST) and author of Baba Segi’s Wives, and poet, D.M Dzukogi, organizer of the seven-year old teen arts festival HIASFEST and lead, the MBA International Literary Colloquium, to gain the experience they need.
“Arts and festival curating is not a joke. Leave it alone for the professionals to handle or at least do internship to understudy how it is done.
“Some curators will get funding to provide honorarium to their writers but will end up giving them nothing. Why do we abuse everything in Nigeria? It seems many young people are misled into thinking that curating festivals is a joke or easy, but it is not. You don’t have to do it just to be called a festival director or a festival curator.
“Put that energy and resources into developing yourselves and when you are better positioned and have acquired the right experience you can then venture into festival organizing. Otherwise, stop embarrassing people in the name of festivals.
“Young people, stop stressing yourselves with festival organizing, it is not as easy as it seems. It is a tedious process that can break you. Stop putting yourselves under undue pressure. Relax and develop your creative writing skills, you owe yourselves that much. And that is what matters the most,” concluded Liam.
