fahrenheit451:345

And this is the  " Downside " to the proceedings of #WakeyLit19 aka the putative, ersatz  Wakefield Literature Festival 2019 conceived, planned ,organised and curated by Destiny Poets  ( www.destinypoets.co.uk ).
Even more than a decade ago ,when I visited schools on a fairly regular basis to do my poetry masterclass workshops, a common complaint from the teaching staff was that "creativity" was getting squeezed out of the curriculum and that pupils weren't simply getting opportunities such as my rather modest poetry workshop sessions to explore and enjoy culture.
June / July with the school year drawing down to a close and all the exams out of the way ,was always the optimum point in the calendar to approach schools with the lure of poetry workshops.
I had some reasonably confident expectations that some local inner city schools would jump at the chance of, (a) free poetry workshops and (b) the chance to showcase their star pupils and their school as part of a wider City lit fest.
It would also create some major strategic P.R. media  momentum for the #WakeyLit19 launch later on in September having prepared, at least to some worthwhile degree a wider name recognition and interest in a lit,fest especially linked to promoting local schools and the works of pupils. Win ,win,right?
Here's what actually happened.The idea never left the drawing board.

Not acknowledging receipt of initial,original email correspondence seems to be acceptable, common professional business practice. 

 

I had personally phoned the admin office at each of the seven schools to ascertain that I had the correct email address and contact details for the school and the headteacher.

 

On June 3, I sent the email ,the gist of which contained the  following: 

 

" As Founder of Destiny Poets and Editorial Administrator of http://www.destinypoets.co.uk we can promote your school and your pupils' creativity and work as an integral part of #WakeyLit19 on our established social media platforms to a discerning global online audience.
If you would like to take up our unconditional invitation to participate and be part of the new exciting #WakeyLit19, we can provide,at no charge,two poetry workshop sessions plus all the additional necessary professional technical guidance and assistance to help you post and promote your pupils' work in a fitting and positive manner that promotes not only your school's reputation but that of our city too.
I am available to make preliminary visits to your school and discuss the practicalities of this offer at whichever time and date is most convenient to you."

 

Seven separate headteachers at seven separate local schools within the city of Wakefield were sent this email , none of them even deigned to acknowledge that they had received it and would get back to me in due course- as you might expect from any professional business or individual to do as a matter of common courtesy and good business practice.

 

One week later, I phoned round all the schools and had to re-acquaint the admin staff with the gist of my original email and the date on which I had sent it,They all in turn said they had passed on that email to their Headteacher. They all gave the same basic answer that the reason it hadn't been acknowledged let alone replied to was that the Headteacher would have replied had they been interested in the offer! 

 

I asked how could I possibly judge if they were interested or not,if they didn't acknowledge having read my original email?

All the admin staff suggested I re-send the original email and that they would make sure that the Headteacher would get to see the email.

This I did on June 11- 8 days after my initial offer.

Once again,none of the Headteachers responded in any fashion,let alone with a simple courteous acknowledgement of receipt.

 

So, there you have it ; the response of seven inner city schools charged with the academic welfare of thousands of pupils to the magnanimous offer of  -

Would you like to take up our unconditional invitation to participate and be part of the new exciting #WakeyLit19, we can provide,at no charge,two poetry workshop sessions plus all the additional necessary professional technical guidance and assistance to help you post and promote your pupils' work in a fitting and positive manner that promotes not only your school's reputation but that of our city too...etc etc.

 

is.......Go shove it,we're not talking to you.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Part 2 of  the " Downside" also involves unprofessional, discourteous numpties seemingly incapable of responding to perfectly straightforward questions. In this case a Midlands -based group of performance poets who within the space of a few days went from - "we can bring our show to Wakefield", to " we can't work with you because of your politics".

Mike Took has still yet to enlighten me as to what he thinks my politics are and why he had to withdraw his offer to me because of what he thinks my politics are.

Herewith gleaned from fb Messenger a somewhat desultory conversation.

 

Sounds fab Louis - sorry not to have replied yesterday - the show is only 1 hour long. Could you do 8-9pm?

Louis

No worries.You'll come on at 8.The gig will be suitably warmed up with an open mic session from 7.Feel free to post any relevant links you wish for your show on the #WakeyLit19 page.I'll edit the timetabled events accordingly in due course.

 

Brilliant! I am slammed this week with organising LeamPoFest next weekend but will get straight on this after that. Thanks Louis!

Louis

 

8 JUL 2019, 18:41

 

Hi Louis I am sorry but I am cancelling our involvement with your planned festival. I and my colleagues do not share your politics and, as #FourApocalypsePoets is ostensibly a political show it would clearly be a mis-placed event. Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

8 JUL 2019, 20:57

Louis

Sorry to hear that.All I'm doing is putting together a basic week of daytime and evening events as a stop gap kind of week because the official lit fest isn't running. I reaally dont see what my "politics" has anything to do with anything re literature festivals.Its venues and gigs and performers.And I think your show would have been a great addition.Please do let me know where the dots join up.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Part 3 of the "Downside" ought really have been the preamble because it came really early on, so early it can be said that this idea never even made it on to the drawing board let alone any rough draft.

 

Mary Creagh MP turned down my invitation for her to be Official Patron of #WakeyLit19. 

 

" I am therefore unable to accept your invitation to be Patron of your project." was as much as can be shared without wading into some pretty deep waters.  Why her as Patron in the first place? well, checkout The Wakefield Poetry Picture Archive at www.destinypoets.co.uk

 

_________________________________________________________________________________And finally ,Part 4 of the  "Downside" ,which I include in this portmanteau of documented history of #WakeyLit19 simply to illustrate that the anti-Christian bigotry together with an ideological sectarian hatred directed at me kept rearing its ugly head even during #WakeyLit19 .

What had first seemed like a bit of an organisational tragedy before September had lapsed ineluctably into outright farce from this eejit on September 19th. Plastered all across social media.Nice.

I've excluded the slander and vilification preceding these comments.

 

William Anderson Gaskill Joe Williams Because Louis Kasatkin has contacts with the Wakefield Express and certain other organisations that I don't have, but today demonstrates that he cannot generate an event from the bottom, up, which is what I am trying to do. As regards, 2020, Louis Kasatkin is now another unknown quantity that I will have to deal with.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

So, onward to #WakeyLit2020 !!!

fahrenheit451:344

The explicit stated aim of #WakeyLit19 is to put locally based authors and poets at the centre of the litfest. And that the primary aim and purpose of a lit. fest bearing the name of the city,is to firstly promote wider public awareness of locally based authors and poets.

Unless someone,somewhere knows any different,clearly Wakefield -its elected representatives and relevant Council departments and officials ought to adopt a positive,pro-active strategy of an on-going,enhanced promotion of local authors and poets across its libraries ,schools and the city’s leading cultural venues.

This is the third of four blog posts on the topic of Wakefield LitFest. This one is  “The Upside” ,yet to come ,”The Downside” be warned names shall be named.There will be payback. 

The putative Wakefield Literature Festival aka Wakefield LitFest 2019 rebranded as #WakeyLit19 held its media launch on September 2nd. at Destiny Christian Church, with guest of honour, the Mayor Of Wakefield, Cllr. Charlie Keith.

The undoubted jewel in the crown of the week long, unfunded grassroots organised #WakeyLit19 was the series of Writers’ Showcases events hosted at the Mocca Moocho cafe  which featured a strong line-up of locally connected Authors from a broad range of literary genres:-

Joanne Brandon, Sarah Connell, Sue Featherstone, Dale Brendan Hyde, Barbara Phipps, Stephen Place and Neil White.

None of whom had ever been invited to take part in the now,moribund and defunct predecessor Wakefield Literature Festival.

#WakeyLit19 received practical support and expressions of solidarity from many well-wishers.And despite some relatively minor hiccups in the week,#WakeyLit19 most definitely “flew”, on schedule and to budget; which of course was £0.00.

fahrenheit451:343

It’s Monday 16th. September 2019 and #WakeyLit19 the ersatz  litfest is getting underway.

No funding, no charges ,no fees ,no tickets ,next to no admin. A radical, quasi-improvised grassroots alternative to absolutely no litfest whatsoever following the demise back in 2017 of what was the  ” official ” Wakefield Literature festival. The Merrie City’s version of the some 400 off – the  -shelf lookalike characterless litfest templates where only the geographically specific prefix is all that’s locally authentic and distinctive about them.

Being the UK’s 11th.largest city by population – @330k.- counts for diddly squat in Wakefield’s  case when it comes to the pecking order of venues queueing up to get their snouts in the trough of Publicly funded Arts Council monies.

That said, for every £8 per head of Arts Council funding that Greater London alone gets ; the entire rest of the UK gets £1 per head!!

Still, what can the city expect when you’ve had now more than a decade of indolence and indifference exhibited by elected political representatives toward advocating / campaigning for anything other than the prestige projects favoured by the local coterie of metropolitan cultural elitist toadies?

Back in March 29 ,2014 I posted the following in this here And So It Goes  Blog #452.

Here’s something I’ve WikiLeaked from my very own archives :- This validates my assertion,long held,that Wakefield would be better off being obliterated by a meteorite than what it has endured from its own City leaders over the years.

Public Correspondence : ARCHIVE MATERIAL : 18 / 04 / 2005 : Yorkshire Evening Post

New schools’ venture for city is well-versed

Updated on the18April 2005 10:44

Published 18/04/2005 09:21

By ALAN YORK

A NEW joint venture aimed at bringing poetry into schools across the Wakefield diocese was being launched today.

Poetry Wakefield is the idea of Cathedral poet-in-residence Louis Kasatkin, the Cathedral Poets and the Black Horse Poets, and is sponsored by Yorkshire Forward, the regional development agency.

It takes the form of a quarterly booklet of poems and information about poetry and has won the full support of the Bishop of Wakefield, the Right Rev Stephen Platten, who has even written a verse which is included in the first issue. It goes:

There was a young man of Cleckheaton

Whose verses were not worth repeating

For first he would swear

Then fly into the air

With rhymes that were no’but expleting.

He said: “This is the sort of writing that Poetry Wakefield: City and Diocese will not encourage! But my doggerel limerick does draw attention to the need to encourage young poets in schools throughout the Diocese of Wakefield.

Encourage

“This, Louis Kastakin, the Cathedral Poets and others intend to encourage. Yorkshire Forward has given us financial support and so we hope to be given further support by other bodies too.

“The production of a quarterly periodical will allow us to bring together the poetic talents of West Yorkshire and to encourage others to write. Who knows – even I may improve my versing if I become a regular reader.”

The launch was being carried out at Treacy Hall at the Cathedral.

Mr Kastakin, who has been poet-in-residence at the Cathedral since 2001, said: “This is another very real and tangible step in awakening the sleeping giant of poetry within schools and the local community.”

The two poets’ groups have set a goal of establishing an annual ‘Gissing Prize for Schools’ named after Wakefield-born George Gissing, one of England’s leading 19th century writers.

He was born in 1857 in Wakefield city centre in Thompson’s Yard, off Westgate.

He died in 1904 having written 23 novels, one of which, A Life’s Morning, is set in a thinly-disguised Wakefield and was re-published in a limited edition by the Gissing Trust last yea r to mark the 100th anniversary of his death.

In his hey day, Gissing was a literary superstar and his work still attracts devoted attention from academics, writers and readers around the world.

Galleries

Letters supporting a bid by the poets for Arts Council funding have been sent by Bishop Platten, former Wakefield MP David Hinchliffe, Wakefield Local Education Authority and the Wakefield Diocesan Board of Education.

Local museums, galleries, libraries, the Cathedral and Ottakar’s bookstore will all stock the quarterly.

Addendum : and of course the funding ran out.

fahrenheit451:342

Just for the record.

There are around 400 so-called “Lit.Fests” staged annually throughout the UK. 400.That’s one per day and some to spare.

Apart from a very few well known internationally ranked events such as those staged at Cheltenham and Cardiff and Ilkley, most of the rest vary in popularity and standing.

Most of the 400 follow a general template that basically is off- the -shelf and with only the prefix of the geographic location to distinguish and differentiate one litfest from any other litfest.

Their programme of events, the Arts Council funding,the roster of invited named performers et al are pretty much bog standard.

Locally based authors and poets as a rule get the crumbs left over once the named names -the culturally elite privileged performers -have pocketed the bulk of the arts council funding which the Anonymous litfest had applied for.

And so once the central funding gets cut, once the metropolitan cultural elitist establishment cronies fail to schmooze with their old university pals ,the local organisers abandon their culturally misappropriated fiefdom as if it had suddenly contracted bubonic plague, and they leave it to die.

Which is just about what happened here in Wakefield. And what is Wakefield ? the historic Merrie City ,the 11th.largest city in the UK , a population of around 300k. that is numerically comparable to Salzburg,Austria for example and double in size to Bruges,Belgium.

Except, of course, everyone’s heard of Salzburg and Bruges. Which happen to be my favourite two cities.

Abandoned,dead and buried these last two years, 2017 and 18, I searched the internet for signs of anything that might’ve indicated some attempt to do something along the lines of a lit type fest and surprisingly found nothing; nada,zilch.

What do people call it when  something that was dead and buried is brought back to full life ? (No,they DO NOT call it  a frikkin zombie..wrong genre entirely)

checkout https://www.facebook.com/groups/WakefieldLiteratureFestival2019/

All the details, all the background , all the articles.

And this time we have a LitFest , a literature festival, conceived, organised and promoted by actual Writers and Poets who really do know what they’re doing.