With literary festivals continually failing to feature writers of colour with any consistency or commitment, Media Diversified founder Samantha Asumadu and her team Henna, Samira, Mend and Kelly, created the Bare Lit Festival, backed by a crowding funding campaign. She explains why.
The Evening Standard’s list of the most influential people in London comes out every September. In 2014, as in 2015, the arts list covered theatre, film, art and lastly “The Literati”.
Of the 50 people on the list, 31 were men. Among the women, in 2014 Malorie Blackman was a new entry, joined by Zadie Smith. They were the only women of colour featured.
In 2015, the list (now reduced to 44 people) had no people of colour. What’s interesting about the Evening Standard’s Literati List is that it includes poets, agents, booksellers, publishers, festival producers, programmers, novelists, and historians.
Whether you imbue any weight to these kind of hierarchical throwbacks from ‘tastemakers’, when there are no people of colour on a list of literati in London, it speaks of an industry which doesn’t represent the makeup of this city, where approximately 40 per cent of the inhabitants are not white.
Is it that there are no people of colour (PoC) as novelists, poets, booksellers, publishers, festival producers and historians? Based on this list, obviously not. That they don’t get the visibility or publicity of their white peers, however, is evident.
While as an organisation we hold no power in the traditional sense (i.e. we don’t have money), what we have been doing at Media Diversified, and now with the Bare Lit Festival, is trying to raise the visibility of poets and authors of colour.
Over the last two and a half years we have worked with lots of writers who have published articles on Media Diversified, and we are aware of how much publicity they have to do on their own behalf for their books and poetry, whether that be by social media or readings.
Established novelists Courttia Newland and Sunny Singh will be appearing.
We wanted to be able to provide a platform with Bare Lit to take some of that burden from PoC writers, and help people who love reading to discover authors they may not have come across before. We as people of colour are, and have had to be, our own tastemakers.
Last year’s Writing the Future report by Spread the Word alluded to the big three literary festivals in 2014 having only 4 per cent of guests from a BAME background. With the Bare Lit Festival, as my colleague Mend says: “We can focus on making mainstream festivals more ‘diverse’ or we can create something magical of our own”.
We come after events and organisations like Commonword’s National Conference for Black Writers, Words of Colour Productions, The International Book Fair of Radical Black, Third World Books and others to celebrate writers of colour, and to introduce them or reconnect them with new and old audiences.
They have always been here. We haven’t stopped reading them, and they’re certainly not sitting on their laurels, but by focusing on writers of colour entirely we hope that new collaborations will be formed, voices will be heard, lots of books will be bought and a great time had by all. I’m considering banning the word ‘diversity’ from the whole event.
Across the pond the current furore around #OscarsSoWhite focuses on the lack of awards made to actors of colour. To my mind what’s missing is a discussion of the people behind the scenes – producers, studio heads and directors – those with the money and power to green light films.
It’s a conversation needed in all creative industries and it has been bubbling away in the literary world in the UK for some time. I’m confident that there will be more and more progress made in the next few years. Progress must happen as there are just too many voices speaking up demanding to be heard and who want to hear from writers of colour.
In addition, there are the fabulous BAME-run publishers like Jacaranda Books, Dahlia and Darf, to name a few. The former published Butterfly Fish, the brilliant debut novel by Irenosen Okojie, last year which is garnering major attention. Imagine a world where Okojie’s talent had never been discovered and never been published, leaving us without an opportunity to read her words?
What the aforementioned progress in the ‘mainstream’ will look like remains to be seen. Some of those questions may be answered in our panel discussion What does Liberation in Literature Look Like? which opens the festival on the morning of Saturday 27 February 2016.
Indonesian writer Khairani Barokka (left) and debut author Sareeta Domingo.
Regardless, we hope the Bare Lit Festival will provide a vital highpoint in the landscape of literary events this year, and for years to come. We’re just as excited that authors such as Tendai Huchu, Leila Abouela and Xialou Gou will be speaking as are debut authors Sareeta Domingo and Radhika Swarup; their first novels will be published this year.
Earlier I mentioned who holds the power. Our team, Henna, Mend, Samira, Kelly and my decision to crowdfund rather than get Arts Council England funding to cover the festival costs; speaker fees, the programme, venue and so forth, was because we wanted everyone who attends, or who supports us by a donation, to be invested in celebrating writers of colour – and to make the festival a success. This means putting the power back into the hands of the readers.
As poet JJ Bola said: “The narrative and expression of Black/African writers, storytellers and poets doesn’t sit in the hands of the publishing houses, but in the hearts and the imaginations of the people it so touches.”
The Bare Lit Festival takes place in London on Saturday 27 February to Sunday 28 February 2016.
For more information and to book tickets, visit: barelitfestival.com.
To make a donation click here.