138 : #WakeyLit19 How It Happened Against the Odds

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.

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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.

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So, onward to #WakeyLit2020 !!!