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Producers of the Future: From Keighley to Karachi

In 2021, Bradford Literature Festival launched a ground-breaking international project working in collaboration with Adab Festival, Pakistan. Titled Producers of the Future: From Keighley to Karachi, the project developed female talent and leadership in the arts and culture through a digital exchange and development programme.

The programme brought together 10 women from diverse and disadvantaged communities in Bradford and in Pakistan, and equipped them with skills and connections to develop and curate dynamic creative projects for diverse audiences, both online and in the real world. They were also given the opportunity to put this learning into practice by collaborating over 6 months to curate and produce a series of online events for Bradford Literature Festival’s winter strand, Words in the Winter.

The project deepened the historic links between Bradford and Pakistan by developing an international partnership between Bradford Literature Festival and Adab Festival in Karachi. The festivals share a similar ethos since both were founded and are led by women – Syima Aslam (Bradford Literature Festival) and Ameena Saiyid (Adab Festival). These inspirational leaders are passionate about the education and empowerment of women, and are dedicated to creating opportunities for the next generation of female creatives.

The programme was innovative for its ambition to address the gap in the talent pipeline in the UK creative industries, where in both the UK and Pakistan, women of Pakistani heritage are vastly under-represented, particularly in leadership, curatorial and managerial roles.

The project was supported by the British Council Digital Collaboration Fund, which supports UK and overseas cultural partnerships to develop digitally innovative ways of collaborating.

“At BLF we have long understood and been frustrated by the lack of diversity evident in the creative sector talent pipeline in the UK, which is the result of complex systemic inequalities – and Pakistani British women are particularly under-represented. We believe that by exploring and understanding the cultural and social challenges faced by women in Pakistan, we will better understand the challenges and barriers to participation faced by women in Pakistani diaspora communities in Bradford and the UK.”

 

Syima Aslam, BLF Founder, CEO & Artistic Director

“This project will provide a wonderful opportunity for the brave, pioneering and struggling women artists and writers of Pakistan.”

 

Ameena Saiyid, Adab Festival Director

Participants collaborated to curate and produce a series of 5 digital events, showcased via the Bradford Literature Festival website. These were:

  • Where are all the White Voices?
  • On a Scale of One to Muslim, How Sufi are you?
  • Memory of Places
  • Breaking Musical Boundaries
  • How do we Talk about Loss and Grief?

The project also included a pre-recorded event where participants could introduce themselves and ask questions to mentors, Syima Aslam and Ameena Saiyid, about their own journeys to becoming festival directors.

You can watch our series of events in our playlist below:

“A career in the arts and culture sector is what I aspire to have. As someone in Pakistan, you’re always wondering is there even a space for something like this? You have a very developed cultural sector in the UK but we don’t have that in Pakistan. We are just navigating through whatever different opportunities we get. It’s very unusual to have an opportunity to work with a group like this and it was reassuring that you can do this successfully as a professional. That’s something I’ve learnt.”

 

Project Participant

“I really enjoyed sharing experiences with people who have come from such different places and views. We were always having to think outside of Bradford. How would this work in Pakistan and how do you respond to that? It made me realise that having this wider perspective is something I want to have in future work, and the connection with Pakistan and building on that is important for me.”

 

Project Participant

Project Partners

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