Money or not, poetry!

The rise of the Poetry Moon

Since 2005, Runokuu – the Poetry Moon – has risen over Helsinki every August. It started with a kiss, they say, between the literary organisation Nuoren Voiman Liitto and Helsinki Festival. Runokuu is now the largest poetry festival in Finland, hosting over 40 performances and events during the festival week. We can see some effects of the tightening economy, but Runokuu brings quality and varied art to spotlight and it makes no compromises.

Runokuu has never been only about poetry, there’s always been a colourful variety of media and viewpoints, be it video, sound art, conceptual exhibitions, performance art, visual arts or dance. Would you like some spoken word? Or do you prefer an academic discussion on topics such as translating poetry? Perhaps a workshop would do? You can have it all. I remember one year seeing poets sitting in trees or reading in an observatorium, dancing to poetry or improvising. After a sensational final week, I attended a delightful Sunday breakfast with international poets and I felt a sense of belonging like never before.

In choosing its international guests, Poetry Moon always keeps in mind how important it is for a small linguistic area to stay in contact with other nations and cultures. Versopolis is therefore a very important part of the festival, offering Finnish readers a rare opportunity to read poetry from international poets in Finnish translation in Versopolis booklets. This year, we’re hosting Fatemeh Ekhtesari (Iran/Norway) and Nisrine Mbarki (The Netherlands), as well as some of NVL’s guests from the Villa Sarkia residency for young writers. It will be wonderful to hear Finnish, English, Farsi, Dutch and probably Norwegian and/or Swedish on the stage.

NVL (Nuoren Voiman Liitto – The Union of Young Power) was established in 1921 and has evolved from a society catering to young writers to an organisation representing, alongside with the young writers, the entire literary scene in Finland. Financed mostly by the state, it works for the common good, giving everyone an opportunity to approach, study and experience literature.

Poetry festivals in Finland: Annikki

As I’m writing this, this year’s edition of Annikki is already behind us. Annikki is what we call Annikin Runofestivaali, a poetry festival held in Tampere, somewhat two hours’ drive from Helsinki to the north. The proletarian history of the city of Tampere is nested an area near the city centre known as the Annikki wooden house district, where there used to be several blocks of wooden houses. Sadly, most of the blocks have been torn down since the 1980s, and only a few remain.

Annikki was established in 2003 by the local residents, and the incumbent artistic director is poet J. K. Ihalainen. This year’s theme was ‘The Personal’ and it attracted a lot of audience to the venue. The inner courtyard of the Annikki wooden house block was packed as Aulikki Oksanen, Kielo Kärkkäinen, Lyyti, Risto Ahti, Abdulla Pashew, Stephen James and many more performed. The spoken word cellar was chock-a-block the whole day. Two of Finland’s most beloved poets, Eeva Kilpi and Kirsi Kunnas, had their poems incorporated into huge murals on the walls of nearby houses. Poetry five storeys high, wouldn’t you say this is the correct measure of it?

Searching for hope and meaning

It’s never been about money, has it? Still, as the current Finnish government warmed up last year, the arts and culture professionals gasped. Cuts, minuses, diminishing and taking away – the future seemed rather hopeless for many small organisations and some bigger ones, too. Their work is, or was, supported mostly by the state. This holds true for NVL, too. Many are now wondering how to survive and cope with less money, less workers and less funding for the artists’ honoraria. At the same time there is a public debate going on about the minimal fees that writers should get from publishing audio books. The future looks hopeless and bleak, one may think.

However, in all of this I somehow still see hope and meaning. We are too strong to give up, too big to wither – the arts and culture sector makes up a greater share of the BDP than forestry and agriculture! The future of live poetry in Finland is in the hands of many different artistic disciplines: there are writers and spoken word artists, but there are also screenwriters, theatre professionals, visual artists and musicians, and many other. Then there are nurses, baristas, taxi drivers and doctors who write. Just go to an open mic and you can see a mixed crowd of pros and not-so-pros aching to perform their poetry. Or come to Runokuu and find yourself moved by an astonishing merger of jazz and poetry. Hope and meaning come from working together. Like in many other fields, networking is essential in arts for finding opportunities and support we need in the sometimes lonely everyday life of an artist.

The purpose

A lot of meaning comes from the purpose of the work. Poetry festivals nourish the reading public and offer intense artistic experiences to many, providing an opportunity to either perform on the stage or absorb the verses as a spectator. But festivals and other types of events can also reach non-readers and help them find a path to poetry, or literature in general, via music or theatre. Engaging with text can happen in many ways, and reading printed or digitally published books is not the only one. As the literacy rates are constantly dropping, we are coming to the point where we must encourage everyone to read any kind of books every day – some may find this hard to believe, but there are 10-year-old schoolkids who have read zero books in their life. Some of these kids will become adults soon and I’m sure that they will find it easier to go to a well-produced festival and listen to poetry than to open a book and read it. Or they may find themselves enjoying video poetry using the media of their generation. Social media are a great tool for reaching the younger generations. Creating pathways suitable for different readers is in the interest of both the educational institutes working on literacy and the arts and culture institutions trying to attract new audiences.

I would also say that an important part of the motivation is bringing new talents to spotlight. No professional field can flourish without regular changes of generations. And to be fair, fresh blood can come from people of all ages – every year we see first poetry collections by aged writers who have simply bloomed late or have had different interests and careers before they took up writing. Embracing the diversity in every sense is a great approach to art marketing.

Money talk

Now that I’ve mentioned marketing, it’s time to talk about money. The question of money is always hot and important – the question of what to pay an artist is as important as the question of what you would pay for seeing the art. Money is seldom the chief driving force in the life of an artist, but surely every artist has living expenses. We should think about the value we attach to our work. Should the events at a poetry festival be free of charge or will an admission fee help us show appreciation for what we’re getting as the audience? Or will the ticket price make it impossible for some to attend? There are no definite answers to these questions as they are always contingent on the mission, the budget and the location, but they’re worth thinking about. Why should top-class art be free of charge? Except for school children, that is. There is a custom of taking the whole class out to see a concert, for example, which I love.

If the arts and culture sector is about working pro bono and fishing for grants, can this make life too uncertain and stressful? Private funds and crowdsourcing are a good source of funding, but there are other options. Finding ways to apply business practices in arts and culture does not necessarily entail loss of artistic integrity. Business and art need not be at odds; actually, breathing in some creativity into the mindset of many other professions would be beneficial on many levels. Should we outsource the economic knowhow and only focus on art? We need professional producers, CEOs and service designers who know how business works but also have the heart of a humanist. Still, I am sure any artist will benefit from learning the basics of economics and marketing. The possibilities of marketing are vast, once you do it properly and spend some money on it, but many media are out of reach of organisations with small budgets. This is where collaboration with the business sector can offer solutions.

We also need the support of our communities, the state and the municipalities. They have greater organisational capacities and a lot of experience in outsourcing different services. We will get a taste of this approach in Helsinki this autumn as the city municipalities will be organising a fair where cultural workers and artists will be able to meet the people who plan the publicly funded activities in the area. Once the holidays are over, I will start planning a poster for the fair to sell my expertise. If nothing, it will be an interesting experience to attend the fair.