Syima Aslam
Founder and Director of Bradford Literature Festival, Syima Aslam, talks about the origins of the festival, the shift to digital and why driving diversity is always on the programme.
Syima Aslam is the founder and Director of the Bradford Literature Festival (BLF), which she established in 2014. A 10-day literary and cultural celebration, BLF has made a significant impact on the country’s literary landscape, hailed as ‘one of the most innovative and inspirational festivals in the UK’, bringing together literature from all genres, promoting intercultural fluency, providing a platform for marginalised voices, and reflecting the changing face of contemporary Britain through a programme which celebrates diversity, empathy and artistic excellence.
‘I wanted to create something that would feel very accessible, raise aspirations, and bring the people who need to be in the conversations into the room.’
Firstly, a huge congratulations on the success of the Bradford Literature Festival (BLF)! Can you tell us what led you to create it?
The festival is my first foray into the arts and culture sector — my background has been more corporate — regeneration, retail, data-led marketing strategies.
I’m from Yorkshire and I grew up in Halifax, which is just next door to Bradford, and one of the things that led me to start the festival was my connection with the place. I have a social regeneration background and with the economic regeneration that the city was going through I felt a cultural renaissance was needed to support it. These days we hear a lot about culture being at the heart of regeneration and the importance of culture in terms of the economy, especially in the North, but a few years back these ideas weren’t as visible. I realised that people weren't really coming into the city anymore and I felt that needed to change, so I ended up running a small film festival with one of my friends which helped establish some of the thinking that led to BLF.
‘I have this real belief that education has the power to change people’s lives and that comes from my own experience.’
Prior to setting up BLF, I also did quite a lot of work in the education space. I have this real belief that education has the power to change people’s lives and that comes from my own experience. I'm a second-generation immigrant and when I finished nursery school here my family returned to Pakistan. We came back when I was eight, I had lost all my English and had to relearn it. What really made the difference was my mother religiously taking me to the local library every Saturday. On top of that, I remember something that one teacher said to me when I was struggling a bit at the beginning of grammar school. He said: ‘If you weren't intelligent, you wouldn't be here. If your grades have gone down, it's because we're not teaching you right.’ That has really stayed with me because I don't think we always look at things in that way. As a kid, unless you’ve got someone guiding you it can become very easy to fall between the cracks.
Years later when I was going to cultural events, I really felt that the people who needed to be there weren't present in those spaces. I'd never been taken to a literature festival as a child — we would not have known what they were and even if we had, my mother would have probably felt too intimidated to take me into that space. That’s why with BLF I wanted to create something that would feel very accessible, raise aspirations, and bring the people who need to be in the conversations into the room.
So many different things led to the festival, obviously all topped by the fact that I love books. I didn't really know what I was getting into when I created it because I'd never run anything like it before, but I'm very lucky because this is my perfect job. It's been hugely rewarding to be able to create something that I really love. One thing that is really important to me has been helping parents realise that literacy doesn't end at the door of the classroom. This is key to creating the level-playing field we all keep talking about. As a single parent I also feel incredibly privileged to have had the flexibility that running my own organisation has given me.
‘The most important thing for me is, “How do you programme to really engage?” And that comes from working from the inside out.’
BLF has often been celebrated for its truly diverse event list and the sheer reach it has to all groups — this is something that really matters to us here at The FLIP too! Do you have any advice for creating spaces that are fully inclusive and intersectional both professionally and personally?
People often talk about audiences and then communities, but to me, they’re not different. It's really important that we get away from the idea that audience development is a tick-box exercise. Often when people talk about communities, they’re only referring to certain communities, but Bradford is a truly diverse and international city where over 150 languages are spoken. So, if we create a festival with events and workshops for the people that live here then we’re relevant both nationally and internationally.
The most important thing for me is, ‘How do you programme to really engage?’ And that comes from working from the inside out. From the point of view of South Asian culture, I feel like I have a nuanced understanding because I've lived in that part of the world and I’m incredibly lucky to have been brought up at this intersection of cultures. I can also understand just how easy it is to get something wrong so I would never assume that I could programme something for a community without getting them involved. We want to ensure that we open the festival up to everyone, so we have to make sure that we are having conversations with as many different people as possible.
The past eight years have been a steep learning curve. There are a lot of things that I've done instinctively to be honest. I am lucky because I didn't come into this with any preconceived ideas of what a literary festival should be, or how things should be done — while it's lovely for people to say that some of the stuff we've done has been ground-breaking, to me, a lot of it is just common sense.
Ultimately, listening is key. You may think you instinctively understand something but making sure you listen to feedback is really important. We also develop things over a period because while sometimes everything ends up exactly as you hoped and planned, sometimes things may need a bit of time to settle and evolve.
‘We were conscious that young, emerging talent doesn’t always know where to go.’
Bradford was chosen to be the City of Culture 2025 — that’s incredible! Do you think this could have an impact in shaking up the London-centric nature of the industry?
I think what's very important is that we have that diversity (in terms of things like geography, heritage and economics) because there is a lived understanding of what the barriers are like — you don't really know, or understand, what the problems are until you've not had that access. One of the annual festival themes is ‘The Art of Writing, Politics and Publishing’ and we set this up because we were conscious that young, emerging talent doesn’t always know where to go. I think the biggest barrier is socio-economic. If you’re from a certain background and have a certain level of affluence it's not going to matter where you're based because you're going to have the awareness, the connections, and the ability to get to wherever you need to go. But where this stuff really kicks in is with people who wouldn't necessarily have the means to get to where they need to go, understand how the process works, or who they need to speak to. We can talk about diversity till the cows come home but it’s about finding a process that works, that creates opportunities for people irrespective of their background, and this is something we try and encourage through the festival.
‘People often talk about “hard to reach”, but I think about it as “easy to ignore”.'
The pandemic really impacted in-person events and as many of our past interviewees have mentioned, this post-pandemic landscape is still something they’re trying to navigate. Are there any benefits or lessons you’ve learnt from the two years of hybrid that you’re keeping going forward even as you move back to in-person?
Covid-19 was a hugely challenging experience, as it was for many people. We had only delivered five festivals, so it still felt relatively young, but the pandemic helped to kickstart the digital side of things for us.
Everyone started talking about how the shift to digital makes everything so much more accessible and that it was brilliant that everybody could enjoy culture from their living rooms, but I spent a fair bit of time saying that it doesn’t. What Covid did was make culture accessible for people who enjoy culture and know how, and where, to find it. There were lots of parents, for instance, trying to access online education for their kids with just a single mobile phone or tablet between them, who didn’t have time to think about online arts and culture events.
Our 2019 festival audience was 50% district, 30% regional and 20% national. But then, cutting across that, 67% had a household income of less than £40,000 and 29% had a household income of less than £20,000. Now if you think about that in terms of pounds and pence and data and streaming, then digital is a massive opportunity but it’s so important that people who would have come to events in person don’t miss out. There's something very seductive about digital compared to live events because for not a lot of money, you can have a lot of reach. To me, there can be a big difference between reach and engagement and what inspires people. I think, in terms of engagement, the live experience is irreplaceable, for those people who don't have unlimited data to be streaming events online it becomes even more crucial.
Another key point with reach is that people often talk about ‘hard to reach’, but I think about it as ‘easy to ignore’ and the great leveller is money. Most well-off families give their kids access to culture and they will be able to be part of many different experiences — the problem comes when you don't have much money. That’s something I think about a lot, that if you're a single, working-class mum, the question becomes ‘Do I take the kids to a literature festival or do I feed them?’ So how do you ensure those kids get to come along and become engaged with literature?
What are you most excited for in this year's festival?
I’m so excited that we are going to be back as a fully-fledged festival with all the events in City Park and all the brilliant names coming to the festival like Lemn Sissay, William Dalrymple, Ben Okri, Robert Peston, Nikita Gill, Shaykh Yahya Rhodus and so many more.
I’m really looking forward to hearing some different voices and creating those connections and meetings between people, because that’s what it’s about.
‘That’s why having mentors, and being a mentor, is so important. Kindness and sharing knowledge – you can’t really put a price on either.’
Was there a moment that you knew BLF was going to be a success?
The past eight years have been about building up and developing and we've now created the foundations. So, is there a moment where I think we'd arrived? Probably not, to be honest with you.
During the pandemic we had a bit of a funding setback, so I really spent some time thinking about whether the work we do is important and making a difference. I arrived at the conclusion that BLF is unique and that’s not due to any grand strategy on my part, but because of the way it's been shaped. This festival is greater than the sum of its parts because it represents a lot of things to a lot of people.
I remember 2018 and 2019 were brilliant because we hit those high visitor numbers — that was incredible, and I think 2025 and the City of Culture will be amazing. What's been fantastic is the way BLF has been continually referenced alongside the City of Culture bid and that's lovely because it feels great that we’re part of a bigger picture.
What’s a book everyone should read?
There are books that I recommend to lots of people, but there's not one because that’s too hard! I'm a massive fan of The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov — I’ve bought that for loads of people. Then there are others like Astonishing the Gods by Ben Okri, The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran, Stardust by Neil Gaiman and V for Vendetta by Alan Moore, and I could go on. I'm a massive poetry buff and I’m into science fiction and fantasy and fairy tales — I’m loving all the reimagining of mythology going on at the moment — so it’s a little bit of a mixed bag.
Tell us about a leader who inspires you.
When I was thinking of setting up the festival I spoke to Susan Hinchcliffe, who is the leader of Bradford City Council, and she believed in me and thought it was a great idea. It’s those little things that do make a huge difference.
I look at my mum and that generation that came to this country and didn’t speak the language — she’s the reason I am where I am. There's bravery to that generation — what they experienced, their tenacity and their resilience — and there’s a lot to learn from them.
I also mentioned my teacher, Mr Hogley from Crossley Heath earlier — his words have stayed with me and I have tried to bring that understanding to everything that we do with the festival.
Sometimes you pick up a book and it makes no sense to you but then when you go back to it three years later, you love it. Coming to things at the right time is the same as meeting the right people at the right time and learning from them. I have benefited hugely from so many people I have met along the way and I’m here doing what I’m doing because of all of that learning I've had throughout my professional life. I’m fortunate that so many individuals have given me their time and support over the years and that’s why having mentors, and being a mentor, is so important. Kindness and sharing knowledge – you can’t really put a price on either.
