My Blog From Bremen Festival Globale
Credit: Kat Gollock
By Beth Cochrane
It's important to us at Edinburgh City of Literature to help people working in literature across Edinburgh and Scotland to use our global network to support creative development and allow space to hone their craft. Edinburgh-based producer, programmer and writer Beth Cochrane was selected to attend Bremen City of Literature's Festival Globale. You can read below a journal entry from Beth on the benefits of attending other international festivals and witness their programme.
Beth Cochrane
15 November 2024
Bremen is a city I didn’t know much about until visiting, but when Libuse Cerna – outgoing Head of the Festival Globale – reached out to Edinburgh’s City of Literature office, inviting a literature worker from our city to visit, I couldn’t say no. After some initial research revealing a picturesque, fairy-tale town, with a year-old designation as a UNESCO City of Literature, I couldn’t have looked forward to it more.
But Bremen is so much more than its (truly stunning) fairy tale architecture and its famous Town Musicians (if you don’t already know the story, look it up!). I had an instant warm welcome from the incredible writer, artist, and screenwriter, Corinna Gerhards, who swept me up from the airport and deposited me at my hotel, and was such a wonderful guide around the city.
From then on, the Festival Globale team made the visit one of the most inspiring and insightful literary trips I’ve been on.
Our group was comprised of delegates from fellow Cities of Literature, Manchester and Odesa, as well as delegates from Gdańsk and Lund, who have been exploring the UNESCO City of Literature network. It was a joy to spend time with these folks, learning about their projects (everyone should look up Manchester’s Festival of Libraries, the ICORN residencies that Gdańsk and Lund host, and the hard and difficult work being undertaken in Ukraine’s Odesa.)
While the programme that Libuse had put together for us was incredible (more on that in a moment), I must say that this group of people were a huge part in the success of this trip. The City of Literature network is all about collaboration, friendship, and ideas sharing, and having the opportunity to do that with these vibrant, hard-working and passionate people was a blessing. These are connections we’ll carry forward and strengthen by working collaboratively, drawing on one another’s experiences and ultimately working together to connect our countries and cultures through a shared love of literature.
The Festival Globale was focusing on comics this year so, together with some a group of art students, we attended an workshop called ‘Bad but Good: An Immersive Exploration into the Microcosm of Doodles, which was led by the brilliant Zane Zlemeša and Prof. Samuel Nyholm. Working in groups, we were to create 4 comic panels that represent the following poem, ‘Stormtide,’ by Kurdish poet, Sherko Bekas:
The tide said to the fisherman: There are many reasons why my waves are in a rage. The most important is that I am for the freedom of the fish and against the net
We made the panels into large, 3-D structures which were put on as an exhibition throughout the Festival (I say ‘we’ made them, but realistically I was just offering moral support and paint-brush cleaning . Visual art has never been my strong point).
The exhibition was shown in Bremen’s Centre for Art, which was also the location of a panel discussion several of us took part in. ‘Pow! Comics in the Cities of literature’ was such a fun and insightful panel; preparing for it really made me think about how Edinburgh, as a City of Literature, is brimming with comic book culture. It’s a real strength we have, and one that’s not always given enough credit. We did so much during our few days in Bremen, including the Sound and Stories walk, visiting the 600 year old Ratskeller wine cellar, and attending the opening of the Festival in the beautiful UNESCO World Heritage Site, City Hall. We made friends with local artists and writers, and even visited a beautiful sculpture garden created by the incredible force of nature that is Junie Kuhn.
I left Bremen feeling inspired by not just the history and literature of the city, but also by the people I met there. The Festival staff, Bremen’s writers and artists, and fellow delegates from around the world; it was an absolute joy to spend time with these folks who are so passionate about their country’s literature and connecting with like-minded people across the globe. If the world could take note of what Bremen’s Festival Globale has done here, it would be a much happier, safer, and beautiful place.
Interested in working internationally?
If you are interested in working internationally, you can access more information on working internationally via the UNESCO Cities of Literature Network.