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MEMORIES OF 2018
A Poet’s Birthday Celebrated With New Writers
By Beaven Tapureta
Albert Nyathi
Well-known poet and musician Albert Nyathi celebrated his 56th birthday online with enthusiastic members of Writers International Network Zimbabwe.
On Thursday, November 15, 2018, members in WIN’s Whatsapp group (Winzim Superclassic) had an uplifting talk with Nyathi who focused on a crucial topic “Art as a Business”.
Nyathi’s lecture was the second of WIN online lectures initiated in 2018 to promote budding writers’ growth in their knowledge in diverse literary subjects.
The first one was held in July, 2018, with US-based author Prof Emmanuel Sigauke (pictured left) taking the new writers on a journey of “The Importance of Writing Contests for Aspiring and Emerging Authors”.
Nyathi's birthday was unforgettably a very educating and joyful experience on Winzim Superclassic as he shared the brass tacks of what it means to think of art as a business.
He said artists sometimes get too ‘involved’ in their artistic passions that they forget they are in business and have families to fend for. Nyathi said art is a business, though slightly different.
“Art should be treated like any other business and should follow all other business principles for it to flourish. First and foremost, there must be issues to do with proper banking, accountability, honesty, proper delivery, and so on. Those are some of the issues one has to think about when they are in art. Most artists do not think about what happens in the event that a tragedy occurs, like an illness or death, whether involving the artist or within his/her family. Artists tend to have not a fall-back plan. For instance, I wonder how many artists have health insurance, retirement scheme so that when you no longer have the power that you have now, you have something to fall back on,” said Nyathi.
The new writers asked if then it means an artist, a writer in this instance, should register a company and enroll for basic business lessons.
Nyathi said there are challenges with this move but he advised that working with traditional publishers or self-publishing helps although self-published books tend to be poorly edited.
Another concern expressed by the new writers was about clients who dishonor their contractual obligations. They asked what measures one can take to avoid such misunderstandings or disappointments.
“First of all negotiate with them, when that fails, look for a third party to arbitrate, and if that fails too, you can now approach the court as the last resort. Do not rush to the courts. Give the clients time to explain themselves. Courts are the last resort,” said Nyathi.
As in any business, values such as humility, honesty, integrity, punctuality, and sticking to arrangements or contracts should be respected too. The ‘birthday poet’ urged the artists not to out-price themselves when negotiating for a job.
The subject of marketing could not be left out by the upcoming poets as they wanted to know how Nyathi markets himself.
“I market myself through performance. I do it by not out-pricing my acts. I get almost 75% of my jobs through people seeing me perform and they go out to tell others,” the poet said.
In an interview, Nyathi said that the birthday online lecture was a wonderful experience but he wished more mentorship could be given to the new poets.
“I think young poets still need mentorship in the presentation of poetry on stage and in the business of arts,” he said.
2019, here we come!
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