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Mbulelo Mpofu, Showbiz Reporter

LAST year, Kay Media Africa and UK-based radio station, Reprezent Radio with support from the British Council in partnership with the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation (SDC) collaborated to deliver Scripts and Bars, a digital content creation project that brings together 100 creatives from Zimbabwe and the UK to collaborate across the Music and Literature sectors.

The Scripts and Bars project runs from November 2021 to September 2022 and caters for creative individuals within the 18-35 years age group and having a minimum of 2 years being actively involved with music, literature, or digital content creation sectors.

In a media briefing, Kay Media Africa representative Keith Kuhudzai outlined the gist of the initiative, citing great opportunities for local creatives.

“The Scripts and Bars project presents a great opportunity for local creatives to harness their talent as well as get to experience an exciting array of business support services and master class clinics, capacity building workshops, collaborative Digital Content creation, showcase events and roundtable talks, Mixer/Meet Up Networking Cocktail Events and access to platforms that will elevate their profile through showcasing work and skills to a wider audience in Southern Africa and the UK. The first phase of the project will run from January to March 2022.

“The events and workshops will be facilitated by industry experts from Zimbabwe and the UK and organised by creative hubs including Comexposed, Page Poetry Alive, Khura Agency from Zimbabwe and UK-based hub, Reprezent. Scripts and Bars programme will contribute to exploring what the future of local digital content could look like and giving young artistes and creative hubs the opportunity to showcase their work and build networks,” he said.

This exciting new project seeks to enhance the digital content creation capacity and enterprise skills of creatives and arts organisations in Zimbabwe whilst strengthening their livelihoods, supporting job creation, and increasing their access to networks.

Creators and arts organisations within the music and literature sectors will go through digital and enterprise skills training and then awarded grants for digital content creation projects and to explore new and sustainable business models.

Kuhudzai urged local digital content creators and storytellers (writers, animators, illustrators, videographers, music producers, application and web developers) to take advantage of this opportunity to help monetize their craft amidst the scourge of the Covid-19 pandemic threatening the arts industry. – @eMKlass_49