CITY OF LITERATURE
WHY IN NEWS?
- Recently, Uesco published the list of 55 new creative cities on World Cities Day, in which Kozhikode has been given the tag of City of Literature, the first to hold the title in the country.
MORE ABOUT THE NEWS:
- Kozhikode is one of the two latest entrants into the Unesco Creative Cities Network from India.
- Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh is the other creative city on the list, having bagged the City of Music tag.
- Unesco stated that the new cities were acknowledged for their strong commitment to harnessing culture and creativity as part of their development strategies.
WHAT IS UNESCO CREATIVE CITIES NETWORK (UCCN)?
- The UCCN was created in 2004 to promote cooperation among cities that have identified creativity as a strategic factor for sustainable urban development.
- It now includes 350 cities in over a hundred countries.
- The network is aimed at leveraging the creative, social, and economic potential of cultural industries.
- It was launched to promote UNESCO’s goals of cultural diversity and strengthen resilience to threats such as climate change, rising inequality, and rapid urbanisation.
- It encourages a culture of creativity in urban planning and solutions to urban problems.
OBJECTIVES OF UCCN:
- The UNESCO Creative Cities Network allows member cities to recognise creativity as an essential component of urban development, notably through partnerships involving the public and private sectors and civil society.
- It envisages to develop hubs of creativity and innovation and broaden opportunities for creators and professionals in the cultural sector.
- These cities have to achieve the UN agenda of sustainable development.
- The objectives of the network are implemented both at the level of the member cities and at the international level, notably through sharing experiences, knowledge and best practices.
- There are professional and artistic exchange programmes, research and evaluations on the experience of the creative cities, among other activities
OTHER INDIAN CITIES IN THE NETWORK:
- Apart from Kozhikode and Gwalior, Varanasi (music), Srinagar (crafts and folk arts) and Chennai (music) are part of the network.
WHY KOZHIKODE IS AWARDED TAG OF CITY OF LITERATURE?
- The North Kerala city of Kozhikode is home to many prominent personalities of the state’s literary and cultural world.
- The city, where several leading media houses are headquartered, has hundreds of publishing banners and several libraries enriching its literary tradition.
- The first Malayalam novel Kundalatha was born in Kozhikode in 1887.
- It was authored by Appu Nedungadi. Several illustrious writers like S K Pottekkatt, Vaikom Muhammad Basheer, Uroob, Thikkodiyan, NN Kakkad, P Valsala, Akbar Kakkattil, Punathil Kunjabdulla and MT Vasudevan Nair have brought laurels for Kozhikode.
- The city has also produced many film and theatre professionals in the last half a century.
ABOUT ANNUAL CONFERENCE:
- A highlight of the network is the annual conference of mayors and other stakeholders of network cities.
- It offers a unique occasion to strengthen ties between creative cities from across the world.
- The main objective of the conference is to exchange practical information on policies and activities carried out by cities and stimulate inter-city collaborations.
- The last conference was held in Santos, Brazil, and this year’s conference was in Istanbul.
- The next conference will be held in July 2024 in Braga, Portugal.
- Every four years, member cities are required to submit a Membership Monitoring Report, with the aim of demonstrating their steadfast commitment towards the implementation of the UCCN Mission Statement.
- They present an action plan for the following four years, providing insights into their achievements and lessons learnt, as well as the impact of the designation.
SYLLABUS: MAINS, GS-1, ART AND CULTURE
SOURCE: INDIAN EXPRESS
