Global Voices reports:
“As part of efforts to encourage tourism, [Uzbek president] Mirziyoyev has promoted various cultural festivals in partnership with international artists and litterateurs. In 2021, to promote Uzbek culture abroad he revived the Soviet-era Tashkent International Film Festival under a new name, The Pearl of the Silk Road. The Mirziyoyev-approved Silk Road Literary Festival, an event intent on showcasing the literature and sightseeing possibilities of Central Asia to the world, was planned for September 2022. The festival was to be held in the Uzbek cities of Tashkent and Bukhara and . . . would have featured lectures, public fora, and walking tours from litterateurs, artists, popular celebrities, and translators from the region and abroad.
“However, on July 8, 2022, the festival was unexpectedly postponed. As director Sophie Ibbotson explained to stakeholders, the Uzbek UW [Union of Writers] unilaterally exited its partnership with the festival committee and a replacement could not be found in time to hold the festival as planned. It will now be held online with another set of events to follow in 2023.”
To read the entire article, click here.
Bruce Humes 