HCAF STARS SERIES, THROWBACK INTERVIEW — ALIYU UMAR MUHAMMAD
Question:
The Hilltop Creative Arts Foundation is recognised for its pivotal role in fostering creativity among young people across the country. How has being a member contributed to your growth as an artist, and what opportunities or experiences have been most impactful for you?
Answer:
To answer this, I feel it is a great opportunity to speak about the very organisation that helped many of us in the striving stage of the literary world. Serving as the secretary at the Muktar Aliyu Art Residency provided me not just the creative emblem, but also a unique sense of leadership skills, program management, art administration and beyond. I feel honoured to have been serving this organisation that established my creative literary existence, mentorship experiences and of course, my ardent love for public speaking. As I’m writing this, I am proud to mention my identity as the MC of Hill Top Creative Arts Foundation,Minna.
Question:
What themes and experiences push the creativity behind your work, and what part of the creative process poses a challenge to you?
Answer:
What are the themes that push my work? Well, I’ve always been trying to find a narrative medium to express what I feel relates most to me. Identity and Displacement. My griefs are a natural push between myself, my existence in my brother’s quintessential absence at a tender age, where I call home, my father’s displaced tongue, and my mother’s longing for the land of waters. What poses a challenge to me? Not been able to visit my mother’s hometown since my creative journey began. We call it “the land of waters.” I feel there’s a part of my wakefulness hidden there. I have to figure that out.
Question:
As a renowned creative, what advice would you give to emerging artists who are looking to balance the pursuit of artistic excellence with the desire for recognition and validation?
Answer:
Don’t rush. Be disciplined in your ideas. The trick is to strive through consistency, experimentation and seeking feedback, recognition will come. Keep the faith in you.
Question:
What purpose fuels your creativity ?
Answer:
Reading, alongside poetry analysis together with my students. I always feel glad enjoying interviews. Discussing about young writers also gives me the pleasure of self-fulfilment.
Question:
Fifty years away from now, what do you want the literary world to perceive of your art?
Answer:
I want to go as far as the literary world can accommodate till we all become tireless art creatures. The literary world in the next years should house more of my self-belonging, my quest for endless possibilities, what art has the enormous power to do.
Question:
Is representation a priority for you, and do you see a need for your writing to reflect your background, or ancestral links?
Answer:
I represent an identity, a third culture displacement. My writing should therefore reflect in-between the two findings.
