Comic and music contest to be held

JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of Education and Culture will hold a contest on comic strips and adaptation of poetry to music.

Edy Sedyawaty, director general of culture of the ministry, told the press here yesterday that the contest, which will be held in Jakarta early November, aims at stimulating and expressing creative talents.

She said the participation to the contest is only opened young people.

Fadjria Novari, head of the children and teenagers training project of the ministry, said that participants will be between 15 to 22 yeas of age for poetry and below 30 years for the comic strips competition.

The theme for comic strips contest is people and environment, she said.

According to Fadjria the members of the jury are still selecting poems to be adapted to music.

Edy said that children's capability to interpret symbolic gestures develops since kindergarten.

"Children's potential to express the meanings of poetry starts when they are four years old," she said.

Taguan Harjo, a member of the jury, on the other hand said that young people's interest in reading now tends to decline due to the presence of electronic media.

Djokolelono, another member of the jury, said by writing poems teenagers want to express themselves in different way, it depends on their interest.

"They can express it trough poetry, painting, graffiti or even rap music," he added.

Fadjria said that the copy rights of comic strips and the music contested belong to the author.

The winning comic strips will be published by the ministry, she said.

But, she said, the ministry will only publish it for the first year. "Afterwards the author can go to another publisher." (05)