NEW HOPES FOR A NATIONAL ART GALLERY

By Margaretta wa Gacheru  (posted 23 September 2019)

How often have Kenyan artists had their expectations lifted high in the hope that they’d at last be taken seriously and would get their own National Art Gallery?

They had seen other countries recognize the importance of the arts by creating a national institution that celebrated their creativity, individuality and even their national identities. African countries like South Africa, Namibia, Senegal and Benin (among others) all have national art institutions that recognize the positive role that the arts, culture and creative expression play in contributing to both a sense of national identity and those countries’ GNP.

Even countries in the Middle East and Asia (like Jordan, Indonesia, Malaysia, India and even Bangladesh) have national galleries as do most countries in Europe and US.

But despite the creation of a National Art Gallery having been a topic of conversation since the dawn of Independence, the talk has never borne fruit.

The closest that Kenyan artists came to having their own National Gallery was in the late 1970s when the plan was to convert the former Bank of India into the Gallery. But then, the funds for the project disappeared mysteriously and the whole plan dissolved, salvaged only slightly when that space was turned not into a Gallery but into the National Archives.

But this past week, a glimmer of hope appeared on the horizon when Nairobi National Museum called a wide range of so-called ‘stake holders’ to discuss the notion of developing a National Art Gallery of Kenya (or NAGOK).

And while the Guest of Honor, the Cabinet Secretary for Culture, the Arts and Sports, Ambassador Dr Amina Mohammed wasn’t able to attend the opening ceremony, her representative, Mr Hassan Noor assured the gathering that Dr Amina has already begun raising seed capital for the Gallery. What’s more, he said she is committed to establishing a ‘world-class’ National Art Gallery before she leaves office.

This could be a challenge since the Chairman of the Board of the National Museum, Tony Wainaina suggested the time frame for completing the National Art Gallery could be between four and five years.

Nonetheless, the mood among nearly all the stakeholders present at the workshop was upbeat and hopeful. That included a number of the artists, private collectors and gallerists representing spaces like One Off, Circle Art, Banana Hill, Kenyatta University, Ngeche Artists, Wildebeeste Workshop, Kenya Museum Society, Samosa Festival, Kenya National Visual Artists Association and the Museum itself.

What’s more, artists came all the way from Maseno, Naivasha, Kisii and Lamu to participate in the workshop, thus reflecting the Museum’s commitment to opening up artists’ participation in the process of building NAGOK.

As a way of obtaining stakeholders’ input in the process, another Museum Board member, Kibachia Gatu organized four working groups, each with a separate topic to discuss.

The topics included artists’ participation in the NAGOK process, sustainability and the role of the arts in Kenya’s economic and social development, NAGOK’s relationship to other art institutions, be they local, regional or international, and finally, the scope of NAGOK’s cultural space.

To ensure that all the stakeholders were ‘on the same page’, Lydia Galavu, curator at the Museum’s Creativity Gallery gave a brief historical overview of the visual arts in Kenya. She traced it back to Makerere University’s Margaret Trowell School of Art which East African artists attended. Among them were Kenyans like Gregory Maloba, Louis Mwanyiki, Rosemary Karuga and Asaph Ng’ethe. Then came Chemi Chemi and Paa ya Paa which Elimo Njau co-founded with Pheroze Norowjee, Hilary Ng’weno, Jonathan Kariara and Terry Hirst among others. There were several commercial galleries that came and went, but in the 1980s, Sisi kwa Sisi (represented by Zarina Patel and Etale Sukuro) launched a movement to bring art to the people. Subsequently, the art scene has grown exponentially, both in terms of artists’ collectives being established and commercial galleries like One Off, Circle Arts and others coming into being.

Nonetheless, the visual arts community in Kenya has never been a cohesive body. Nor has it had strong government support up until now when it would seem the Kenya Government is prepared to get behind NAGOK.

Speaking to the group at mid-day, Kenyan industrialist and philanthropist Manu Chandaria also noted that now is the first time the government has expressed an interest in the [visual] arts. “Let us push this initiative as much as we can,” he said. ‘No museum [and possibly no country] can survive without a national art gallery,” he added.

LAM SISTERHOOD MAKING ENCHANTING CHILDREN’S THEATRE

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted in East African 25 September 2019)

Aleya Kassam, Laura Ekumbo and Anne Moraa knew they had hit on something deep, devotional and very special when they began working together to write a play that became one of the best productions of 2018.

‘Brazen’ was an all-female showcase of thespians, presented as the Fourth Edition of Too Early For Birds, the brand new (since 2017) theatre company that was making one profoundly political hit after another under the direction of Wanjiku Mwawuganga and started by Abu Sense and Ngartia Bryan. But ‘Brazen’ was also where the LAM Sisterhood began.

“We didn’t get registered as a company until after ‘Brazen’, but now it’s official,” says Aleya. The LAM stands for Laura, Aleya and Moraa Anne. “Now we are not under TEFB, although we are still close. Now we are performing as the LAM Sisterhood,” Aleya adds.

The three women had admitted soon after Brazen was staged in front of full-house crowds at Kenya National Theatre, that writing collectively wasn’t easy. But then neither is writing as a solo creative. But as these three have an undeniable chemistry and infectious energy, it is no surprise that they have continued writing together. What’s more, they have incorporated Wanjiku into their ‘sisterhood’.

All four women were performing together this past weekend with the people’s drummer, Willie Rama, who has been known to work with thespians like Sitawa Namwalie in the past. Their staging ground was Kaloleni Social Hall and their producer was the Book Bunk, the new organization committed to upgrading and revitalizing Kenya’s library services.

“LAM Sisterhood would have performed in the [Kaloleni] Library but we knew it would be too small to hold all the children we anticipated would be coming for ‘KaBrazen’,” said Angela Wacuka, cofounder with Wanjiru Koinange of the Book Bunk. “And since the Social Hall was just next door, we decided to hold their program there,” added Wanjiru.

Both were delighted with the massive turnout of children between 5 and 10 who came to ‘KaBrazen’, the show the Sisterhood conceived especially for children as a spinoff from their original, more adult production, Brazen. So was the quintet of performers who were just as animated and passionate about their production of KaBrazen as they had been with Brazen.

“I think there might have been a few three-year-olds there as well,” commented Wanjiru whose Book Bunk also provided a free lunch for the children after the performance.

What was especially impressive about the KaBrazen show was the way all four female actors interacted with the kids, drawing upon the child-like joy that each one clearly has for storytelling. They started off on their curtain-less stage with a lively sound-check that had each woman adjusting her wireless mic as well as her voice to be loud enough to be easily heard by an ocean of children scheduled to be seated either on pillows or soft grass mats.

But the children were just as excited about the show as the actors. So very few in the crowd staued seated. That’s because the sound technician had also been playing wonderful rhythmic pop music that the kids (most of whom were boys) were vigorously dancing and doing acrobatics to.

When they were finally advised to be seated, the kids were again on their feet; this time it was because Moraa had called them all to join with her to enact the movements of an elephant, snake and lion with the appropriate sounds shouted out at the same time. The children loved it and the rest of the performance was a breeze.

The children were on their toes, attentive to each woman’s dramatic interpretation of either Lwanda Magere, Mekatilili or Selina. The only problem came when Laura’s performance mixed more English than Swahili, unlike either Moraa’s or Wanjiku’s. Her body language was just as animated as theirs. And all three had been directed by Aleya to throw themselves into their performances in ways that kids could easily identify with. Indeed, all three saw the actors breaking down barriers between the artist and the audience. Only that the apparent language barrier was compounded by someone getting the bright idea to begin face painting while the show was still running.

In any case, for two hours straight, more than 200 children were charmed and delighted by the LAM Sisterhood, accompanied by Willie’s percussion and the group’s simultaneous use of indigenous instruments which enhanced the musical effect of the show. Bravo LAM Sisterhood.

NETFLIX’S ‘DEEP STATE’ COULD BE MORE FACT THAN FICTION

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 25 September 2019)

‘Deep State’ is a spy thriller series that premiered late last year. Its producer, Netflix has just recently released the series’ Season 2 with a slight but significant difference. The leading man has been switched from Mark Strong, one of UK’s top actors, to Walton Goggins, an American who, in the series shares a similar spy rank to Steele’s character only he
 works for another Western spy agency.

In the first season, Mark Strong plays Max Easton, a former MI6 field agent (read ‘spy’ and skilled assassin) who gets recruited back into the field for a cryptic reason. It’s ostensibly because Max was the best at his business during his heyday. That business was finding and then finishing enemies of MI6 and supposed threats to the UK.

In this case, Max has been called back after ten years of retirement when he has tried to reinvent himself as a former banker who’s got a gorgeous French wife, two beautiful little girls and a spectacular house up high in the Pyrenees.

However, as hard as he’s tried to escape his previous life, he soon finds it’s impossible to do.

His former boss, George White (Allistar Petrie) has called him back to work because he says Max’s son Harry (by his first wife) has gone missing and MI6 is worried and wants him back.

Max takes the bait and goes out to find Harry who he’d walked out on years before when he’d also left his first wife for reasons unknown. Harry had never forgiven Max for walking away. Nonetheless, he took up the same career as his dad and became a superlative spy who like Max had been trained by George White.

But White’s reasons for wanting Harry back are not out of a heart-felt concern for Max’s son. It’s because Harry has seen too much of White’s covert and corrupt activities.

They’re activities directly tied to a small coterie of corporate crooks that White works with and for. They are the ‘Deep State’ who are the stuff of conspiracy theories, the super-duper rich, powerful and strategically greedy elites who are said to rule the world from behind the scenes.

One MI6 had already been sent out to finish Harry but White discovered he didn’t complete the task. He doesn’t live long after that.

It doesn’t take Max long to figure out his former boss’s motives although he can’t immediately fathom why they have made Harry a walking target. It comes out eventually but in the interim, one sees some of the unscrupulous tactics that Deep State’s agents use to achieve their Machiavellian goals. The one thing they can’t easily achieve is polishing off either Max or Harry despite having their own contracted army to help them out.

What I found most intriguing about this series is that many of the reviews want to trash the show. They suggest it is full of clichés and bad acting; but I disagree. The bad reviews could be because it portrays actual strategies that corporate elites employ to retain power and covertly have their way.

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ARTISTIC ENCOUNTERS BLENDED POET AND PIANIST

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 25 September 2019)

It was a stroke of genius to put Sitawa Namwalie and Atieno Oduor together on last Wednesday night’s ‘Artistic Encounters’, the monthly program normally hosted by Zukiswa Wanner.

What the two of them produced was delicious. It meant blending the poet and the pianist together on the Goethe Institute stage. It didn’t hurt that both women are multi-talented, Sitawa being not only a poet but a playwright and wonderful actor as well. And Athieno is also a lyricist who’s got a magical singing voice.

In fact, both women have smooth yet strong voices that are clear, impassioned and empowered with words that paint pictures in their audience’s minds.

For instance, when Sitawa shared the amazing poem about women’s body parts that can ‘fall off’ at any time, she made us believe that those same parts could be ‘re-attached’ if the woman was as wise as her grandmother.

My mind went straight to my friend’s exhaust pipe which had recently fallen off his car and which he’d gotten ‘re-attached’ by some anonymous auto mechanic. Was that literally what she was suggesting? Not exactly.

But when her poem went on to detail how one could re-attach arms and hands, or lips and eyes, or even how to re-attach a woman’s head to her neck and body, then you knew she couldn’t have been speaking literally. Or could she?

By the time, her poem had ended, one had experienced vicariously what it might have felt like to squeeze one’s eyes back into their sockets or to screw one’s head back onto one’s neck. Perhaps she was only referring to how a woman can feel when, for instance, she gets so overwhelmed by the challenges she is forced to face in life that she can go ‘out of her mind’.

But Sitawa’s grandmother’s wisdom was all about how women have the resilience and infinite capacity and strength to put themselves back together again no matter how rugged and wretched the experiences are that they face.

I felt the same way about Athieno’s song, “Malaria” which like Sitawa’s poetry, had an apparently light, ironic touch to it but actually its deeper meaning rang true.

Both women wrote, sang and spoke from personal experience and Athieno referred to attractive ‘hot young guys’ as having the same effect on her as malaria. It was a witty, wonderful song but one having deeper, more profound implications to it.

LOOKING FORWARD TO A BOUNTIFUL BOOKISH WEEKEND

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 27 September 2019)

It’s bountiful weekend for books, authors and fascinating conversations about literature. What might be even more exciting, once you get over being ‘star-struck’ in the presence of some of the most brilliant African writers from around the region and the Diaspora, is the way they each is bound to answer the proverbial question: what’s involved in your process of writing. They all undoubtedly have different, yet inspirational ways to respond.

It’s only Thursday night. The weekend technically hasn’t quite begun. But the bookishness actually began on Wednesday when the Nairobi International Book Fair got underway at Sarit Centre in Westlands. With the theme of this year’s, the 22^nd annual Book Fair being ‘Read. Apply. Freedom’, it will have lots of competition for book-lovers’ attention this weekend. That’s because not only will the African Writers Conference get underway from Friday through Sunday, featuring authors from Cameroon, Mauritius, Canada and Nigeria as well as from Kenya.

Over at the Kenya National Theatre, the Macondo Literary Festival will also kick off the same day and run straight through Sunday night. With the festival’s title derived from the fictional village where most of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s award-winning novel, ‘Hundred Years of Solitude’, takes place, it won’t be a surprise that the weekend will be filled with both Kenyan and Lusaphone writers taking part. The English-writing continguent will include Dr Peter Kimani who will open the Festival as well as Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, Novuyo Rosa Thuma, Abubakar Adam Abraham and Dr. Mshai Mwangola-Githongo.

Meanwhile, the other events that opened the weekend early took place at the Goethe Institute where on Wednesday night, poetess, playwright and actor Sitawa Namwalie partnered with pianist, singer and lyricist Athieno Owuor to create a beautiful blend of words and delicious sounds.

Then on Thursday, Artistic Encounters featured Aleya Kassam moderating a fascinating conversation between Texas-based Zimbabwean writer Novuyo Rosa Tshuma and Kenyan poet, playwright and actor Anne Moraa. Both doing readings from their latest writings, Tshuma from ‘House of Stone’ and Moraa from her latest essay published in the online magazine, Catapult.

But just as Sitawa and Athieno were asked the evening before about their process of writing, so Novuyo and Moraa were asked the same question. All came out with different responses, but none of them left any doubt that it is difficult being a writer. “Have no expectations about getting rich by being a writer,” said Tshuma.

Sitawa’s response also included a bit of advice to her audience which was to write daily, preserve and ideally establish a disciplined routine so you produce so many words every day. Debunking the notion that writing is all about inspiration, she insisted that one improves as a writer by consistently writing, and by reading of course.

One expects that all the writers this weekend will have insights to share. So all aspiring word-smiths need to attend any or all of the festivities. And while it obviously won’t be possible to attend all the events, be advised that the places to be this weekend are either Kenya National Theatre or Sarit Centre or both.

MINI-SKIRTS OUR GRANDMOTHERS WORE

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 30 September 2019)

Whoever cared whether their grandmother wore a mini-skirt? Or even if their mother wore one in her past life?

Sitawa Namwalie discovered recently that many Kenyan women and men do! She found out through the process known as ‘crowd-sourcing’. That’s what she calls using all the platforms of social media to invite people to take part in her latest project. It’s entitled “Our Grandmother’s Mini-skirt: A People’s History Told Through Photographs and Stories.”

“I got the idea in 2016 while I was working in Rwanda on a project for the World Bank,” says the poet-playwright whose previous careers include professional tennis and development consultancy.

“It was around the time that men were stripping women in matatus, claiming their style of dress was ‘inappropriate’,” says Sitawa who adds the men also raped the women, filmed the process and then circulated their videos all over the internet.

It was such a shame that Rwandese men and women were shocked. “They asked me, ‘What’s wrong with your Kenyan men? Why aren’t they protecting their women?’”

It was then that Sitawa began thinking about the integrity of women’s bodies and how, in earlier times, women had worn attire that hadn’t even covered their kneecaps (leave alone their breasts). But they hadn’t been punished for it. It had been considered fashionable at the time.

She also noted that just as these savage incidents against women had inspired her to create her current project, so the ‘My Dress/My Choice’ movement had begun as a direct response to these heinous deeds of violence against women.

In her case, she got curious to find out if Kenyans had old photos of their mothers and grandmothers in their youth. And if they shared them with her, would she be able to verify her view that in earlier times, Kenyan women followed fashions that included attire that matatu touts claim today is only worn by prostitutes.

“The response has been overwhelming,” says Sitawa who already has received almost 100 photographs of grandmothers and moms.

“After they have sent me the photographs, I’ve asked them to also send stories to accompany their photos,” she adds.

That is how she came to exhibit 20 out of the 100 images at Kenya Cultural Centre during the Madondo Literary Festival which just ended last Sunday night. The festival mainly explored ways in which stories reflect people’s history and identity.

And since Sitawa knew that all of her photographs implicitly told stories, not only about grandmothers, but also about what Kenyan life was like in the past, she felt the Festival was the perfect place to see how the public would respond to the project.

“As it turns out, many people expressed interest. Some even promised to send me photos of their grandmothers,” she says, noting her goal is to collect at least 300 women’s photos and slightly fewer stories after which she plans to publish a book.

And through the Dutch organization, HIVOS, she hopes to network with women from all over Kenya. She’s also elicited interest among Zimbabweans who have invited her to take part in their ‘Women, Wine and Words Festival’ in Harare later this month. There, she’ll present her project much as she did at Macondo and also perform her poetry. “We’ve also talked about starting a similar project in their country,” she adds.

In the meantime, Sitawa’s crowd-sourcing has reaped a plethora of charming stories of Kenyan women whose life histories would have been forgotten if she hadn’t launched her mini-skirt project.

Not all the images she exhibited at the Macondo Fest showed women wearing mini-skirts. Some had simply been taken at professional photo studios, like the one of John Sibi-Okumu’s mother, taken just before she and four-year-old John left Kenya for UK to rejoin his father who was studying there.

But others showed women doing progressive activities, like Grace Akinyi riding a bicycle, which at the time (the Sixties) was considered taboo.

But the show-stopper of the exhibition was the photo snapped in 1945 of the Tharaka woman, Gatoro Ndugi M’Chabari who was decked out in a colorful beaded necklace, an intricately beaded vest and mini-shorts that barely reached the top of her thighs.

“The highpoint of the show for me was when a young man came up and said she was his great aunt who is still alive at age 95,” says Sitawa who hopes to visit Gatoro soon and learn more of her life and the attitudes towards women in those times.

FINISH THE RACE - John Stephen Ahkwari

ROOFTOP ART SHOW GIVES EXPOSURE TO YOUNG ARTISTS

                                                                                        Art by Dancan

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 24 September 2019)

Who said there wasn’t enough space in Nairobi to exhibit all the up-and-coming local artists’ works? We have lovely galleries like One Off, Circle Art and Banana Hill. But to get space in those venues isn’t easy. They are often booked months in advance. They also have specific standards of aesthetic excellence that are taken into account before artists are able to exhibit in those spaces.

But if you are Adam Masava, you can exhibit your art and that of other young artists almost anywhere. Even on a rooftop in the open air in a building branded ‘Juicy Fruit’ in an Eastlands suburb like Nairobi South B.

                                                                                          Art by Antony

To Masava, what’s important is getting the artwork out in public and calling fellow art-lovers to come in time to see the works of the young students that he has been mentoring, some for months, others for many years.

Several of the exhibiting artists, like Mike Kyalo, Charles Ngatia, Abdulmajid Najmadin and Masava himself, cannot be considered ‘up-and-coming’ since they are locally-established painters.

                                                                                               Art by Abdul

“They were invited to help promote our younger artists,” says Masava whose show, entitled ‘The Mukuru Art Club. Volume 3’ featured more than 120 paintings and linocut prints. Some of the works dangled from laundry lines while the rest hung from nails hammered into the surrounding brick walls.

“The idea was to utilize every available space on the upper deck, transforming it into an arts arena,” added Masava.

                                                                                        Art by Adam Masava

Both Kyalo and Ngatia had been based at The GoDown Art Centre for years. But as they were rendered ‘homeless’ several months back, when that centre closed its doors, preparing to ‘break ground’ for a massive, multipurpose, even visionary new art space, they found a refuge with Masava. For despite his having a relatively small studio on the second floor of the ‘Juicy Fruit’-branded building, Masava has freely shared his space with artists like those two plus Abdulmajid who is also his friend.

                                                       Displaying Benson's art by acrobatic artist Mike Kyalo

Masava has tremendous empathy for artists like Kyalo and Ngatia since he too has been displaced in the past. The slum school where he had been teaching dozens of youngsters shut its door on his art program a few years ago. That’s how he ended up in South B, bringing his best students from the school with him.

Nearly all his exhibiting mentees are still students between the ages of 15 and 20. They include Isaiah Malunga, Dancan Githuka, Benard Musyoki, Anthony Bulima, Vincent Kimeu, Brian Kimani and Cynthia Bukahza. Only Lloyd Weche and Benson Musyoki, a former prize-winning boxer, are among Masava’s older mentees.

                                                                                         Art by Benson

The mentor himself doesn’t discriminate against anyone who comes to him wanting to learn how to paint. And while he never went to an art school himself, Masava has a gift for inspiring his students to be fearless in painting what they know best and what they connect with most comfortably.

That is how several of his students paint children. For instance, Tony Bulima’s works are filled with glowing faces of innocent youth. Isaiah Malunga favors painting purposeful kids who are dressed up and already walking to school.

Meanwhile, Dancan Githuka favors painting bustling street scenes that are filled with colorful mabati shops and busy people trekking up and down unpaved dirt roads. He follows in his mentor’s footsteps, painting slum scenes that show what’s energizing and engaging about street life.

                                                                                  Benard with his Wheelbarrow man

Benard Musyoki does something similar although he is more focused on specific venders like the man carrying a load of empty containers in his wheelbarrow.

All of these young painters displayed an array of works in Volume 3. However, Vincent Kimeu’s multicolored portrait of a man is the most striking of his varied contributions to the show.

                                                                               Vincent's multicolored man

The only abstract artist among all of Masava’s mentees is Lloyd Weche whose abstract expressionism reveals the older artist’s love of color which he seems to splash onto his canvas in a style reminiscent to that of American painter Jackson Pollack.

But possibly the most unusual aspiring artist of all Masava’s students is Benson Gicharu. He is 32 and busy reinventing himself after having had an award-winning career as a feather-weight boxer. He now runs his own boxing school for kids, but he also loves to paint. His most prominent pieces were his ‘celebrity’ portraits of Sly (aka Rocky) Stallone and Michael Jackson.

Finally, Masava himself claimed a corner in the make-shift gallery where he not only featured his portraits of Kibera, including corrugated cardboard roofs, but also several sweet paintings of his son, three-year-old Fabian.

                                                                  Fabian with his father Adam's painting of him

Earlier version of same story

ROOFTOP ART SHOW GIVES EXPOSURE TO YOUNG ARTISTS

By Margaretta wa Gacheru

Who said there wasn’t enough space in Nairobi to exhibit all the up-and-coming local artists’ works? We have lovely galleries like One Off, Circle Art and Banana Hill. But to get space in those venues isn’t easy. They are often booked months in advance. They also have specific standards of aesthetic excellence that are taken into account before artists are able to exhibit in those spaces.

But if you are Adam Masava, you can exhibit your art and that of other young artists almost anywhere. Even on a rooftop in the open air in a building branded ‘Juicy Fruit’ in an Eastlands suburb like Nairobi South B.

To Masava, what’s important is getting the artwork out in public and calling fellow art-lovers to come in time to see the works of the young students that he has been mentoring, some for months, others for many years.

Several of the exhibiting artists, like Mike Kyalo, Charles Ngatia, Abdulmajid Najmadin and Masava himself, cannot be considered ‘up-and-coming’ since they are locally-established painters.

“They were invited to help promote our younger artists,” says Masava whose show, entitled ‘The Mukuru Art Club. Volume 3’ featured more than 120 paintings and linocut prints. Some of the works dangled from laundry lines while the rest hung from nails hammered into the surrounding brick walls.

“The idea was to utilize every available space on the upper deck, transforming it into an arts arena,” added Masava.

Both Kyalo and Ngatia had been based at The GoDown Art Centre for years. But as they were rendered ‘homeless’ several months back, when that centre closed its doors, preparing to ‘break ground’ for a massive, multipurpose, even visionary new art space, they found a refuge with Masava. For despite his having a relatively small studio on the second floor of the ‘Juicy Fruit’-branded building, Masava has freely shared his space with artists like those two plus Abdulmajid who is also his friend.

Masava has tremendous empathy for artists like Kyalo and Ngatia since he too has been displaced in the past. The slum school where he had been teaching dozens of youngsters shut its door on his art program a few years ago. That’s how he ended up in South B, bringing his best students from the school with him.

Nearly all his exhibiting mentees are still students between the ages of 15 and 20. They include Isaiah Malunga, Dancan Githuka, Benard Musyoki, Anthony Bulima, Vincent Kimeu, Brian Kimani and Cynthia Bukahza. Only Lloyd Weche and Benson Musyoki, a former prize-winning boxer, are among Masava’s older mentees.

The mentor himself doesn’t discriminate against anyone who comes to him wanting to learn how to paint. And while he never went to an art school himself, Masava has a gift for inspiring his students to be fearless in painting what they know best and what they connect with most comfortably.

That is how several of his students paint children. For instance, Tony Bulima’s works are filled with glowing faces of innocent youth. Isaiah Malunga favors painting purposeful kids who are dressed up and already walking to school.

Meanwhile, Dancan Githuka favors painting bustling street scenes that are filled with colorful mabati shops and busy people trekking up and down unpaved dirt roads. He follows in his mentor’s footsteps, painting slum scenes that show what’s energizing and engaging about street life.

Benard Musyoki does something similar although he is more focused on specific venders like the man carrying a load of empty containers in his wheelbarrow.

All of these young painters displayed an array of works in Volume 3. However, Vincent Kimeu’s multicolored portrait of a man is the most striking of his varied contributions to the show.

The only abstract artist among all of Masava’s mentees is Lloyd Weche whose abstract expressionism reveals the older artist’s love of color which he seems to splash onto his canvas in a style reminiscent to that of American painter Jackson Pollack.

But possibly the most unusual aspiring artist of all Masava’s students is Benson Gicharu. He is 32 and busy reinventing himself after having had an award-winning career as a feather-weight boxer. He now runs his own boxing school for kids, but he also loves to paint. His most prominent pieces were his ‘celebrity’ portraits of Sly (aka Rocky) Stallone and Michael Jackson.

Finally, Masava himself claimed a corner in the make-shift gallery where he not only featured his portraits of Kibera, including corrugated cardboard roofs, but also several sweet paintings of his son, three-year-old Fabian.

MEDIA CEO TO TAKE KENYAN STORIES GLOBAL

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 23 September 2019)

Ndanu Kilonzo understands she has the missing link that many creative artists don’t understand. It’s got to do with her ability to blend business with the arts to achieve so much media success that her company has gone global in the last few months.

As CEO of Okuhle Spielworks, Ndanu is in the business she was already doing successfully for more than ten years with Dorothy Ghettuba-Pala as Spielworks Media’s Company Operations Officer (COO).

“Our plan had always been to tell our Kenyan stories on a global platform, and we did it with shows like “Lies that bind’ and ‘Ladies First’, which have not only been aired on local channels [like KTN, NTV and K24],” says Ndanu. “They have also been shown on MNet, SABC and even Fox TV which picked up our ‘Ladies First’,” she adds.

But her vision has always been large. “Kenyans have amazing stories to share, but what we are doing right now is specifically thinking about how best to address not just a local but also a global audience,” says the 33-year-old mother of two who has recently partnered with the South African-based Okuhle Media to create Okuhle Spielworks Ltd.

Having started off as a ‘line producer’ at Spielworks with Dorothy early in 2011, the two women actually met the year before when they were both working at Sterling Quality (SQ) where Dorothy was production manager and she was her production assistant. “Dorothy had already registered Spielworks in Canada where she had had been working, not in media, but as a venture capitalist,” Ndanu recalls.

But then they both left SQ to create Spielworks’ first TV series called ‘Block D.’

“It was KBC that first picked up the pilot for Block D,” she says. After that came shows like ‘Higher Learning’, ‘Saints’, ‘Urembo’ and ‘Lies that Bind’ among the 41 TV movies, 18 TV shows and more than 20 web shows that Spielworks has produced.

In all of these projects, Ndanu has been in charge of production. “That has meant being responsible for everything from the initial concept and doing the budget to all the details involved in producing the finished product.”

Having her first degree in Creative and Performing Arts from Maseno University, Ndanu’s decision to go back (while still with Spielworks) to get a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from Strathmore grew out of her recognition of the relevance, even the necessity of having business skills.

“I have always loved working with numbers so preparing budgets for all our projects hasn’t been a problem for me,” says Ndanu who grew up watching my father draft a family budget every month and being fascinated by the process.

It’s a skill that has served her well, especially as Dorothy’s forte has been in fund-raising while she’s done budgeting for all 289 episodes of ‘Lies that Bind’ for instance and all 120 episodes of shows like ‘Jane and Abel’.

Confident that the future looks bright for Okuhle Spielworks, Ndanu has her sights set on bringing Kenyans’ stories into a global arena. “We have conquered the local media scene. Now’s our time to grow and share our Kenyan content with the rest of the world.”

Vieux Farka Toure@Alliance

FIRST MAKE-UP FESTIVAL THIS WEEKEND

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 18 september 2019)

Saturday morning, the inaugural Podoka Festival is being launched at The Node in Westlands, starting from 9am.

It was Faith King’ola’s idea to name the festival ‘podoka’ because she says, “Podoka derives from the Swahili term, Kupodoa, meaning to beautify.” That is what she says this all-day festival is about.”

“It’s a celebration of beauty, music and art,” she adds, noting that many millennials are moving into the beauty business because they see it as a form of both fashion and fine art.

For some, it is also their way into the celebrity culture that intrigues many young people. Which is why King’ola expects a big turn-out tomorrow. It begins early with Make-up classes led by leading local make-up artists, Wacuka Thimba and Dennis Karuri.

“Both of them are ‘hot’ right now, meaning they both have a following and are sought after by celebs,” she says. Being a successful make-up artist also means one is often called to work during commercial photo-shoots and on the sets of films.

Make-up ‘master classes’ are open to those who come early. Each instructor will have their own ‘muse’ who will serve as a sort of human canvas on which the artist will demonstrate how to apply make-up. Then by noon, a make-up competition will begin for those who signed up to compete.

“We will have assistance from several local beauty brands, like Phoina Beauty Clinic, Marini Naturals, Mahogany Organics, Mosara Hair & Skin Line, and Sista Kenya,” says King’ola.

However, international brands like L’Oreal and Maybelline said they’d watch to see how successful Podoka will be. If it is, they said they could help sponsor the festival next year.

“They need to be convinced there is an expanding market for their beauty products before they lend us support,” says King’ola who’s the creative director of the whole event.

Then, the afternoon will be busy since, in addition to the competition, there will be music, ‘make-up games’, food provided by the Node restaurant and a free dental clinic where professional dentists will be available to check up on people’s teeth.

The winners of the competition will receive an assortment of prizes including hotel reservations and other treats.

Finally, in the evening, the Festival will be capped off with club music provided by DJ Suraj and DJ UV.

“Everyone is invited to the After Party,” says Kingola who is also the founder of King Kola Ltd.

COMEDY MIXED WITH CYNICISM IN MBOGO’S NEW PLAY

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 18 September 2019)

Dr Fred Mbogo morphed magnificently into any one of several crazed men in ‘A Revolution Ate my Son’, the script that he wrote and staged last weekend at Kenya Cultural Centre’s Cheche Gallery under Esther Kamba’s direction.

I am not really the right person to appraise his performance since I was unable to see the whole of his sterling one-man show.

Nonetheless, in the final third of the play which I managed to see I witnessed the insidious influence of that genre of drama known as the ‘theatre of the absurd’ on the playwright-actor who is also a university lecturer in the theatre arts. It was apparent in Mbogo’s showcasing of the insanity of contemporary African history.

As I walked into the show, he had taken on a sort of clownish, carnivalesque persona of a traumatized man living in an ostensibly fictitious country.  Karumba was his name and he was telling the crazy story of how he had been grabbed, tortured and mistaken for one of the rebels following a failed coup attempt on the State.

Eventually the man flees the country and arrives in the land where the streets are supposedly paved with gold, the USA. But Karumba’s life in exile isn’t pretty or purposeful, apart from his making money doing menial labor, drinking a lot and having sex with heaps of white women.

His womanizing stops abruptly after meeting one vindictive woman who’d gotten fed up with her abusive spouse. Having chopped off her man’s head, she proudly shows it like a trophy to Karumba who quickly flees for his life and decides to head back home after many years away.

What had actually led Karumba to flee his country in the first place was fear. He had seen the senseless shooting of the harmless old man, Baba Ogumu and realized he could easily be next since he’d already been senselessly grabbed once.

The Baba’s only ‘crime’ was asking questions. Maddened by his inability to find his son, he roamed the streets asking if anyone knew where he could find his son. In fact, Baba Ogumu is the one who, if he’d been lucid, would have spouted the story’s title, ‘A Revolution Ate my Son.’ For Ogumu had actually been part of the so-called ‘second liberation’ struggle aimed at overthrowing the wicked head of state.

Karumba is no hero despite being qualified to be called an ‘exile’. Once he returns home, he is accurately perceived by many members of the struggle as a traitor who deserves no adulation for having sought refuge and ‘the good life’ overseas.

But Karumba still hopes to reunite with the fiancée he had left behind. That doesn’t happen. Thus, what we are left with is a cynical portrait of a coward whose life in exile served no purpose despite the mythologies that revolve around those who flee into exile supposedly to save their lives and to eventually fight another day.

Mbogo’s cynical portrait of an exile was challenged during a question and answer session following the final night of the play. One audience member asked him why he had portrayed such a serious topic in such a comical way. Mbogo didn’t quite give a clear answer except to say it was the style he’d chosen.

In fact, he explained that his script was modeled after a novel by Mukoma wa Ngugi entitled ‘Mrs Shaw’. Mukoma was meant to arrive in Kenya for an ‘Artistic Encounters’ session at the Goethe Institute to be interviewed by Mbogo and Zuki Wanner. However, that program had been scuttled when Mukoma, a lecturer in Literature at Columbia University in the US, was not able to come to Kenya as planned.

“So I decided, since I had prepared myself for that interview, to make something out of Mukoma’s story,” says the playwright who has written more than fifty plays since secondary school.

It is unavoidable to note that the novelist Mukoma is himself the son of an exile. Ngugi wa Thiong’o has often been faulted for living in exile while Kenya’s problems remain and the ‘revolution’ has yet to be won.

But Mbogo is the first to dispel any notion that Mukoma was writing about his father. There are mixed opinions about the author’s intentions, but since Mukoma never showed, the speculation will continue. The cynicism left untamed.

CELEBRATING 70th ANNIVERSARY IN KENYA WITH ART

                                                                                     Art by Ancent Soi

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 17 September 2019)

Ever since the French Cultural Centre came to town back in 1977, the French have been playing a pioneering role in the development of contemporary art in Kenya. Prior to that year, Alliance Francaise had been primarily promoting and teaching their cherished language to receptive Kenyans.

It was with that mission in mind that the French first arrived in 1949 and are currently celebrating their 70^th anniversary in Kenya.

                                                                         Cop by Joseph Bertiers Mbatia

But the French’s sole focus on language training was dramatically transformed once the late FCC director Pierre Comte arrived and opened the Centre’s cultural doors wide to all aspects of the creative arts, including drama, dance, film and live music as well as the visual arts.

Very few of the artists who were painting or sculpting back then are still around today. Either they have passed away, moved onto other spheres of activity or simply decided to retire from a contemporary Kenyan art scene that has grown much faster than anyone could have imagined in those early days.

The evidence of Kenya’s exploding art scene is most definitely on display at Alliance Francaise in time for the institution’s 70^th anniversary which officially took off September 10^th with the formal opening of the third Kenya Art Panorama.

                  Art by (L-R) Chelenge, Thom Ogonga, Jimnah Kimani, Peter Elungat, Michael Soi and Moses Nyawanda

Featuring a minimum of 70 local artists, this year’s Art Panorama effectively fills two floors of Alliance Francaise. But it still doesn’t fully convey the magnitude of AF’s and FCC’s contribution to the development of Kenya’s dynamic art scene.

For instance, there are a number of local artists whose works have previously been up on Alliance’s walls who are not represented in this ’70 at 70’ showcase. One the one hand, that is understandable since the institution has premiered many more Kenyan artists than just 70. But on the other hand, the omissions are obvious.

For example, there are a host of graffiti artists whose art is not on hand. There is also a dearth of women artists as well. Artists like Jackie Karuti, Nduta Kariuki, Naitimu Nyanjom, Gloria Muthoka, Kathy Katuti, Wambui Mwangi, Yony Waite, Leena Shah, Geraldine Robarts, Anne Mwiti, Nancy Chela Cherwon and Rosemary Karuga all have exhibited at AF before, yet they are not represented there today.

                                                                  Glass art by Nani Croze of Kitengela Glass

At the same time, we see wonderful works in the exhibition by accomplished artists like Mary Collis, Beatrice Wanjiku, Mary Ogembo, Joan Otieno, Rahab Shine, Nani Croze and Chelenge van Rampelberg.

But probably the most serious omission from this otherwise all-encompassing exhibition is the absence of art by Jak Katarikawe who died this past year but was among the very first Kenya-resident artists to exhibit at FCC back in the 1970s.

Nonetheless, Harsita Waters has done a brilliant curatorial job, assembling the old and the young, the established and up-and-coming, and the intergenerational, meaning an artist like Ancent Soi, who has been painting since the 1960s and is still alive and well today.

                                                                          Prof. Wangari Maathai by Solo

She also managed to get a piece by Asaph Ng’ethe Macua, the 88-year-old artist who, with Rosemary Karuga, was among the first Kenyan artists to graduate in the early 1950s from Makerere University’s Margaret Trowell School of Fine Art.

It’s a marvel to see works by artists from Ngeche, Banana Hill, Kuona Artists Collective, Go-Down, Dust Depo and Railway Museum as well as many independents and several more whose works are most frequently seen at One Off Gallery, like Beatrice Wanjiku who won ‘most promising female artist’ at the 2006 Contemporary Art in Kenya Juried Exhibition. Others who won accolades there that year and whose works are in the 70@70 show include Fred Abuga (‘most promising male artist’), Samuel Githui (for ‘best painting’), Bertiers Mbatia (for ‘best sculpture’) and Kamal Shah (for ‘best mixed media art’).

                                                                                  Samuel Githui's Lamu triptych

This Kenyan Art Panorama revives an idea launched back in 1992 when the FCC director Guy Lacroix initiated the first Art Panorama. But both before and ever since, the FCC/AF has been the venue of choice for countless Kenyan artists.

And while one occasionally hears negative prognoses that contemporary Kenyan art is in decline because venues like Watatu, Kuona Trust, RaMoMa and even the GoDown have come and gone, it’s Alliance Francaise that has endured and offered awesome opportunities for creatives who want the public to see and appreciate their art.

                                                                Michael Soi's 'Schengen Visa'

Graffiti artist Swift Elegwa@ Paa ya Paa Gallery

CELEBRATING NEW YEAR’S 2012 IN ADDIS ABABA

                                                                         A view of Addis from the Sheraton Hotel

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (Posted 16 September)

Taking a trip to Ethiopia is literally like time travelling back into an era one never knew existed before boarding an Ethiopian Airline 737 and in less than two hours be landing in Addis Ababa’s new Bole Airport.

Unlike some local airlines, Ethiopian flights tend to be punctual, as was mine. We left precisely at 5:40pm and landed exactly at 7:30pm. But after that, my sense of time went haywire. That’s because I’d landed in Addis on ‘New Year’s Eve’, local time. 2011 was just ending and at midnight, the new year would arrive. Signs celebrating 2012 were everywhere, but no one could explain why exactly we were now living seven years behind where I had been just a few hours before.

Apparently, the Ethiopian calendar is based on the ancient Coptic calendar wherein one year is 365 days plus six hours, two minutes and 24 seconds longer than the Gregorian calendar that I’ve always known.

                                                                  Part of the new African Union structures

I normally adapt easily to ‘jet lag’ but in the Ethiopian case, I felt suspended in time, even as I see a country experiencing a radical transformation, leap-frogging into the future. One sees a myriad of rusty mabati shacks standing side by side massive skyscrapers under construction. But the city seems to lack a central town plan such that tall structures are sprouting up all over the place.

September 14^th being New Year’s Day, everything was closed around Addis apart from the churches. Even most restaurants, shops and the National Museum of Ethiopia were closed. And since Addis has nothing like a Garden City Mall, leave alone a Sarit Centre or a Two Rivers, the only place open for business were hotels like the luxurious 5-Star Sheraton Addis.

                                                              The front entrance of the vast Sheraton Addis Hotel

Situated on almost 50 hectares of land, the Sheraton is palatial with massive gardens, fountains, 8000 plus apartments, playgrounds, health facilities, pools and other sundry services. Thus, it was no surprise to hear it had been built in between two actual palaces, the National Palace which is the residence of the President of Ethiopia and the Menelik Palace, residence of the country’s Prime Minister.

We could have spent the day exploring the massive, beautifully manicured gardens, walkways and playgrounds, but we discovered that one small Zoma Museum was open.

Designed and built by one of the country’s most original and environmentally-conscious artists, Elias Sime, the Museum’s structures are all made out of straw, mud and sand. But the outside of the buildings was more interesting that the spaces within since Sime had sculpted swirls and shapely drawings on every outer wall. It looked rather like a child’s finger painting only every swirl and curve was deeply etched into each ochre-colored wall.

“The theme of the walls is the life cycle of the caterpillar,” said our guide, who we paid 100 birrs for a short talk and long walk around the lush green carefully planted grounds. (Approximately KSh3.55 =1 Ethiopian birr.) “Here on this wall, you will see the egg and the larva. Then there’s the chrysalis and finally the butterfly,” he said pointing from one wall to the next. Then atop one border wall were big stone vessels which were each crowned with a different colored butterfly.

                                                  Ethiopian music, dance and delicious food at the Cultural Restaurant

My stay in Addis was brief but the finest moment of the trip came the following day. We were invited to the home of my friend’s mother who had prepared authentic Ethiopian food for us. Her home was humble. It was mainly mabati sheets mixed with cement walls inside. There was a large flat-screened TV and two small sofas for us to be seated and extra stools for the mother’s other guests to sit. It was a squeeze, but who cared! Her food was first-class and it was clear, she and her family must have spent their New Year’s preparing amazing foods for her son’s guests. The injera (spongy baked bread) was delicious, and meant to be used like chapati, to scoop up all the yummy meats, vegetables and sauces that she had prepared especially for us.

                                                                 Art at the St. George's Gallery, Addis

Then, by the time our tummys’ were stuffed, the mama’s last-born girl began roasting coffee beans, signaling the first part of the traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony. Thereafter. the mom got out the mortar and pestle and began grinding the coffee beans until they were just the right texture to now place in the water which had already boiled. Leaving it to steep for several minutes, we finally topped off our marvelous meal with miniature cups of authentic Ethiopian coffee.