ENTERTAINMENT GALORE FOR ROTARY 'DISCON' 2020 GUESTS

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 1 February 2020)

Westlands, where most D9212 Rotarians are attending the DisCon 2020 between April 2-4, is a veritable mecca for delicious food, marvelous drinks and lots of fun entertainment.

There’s a wide variety of food to be had in the neighborhood, everything from fast food of all types found in Sarit’s own Food Court or at the Honey and Dough. There is authentic African cooking at Nyama Mama’s and there are even five star meals at elegant hotels close by like the Sankara and the Villa Rosa Kempinski. There are also spots having extensive multi-national menus like the cozy Node.

And as for drinks, there are spots that specialize in serving amazing cocktails like The Mirage Tower and the Galileo Lounge. There are others that brew and serve their own boutique beers One is The Brew Bistro and Lounge that serves its special Premier brew beer while the Sierra in Rivaan Plaza has its own brewery that serves Bavarian beer and compliments it with authentic Thai food.

And as for entertainment, one can find all types of fun things to do in Westland. For instance, if one is into fitness, they can head to the Azure Hotel where there is a fitness centre, pool and spa as well as a casino for those inclined to gamble in their free time.

And if one would love to find some local music, he or she can try Hypnotica where the music is marvelous and the lighting system is synchronized with the sound so it’s also an excellent place to go dancing.

The Mirage Tower, in addition to preparing marvelous cocktails and great food also has a slew of talented DJs who will give you a good feeling for what both local Kenyans and our international guests enjoy musically speaking.

Finally, there’s one place in Westlands that doesn’t look like much from the outside. But once you enter The Alchemist you will find an eclectic mix of everything from delicious fresh food and drinks to a craft market and any number of other independent creative entrepreneurs, many of whom conduct programs ranging from films to fashion shows to poetry slams and other cultural festivals, depending on the times and days you get there. The Alchemist is often described as one of the leading creative hubs of Nairobi.

So make sure you find some time while attending the DisCon 2020 to look around Westlands and check out the local social scene. You won’t regret it. You won’t see much ‘wildlife’ but you will find sides of urban Nairobi that have a fascination of their own and are equally memorable.

ENTERTAINMENT GALORE FOR ROTARY DISCON GUESTS

By Margaretta wa Gacheru

The 2020 Rotary DISCON will take place at the Sarit Centre Expo in Westlands, a veritable mecca for delicious food, marvelous drinks and lots of fun entertainment.

Westlands is an affluent neighbourhood and upmarket business centre in Nairobi, which is Kenya’s capital and its largest city. Westlands straddles what is now Waiyaki Way, but originally was the Kenya-Uganda Railway line. The area has been nicknamed ‘Westi’ by Nairobi youth. It originally was a centre of the city’s expat population and is still inhabited by a significant number of expats up to this day.

There’s a wide variety of food to be had in Westlands: everything from fast food of all types in Sarit’s own Food Court to authentic African cooking at Nyama Mama’s. There are five-star meals at elegant hotels close by, like the Sankara and the Villa Rosa Kempinski. There are also spots having extensive multi-national menus, like the cozy Node.

And as for drinks, there are spots that specialize in serving amazing cocktails like The Mirage Tower and the Galileo Lounge. There are others that brew and serve their own boutique beers One is The Brew Bistro and Lounge that serves its special Premier brew beer while the Sierra in Rivaan Plaza has its own brewery that serves Bavarian beer and compliments it with authentic Thai food.

And as for entertainment, one can find all types of fun things to do in Westland. For instance, if one is into fitness, they can head either to the Jacaranda or the Azure Hotel where they both have a fitness centre, pool and spa. The Azure also has a casino for those inclined to gamble in their free time.

And if one would love to find some local music, he or she can try Hypnotica where the music is marvelous and the lighting system is synchronized with the sound so it’s also an excellent place to go and dance

The Mirage Tower, in addition to preparing marvelous cocktails and great food also has a slew of talented DJs who will give you a good feeling for what both local Kenyans and our international guests enjoy musically speaking.

Finally, there’s one place in Westlands that doesn’t look like much from the outside. But once you enter The Alchemist you will find an eclectic mix of everything from delicious fresh food and drinks to a craft market and any number of other independent creative entrepreneurs, many of whom conduct programs ranging from films to fashion shows to poetry slams and other cultural events, depending on the times and days you go there. The Alchemist is often described as one of the leading creative hubs in Nairobi.

So make sure you find some time while attending the DisCon 2020 to look around Westlands and check out the local social scene. You won’t regret it. You won’t see much ‘wildlife’ but you will find sides of urban Nairobi that have a fascination of their own and are equally memorable.

SITAWA’S ONE WOMAN SHOW

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 29 January 2020)

Sitawa Namwalie isn’t just one of Kenya’s finest poets and playwrights. She is also a fabulous performer and storyteller who will prove this tonight at the Kwa Wangwana Restaurant and Wine Garden in Lavington.

Branching out as a solo performer, Sitawa will perform ‘Taking my father home’ under the direction of Wanjiru Mwawuganga who has also directed Too Early for Birds’ ‘Brazen’ and shows by the LAM Sisterhood.

Sitawa has given a number of solo performances in the past, such as her TedX talk in Lavington and her storytelling about her unique installation entitled ‘Our Grandmother’s Miniskirt: A People’s History in Photographs and Stories.’

But that was before she established her own company, Salene Productions with support from the HEVA Fund which has a mandate to support local cultural industries.

‘Taking my father home’ will be a one-woman performance that combines poetry and story with music composed especially for this show by two multitalented musicians, Nasambu Barasa who sing in Kiluhya and Kiswahili and Samuel Mbaluka who like Nasambu plays guitar and Litungu (Luhya harp) as well as percussions.

“They will be combining traditional Luhya tunes with elements of modern musical sounds,” says Sitawa who often performs with traditional musicians but these two have composed a whole musical score to accompany her show.

Sitawa has always been a poet at heart. Nonetheless, she majored in Botany, Zoology and Environmental studies, receiving two university degrees before she realized her primary passion was actually for poetry. But hers is a poetry that addresses both personal as well as political themes.

‘Cut of my tongue’ was her first major collection of poems that she both published and performed. Then came ‘Silence is a Woman’ which took on several iterations, given which ever poems (drawn from her larger pool of poetry) she chose to share at assorted venues.

But in the past, she’d performed with other performing artists like Muthoni Garland, Melvin Alusa and Aleya Kassam. But now, while she has musical accompaniment, her story is her own based in two acts.

The first reflects on how she lost connection with her culture. The second is all about ‘taking my father home’. It continues the story of one cosmopolitan Kenya woman who is thoroughly caught up in her busy life. But then her father dies and in taking him home, she’s compelled to realize how essential it is to reconnect with her people’s tradition and culture.

ROMEO AND JULIET A BALLET

By Margaretta.gacheru@gmail.com (posted 29 January 2020)

‘Romeo and Juliet’ is the one story by William Shakespeare that practically everybody knows or at least has heard of.

It’s the beautiful love story between two young people from warring families whose ill-fated love ends in tragedy. People might not know the names of the two families, the Capulets and Montagues. But the conflict creates a marvelous dramatic backdrop for their love affair to blossom in spite of the tensions arising all around them.

It’s a fantastic story, but what will make the Dance Centre Kenya’s production of Romeo and Juliet even more of a show-stopper and a ballet performance that nobody should miss, is the casting and choreography by Cooper Rust, DCK’s artistic director.

“I am thrilled to announce that Joel Kioko will be back to play the part of Romeo after being away for three years, studying dance at the English National Ballet School (ENBS) in London,” says Cooper who will also perform, not as a prima ballerina (as she was in the States), but playing the part of Lady Capulet opposite John Sibi Okumu who will play her spouse, Lord Capulet.

Joel first came to DCK when he was just 13 years old. He had been spotted by Annabel Shaw, a secondary school student at the International School of Kenya who had chosen, as a school project in philanthropy, to teach ballet at a low-income government school called Karen C Primary in Kuwinda.

Annabel was just 14 herself, but she had already been a star student of Cooper’s at DCK, so she felt qualified to share her largely unknown dance form, ballet, with low-income students.

But once Annabel saw Joel’s untutored athleticism, she called Cooper and invited her to come to the school and meet him. Cooper did just that and immediately found him a scholarship to study at DCK.

He was the Centre’s star student until he won a scholarship to study at ENBS, which was more than a dream come true for the lad. But it was a hope that Cooper had nurtured, having seen his immense potential for ballet.

There’s something that will make the four performances on February 15^th and 16^th at Kenya National Theatre exceptional. It is that the same Annabel, who went off to study at the Northern Ballet School in Manchester around the same time as Joel went to London, will return to DCK in time to play of Juliet.

This will be wonderful, says Cooper, since the two have remained good friends since they first met in Karen C. Joel’s homecoming will also be special to Cooper since he was the first of her students that she also tutored in basic academic skills as a means of ensuring he would pass all the tests required both to graduate from secondary school and to qualify for the London Ballet School.

“Now he will be coming home with a Level 5 Diploma from ENBS after which he will be auditioning for a place in [an international] ballet company,” Cooper adds.

Playing Lord and Lady Montague are Gerald Osmond and Edita Camm. Not only that, Jazz Moll, the director of the Youth Theatre Kenya will play the role of Prince Escalus.

Plus Joel and Annabel won’t be the only dancers who are coming from overseas to be part of the DCK production. Cooper has invited guest artists Yigit Erhan and his brother Baris to play the parts of Tybalt and Mercutio respectively.

Cooper had danced professionally with Baris before coming to Kenya. And while abroad in December, she also danced with another former ballet partner, Bo Busby. “Bo and I literally grew up together in Columbus, [South Carolina], but then once we completed school, he went to join the Boston Ballet and I went to join the ballet in Las Vegas,” she says. What was remarkable was that after 17 years they went on stage together in The Nutcracker as if they hadn’t been apart for a single day.

It’s that kind of indelible bond that Cooper believes Joel and Annabel will also convey as they play their parts since they’d danced together for a solid three years before they both went overseas.

Joel’s journey has been such a remarkable one that his story has been told and retold by everyone from BBC and CNN to Al Jazeera and Flett Film which recently made a documentary on ‘Joel’s Journey’ from Kuwinda to London and the Royal Ballet. One can find ‘Joel’s Journey’ on YouTube.

KIOKO: GALLERIST-ARTIST HAS SHOW OF HIS OWN

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (28 January 2020)

Kioko Mwitiki is finally having an exhibition solely devoted to his sculptures and paintings. It’s about time!

Ever since he shifted from Pimbi Gallery to the Kioko Mwitiki Art Gallery, he has given his art space over to young, hopeful artists who’ve appreciate its strategic location next to Lavington Mall as well as the opportunities Kioko gives to others to exhibit in his space. He’ll leave a few of his pieces around, as if they are meant to blend in and not overshadow the newcomers’ works.

But Kioko’s art has never simply ‘blended in.’ His life size sculptures of elephants and giraffes always stand out, requiring ample space (such as outside JKIA) to reveal their monumental beauty.

Kioko’s first solo exhibition of 2020 contains few jungle-size pieces, the sort that he’s shipped abroad in giant containers so they can be shown in pLaces like the San Diego Zoo and Santa Fe Desert Museum.

Best known for his recycled scrap metal sculptures of Kenyan wildlife, Kioko includes such creatures in his current show albeit abridged or in miniature forms so they can fit into his gallery.

For instance, he has a beautiful aerial mobile of flying metal fish which occupy zero wall space. (“The big ones are eating the small ones,” says the artist who can’t help making a political statement in his art.) Otherwise, he leaves room for some of his paintings which we practically forgot he used to do.

But if one doubts that Kioko never stopped being a political animal himself, just ask him to explain his two life-size cheetahs who are apparently in love and in a ‘cheetah hug’. They’re meant to say something about BBI and the Handshake, he claims although that’s not immediately apparent. Yet the sight of the Brookside milk carton cap resting on one cheetah’s head gives one a hint. “One is Raila, the other’s Uhuru,” he confesses as he adds, ”I always like injecting an element of humor to my art.”

But amusing or not, Kioko doesn’t confine himself solely to creating creatures for this exhibition. Using more than two dozen chapati pans (which also could be stir-fry woks), he’s created a ‘Chief’s chair’ plus a set of two chapati pan frames to complete the elder’s furniture.

What for me is the most fascinating piece in Kioko’s show is the giant semi-abstract screen that he calls ‘The Story of Creation’. How he made this ingenious piece leads him to explain the origin of his own transformation from an artistic practice of oil painting to creating scrap metal sculpture.

1986 was the year he was meant to graduate. But as Kenyatta University students were agitating for political change, he got picked up, detained and finally released with fellow agitators, only to be told he wasn’t going back to ‘Uni’ right away. Fortunately, he has a sister who he says ‘meant for [him] to learn a lesson’ so she took him to work in a machine factory. “That was where I learned to weld. There was nothing like it at KU,” he says.

The irony doesn’t escape him, that while he was meant to feel the pain of losing his ‘big chance’ in life, instead he found the job that led him to his destiny. For Kioko is best known as a brilliant sculptor. What’s more, he has taken time to teach many young welders how to work and be creative simultaneously.

He has got a few paintings at the show; but by far, the most impressive works at Kioko’s gallery are his scrap metal pieces. They also serve as signatures of his art.

2019 NAIROBI VISUAL ART WORLD ROUNDUP

https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/lifestyle/art/NairobiNairobi-s-vibrant-art-sceness-vibrant-art-scenes/3815712-5433984-4db1w9z/index.html

A ROUND-UP OF NAIROBI’S VIBRANT VISUAL ARTS SCENE 2019

BY Margaretta wa Gacheru

While a number of Nairobi art spaces shut their doors in 2019 (some temporarily, others permanently), and others lost a degree of artistic energy, the local visual art scene remained vibrant nonetheless.

The leading lights in Kenya’s art industry thrived in 2019. These include galleries like One Off, Circle Art, .Red Hill and Banana Hill, all of which were busy throughout the year. They as well as venues like the Nairobi National Museum, Alliance Francaise, Goethe Institute and Nairobi Gallery were also booked solid all year

Nonetheless, there were many artists who felt disheartened, given the virtual shut down of spaces like the GoDown, Polka Dot Gallery, the Attic, Shifteye Gallery and Paa ya Paa, all of which had once promised artists limitless possibilities for exhibiting their art.

Yet as demoralizing as the shut downs may have seemed, they stimulated lots of fresh initiatives on  artists’ and curators’ part. Many resorted to mounting Pop-Up exhibitions. Among the spaces that were popular for pop-ups were various hotels, restaurants, and malls as well as offices like Ikigai and Ogilvy Africa. Hotels that opened their doors to local artists included the Sarova Stanley, Fairmont Norfolk, Trademark, Tribe, Intercontinental, Sankara and Radisson Blu where the Art Auction East Africa will again be held in March, curated by Circle Art. And even country clubs like Muthaiga and Karen Clubs hosted pop-up shows in 2019.

The most popular malls that showcased artists’ work were Village Market, Lavington Mall and Rosslyn Riviera (where One Off opened up an ‘annex’ late in 2018 which has been busy ever since).

Restaurants like Talisman and Que Pasa have been hosting artists’ works for years. But in 2019. venues like the Lord Errol, Alchemist, Wasps and Sprouts, 45 Degrees Kitchen, Lava Latte and even fast food eateries like Kukito have not just mounted exhibitions. Some have even invited graffiti artists to cover whole walls with their art.

One other major trend that picked up in 2019 was artists setting up their own art venues. Adrian Nduma did it sometime back with Bonzo Gallery; Nani Croze did it when she started Kitengela Glass and even Patrick Mukabi established Dust Depo both to show his own and others’ art and to mentor young artists. But more recently, we’ve seen Paul Onditi open his own Art Cupboard, Chelenge van Rampelberg launch her Home Studio, Kioko with Kioko Mwitiki Gallery, Jeffie Magina with Studio Soko, Adam Masava with Mukuru Art Club and George Waititu did it by building his own Tafaria Castle Art Museum.

In fact, a number of artists have moved out of town and opened home studios, including photographer James Muriuki, C-stunners’ Cyrus Kabiru and painters like Peterson Kamwathi, Yony Waite, Zihan Herr, Peter Elungat, Geraldine Robarts and others.

At the same time, artists’ collectives proved to be one of the best places to see art ‘works in progress’ in 2019. These include spaces like Brush Tu, Maasai Mbili, Kobo Trust, Kuona and BSQ which is part of a thriving arts community at the Railway Museum. For not only is Dust Depo there. There’s another art space just next door, and right behind the Museum, there are railway cars transformed by graffiti artists like BSQ into studios cum gallery spaces.

What’s more, BSQ has carried on the tradition initiated by Mukabi of mentoring up-and-coming artists. The main difference between the two is that BSQ mentors graffiti artists whom they also invited in 2019 to carry on another tradition, of spray-painting graffiti art on the ‘Great Wall’  of the Museum that stretches all the way from the Technical University of Kenya down to the Museum, creating a collective work of art that changes periodically just as graffiti does worldwide.

Finally, a number of events stood out dramatically this past year. One was the Art Auction East Africa which is an annual event. But this past year at Radisson Blu, there were record-breaking sales of regional art which effectively illustrated how fine art can be taken seriously by Kenyans as a profession and livelihood.

The other landmark moment for Kenyan and other regional artists in 2019 was One Off Gallery’s opening its own Sculpture Garden on more than two acres of ground. The Garden turned out to be not just one venue for viewing the wide range and beauty of East African sculpture. Carol Lees’ call out attracted so much amazing art that it filled the garden as well as indoor galleries at One Off and the one at Rosslyn Riviera mall.  

KENYAN ARTISTS TURN TO VIRTUAL REALITY

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 27 January 2020)

Art NOMA! Can have two meanings. Either art that’s Awesome or art that is Dangerous.

The seven-artist exhibition at Goethe Institute is definitely awesome. Combining virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) with poetry, painting and visual artists who’ve been given a crash course in how to create radically different types of art using new digital techniques nearly all of them have never worked with before.

Out of the seven, only Nelson Ijakaa had experimented with AR before when he had an exhibition at Alliance Francaise last year with Richard Alleya. Some of his augmented paintings are included in Art NOMA! But far more engaging is his virtual reality installation entitled ‘This House that We Built’.

The only ‘dangerous’ (NOMA!) feature about this Goethe show was having to stand in crowded, amorphous ‘lines’ on opening night to get a chance to put on the head gear required to experience the virtual reality that the artists designed and which techie wizards from Black Rhino VR like Steve Kimani and Longino Muluka helped to animate for them.

The other hazardous aspect of opening night came after one had gotten signed in at the door and instructed on how to download the appropriate app onto your smart phone (if you had one) in order to experience the augmented reality personally. Or if the downloading process hit a snag, one could stand in another line to sign up for a tablet that was already equipped with the necessary app.

After that, one needed to know about the color coding of each artist’s augmented reality. I wouldn’t have known which color belonged to which one of the seven if it hadn’t been for Wamaitha Junniah, the curatorial assistant to the show’s curator Nyambura Waruingi. I also wouldn’t have known which color correlated with which colored circle painted on Goethe’s cement floor if it hadn’t been for Wamaitha.

Somehow others in Goethe’s crowded turquoise-blue auditorium figured the mystery out. But I also know quite a few who were mystified but happy to jostle their way through the mainly millennial mass till they found friends to give them greetings and clues.

Nyambura is the one who originally brought together the seven artists from art centres around Nairobi. But last-minute changes resulted in the seven being Michael Musyoka, Peteros Ndunde, Emmaus Kimani, Sila Mwake and Melody Virgody of Brush tu Art Studio together with free-lance Nelson Ijakaa and the late Ngene Mwaura of Kuona Artists Collective.

It was Nyambura who curated this Goethe-inspired project entitled ‘State of the Art’ which began last October with a weeklong introductory training in AR and VR by the German expert Dominic Eskofier. After that, the follow-up training was on-going for several months with the artists assisted by the two techie wizards from Black Rhino VR, Steve Kimani and Longino Muluka.

“It was Black Rhino’s Steve and Longino who were responsible for getting the artists’ work into the appropriate [AR and VR] formats,” says Maria Parker who’s the Project Manager at Goethe for ‘JENGE-CCI’ which is jointly funded by Goethe and GIZ.

Sadly, Ngene Mwaura tragically passed on in the middle of the project. But fortunately, he had created enough of his exquisitely intricate-and brightly colored masks before he died, so that Ijakaa assisted by could assemble them into a beautiful virtual ‘mausoleum’ that Ngene would have appreciated.

Among the other seven, Musyoka’s VR addresses a theme that he has been preoccupied with for some time, at least since his 2019 solo [2D] art exhibition at Red Hill Gallery ironically entitled ‘Time’. But in the VR version of Time, Musyoka both drew and animated his lumbering runners. But it was Black Rhino who helped him translate his work into the VR format that captured his runner dashing into 360 degrees of space. The VR easily underscored the artist’s subtle mockery of a civilization that has its people running to who knows where or why!

Peteros explores the world of binaries with his VR installation of ‘Kiti ya Baba na Kiti ya Mama’ while Emmaus examines human behavior at the level of emotions and soulful conversations.

Silas designed a whole VR ‘kibanda’ (street shop) complete with a butchery and blazing grill where mutura (Kikuyu sausage) is being cooked. And Melody Virgody’s concern for mental health and suicide leads her into visual realms that are cerebral and semi-abstract.

Ijakaa didn’t do an augmented reality since he focused on a five-screened VR entitled ‘The House that we built’ which makes a powerful political statement.

COULD ARNOLD BE KENYA’S FUTURE YVES ST LAURENT?

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 27 January 2020

Arnold Muriithi may soon be Kenya’s equivalent of an Yves St Laurent or a Calvin Klein.

That is what he heard from fans who saw his fashion collections in Maputo and Addis Ababa during their respective fashion weeks. It was also suggested by fashion scouts from the UK who were on the look out for fresh new fashion talents and invited him to attend fashion weeks in either London, Paris, Milan or New York.

‘But as I just came from Mozambique where I showed my Voyager collection this past December, I’m not prepared to present my newest designs just yet,’ says Muriithi who’s been moving in the fast lane ever since 2015 when he was picked by Equity Bank’s talent scouts who were also on the look out for Kenya’s next ‘big’ fashion talent.

‘I got selected after passing several tests for things like knowledge of construction and originality of my designs,’ says the young designer who was still a student at Kenyatta University when he won that jackpot.

‘Winning with Equity meant I went to show my first major collection at the Addis Fashion Week. As it turned out, they liked me so much I was invited back in 2016 and 2017, but I’ve moved on since then,’ says the designer who admits he has been making dresses since he was eight years old.

Having older sisters who left him a closet full of dolls, Muriithi got fascinated early on with the colourful clothes worn by his sister Claire’s Barbie dolls. He was also inspired by his mother who loved beautiful garments. She also read fashion magazines like Marie Claire, which he says is how his older sister got the name Claire.

Admitting he was never fond of toy cars or video games like most of his peers, Muriithi says he used to give away the cars to his friends since he preferred disassembling Barbie’s dresses and teaching himself how to reconstruct them using different materials.’

‘I actually made my first wedding dress for Barbie when I was 10,’ says the man who now creates couture  wedding gowns for Kenyan clients who have seen how beautifully he customizes his dress designs.

Working with his own tailors and ladies who help him hand-stitch finishing touches to his gowns, Muriithi could easily work full-time creating wedding gowns. (‘I love making my own lace which I often stitch onto my wedding dresses myself,’ he says, adding that trims can also include elegant snowy-white flowers that he carefully laser cuts, then hand-stitched strategically.)  

But then if Muriithi devotes all his time to making wedding gown, he might have a problem completing his next ‘Spring/Summer Collection’ for the next fashion week.

But the 27 year old who originally went to KU to study economics (according to his father’s plan) couldn’t give up his primary passion which was and still is fashion design. His family finally accepted his first love for fashion and for creating not only exquisite gowns, but also amazing pantsuits, skirts, shorts, tops and even matching leather handbags.

Working mainly with crepe chiffon that he gets from one shop in Westlands that imports materials from all over the world, Muriithi says he might work with Kenyan kikois one day. But for now he prefers elegant silks and chiffons that he describes as light, delicate, comfortable and wrinkle-free.

What actually kicked off his fashion career, he says, was his making the lead gown for Miss Kenya in 2014. For Lydia Manani, he used a Japanese chiffon that he got from the shop known as Memsaab. That gown went all the way to the Philippines where Lydia didn’t win the title of Miss World. But that dress is the one he submitted  to Equity Bank for their fashion search.

 Muriithi also had to be vetted to make it to the Maputo Fashion Week since only one East African designer was selected by fashionistas from France, Japan, UK and the Commonwealth Fashion Council. ‘Being selected to show my ‘Voyager’ collection in Mozambique was a big honour since there were designers there from all over the world,’ he says.

But Muriithi hasn’t allowed the adulation to go to his head. ‘I still want to get my creative identity right,’ says the man whose designs are earning him invitations to show everywhere from Cape Town and Jo’burg to Paris and London. But for now he can be found either in his workshop or at his new office at Rosslyn Riviera Mall.

2015 A Rebirth of art with Social Themes

https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/The-re-birth-of-art-with-social-themes-in-Kenya/-/539444/2738840/-/dhxjo3z/-/index.html

Retrieved from BD online and posted June 3, 2015

GUSII COMEDY A LINGUISTIC MIX

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 22 January 2020)

Cyprian Osoro doesn’t want to be misunderstood.

When he and Victor Nyaata came up with the idea of having a live ‘Gusii Night of Comedy’, they didn’t intend for only Kisii people to come see their show on February 8^th at Kenya National Theatre.

“Our performance will blend Swahili and English together with Gusii,” says the actor who, like Nyaata, is probably best known for his comedic roles in Heartstrings Entertainment’s ‘rib-tickling’ plays.

Just because their theatre company is called Mkisii ni Mkisii and their Saturday night live show is called ‘Ensacha Enkungu’ which in Kisii loosely means ‘A man who behaves like a cowardly woman’, also doesn’t mean they aim to exclude anyone.

Nick Kwach, another Heartstrings’ ‘star’ eagerly testifies to the multilingual character of Mkisii ni Mkisii as well as their show. “Just the same way we love Rumba music but don’t understand Lingala, so we can appreciate Kisii comedy without knowing every word,” Kwach says.

“After all, creative expression goes beyond language. For instance, I watch French shows, but I don’t speak French. I enjoy them anyway,” he adds.

To underscore his point, Osoro adds, “Nick is the producer for our show. He’s also a member of Mkisii ni Mkisii.”

The comedic comradery of the three actors has been apparent whenever a Heartstrings production features all three. Whether it was ‘Grass is Greener’ or ‘Odd one out’ or ‘Don’t Panic’, the trio never failed to elicit many laughs while the shows inevitably blend Swahili and English with Sheng.

Unfortunately, they’ll have a conflict of interest the weekend of February 6^th through 9^th when Heartstrings puts on its first show of the new year, ‘Good for Nothing.’

“Our show is just one night, which is that Saturday, the 8^th but it couldn’t be helped,” says Osoro who still considers himself a hardcore member of Heartstrings. So do Kwach and Nyaata. “Even if we’re not with them for this production, we are always together,” Nyaata says assuringly.

But since acting is all three of their chosen profession, Osoro says a guy still has to hustle to make a good living. “But times have changed since actors were impoverished. Now we just have to juggle various things to make it work, but it does,” he adds.

For instance, both he and Kwach write for NTV’s ‘The Wicked Edition with Dr King’ori’. Kwach also writes for ‘The Churchill Show’ and Comedy Special while Osoro is a creative producer for the daily lifestyle show, ‘Living with Ess’ on NTV. He also has his own online cable show where he has played ‘Mwalimu Rikunyati’ on Citizen TV’s Viusasa for six seasons of 13 episodes each. Meanwhile, Victor also stars in the popular TV sit-com, ‘Trap House’ on NTV. He also runs an online liquor store called Privika which he somehow has time to manage.

Plus, all three actors have been involved in dubbing Mwalimu Rikunyati in local languages. Originally filmed in Gusii, it was initially dubbed in Swahili and English, but after that, the episodes were dubbed in everything from KiKamba, Kiluhya and Dhuluo to Kalenjin, Kimeru and Kikuyu.

They all act in TV commercials as well. But currently, their focus is their Gusii comedy night.

“This will be Mkisii ni Mkisii’s first live production,” says Nyaata who with Osoro started producing online comedy clips in Gusii four years ago.

“We were still living in Riruta at the time,” adds Osoro who recalls the years when he and Nyaata stayed with five other guys in a single room mabati house. Both actors were performing in set-text plays with Theatrix Arts Ensemble when they starting filming short comedy clips just for fun. “We first posted them on my Facebook page, but then we got so many hits, we went to YouTube,” Nyaata adds.

But now that they’ve got thousands of subscribers following them at Mkisii ni Mkisii, they decided the time was ripe to go live. That means their Gusii comedy Night will be the premiere live performance of MnM in Ensacha Enkungu.

Basically, Osoro says the show is a story about one Gusii man’s journey from his rural home to the big city, including all the quirky things that happen to him along the way.

“We are trying something new for us. The show won’t be stand-up comedy or a sit-com. It will be more like situational comedy,” says Osoro who advises people to come see the show for themselves and enjoy.

KU’S CREATIVE MILLENNIALS REVEALED AT ALLIANCE

                                                                           Some of the KU Creative Millennials

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 20 January 2020)

Kenyatta University art students have finally begun to come out from their hallowed halls of academia to share the spoils of their training with the world outside.

Currently featuring at Alliance Francaise, the Creative Millennials are a fluid band of current and ex KU fine art students who have been brought together by the most outgoing among them, Andrew Chege aka CRAE which he says is short for Creative Real Artistic Energy.

Crea isn’t shy about his desire to have his art exposed to the light of day. Currently, he has several paintings up at the Karen Country Club. He’s also exhibited at the Kenya Art Fair. And when he first entered his art in the Manjano Nairobi County annual Art Competition in 2018, his piece won first prize in the student category. Then the following year, he had the nerve to enter his work in the established artists category and won a first yet again.

But when the 24-year-old got the chance to exhibit at Alliance Francaise, he didn’t want to have just a solo show. Instead, he asked several KU art students and alums to join him for last Friday night’s exhibition opening.

Altogether there are eleven KU artists currently constituting the Creative Millennials. Besides Crae, they are Joseph ‘Ango’ Makau, Taabu Munyoki, Martin Musyoka, Elizabeth Kiambi, Margaret ‘Melody’ Ngigi, Otto Gonde, Zephanleah Lukambo, Moses Sabayi, Elam Abish and Philip Oyugi.

The show itself signals a new generation of Kenyan visual artists, each having their own distinctive style, be it surrealistic like Ango Makau’s or super-realistic like Zephaniah Lukwamba’s, multimedia like Taabu Munyoki’s, abstract like Elizabeth Kiambi’s or photographic like Melody Ngigi’s.

What’s more, each of the eleven has acquired the necessary technical skills from university lecturers like Anne Mwiti. Mwiti is one of the few faculty members at KU who has shown her students how it is done as far as going public with their art is concerned. Her own paintings have been exhibited everywhere from Circle Art and Polka Dot Galleries to Nairobi National Museum, Karen Village and galleries overseas.

But Crae isn’t the only one of Mwiti’s students to go off campus and get involved in the local art scene. A number have previously exhibited at Manjano, the Kenya Art Fair and in various corporate offices where bare walls have given way to displaying young Kenyans’ works of art.

But Crae’s artworks are the ones that occupy the main gallery at Alliance. Along one wall are hung his series on military men, each dressed in colorful uniforms and equipped with all sorts of high-tech gear.

It’s rare to see soldiers looking so slick and being the subject of engaging art, except perhaps when they’re featured in battle. But Crae says he once dreamed of being a special ops soldier and that’s how they came to be romanticized in his art.

The rest his works on show are multicolored buildings devoid of human life. The skies behind them are beautifully blended; otherwise, the buildings feel abandoned, curiously impersonal and visually dystopic.

The remainder of the exhibition is devoted to the other Creative Millennials who only have a piece or two on display, but who nonetheless reveal the sort of exciting young talents emerging out of KU.

For instance, Ango Mutua has just two paintings here, but a work like ‘Mirror of Deceit’ shows him to be a surrealist in the Salvador Dali vein. That is, he translates a complex human relationship into one fantastical image that begs you, the viewer, to stand and contemplate its meaning. His imagery is edgy, maddening and amusing all at once.

In contrast, a work like Taabu Munyoki’s ‘Moving Part III’ is a magical mix of collage and paper cut-outs, of peasant mamas on foot peculiarly equipped with mechanical gears to give them traction and a moveable boost.

Her other semi-abstract work in the show is untitled but also appears to be a cyborg with machine parts built into her head and mind.

Meanwhile, Martin Musyoka has only one pencil drawing in the show. It looks like a study for one of his notable nudes (the art form he’s most known to paint). However, this one is discrete, only highlighting a thigh and leg apparently in a yoga pose. His untitled work is hanging upside down, leaving one to appreciate his anatomical style of naturalism.

But finally, it’s Zephaniah Lukwamba’s hyper-realistic portrait of an old, weather-worn man that is one of the most striking oil paintings in the show.

FILM REVIEW: BOMBSHELL BLASTS OPEN MALE HYPOCRISY

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 19 January 2020)

Bombshell is based on the 2016 Fox News sexual harassment scandal that brought down the most powerful man at Fox, its Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes.

Not to be mistaken for some dry, didactic melodrama with heavy feminist overtones, the film nonetheless is all about women in the media, including their trials, temptations and terrible predicaments they often face as they strive to progress in their media careers.

The film is also about power and the strategic thinking of ambitious women whose boss has been having his way with media women for many years.

Yet up until the ‘Me Too’ movement emerged to give women the collective courage to speak out and point fingers at their harassers, Ailes’ power, privilege and penchant to take advantage of vulnerable women went uncontested.

It is only when Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman), one of Fox’s star news anchors challenges Ailes’ ultra-conservative ‘talking points’ and subsequently gets the sack that she takes him to court for sexual harassment.

All hell breaks loose at Fox and the suspense builds as Carlson doesn’t marshal an iota of feminist support. In fact, women won’t back her up for the very real fear of losing their jobs.

Yet the one senior Fox anchor woman who could potentially tip the scale in Carlson’s favor is her media rival, Meghan Kelly (Charlize Theron who also co-produces the film).

The drama of women’s dilemma (specifically either to not be believed if you tell the truth or not to speak up and let the status quo remain) is exquisitely conveyed in Bombshell.

So is the issue of whether the vulnerable one (played by Margot Robbie) should comply with her harasser and keep (or get) the job, or refuse his advances and definitely lose the chance to ‘get ahead’.

History (and Google) will tell you that in real life, Meghan asserts her independence and frees other women to accuse Ailes as well. It’s a watershed moment for women in media as Ailes is not only sacked by his boss (owner of Fox) Rupert Murdoch who wants the scandal quashed as quickly as possible. Ailes also loses the law suit led by Carlson and Kelly and including 22 other women.

Personally, I have a fondness for films like Bombshell and Spotlight that expose corrupt conduct, especially the kind that’s been covered up in the name of tradition and male privilege for too long.

Yet Bombshell isn’t just for women. It can also serve as a cautionary tale for men since it is true that women moving into spaces once held exclusively by men tend to rock the boat and challenge the status quo.

But that need not be bad, especially when the women are as attractive as award-winning actors like Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie, all of whom looked like the women at Fox News.

The invisible star of Bombshell is prosthetist Kazu Hiro who transformed both Theron and John Lithgow as Ailes, making them virtual replicas of the real characters.

FILM: 'THE GREAT HACK' LEAVES ONE ASKING:IS DEMOCRACY DOOMED?

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 19 January 2020)

The Great Hack, Netflix’ newest documentary film, feels more like an intense murder mystery that’s filled with profound political intrigue. It’s also the most disturbing yet revelatory film that I have seen in a long time.

Brilliantly made by two Egyptian-American filmmakers, the film is all about the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal which has already forced Facebook to pay USD5 billion to the US Federal Trade Commission for its role in selling tens of millions of FB-users’ data to Cambridge Analytica.

The former military contractor turned political campaign manager Cambridge Analytica didn’t suffer a comparable fate to FB because its CEO Alexander Nix dissolved the company before CA’s criminality was fully exposed. Yet this film does its best to unravel the intricate online operations of these two firms.

Both operating in stealthy ways which were either incomprehensible or simply invisible to the average Facebook user, what the film reveals is that CA essentially ‘weaponized’ its user data rather like remotely-controlled drones. Both data and drones get their targets set and then are let loose to hit their mark. In CA’s case, the target was winning elections for political candidates who pay up.

Investigations are still ongoing to determine to what extent CA influenced which political elections. But the film clearly reveals that CA worked for the Brexit right-wingers in UK and the US Republican Party keen to elect Donald Trump president in 2016.

Filmmakers Jehane Noujain and Karim Amer first made The [Tahrir] Square about the Arab Spring in Egypt before they embarked on The Great Hack. The role of technology is largely what led them from one film to the other. In the first instance, social media primarily played a positive role in social change while in the second, the harvesting of data from social media (i.e. FB) largely served sinister and undemocratic purposes.

The Great Hack focuses on two antithetical players in the data scandal. David Carroll is a New York media professor who sues CA to get his data back. He wins the lawsuit but Nix dismantles his company before he can get it back. Nonetheless, Carroll proves his point, that CA acquired his data illegally.

Brittany Kaiser is a former CA director and geek who was hired by Nix specifically to ‘weaponize’ FB’s data to manipulate voters in any given country (including Kenya). Based on the online ‘likes’ of FB users, psychological profiles determined how and who to target with ads and ‘fake news’ that would persuade prospective voters to cast their ballot for CA’s preferred candidate. It was Donald Trump in the US 2016 presidential election; it was the pro-Brexit vote in the UK.

Kaiser became a whistleblower as did another CA ex-employee Christopher Wylie. But Kaiser’s revelations are even more damning of CA since she knew all about how and where the company was hired (for big bucks) to do the dirty tricks of which client.

“We went to the Democratic Party first, but they wouldn’t pay us. The Republicans did,” she admits.

Paul Simon - Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes (Official Video)

A GARDENER’S LOVE OF THE LAND

                                                                           Joseph Mwendala at work with his aloes

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (published 17 January 2020)

Joseph Mwendala had been tending the grounds in New Muthaiga long before the present owners moved in.

“They invited me to stay on since I knew the garden like the back of my hand,” says the gardener who’s been based on that 1.3 acres of lush green land for more than 20 years.

“They especially wanted me to help them clean up the rubbish that the previous owners had dumped behind the tall stone wall they had built to hide their trash,” Mwendala says.

There is good reason why this gardener didn’t want to leave when the previous owners did. It wasn’t just the pride he felt in tending a beautiful garden that he was largely left to plant as he wished. It was also the amazing location of the grounds.

“The house and grounds look out on the Karura Forest,” he says, pointing over the tall palms, podos, pines, bombax and Cyprus trees to where I could see Karura in the distance.

It was a windy day so the trees were swishing and swaying like young girls doing a graceful dance.

“And the river below, which is as far as the Bwana’s land extends, is the Kitisuru which I’m told has its source up in the Aberdares,” Mwendala says, noting how the river seems to sing in time with the trees.

What he doesn’t say is that there are essentially two gardens he has tended since the new owners arrived. Separated by the tall wall, the steep ground going down to the river’s edge had first to be cleared of debris, leaving seriously eroded ground which the Bwana had to replenish with rich top soil.

“He hired a landscape [architect] who helped me uproot most of the [exotic] trees and re-plant indigenous ones,” says the gardener who explains how the landscaper had created terraces all the way down to the river to ensure no more topsoil was lost.

In all, the process of reclaiming the land took about four years, but Mwendala says it was worth it. He doesn’t have to do much on that side of the wall anymore. “We more or less let it grow wild,” he says.

                                                                             A view of Kitisuru River through the bush

Noting that the Bwana insisted on keeping several exotic trees in the backyard bush, Mwendala says his favorite exotic plant is the ‘Queen of the Night’. Also known as the Orchid Cactus, he says she lets off a wonderful Jasmine-like fragrance in the evenings that he loves to smell.

And because human beings now spend very little time in the yard leading down to the river, those trees and shrubs are now home to whole colonies of monkeys, both Colobus and Sykes. Mwendala says they don’t seem to bother the new owners who remember Professor Wangari Maathai fondly.

                                        'Queen of the Night' lets off Jasmine-like fragrance in evenings

“It’s thanks to her that Karura Forest still exists,” he says, noting that his bosses are also environmentalists who have played their part in cleaning up and re-foresting the land adjacent to Karura.

In addition to monkeys, Mwendala says he also sees lots of birds in his bushy neighborhood. “I’ve seen owls and sunbirds and I believe we are also a breeding ground for birds of prey,” he adds.

The Gardener also believes they have bats and moths, both of which come out at night. The bats come out in search of food while the moths come to pollinate one particular cactus flower that grows just on the other side of the wall.

                                                                                              Facing Karura Forest

“We have lots of succulents on the higher side of the wall,” Mwendala says, noting he’s had to plant several assorted gardens on the ground leading up to the Bwana’s magnificent ivy-covered stone house. “We have planted a rose garden on the far end of the land. We also planted an herb garden right near the kitchen where we grow at least 15 different herbs.”

                                                                                                    Rose garden

Then at the entrance just next to the steep driveway leading down to the cobble-stoned terrace are an assortment of magnificent trees. “There’s an avocado, mango, orange and even a loquat tree,” he notes, adding that the old Croton tree in the front yard was there even before he came to work in New Muthaiga.

Before I leave, the Gardener wants to ensure that I understand he works a lot harder than he has let on. For he also looks after the monstera, anthurium, aloes and a slew of plants whose names he only knows in Kikamba. I’m in no doubt, Mwendala’s a hard-working man.

                                                                       The cactus flower pollinated by moths

SAKINA AND JUSTIN A ‘CLASS ACT’

                                                                                        Sakina in 'What happens at dusk'

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 16 January 2020)

Long before Mildred Sakina and Justin Mirichii decided to get hitched, they had lots in common, most specifically, theatre and the performing arts.

It was around the same time that these two busy thespians also chose to establish their own production company.

“The first play we produced as Sanifu Productions was ‘Night, Mother’ with Dr Julisa Rowe and Rachel Kostma,” says Sakina who previously had Dr Rowe as her theatre lecturer at Daystar University.

                                                                      Justin in 'My Better Half' which he also wrote

“We chose the Swahili word, sanifu, meaning the most proper way to do something,” says Mirichii. “To us it also means treating actors well, both on set and in terms of paying them what they are worth,” he adds.

“It also implies being professional by being disciplined and keeping time,” she says.

Clearly, the term ‘sanifu’ has multiple meanings for these two multi-talented founders who are both actors and playwrights as well as each having their own individual strengths.

“For us, Sanifu isn’t just about creating entertainment. We also want to produce shows [be they live theatre or films] that have impact on society,” adds Mirichii.

One of the most impressive ways that they’ve proved their social relevance is by running an ongoing series of Actors Workshops that aim to impart practical knowledge and skills to aspiring performing artists.

                                                                                          Sakina (centre) in 'Edufa'

“There’s a story to how we started the workshops,” says Sakina. “Justin kept getting emails from young actors who wanted to advice on how to break into the field. Finally, we decided to create a platform where they could be mentored on many aspects of performance,” she added.

Since April 2018, Sanifu has run no less than ten day-long workshops on everything from script analysis, character development and voice to branding, marketing and drawing up contracts.

“Initially, admission to the workshops was free; but as we brought in professional facilitators, we had to give them something for their time and expertise; so we had to start charging a bit,” says Sakina.

                                                                 Justin (R) in Kaggia with Martin Kigondu

But Sh300 hasn’t deterred young actors who heard about the workshops, mainly on social media.

“We have a Facebook page entitled ‘Class Act’ where we post our information,” says Mirichii who majored in IT at Strathmore University at the same time as Sakina was doing Communications at Daystar.

The two say they would ultimately like to start a theatre and film academy as well as an Actors’ Sacco. But those are future plans. In the meantime, both are busy

Together, they have worked in film and on stage. For instance, for the Machakos Film Festival, he wrote ‘The Pitch’ and she directed it. “Unfortunately, our submission was late so we had to put it on YouTube in December,” Sakina says.

They were both acting in the short Docubox film ‘Millet’ by Lydia Matata,” They also helped produce the Chatterbox shows, ‘Bei ya Jioni’ and ‘Lwanda Rockman’ which she stage-managed and he acted the role of Konte in Lwanda. Chatterbox also makes films, two of which Sakina did production management for and Mirichii did casting. “Both ‘Trap’ and ‘318’ were produced for the Machakos Film Festival, scripted by JJ Jumbi,” says Mirichii, who also wrote several screenplays in the last two years. They included ‘My Better Half’ in which he co-starred, ‘Free Fall’ and ‘Stangers by Blood I and II’ for Back to Basics theatre group.

                                                                   Sakina in 'What Happens at Dusk' by Martin Kigondu

But Mirichii may be better known as an actor than a scriptwriter. They both acted in several shows at Phoenix Players although at different times. He was in shows like ‘Fences’, ‘Carry Me Kate’, ‘Pull the other one’ and ‘The Hitman’ while she performed in ‘Apples from the Desert’ and ‘Enough is enough’.

Sakina also acted with Gilbert Lukalia in ‘Edufa’ and Martin Kigondu in ‘What happens at Dusk’.

“We met after Edufa, when Gilbert was planning another production. It never materialized, but something better happened!” says Mirichii, giving a smile to his spouse.

As they prepare for the coming months, the Sanifu founders already have busy schedules.

                                                                                    Justin in 'My Better Half'

Sakina is writing two scripts, one a drama, the other a film about women. She also just finished filming ‘Brikicho’ with Docubox support. Mirichii is also writing scripts, one a play, the others screenplays for film. He too was recently acting in the award-winning film, ‘Watu Wote.’

Meanwhile, they will continue doing Actors Workshops starting again next month.

“You can also find most of our films at YouTube,” Sakina says. “Otherwise, we are at ‘Class Act’.

Clearly, they also are a class act!