LEO’S SELF PORTRAITS TAKE AN OBLIQUE TURN

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 1.30.23) Leo Mativo is a shy guy who has been painting for years. But he has always kept a low profile, up until now. Now he is having his first solo exhibition at Alliance Francaise and calling it ‘Mirror, Mirror: Portraits of Being Alive’. Blending semi-figurative features with what he calls abstract expressionism, Leo is creating his own aesthetic and poetic language that feels more like a new form of surrealism than anything else. Leo actually trained in Architecture at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) and tells BDLife he considers himself a ‘self-taught’ artist. But what he may have missed in formal training in fine art, he has gained in self-reliance and confidence in his own imagination. He has also learned to listen to and trust in the advice and insights of his mentors. They include artists like Shabu Mwangi who has been encouraging him keep on doing what he loves. Shabu also spoke on Leo’s behalf at the artist’s opening on January 18th.

Another mentor who took the time to appreciate Leo’s work, and also make several astute remarks that were meant to strengthen his presentation is Charles Courdent, Director of Alliance Francaise. In one conversation with the artist, Mr Courdent raised the issue of the valuation of contemporary art, particularly as he sees so-called emerging artists pricing their art at the same level as more established painters. But in so doing, they lose the opportunity to reach an emerging group of young art collectors who would love to buy, but cannot afford their peers’ works of art. Noting that on the opening night of Leo’s exhibition, the AF gallery was full of that sort of youthful crowd. Yet few were able to put a red sticker on paintings they would have bought if the price tag had been more affordable.

Courdent wasn’t simply speaking to Leo. He was observing what he had seen in other African art centres, as in Lagos or Johannesburg where he had observed brilliant African artists selling their art at prices that their public could easily afford. He said they saw no shame in keeping their prices low. “Every artist would like to go home at the end of their exhibition with all of their artwork sold,” Courdent told BDLife. But as long as younger artists try to follow the pricing of the galleries, they do no service to themselves. He suggested that there is need for further discussion on the subject of valuation. Harsita Waters, Director of Cultural Programs at AF told Leo that such a conversation could be scheduled in March. For now, Leo will be available on the final day of his show on January 30th, to talk to people about his art.

“I’m just happy to have gotten my work out there for the public to see,” he said, still speaking as the shy guy who’s comfortable keeping a low profile. Meanwhile, Leo’s whole show is an evocative expression of feelings and emotions. “All of the portraits in this show are autobiographic,” Leo tells BDLife. Surprisingly, this is not what one will see instantaneously as you walk through the ground floor gallery. “Everything is revealed through the eyes,” he says, offering us the key to understanding what he had in mind when he was creating these obliquely- shaped entities that he explains are meant to represent human heads, necks and bodies.

One has to appreciate the wildness of his vision since none of his body parts have any correlation with human forms. What they do express are Leo’s emotional responses to moody moments of everything from anguish, revenge, fear, and alienation, to joy, indecision, anticipation, and hope. All of these feelings are expressed through Leo’s paintings. What is fascinating about them is that however oblique his heads may seem, if one takes a little time to contemplate them, one can feel those moody emotions. There’s an evocative power and depth to his art which is probably why he was welcomed to exhibit at Alliance Francaise in its spirit of appreciation of and openness to supporting fresh new talent.

Most of the works in this show are painted with acrylics (and occasionally oils) and applied to all sizes of canvas with everything from his hands and fingertips to brushes, dry and wet cloth, and spray bottles (as opposed to spray paint). Each piece takes him closer to achieving his goal for 2023, which is to complete 100 paintings in his ‘Portraits of being alive” series.

WHO’S WHO IN KENYAN THEATRE

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (Posted January 30, 2023) It was the ‘who’s who’ of Kenyan theatre last weekend at Kenya National Theatre, but not in the sense of seeing celebrities and the super-rich on the red carpet. It was more like seeing Crony Productions’ “Whose wife are you?” on KNT’s main stage and Too Funny Entertainment’s ‘Who’s Your Daddy? at Ukumbi Mdogo across the way. (The ‘Daddy’ script has nothing to do with the original ‘Who’s your Daddy?’ written and produced by Martin Kigondu. We wonder whether Martin copyrighted his play, and if so, what next?)

But apart from the who’s who titles, the two plays have little in common, except that both revolve around marital issues and betrayal, and both have a problem with the editing of their scripts. That’s to say, both shows dragged on for more or less two hours when both stories could have been told in half the time. Again, there was a qualitative difference between Crony’s characters’ inclination to extend their joke time longer than necessary. For instance, Desmond (Osoro Cyprian), the gardener came back to work after 42 days away and begged too long to get his job back. His pleas were pathetically funny, but still went on too long. Wakili (Victor Nyaata) was hilarious; however, his monologue-like phone conversation could have been easily shortened. So could his opening exercise scene.

It was finally the jail scene when Wakili meets his client, Elvis (Humphrey Maina) that a few of the jigsaw puzzle pieces fall into place. In fact, Elvis is a pivot character in the show, especially when the prison warder (Nick Kwach) tells him he’s a free man because the judge dropped all the charges. It’s the opposite of what Victor told him, so the plot thickens and the suspense builds. This is when the play gets interesting. The last scene is the most intriguing, yet I feel Crony could have dropped one or two clues before Elvis comes home. He takes a while to wake up to his betrayal by his wife, Grace (Marion Wambui) and former best friend, Wakili. He has to go to his former bedroom and find the missing file that contains all the documents required to prove his innocence. Victor apparently had them all along. He also apparently hooked up with Grace, having married her while keeping Elvis stranded in jail for the rest of his life. Fortunately for Elvis, their plan didn’t work. But Crony’s did. Thus, the final line of the play made sense: Whose wife are you? And everything fell into place.

Then there’s ‘Who’s your daddy?’ It’s another story altogether. One can’t help asking, why Too Funny Productions used the title of a well-known Kenyan play, especially when it isn’t really relevant to the story? Then there’s the issue of noise. People were shouting and fighting literally from the moment the play opened. The lady of the house, Mama Natalie (Diana Kamau), was chasing her house-helper, Jennifer (Margaret Njeri) for not doing her job. But again, the chase went on too long. And why beat the maid? The inanity of the issue turned into pathos when we found Natalie (Purity Mueni), the daughter was just as loud and abusive of the maid as her mom. Then when the so-called village ‘elders’ arrived, the bullying continued, only now, it was the elders bullying Mama Natalie.

This turned into a sort of slapstick comedy. However, since the subject uppermost in the Mama’s mind was negotiating over her daughter’s dowry, that didn’t get settled until the fiancé Maxwell (Benjamin Veke) arrives on the scene and paid the mom’s asking price of USD10,000. We learn nothing about this guy nor about any of these characters. The show is dominated by ignorant old men behaving badly. What’s even more preposterous about this play is that we suddenly learn the wedding is supposed to take place the following day. How can this be, especially when the bride price hadn’t been paid (until the last minute) and the so-called wedding planner (Joseph Nderitu) and his wife (Faith Ngundi) had already been paid half a million shillings. Yet the mama hadn’t followed her money to ensure the guy had carried out her wishes. But now as he suddenly shows up at the last minute, she doesn’t have a clue that her money has been swallowed by the same fellow.

The final absurdity is when the fiancé shows up having married Jennifer overnight. What happened? If this was Maxwell’s intent, then why did he pay the dowry? Where’s the logic? Anyway, it’s good to see the theatre coming alive again in 2023.

VOTING OPEN FOR BEST SHOWS, ACTORS TILL FEB.13

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted January 25, 2023) As the theatre-loving public is now free to cast their votes for their favorite play, producer, director, actor, and actress, the short-listings of the KTA jury are available for everyone to see. As BDLife got a video overview of the top candidates for 32 separate awards, KTA’s CEO Fedari Oyagi apologized on Monday that public voting would be open from Tuesday, 24th January, a day later than originally announced. “We wanted to simplify the process of voting so the public could easily place their votes,” Fedari tells BDLife. Having seen nearly all the shortlisted performances myself, it was exciting to see that many of my preferences were similar to most of the shows and personalities identified on the shortlist. “By giving the public a chance to vote, we hope to see them get more fully engaged in the awarding process,” said Ben Ngobia, outgoing Chairman of the KTA jury. That same sentiment was expressed by the incoming Chair, journalist Peter Ndoria who also welcomed onto the jury three new jurists. They are Dr. Emmanual Shikuku and Suki Mwanza, both of whom are senior lecturers in the film and Theatre Department of Kenyatta University. The third is a representative of the Kenya Government, Harriet Tergat who, like her predecessor, Milka Mugo, works in the Ministry of Youth, Sports, and the Arts. Among the candidates for best production of 2022 were ‘Mekatilili wa Menza’ whose scriptwriter Andrew Tumbo is also up for an award, ‘I will marry when I want’, whose director Stuart Nash is also up for an award for producing ‘Mstinji’ which is being staged this weekend at the Nakuru Players Theatre; ‘Blessed be the Fruit’ and ‘Super Nova’ both by Martin Kigondu who is also up for something in Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s play, ‘I will marry when I want’, and finally, ‘Speak their Names’ whose cast members were also up for awards as is their scriptwriter, Silvia Cassini. The best production is different from best musical theatre production apparently. It is also different from best Kikwetu or vernacular production, best [theatre] adaptation, and even best two-hander which is a new category added by the jury this year because there were so many two-hander shows in 2022. Indeed, last year broke records for how many new productions were staged this year than ever before. For instance, there were five times as many different productions stages in in 2022 than in 2021, keeping the jurists busy and the public responding exceedingly well. However, I would implore theatre companies to work harder at promoting their shows on a variety of public platforms. They need to do more than just create a poster (putting the dates and times in the smallest font size, creating a problem of visibility) at the last minute and putting the poster on maybe one or two social media platforms, expecting the public to have seen their poster and decided (also at the last minute) whether to come watch their show or not. This advice is particular pertinent to newer companies, (many of whom arrived on the scene in 2022) since older troupes like Heartstrings or Prevail Arts have dedicated fans who keep their eyes on the look-out for new productions by their favorite companies, a luxury the newer troupes need to cultivate. This form of self-promotion is vital not only because it can attract more local interest and attendance, but also because the wider world deserves to know how dynamic the Kenya theatre scene has become. For instance, the public has the opportunity, thanks to the generosity and knowledge of the KTA secretariat, to draw a distinction between ‘best production’ and ‘best [theatre] adaptation’. The latter category includes ‘Manic Monologues, ‘Mstinji’, ‘Sex Lives of African Women,’ ‘Les Miserable’, and ‘Aesop’s Fables’. And again, there may be debates over why there was a special award for Best Musical Theatre rather than subsuming the musicals into the overall Best production. But let the debts ensue. The short list of ‘Best Musical Theatre productions’ include Les Miserables’, Mekatilili wa Menza, Kesho Amahoro, and the Lion King. But possibly the toughest decisions made by the jurists involved selecting the four or five best ‘breakout actors’ and ‘breakout actresses’. These two categories were among the tough ones we were told because so much acting talent was seen on stage in 2022. One will need to go online at www.kenyatheatreawards.com/voting to find out who they are and to cast your vote before the voting closes on February 13th. May the best candidates win.

JESS ATIENO COMES HOME WITH VISUAL GIFTS AT RED HILL

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (jANUARY 24,2023) Jess Atieno’s solo exhibition at Red Hill Gallery turned into a magnificent multimedia phenomenon last weekend when she was joined with contemporary dancers and marvelous musicians, including James Mweu and Michel Ongaro. The inclusion of contemporary dancers accompanied by Ongaro, a musician I think of as Kenya’s brilliant version of Stevie Wonder, was the idea of Red Hill gallerists Hellmuth and Erica Rossler-Musch. “Remember, we have had [contemporary] dancers perform at previous exhibition openings,” Erica reminds BDLife. It had worked well before, as when Liza MacKay included a performance by another contemporary dancer at the opening of her pre-COVID solo show at Red Hill. But the inclusion of Michel on percussion and guitar together with flutist Oneko Arika seemed even more fitting and relevant to the theme of Jess’s exhibition.

‘The Moon has gone under the sea’ is the title of her ‘audacious’ show, one which brings to mind more questions than answers when one pays attention to what she has done to create her paintings. One can’t even be sure ‘painting’ is the pertinent term to describe what she has created and described as collage. For even more than collage, the creation of Jess’s images involves multiple techniques, methods, archival materials, and perhaps most importantly, research. The images she presents on canvas at Red Hill are all part of a larger conceptual art project that aims to examine archival imagery representing Africans as seen from a colonial perspective.

Then, flowing from that initial research, she aims (I think) to challenge the dominant narratives that the images reflect. Then, beyond the challenge, her intent is ultimately to change the narratives that diminish the dignity of Africans, replacing them with empowering imagery. One of those biases is that African people had no history or culture before colonialism came to bring them out of darkness and their ‘primitive’ incivility. That is why, until recently, most African art could only be found in ethnographic museums not art institutes since supposedly Africans never produced art. During an ‘Artist Talk’ given at her opening (just hours before her flight back to US where she’s currently lecturing at the Art Institute School of Chicago), Jess described how her research in public archives led to her eventually finding a French man online who was selling postcards featuring the sort of colonial images she was looking for.

“The postcards that I worked with [for this show] represent Kenyans and Ugandans,” she explained. But the images that she’s assembles have been disrupted by her reconstruction process which is fascinating and complex. For instance, one of her paintings entitled ‘A Song to the Silent Sisters’, began as an old photograph of several African girls seated together, but naked from the waist up. In order to disrupt and transform the biased viewpoint of the erotic, exotic and sexualized African female body, Jess removed the naked breasts and replaced them with lovely floral imagery. And in ‘Song in a Foreign Land’, she features the only European in the show. She is a Caucasian Catholic nun represented at the top of a cluster of African children. The placement of the characters is pyramidal while Jess’s splashy use of a fire-engine red color suggests that something violent is going on, violent as in removing children from their indigenous culture so they’ll more easily imbibe Western culture. And just as Jess took pains to find out the nationality of the people in the postcards, she was also able to identify places where some of the images come from. For instance, her most precious work (priced at Sh800,000), the ‘Sultan’ may be so highly valued by the artist because he looks like one of the few images among her postcards in which a man retains his self-respect. Perhaps that is because of his power, wealth, and leadership, representing the Omani Arabs who ruled over the Coast in pre-colonial times. But even he got a magical makeover from Jess, who highlighted elements of his strength and dignity.

Given the complexity of her ambitious goals, one can see why the Rossler-Musch’s felt inspired to invite contemporary dancers and musicians to perform at her opening. When I first met Jess in 2015, it was when she had her first solo show at Kuona Trust. Entitled ‘Full-Frontal’, it featured nude women of all shapes and sizes, some with bulges and giant bottoms, others skinny and wrinkled. It was my first encounter with this ‘audacious’ woman who has evolved and traveled far since then. But she’s still audacious, still interrogating issues that demand our attention.

KARAKANA'S ART IN THE PARK OUTSIDE KENYA NATIONAL THEATRE

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (POSTED January 19,2023 Steve Nderitu came up with an ingenious idea late last year. It was to create his own art gallery out of thin air. “There are many professional photographers who wanted to exhibit their work but had nowhere to go,” he tells BDLife. Quite a few of them had been part of the ‘Nairobi 47’ exhibition that Karakana, a collaborative artists’ platform, curated back in 2017. It is they who are among the 17 Kenyan photographers exhibiting in the “Nairobi 47 Reloaded’ showcase that you can still see if you pass by Kenya National Theatre today. It opened on January 2nd, and runs until the 20th. The showcase is outside, in the open air. It has been hung under the giant maple tree that’s still standing between the Theatre, Ukumbi Mdogo, Cheche Gallery, and the Conservatoire. All 60 images have been matted and attached onto weather-proof ABS board, after which they were hung on mesh-wire attached to soldered metal pipes, all designed by Nderitu working with fellow creatives. The photographers exhibiting include Evans Ogeto, Ronny Onkeo, Otieno Nyadimo, Stephen Ouma, Antony Trivet, Lucas Maranga, Derrick Milimo, John Gateru, Mutahi Chiira, Beks, Alex Kamweru, Humphrey Gateri, Kesh Nthamba, James Gitonyo, Alfred Mwangi, and Chintan Gohel. The idea of the exhibition was to visually explore Nairobi from all different angles. For instance, wildlife, which used to be the main focus of photographers in Kenya (remember the Big Five), is rarely portrayed except as they look like prisoners held inside the confines created ever since the SGR train-line got channeled through what was meant to be the animals’ once-expansive home in Nairobi National Park. There is also a fascination for skyscrapers and cityscapes in the collection. It’s seen both from the ground level and from aerial perspectives. There are views of Nairobi by night and Nairobi by day. And there are photos that are obviously photoshopped and others that are not, like Ronny Onkeo’s image of ‘Matatu art’ (where the tout swings like an acrobat in and out of his flying steed) and Onkeo’s Tailor (mistitled as a ‘Hairdresser’ despite his stitching intently behind his Singer sewing machine.) There are also several action photographs of sportsmen in ‘Nairobi 47 Reloaded’, including one footballer intent on blocking a ball about to score a point for the other side. And finally, there are photos that have obviously been photoshopped. Among them is the most mysterious image in the show. It is one I had to ponder for a time before I could see one man’s image duplicated and layered several times to create what looked almost like a human centipede. At a time when almost every Kenyan who has a smart-phone fancies him or herself a photographer, it’s fun to see creatives appreciating the importance of still photographs fulfilling that old adage that ‘one picture is worth a thousand words’. In fact, many people are cultivating the craft of photoshoots and also videos with their mobile phones. But it still takes some training to move from being an enthusiastic amateur to becoming a professional photographer. It seems that Karakana appreciates them both since ‘Nairobi 47 Reloaded’ features both aspiring amateurs and professionals. Either way, it’s a show that merits seeing before it’s gone this weekend. “The main reason we wanted the exhibition held outside was so that more people could see art,” Nderitu says. “We could have taken the exhibition to many indoor spaces, including galleries. But we want art to be more accessible to people who might never step foot into an exclusive art gallery,” he adds, noting that Karakana plans to pay more attention to public art in the future. Since Karakana has been in the business of finding ways to encourage and promote the development of up-and- coming as well as professional creatives of all kinds, Nderitu has been curating a variety of events in assorted spaces, from Alliance Francaise and Cheche Gallery to Uhuru Park. Among those events other than art exhibitions are public forums and dialogues that Karakana has been running since 2018. “We have been holding discussions on a wide range of topics,” Nderitu says. “One of them will be held today, [January 20th in the Cheche Gallery] at 5:30. The topic will be on ‘NFTs and Tech’. The panelists will include Ngina Ndelo, an experimental digital and NFT creator, Tony Onkeo, visual artist, Edmond Nonay, audio visual artist, and Chris Evans, visual artist. Among the topics they will discuss are ’making money for visual artists through NFTs’.

A CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF ENTANGLEMENT

By Margartta wa Gacheru (composed 14 January 2023) Victor Muyekwe hit the nail squarely when he named his new play ‘Entanglement’. I felt entangled in the play from the moment it opened and two people were standing in a shadowy space, shouting at one another for no clearcut cause. The woman is embittered by something the man has told her, making her vengeful and enraged. By the play’s end, we return to these two, still arguing but now in ‘real time’. Apparently, what we had just watched was a flashback. Yet while we have gone full circle, I still feel entangled by a whole lot of loose ends left dangling and multiple questions raised that I didn’t get answers to. I normally don’t rip new scripts to shreds. But I encourage Muyekwe to head back to the drawing board to help us understand what transpired in his play.

To give an overview, I think Entanglement is about several stories of duplicity and betrayal. For one, there is a wedding that is about to take place; yet the fiancé, ironically named Innocent (Michael Wafula) is in love with another woman. So why marry Velma (Melissa Karimi) and not his lover Jael (Joy Kairu)? We eventually learn that there is an elaborate secret plan between the fiancé, his lover, and a man named Onesmus who desperately needs money to pay for an operation. So why are they expecting Innocent to get money from Velma, his new wife, once he marries her? We are left guessing that perhaps when Velma’s father died, he left her an heiress with heaps of money that Innocent can somehow grab. But that is never stated, nor do we know how Innocent will obtain access to her cash. Was she going to be poisoned? Or what? Was he going to get her to change her will? At one point, Onesmus promises to provide passports to both Innocent and Jael so they can flee the country once they get funds sufficient for both Onesmus’s procedure and Innocent’s flight. And why when Velma learns the night before their wedding that he slept in her living room with Jael, did she say she still wanted to marry him? And how could the fiancé, once wedded to Velma do a complete turn-around and cancel the whole scheme, leaving Onesmus high and dry, and leaving his former lover out in the cold? We are told finally that Onesmus wanted the money to pay for his daughter Patricia’s operation. But why hadn’t he told his wife the daughter’s diagnosis which he had obtained several months before? Was it really because he was jobless and ashamed to tell his wife until he could raise the cash? And finally, there is the issue of who is who and what connections they have with one another? For instance, how are Innocent and Onesmus connected? Are they brothers? We are never told. And what kind of relationship does Velma have with Tellah, or Mama Patricia and Onesmus? Initially it looks like she is their daughter, but then Velma tells Jael that she met Innocent at her father’s funeral. They have been together ever since, so had Innocent been after her money from the start? We can only surmise whether he was or not. And what sort of relationship did Velma have with Jael? Did they only meet through Innocent, or were they best friends before? It would seem they had known each other before Innocent came on the scene, yet we don’t know. And why were two important scenes never seen on stage? There was the actual marriage, which slips by without our seeing such an important event. There was also the sickly child Patricia who we hear from her mom, Tellah, how her little girl died in her arms because she didn’t get the procedure required to save her life. Entanglement was a difficult play to watch specifically because there are so many gaps we’d have liked to see filled. But the play has immense potential, only that the script could be workshopped and revised. One feels the skeleton of an interesting script is there. But there is one thing I’d suggest be omitted. It’s the big bulky blanket that came out to shield the audience from witnessing the intimacy between Innocent and Jael in Onesmus’ living room. The lights went out in any case, and we the audience already saw which way the couple were moving so there was no need for the ‘cover up’.

KENYA THEATRE AWARDS SHORTLISTS AWARDS. PUBLIC WILL DECIDE

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 1.16.2023) Preparations for the upcoming Kenya Theatre Awards went into high gear last weekend as the judges met in an obscure hideaway in Naivasha for several days. Their task was a daunting one, to first shortlist the 170 productions staged in 2022 by no less than 100 theatre companies. The numbers of productions and theatre troupes jumped so much higher in 2022 than in years past, it almost seemed unbelievable. Yet in 2022, the KTA people kept close track of who was performing what, when, where, and how. Keeping track of the data is an essential reason they feel they can speak with some authority when they give awards to whom they choose on February 23rd at Kenya National Theatre. Yet the jurists are not working alone. “We are encouraging the public to participate in the voting process,” KTA’s CEO Fedari Oyagi tells BDLife. “They can vote online from Monday, January 23rd, he adds. Nonetheless, however transparent and democratic the jurors may sound, it’s still true that all of their deliberations are strictly top secret, and won’t be disclosed until February 23th, the official Kenya Theatre Awards night. “That doesn’t mean we don’t want more public participation in the awarding process,” says Kevin Kimani who besides being Principle Program Officer at Kenya Cultural Centre is the master mind, together with Fedari, behind the Awards. And while neither man is a jurist for the awards, both know the deliberations were not easy. “What made the selection process so challenging was not just the number of plays, musicals, and spoken word shows staged nearly every weekend in 2022, but also the quality of the works,” adds Fedari Oyagi who’s CEO of the KTA Secretariat but not a jurist. “Every juror who agreed to be part of the KTA jury had to commit to seeing all (or as many as possible), of the shows being staged throughout the year,” says Fedari Oyagi, CEO of the Awards Secretariat but not one of the jurors. “And after every show watched, they all had to fill out an online form that spelt out basic elements of the performance that they’d just watched,” he adds. That way, he explains, jurors could refer back to shows they might have seen early in the year but forgot. With the data shared collectively during their retreat, the judges could refer back to prior months so that no production got forgotten. A few shows may have deserved to be forgotten. But on the whole, the judges told BDLife they were pleased with what they had seen in 2022. Compared to what they watched in 2021, the leap from ’21 to ’22 was enormous. For instance, the number of theatre companies that performed in 2022 grew nearly five times. The number of productions staged is even more astonishing. In 2022 there were 170, while in 2021 there had only been 38. Multiple factors affected this difference, including the impact of the COVID lockdown on thespians in ’21. The jurors admit they only saw around 90 percent of the shows in ’22 since more than half were staged in Nairobi, making them more accessible to jurors. But KTA also got wind of shows that were staged in Kisumu, Mombasa, Nakuru, Lamu, and Eldoret. Fortunately, a few but not all the jurors were able to get around to most of those places. But KTA as an on-going body hopes to find friends of the Theatre who will help support the Awards in future so they can get round the country and inspire even more theatre activity nationwide. “We know there is a lot of interest in performance all over Kenya, and we want to support its development and growth,” Fedari says. One institution that made an immense contribution to the development of quality theatre in Kenya in 2022 was the French government through the French Embassy in Nairobi. “The French government gave technical support to theatre groups in several counties,” Ben Ngobia, Chairman of the Theatre Department at KCA University told BDLife. “That support improved sound and light systems to stages in Nakuru, Kisumu, Mombasa, Lamu, and Nairobi,” he adds. The French not only gave light and sound equipment; they also provided technical training to ensure the maintenance of those systems. The recipients of that support include the Nakuru Players Theatre, Swahili Pot in Mombasa, the Lamu Fort, Kisumu Dung Beach, and Sarakasi Dome. This kind of infrastructural support to Kenyan theatre is invaluable, so we must express our appreciation for it.

DIASPORN CURATOR COMES HOME TO KENYA

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted january 10, 2023) Mueni Loko-Rudd is a Kenyan-American curator whose home is in Austin, Texas, but who periodically comes to see her relations living in Kibera, Eastleigh, and Mwingi in Ukambani. We met at Village Market where I saw this striking young woman with beautifully coiffed Afro hair. I couldn’t resist. I had to tap her on the arm and apologize before asking if hers was her natural hair? We were in an art gallery, so the situation looked nonthreatening and gentile. She looked amused and said “Yes,” in an accent I couldn’t quite identify. “This is all my hair.” I couldn’t resist asking my follow-up question. “Are you Kenyan?” This is when the quip turned into a conversation. “Yes and no” is essentially what she said. That’s because she lives in Texas near her mom, but her dad, an American, lives and works here in Kenya. And whose work does she curate? No Kenyans as yet, but she’s open to that possibility. Meanwhile, she has two exhibitions closing this week at Martha’s Contemporary Gallery in Austin, featuring four African American artists. “Three in the front gallery, and one in the back,” she says. Of the three, two are painters and one is a photographer. “I meet photographers through my modeling,” she says casually, posing with a natural and lean look that’s distinctive and attractive. I don’t have to ask what she models since this 29-year-old has a natural grace that one imagines can model anything. It’s true, as she tells me she models everything from hair and hands to shoes and elegant gowns. But she says she doesn’t have much time for modelling. She’s far more interested in curating shows that support black artists like Emily Manwaring, the Haitian American artist whose work she’s exhibiting in the back gallery at Martha’s Contemporary.

Having attending an Historically Black University in Austin, Mueni actually majored in Sociology, and then got a Masters in Social work. But she’d been introduced to the arts as a child by her mother, who Mueni says used to take her to all the galleries and museums in Austin. It was in graduate school that she took a course in Grants writing, which she has utilized ever since to raise funds to put on the shows that can benefit both the artists and the wider community as well. For instance, she is currently working on a public art project to create a large mural that’s being funded by the city of Austin. She has even gotten a grant to run two multimedia exhibitions, including both black musicians and visual artists. “That way we were able to pay the artists, and the funds we raised from ticket sales, we were able to donate to group [NGO] called the ‘Black Mamas’ who train local midwives and work in mainly black and brown communities in reproductive health,” she says. Mueni’s initial experience with fund raising began during her second year at university where her school is part of the United Negro College Fund (UNCL). Every year the fund hosts a pageant and the student who raises the most money for the fund wins the title of UNCL Queen. By doing everything from emailing corporates to going door-to-door, Mueni networked with all kinds and won the crown. “I realized how much I enjoyed networking,” she says. “But the prize itself included free room and board for the whole of my junior year,” she adds. And in order to make her pageant fun, she brought a Jazz ensemble to perform as well as a dance troupe that danced to the poetry of Gil Scott Heron (who wrote ‘The Revolution will not be televised’). Mueni was just 18 when she was crowned UNCL queen. She was still based mainly in Austin, a city that considers itself the ‘music capital of the world’. But since then, she has worked with artists from all across the country. ”I wrote a grant in support of a group called CARE, Companions and Animals for Reform and Equity, that’s based in Baltimore and assists black and brown people with disabilities, and assisted by pets. Mueni has even had the opportunity to conduct workshops for young students in Pakistan, hired by her sociology professor. “I was part of a group that ran workshops on skills in research and best practice,” she recalls. “So while I majored in sociology, I’m able to apply those skills in my work for Black artists,” Mueni says. Hopefully, Kenyans will be among them.

COUNTY 49, AGLOW WITH LOCAL TALENTS

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted January 10, 2023) Showmax series, ‘County 49’, premiered in Kenya last August and turned out to be one among many brilliant political thrillers that are being produced by a rising crop of Kenyan filmmakers, starting with the film’s director Likarion Wainaina and producer Millicent Ogutu. But I haven’t binge-watched a cable TV series in ages. Yet I couldn’t help getting hooked on the adrenaline-based intrigue, suspense, scandals, and well-written script that was so well performed by an amazingly gifted set of actors in County 49. It didn’t matter that there was no way in ‘real time’ that all those calamitous moments that afflicted Mwatela county could have taken place in a single day. Nonetheless, the time factor was a reminder every few hours that minutes were ticking by, adding to the suspense in every episode. What increased the tension is the fact that everything is being controlled by deadlines given by a mysterious band of masked terrorists, known as the Hive. They claim to need four billion shillings supposedly to pay back the workers who’ve been robbed by government. But the master-mind to all the ploys, including the kidnapping of Bwatele Governor, Nerimah Mkung (Wakia Mzenge) along with her Chief of Staff Debs Maka (Nyokabi Macharia), is a mystery until it becomes clear that it’s the former Governor Okusimba aka Ox (Ainea Ojiambo) who is pulling the strings. Ox had just been indicted on corruption charges, including money laundering and fraud. Publicly, he claims he’s innocent. But privately, he has planned an intricate scheme to screw over not only the county government but the workers that the Hive claims to be serving. In reality, he holds the county and the Governor hostage so that he and his thuggish partner Elijah Matata (James Webbo) can collect the billions and then flee to Sierra Leone with Ox’s wife and children. Ironically, it’s his family, especially his daughter, who ultimately play a major role in bringing Ox down. But the one who comes forth with the most damning evidence and first-hand testimony against Ox is his former right-hand security officer. Malik Maka (Peter Kawa) had acted like a dedicated hit-man for Ox, rather like a Kenyan Jason Bourne who’d been a programmed assassin. But in Bourne’s case, he’d been brainwashed to kill on command. Malik had been just as obedient as Bourne, so one could suggest that he too had been brainwashed. But Malik’s conscience finally compelled him to confess his own role in Ox’s murderous schemes, a role large enough to get him sacked from his government position and disgraced in the eyes of the world. Yet Malik is a complex character. Initially, he doesn’t come off as a sympathetic sort, since he too had betrayed a loved one, even as he was loyal to the state. He betrayed his wife Debs with the former Governor’s beautiful daughter Zoey (Ivy Colette). Nonetheless, working outside the system, he still has the ear of Governor Nerimah who has learned to trust no one, except for Malik who is the only one able to find who’s pulling the strings and how he can be brought down. Plus Malik still loves his wife despite her intention to divorce him and marry Sinjin (Martin Githinji) , a double-minded cop who seems to love Debs, but even he is involved in Ox’s intricate plan. The series explores the themes of duplicity, betrayal, greed, and a hardness of heart that allows so much murder, mayhem and thuggery to prevail in County 49. Ox is even capable of achieving his mind-boggling greedy goals by pursuing his ‘Plan B’, by blowing up millions of citizens in the county. If all else fails, he plans to blow up a major dam in the region. That would put scores of villages and towns under water and slaughter thousands of wananchi. In other words, blackmail is also included in his master plan, even if it means demolishing the county's economy as well. Yet while there’s the suspense of dealing with corrupt politicians and their lackies, there’s also the personal drama of relationships that are major letdowns. This is where the scriptwriters dig into the duplicity versus trust between everyone from the Governor and her assistant (Maqbul Mohammed) to Malik and Debs, Debs and Sinjin, and even the Ox who has his biggest troubles with his daughter, wife, and son. In short, the show holds one captive for 13 episodes, after which you’ll hope there will be season two of County 49.

KINUTHIA AND FRIENDS AT VILLAGE MARKET

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 8 January 2023) Patrick Kinuthia curates his own ‘Collective Art Show’ in the Exhibition Hall of Village Market at a time when many folks have yet to emerge from their holiday retreats.

Best known for being a portrait painter and gallerist who’s got his own Roweinay Gallery, Kinuthia shares the space with nearly a dozen other painters, several of whom are ‘emerging’ artists and others better known for being part of Kenya’s evolving art world. “I like giving younger artists an opportunity to show their work,” Kinuthia tells BDLife as he breaks away briefly from a conversation he is having with prospective clients. “Actually, they have already selected two paintings that they’ll take away today,” he confides.

His works, be they portraits, landscapes, or still-lifes tend to dominate the hall. But one cannot help taking note of a number of large works by Samuel Njuguna Njoroge since his peri-urban street scenes are filled with a wide spectrum of dazzling colors. The two artists could easily fill the exhibition hall by themselves since both are prolific and their works are gentle on the eye. But Kinuthia made sure to retain plenty of space for artists like Stickky Muriithi whose charming ‘portraits’ of tennis shoes accessorized with floral bouquets are slightly surreal.

Kennedy Kinyua has only one painting in the show. But he continues to paint in the same vein as Bertiers Mbatia, his one-time mentor who populates his paintings with a wide range of people, often politicians. In Kinyua’s case, his people are apolitical and undisturbed by the presence of apes in their midst, be they gorillas or chimpanzees. Derrick Munene has brought paintings to the show that correlate with the one selected to cover both the front and back of the latest Kenya Arts Diary 2023. They are collages of winning Kenya runners participating in international marathons. Munene’s paintings capture that snapshot moment when they are all crossing the finish line and all expressing a similar feeling of joy, elation, and ebullient triumph.

Kirosh Kiruri has just two tiny paintings in the show, yet both are gems. Both are of women, both seated and busy, and both preparing food. One mama is studiously shaping her chapati to fry, while the other is peeling potatoes possibly to make chips (or ‘French fries’) or mukimu. But both look like they are meant to be the lead character in some children’s illustrated book of fairy tales. John Maina also painted portraits of working people. One is a seamstress working at her sewing machine, the other a shoe-shine man busy polishing a shoe. Both were painted with what feels like a clearcut appreciation of those humble skills, as if the artist knows those workers first-hand. Josephine Wambui is on attachment with Kinuthia at his Rosslyn Riviera Mall Gallery from Buruburu Institute of Fine Art. “I’ve been mentoring Josephine and encouraged her to bring her work to the show,” says Kinuthia. “She wanted to paint a place familiar to people so she chose the railway line that runs straight through the heart of Kibera,” he adds.

The other young artist who brought several of his landscapes to Village Market is Vincent Kimeu, a member of the Mukuru Art Club and mentee of Adam Masava, the founder of the art club. “I believe Vincent is somewhere under 20 [years old], but his landscapes are quite popular,” says Kinuthia who has only one landscape in this show. ‘Nanyuki’ was painted recently when he went for a workshop on the edge of that town, organized by Sarah Whithey, founder of the Banana Box. “She is hoping to stimulate wider interest in the arts in that region, and the workshop was part of that project,” says Kinuthia, an artist who often treks around the country, sketching and snapping photos as he did at the old Mombasa port. “I went there explicitly to take photos of old Swahili doors,” he says, pointing our gaze to one corner of the hall which is filled with paintings of semi-abstract doors that the artist has made to look like prints.

The other artist in the show (besides Patrick) who paints wildlife is the Ugandan artist Jjuuku Hoods. All painted in black and white, his wild dog looks greedy like a hyena, and his rhino looks ready to come after you, having aimed his precious horn squarely in the viewer’s path. In contrast, Kinuthia paints placid herds of both wild and domestic creatures.

THEATRE PREVIEW OF WHAT'S TO COME IN 2023

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted January 4th, 2023) This past year must have broken records for the number of productions staged in a 52-week period, when there were two and occasionally three shows happening the same weekend. This year is also shaping up to bring lots of good, and possibly great productions to the stage. There are several shows that will be repeats of what we watched in 2022. But they will be coming mostly due to popular demand. They include shows like Prevail Arts’ ‘Blessed be the Fruit’, Sitawa Namwalie’s ‘Taking my Father Home’, and possibly even ‘How to have an affair: A Cheater’s Guide’ which made many chuckle at this salacious satire. We have the second edition of the Kenya Theatre Awards coming on February 24th at Kenya National Theatre. The first KTA went over well, and many companies were energized at the thought of possibly gaining the recognition the awards would bring. There are some groups, like Hearts of Art that have already mapped out the year with shows specified. HOA has planned to stage four shows already. They include ‘Pieces of a woman’ directed by Caroline Odongo in March; ‘Stars from Exit Wounds’ directed by Gilbert Lukalia. Then, Hearts of Art founder Walter Sitati will direct ‘Son of Smoke’, and finally, the long awaited ‘Wangari Maathai, the musical’ will be directed by Lukalia! All this is amazing not just because it has been so carefully thought, but because Sitati has been out of the country studying for many months, and still has managed to stay in touch with his company. That’s dedication. In that regard, HOA is not alone. Many theatre companies are peopled by a faithful crew of thespians who love what they do. For instance, a group like Youth Theatre Kenya are dedicated to their team and will focus this year, says Jazz Moll, on conducting workshops and training, even as they plan to collaborate with Dance Centre Kenya on a show Jazz wants to reveal later this year. What is also important is the leadership of these companies. Like Prevail Arts has Martin Kigondu who says they will bring back ‘Supernova’ and ‘Blessed be the Fruit’ even as he plans to be working with Nairobi Performing Arts Studio to act in ‘Betrayal in the City’ which a number of outstanding Kenyan actors plan to perform in as well. NPAS’s Stuart Nash says ‘Betrayal’ is just one of the major productions he hopes to stage this year. He also plans to produce ‘Nairobi Half Life’, and is even thinking seriously about staging Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s other controversial musical ‘Mother, Sing for Me’ or ‘Maitu Njugira’. Ngugi has already expressed his appreciation of the thought of finally, after 40 years, of finally getting that play staged, as it was stopped from opening just minutes before the full cast was prepared to premiere the show in 1982. But it was not to be, and shortly thereafter, Ngugi was advised not to return from a short trip overseas as there were sinister plans afoot to do him harm. So we’ll see if 2023 is the year when ‘Mother, Sing for me’ finally gets her premiere. Meanwhile, companies like Chatterbox, Journals of Orina, Liquid Arts, and Festival of the Creative Arts are all planning to stage new shows this year. FCA has been quiet for years, so it will be interesting to see how the company has morphed. Their first production will be a Kikuyu play directed by Johnson ‘Fish’ Chege. Orina will be performing in his ’Conversation with God’ and Liquid’s first show in February will be ‘Kemia’ by Kelvin Manda and directed by Peter Tosh. Heartstrings and Crony Players are both planning to bring more original comedies. Esther Kahuhi, who has come back to Heartstrings after years, is also likely to bring us more of her Man-Made Woman, revealing her adrenaline-charged run-on wit and charm. The other one woman show that we will see in 2023 is Dr Zippy Okoth’s ‘Mama’s Mirror’ which she will stage in late March. Sitawa’s ‘Silence is a Woman’ is another wake up call to pay attention to womanly-wisdom. Two major woman-directed musicals will be Sitawa’s ‘Escape’ which is brand new and Kristen’s ‘Tuck Everlasting’ which is coming April 20-22 at Rosslyn Academy. Finally, Chemi Chemi players will also be extra busy this year with ‘Pirate’ in March, ‘Every Brilliant Thing’ with Mugambi Nthiga, directed by Julisa Rowe in May, and musicals in August and December. They will also collaborate with a Danish company to stage ‘For Colored Girls who considered Suicide.’

DAVID MAIDEN PAINTS IN THE OPEN-AIR AT TALISMAN

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (POSTED January 3, 2023) David Maiden has found the Talisman restaurant a warm and welcoming place to exhibit his art. One reason is because he has such an easy time painting there, in the open air, even as passersby engage him is discussions about his art. “People are curious and often like to speak to the artist,” Maiden tells BDLife soon after New Year’s celebrations when the place is packed with foodies meeting friends and getting set to go back to work. In this festive climate, it seems unsurprising that Maiden gets called away from our chat because someone wants to buy one of his works of art.

“It’s the ‘Mzee’,” he says as we want to know which one of his paintings just got sold. Maiden has already told us he considers himself a portrait artist first and foremost. Mzee is actually an 86-year-old Kenyan man who the artist met in Kilifi where he normally stays with his family. Like all of his portraits, Maiden has taken his subject out of his everyday context and placed him in a collage-like setting that is fused with kaleidoscopic colors stroked in gentle geometric lines. His other memorable portraits include a beautiful old mama and a stoical working man whom Maiden calls ‘Fundi’ since the man once worked for the artist. He had even sat for him as he sketched his impressions of a man he clearly admired.

Then, scattered all around Talisman, in its many nooks and crannies, are paintings featuring children, some Kenyan, most from Kilifi, and others from his own family, especially his son Bertie. “My son was four or five at the time,” Maiden recalls, painted while his people were on holiday in Tsavo Park. “We used to live in Tsavo since my wife was working there. But then we moved when it was time for my son to go to school. It was at that point friends told us about a school in Kilifi that we liked, and that is how we got there,” Maiden summarized.

Calling himself a ‘self-taught’ artist, Maiden says he studied filmmaking at university in the UK, but had always loved to paint. “I’ve been painting all my life, but there was a brief moment when I thought I wanted to make films,” he says, admitted he’s never made a single film. Instead, he went straight into portraiture. But my question was about the birds. Blended into his show on a 50-50 basis (half birds, half people) are his focus on colorful Kenyan birds, especially birds from the Coast. “I figured the birds are rather like me. We both migrate between Europe and Africa,” he says in a slightly glib way. But I don’t buy that idea. There must be some other reason. He admits he actually loves birds, and feels not everyone is interested in owning images of endangered species like elephants or rhinos.

In fact, right as you enter Talisman, you are struck by Maiden’s large oil painting of a Hildebrandt’s Starling. Dressed in a rich, navy-blue cape-like set of wings, she’s got a black head and neck with an orange and yellow belly. Then, all around her are the same colorful geometric shapes as we saw in the Mzee painting, only there’s a variation of color, shape, and texture. Finally, right at Hildebrandt’s feet is a smaller crown- crested creature named a White Bellied Go Away Bird. He too is beautiful and I believe he’s the same one Maiden met in Tsavo, the one that came to snack at the family’s outdoor dinner table one day. In any case, I want to know why, when he claims to love portraiture, does he paint all of these birds. Maiden’s response is simple. He paints portraits of his birds. So, in the same way that he studies his human subject’s outer and inner beings when he paints, so he tries to capture the essence and character of each bird that he portrays, be it a Hornbill, Sunbird, King Fisher or Guinea fowl.

Whether he succeeds depends on his public’s response, and he has had a positive one every time he returns to the Talisman. Born and brought up in the Lake District of the UK, Maiden might never have come to Africa if it hadn’t been for his wife. “She trains tailors and has a clothing production factory that’s part of an EPZ (Export Production Zone),” he explains as he picks up his brush and gets back to painting a little girl watching a beautiful Red-billed Hornbill.