book bunk

 

The 3rd Edition of the NBO LitFest just opened last Thursday night initially at Nairobi’s main public library, the McMillan Memorial Library where many of Africa’s leading writers were meant to meet for the first-time last week. They had all been invited to Kenya by the co-founders of the NBO Litfest, Angela Wachuka and Wanjiru Koinange. The two are also co-founders of the Book Bunk Trust which spawned Kenya’s first NBO LitFest in 2017.

But all that had to change for security’s sake once people hit the streets in CBD protesting government’s taxation policy.

So the first event of the four-day cultural

Festival quickly shifted to British Council where a shortened showcase of all that lay ahead. That included changing the program schedule completely. Now most                                                                  of the workshops, panels, films, book readings, timely talks on issues like African feminism, racism,  mentel health em with the writers, and social activists and master classes offering practical tips on writing both fiction and non-fiction, poetry, features, literary criticism, and stories for children and teens.                                                                 

The only problem with this kind of cornucopia of cultural activity left festival curators with no other choice than to double-book times and events to endure invited artists got to share their expertise during the festival.

So, while some may have felt the frustration of not being able to be in two places at the same time, it was still well worth the effort just to meet some of the leading luminaries of African writing, especially now as the global literary world, is finally waking up to the quality and quantity of African writing emerging from all over the region.

Among those award-winning writers and other artists who participated in NBO LitFest, they came in representing either Ethiopia, Cameroon, Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Sudan, and South Africa or those who jetted in from Brazil, Columbia, Cuba, Mexico, Lebanon, and hopefully even Palestine. Most have come thanks to the generous support from the Open Society, being represented by Ayisha Oson and Sandra Chege for the British Council. Goethe Institute also contributed as did several others.

 The inaugural event last week                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    also signaled the newly-forged partnership between the Book Bunk Trust and Hay Festival Global. 

“It was actually the Hay Festival that reached out to us,” Wanjiru told BD LIfe shortly before the Litfest officially opened. The partnership seemed like a natural fit since both bodies share similar goals. Both want to share more of their experience, expertise and connections with those who might find them useful. In Hay Festival’s case, they also hope to extend their network of thespians around the region in cooperation with Book Bunk which is currently working to upgrade Nairobi’s three-part public library system which includes the ninety-year-old MacMillan Memorial library together with the Kaloleni and Eastlands Public Libraries. They also hope collaboration with the Hay Fest will help them to modernize Nairobi’s public library system.

Wanjiru and Wachula also see their new partnership with the Hay festival as one which help them expand their international audience and expand their exposure to progressive theatre lovers who prospective donors who might appreciate Book Bunk’s efforts to open up public spaces like libraries, which have been neglected for many years and fulfill their vision of restoring nairobi’s status as greenest, cleanest   city in the sun. The two woman have high hopes theirnew public libraries both inside and out.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

 

 

 

One of the reasons the two women joined hands initially was to set up the Book Bunk in 2017 and then NBO Litfest in 2021 was their mutual love of books. They were also committed to opening up public spaces where local communities, particularly children, could have more access to books and other social activities. And both wachuka and Wanjiru had worked at Kwani? Kenya’s first serious literary journal  

founded by the late, great writer Binyavanga Wainaina who spearheaded a revolutionary movement among                                young Kenyan writers, including both   women.

Other than Ngugi wa Thiong’o, one can’t think of a more compelling and influential Kenyan writer than Binyavanga. In 2014, Time magazine named him in its annual Time 100 report as one of the most “Most Influential People in the World”. He inspired the literary careers of countless young authors. That includes Wanjiru Koinange whose insightful novel, The Havoc of Choice examines the impact of colonization on post-colonial Kenya, including the stark and painful period of post-election violence in 2007 – 2008.

Meanwhile, Binyavanga had made Wachuka executive director in charge of both Kwani? the journal and Kwani?’s own NBO Bookfest, thus making her most qualified to work well with such a thoughtful writer as Wanjiru.

Last night at the launch of the NBO LitFest, the new collaboration between the Book Bunk Trust and the Hay Festival Global was applauded by both parties.

 

The Hay folks, having a rich history of running cultural festivals, hope to share it with fledgling festivals like NBO lITFEST. And the Book Bunk Trust was also happy to share contacts and receive some that could help with their fundraising efforts. “Revitalizing the three libraries is quite a costly affair since we’ve been working to clean and refurbish Abut we’ve been doing inventories, documenting, and even digitalizing what we’ve found. All of this requires more fund-raising efforts on our part,” Wanjiru added.

 

 

 

NBO LIT FEST june july 24 draft 1 & 1 dont lont look

 The third edition of the NBO LitFest just opened last night at all three public libraries in Nairobi, the main one being McMillan Memorial Library with the other two being the Kaloleni and Eastlands Public Libraries.

The four-day event also signals the newly-forged partnership between the Book Bunk Trust (which founded NBO LitFest) and the Hay Festival Global. 

“It was actually the Hay Festival that reached out to us,” the NBO LitFest and Book Bunk co-founder Wanjiru Koinange (with Angela Wacuka) told BDLIFE shortly before the Litfest officially opened. Over the rest of the Festival, there will no less than 30 programs led by over 50 creatives coming mainly from formerly-known as Third World countries like Columbia, Cuba, Mexico, Nigeria, and South Africa. The programs being offered include master classes, book readings, panels, debates, and wide-ranging discussions that are open to the public and offer opportunities to listen to and learn from professional journalists, novelists, non-fiction writers, script writers, spoken-word poets as well as rappers, story tellers, and dancers.

One reason Wanjiru and Wacuka decided to join hands to initially set up the Book Bunk in 2017 and subsequently, the NBO Litfest in 2021 is their mutual love of books. They are also committed to opening up public spaces (like libraries) where local communities, particularly youth, can have more access to books and other social activities as well.

But what brought them together initially was a casual encounter at the precursor to the NBO Litfest, the Kwani? BookFest. After that, they were both got closely involved with Kwani?, the literary journal committed to the cultivation of young Kenyan writers and launched by the late Caine Prize winning writer, Binyavanga Wainaina.

Other than Ngugi wa Thiong’o, one can’t think of a more inspiring and influential Kenyan writer than Binyavanga. He has inspired the literary careers of countless young authors, probably even Wanjiru Koinange whose insightful novel, The Havoc of  Choice examines the impact of colonization on post-colonial Kenya, including the stark and painful period of post-election violence in 2007 – 2008.

Meanwhile, Binyavanga had put Wacuka in charge of both Kwani? the journal and Kwani?’s own NBO Bookfest, thus making her most qualified to work well with such a thoughtful writer as Wanjiru.

Last night at the launch of NBO LitFest, the new collaboration between the Book Bunk Trust and the Hay Festival Global was applauded by both parties. The Hay folks, having a rich history hopes to share it with fledgling festivals like ours. Actually, the Hay Festival was represented at the 2013 StoryMoja Hay Festival where Hay people played a pivot role working with Muthoni Garland to establish a cultural festival comparable to the one Muthoni saw first-hand at the Hay-on-Wye cultural festival. Sadly, one leading Ghanan writer died during a Somali terrorist on the Westgate Mall, the StoryMoja Fet also died due to its tragic and traumatic impact it had particularly on Muthoni.

                                                                                

.         sOne of the reasons Wanjiru explained that the Hay Festival people apparently reached out to Book Bunk is because they want to extend their global network of book lovers and revive interest in reading as well. The Book Bunk women share common interests and also has enable them to take advantage of Hay Festival’s myriad international contacts, quite a few of which have come to attend this year’s NBO LITFEST. Some will lead the Master Classes. Others will be on panels discussing how to find publishers, agents, and the confidence to get moving to fulfill your dreams and ambitions.

The third edition of the NBO LitFest just opened last night at all three public libraries in Nairobi, the main one being McMillan Memorial Library with the other two being the Kaloleni and Eastland Public Libraries.

The four-day event also signals the newly-forged partnership between the Book Bunk Trust (which founded NBO LitFest) and the Hay Festival Global.  “It was actually the Hay Festival that reached out to us,” LitFest and Book Bunk co-founder Wanjiru Koinange (with angela wacuka) told BDLIFE shortly before the NBO Litfest officially opened. Over the rest of the LitFest, there will no less than 30 programs led by over 50 creatives coming mainly from formerly-called Third World countries like Columbia, Cuba, Mexico, Nigeria, and South Africa. The programs being offered are master classes, classes led by professional journalists, novelists, non-fiction writers and spoken-word poets as well as rappers, dancers, and storytellers.

One of the reasons Wanjiru explained that the Hay Festival people apparently reached out to Book Bunk is because they want to extend its global network of book lovers and revive interest in reading as well. The Book Bunk women share common interests and also has enable them to take advantage of Hay Festival’s myriad international contacts, quite a few of which have come to attend this year’s NBO LITFEST. Some will lead the Master Classes. Others will be on panels discussing how to find publishers, agents, and the confidence to get moving to fulfill your dreams and ambltions.

 

TICAH ARTISTS DO PERFORMATIVE ART AND THEATRE SIMULTANIOUSLY

 TICAH’S Rika of June 2024 didn’t manage to turn water into wine during its week-long residency held at Goethe Institute.

But the collaboration between Goethe and TICAH (or Trust for Indigenous Culture and Health) did manage to involve more than two dozen artists from a wide range of artistic disciplines in the topic of water.

“It all started with the flood waters that were causing so much damage to many Kenyan communities,” TICAH’s Suzanne Mieko-Wambua told BD Life shortly before last Saturday’s culmination of the five-day workshop that explored both the positive and negative aspects of water.  She and her TICAH colleague, and visual artist Eric Manya have been creating inter-disciplinary ‘rika’ residencies over the last five years. Some have managed to beautify Nairobi’s CBD with public art while others, like their Water residency, have been able to transform water into performative art forms involving everyone from classical and contemporary dancers to story tellers, DJ-musicians, and rappers to videographers and landscape architects. There were also painters, printmakers, and sculptors working in both stone and a big chunk of Ice brought in for the opening performance by Irene Wanjiru whose ice sculpture will last as long as the Sun’s heat doesn’t transform it back into fresh water again.

“Throughout the week, we discussed all the ways that water impacts our lives,” storyteller Mueni Lundi told BF Life. The mornings were devoted to discussions of water’s many facets while the afternoons were when the artists put theory into practical illustrations of what water has meant to them.  

For instance, Amber van den Berg is a landscape architect whose specialty is Feng Shui, the ancient Chinese system of rules governing spatial arrangements aimed at protecting the free flowing, life-affirming energy of the chi. What she did was to create a beautiful circular garden filled with green plants which depend on water to grow. And within that garden she shared a traditional tea ceremony aimed at having a calming, healing influence on those who came to partake of the ceremonial tea. The garden was at the center of Goethe’s auditorium, around which so many water-related events were taking place simultaneously.

 But there was one inter-disciplinary performance that got especially high ratings as per the public’s spontaneous response was to the terrific mix, including storytellers, rappers, musicians like Mueni, blending with rapper Still Hatari, singer Sanaipei Tande, DJ Mura and the contemporary dancer, Sue Kambua whose energy (or chi) was dazzling in its free-flowing form of movement as she gracefully glided around the crowded room, as if to embody the spirit of unimpeded water.

The other dancer was the ballerina, Davillah Skynnor who performed around layers of light curtains that served as a watery backdrop conceived by the                                                                                                                                                                                videographer Lynnette Karigo who had shot her filmed footage in Malindi just as the tide was coming in. It was a delicate combination that served as an elegant reminder of how constant is water as it comes and goes, causing either health or hazard depending on forces we don’t fully understand.

There were a number of visual art exhibitions reflecting still more dimensions of what water can do. Like Wallace Juma’s examination of what is stashed away inside water droplets. He created a large diptych to give the full effect of his amoeba-filled water.

Other visual artists experiences with water included Cephas Mutua. Michael Musyoka, Wilson Matunda, aamong others.

Then came Irene with her stone carvings, one of which was of a woman carrying a big pot of water since she had no running water in her home. The other woman looks desperate since she had no access to clean water and was suffering as a consequence.

Finally, TICAH managed to find one of the flood victims, Sammy Mutinda who is based at Mukuru Lunga Lunga, the so-called slum where Shabu Mwangi and Ngugi Waweru established Wajukuu Art Centre back in 2003. Sammy was a small boy whose life has been transformed by all he’d learned while growing up with Wajukuu where floods are common.

“Wajukuu illustrated what water can do to a community,” Sammy said. “The floods have only strengthened our bonds as a community of artists since we have survived together through both good times and bad,” he continued.

At Saturday’s official opening, the Director of Goethe Institute, Cristina Nord welcomed everyone to enjoy the exhibition. Also in attendance was the founder of TICAH and former Regional Director of Ford Foundation, Mary Anne Burris.

 

WATER fraft

 

margaretta wagacheru <margaretta.gacheru@gmail.com>	8:22 PM (7 minutes ago)
to me

TICAH’S Rika of June 2024 didn’t manage to turn water into wine during its week=long residency held at Goethe Institute.

But the collaboration between Goethe and TICAH did manage to involve more than two dozen artists from a wide range of artistic disciplines in the topic of water.

“It all started with the flood waters that were causing so much damage to many Kenyan communities,” TICAH’s Suzanne … told BD Life shortly before last Saturday’s culmination of a week-long workshop exploring both the positive and negative aspects of water.  She and her TICAH colleague Eric Menya have been creating inter-disciplanary ‘rika’ residencies over the last two years. Some have managed to beautify the CBD with public art while others like their Water residency has managed to transform water into a performative art form involving everyone from classical and contemporary dancers to story tellers and rappers to videographers and landscape architects. There were also painters, printmakers and sculptors working in both stone and a big chunk of Ice brought in for the opening performance by Irene Wanjiru whose ice sculpture will last as long as the Sun’s heat doesn’t evaporate the ice and transform it back into fresh water again.

“Throughout the week, we had been discussing both the positive and negative features of water,” storyteller Mueni Lundi told BF Life. The mornings were devoted to discussions while the afternoons were the times the artists were putting the theory into practical illustrations of what water means and has meant in their lives.

For instance, Amber … … is a landscape architect whose specialty is Feng Shui, the ancient Chinese system of rules governing spatial arrangements aimed at protecting the free flowing, life-affirming energy of chi. So what she did was to create a beautiful circular garden filled with green plants which depend on water to grow. And within that garden she shared a traditional tea ceremony which also required water for making the tea. The garden was at the center of Goethe’s auditorium, around which so many water-related events that the public had a hard time keeping track of all the performances.

But one performance that got one of the highest ratings in terms of the public’s instant response was by Mueni in collaboration with rapper…..  and the contemporary dancer,… … whose energy or chi was dazzling in its purity and free-flowing style of graceful movement as she flowed all around the crowded room.

The other dancer was the ballerina, D dd, who danced around layers of curtains that served as a watery backdrop conceived by videographer Linette … who had shot her filmed footage in Malindi just as the tide was coming in. it was a delicate combination that served as an elegant reminder of how constant is water as it comes and goes, causing either health or hazard depending on forces we are never quite certain we can trust.

There were a number of visual art exhibitions reflecting still more dimensions of all that water can do. Like Wallace Juma’s examination of what is stached away deep inside water droplets. His drops seemed to be examined under a microscopic lens enabling both the artist and the scientist to see what sorts of cells are featured in our drinking or bath water. Juma created a large diptych to give the full effect of his amoeba-filled water.

Then came Irene with her stone carvings, one of which is of a woman carrying a big pot of water since she has no running water in her home. The other woman looks desperate since she has no access to clean water and is suffering as a consequence.

Then TICAH managed to find one of the flood victims, Sammy …. Who is based at Mukuru Lunga Lunga, the so-called slum where Chabu Mwangi and Ngugi Waweru established Wajukuu Art Centre back in 2003 when Sammy was a small boy whose life was transformed by all he’d learned by growing up with Wajukuu.

“Wajukuu illustrated what water can do to a community,” Sammy said. “The floods have only strengthened our bonds as a community of artists since we have survived together through both the good times and the bad,” he continued.

But Saturday evening when the show was officially opened by the new CEO of Goethe, …. ….

MARY COLLIS: ART AGAINST COVID

Soon after the COVID lockdown was launched in Kenya, many people felt oppressed, not just by the fear that they would get attacked by this mysterious virus,

an invisible bug that no one knew what it looked like nor where it came from. Kenyans were also concerned about why it was so fearsome since few people had died before a ‘pandemic’ had been declared.

“Many more people died after they’d taken the vaccine,” Kenyan artist Mary Collis told BD Life shortly before her solo exhibition opened at the Fig & Olive Cafe in Tigoni this Saturday, June 22^nd.

Back in 2020 after people were already feeling stir-crazy under the lockdown, Mary had opened her daily online ‘exhibition’ on Facebook. Initially, she had only planned on sharing her art for a month or two, but the public response to her daily doses of sheer beauty with her brightly colored landscapes, seascapes, sketches, and elegant abstract paintings was so positive, she felt compelled to keep on sharing her online art for many more days, 245 altogether.

“My purpose was to lift people up and out of their doldrums and give them a feeling of hope,” she said.

Mary’s fans were so appreciative of her everyday online art that they found her a publisher in Unicorn Press who produced all 245 days of her online art in an exquisite little book that she entitled ‘Lifting the Day’.  The editors even insisted they include the daily descriptive captions explaining what was happening in each painting and what had inspired each one.

But her upcoming exhibition at Fig & Olive Café has less to do with lifting up hearts and souls and more to do with waking up public consciousness to the way folks are being bamboozled, ‘gaslit’ and generally brainwashed by all the fear tactics and mental manipulation associated with COVID, vaccines, face masks, and social distancing. Altogether, she felt the COVID propaganda had been so effective as to essentially lock down the world economy and the public psyche with it for many months. It had also divided people between the true believers and non-believers in COVID and the vaccines. And those same bamboozlers are still mentally manipulating the public, she noted, even as they generate more exotic, invisible bugs and more new vaccines even up to now.

“There is a lot more well-researched information now that has come out to reinforce my perspective on vaccines,” says Mary who is no longer concerned that others disagree with her point of view. What she’s more concerned with now is that people come to see her new show which she irreverently entitled ‘The Clusterfuck Series.’

It’s terminology uncommonly associated with Collis who is otherwise gracious and gentile. “But in this instance, I feel the term is appropriate since that is what we have been witnessing,” she added.

Anyone can come to Mary’s exhibition and appreciate the beauty of her newest abstract and semi-abstract paintings if they come with an open mind. Her usage of powerful primary colors is most evocative, and indicative of her having equally powerful feelings which speak more clearly than any words could do. She has evolved her own version of abstract expressionism (in the same vein as artists like Jackson Pollack, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning).

One need not dive into Mary’s world view in order to appreciate her art. There is much more going on in this show than knowing whether she seriously believes there is a minute group of wealthy elites (such as ‘Big Pharma’ who produce vaccines and make billions in the process) who are covertly calling the shots on COVID. They are ostensibly the ones who have orchestrated the whole narrative about COVID-19 and the dire consequences one is bound to suffer if he doesn’t take the vaccines. It doesn’t even matter that you don’t believe the ‘deep state’ theory, that the world has been lulled into a soporific state of mental miasma that is unlikely to end well.

Mary’s work for this show is not just about painting and curating her own exhibition. It is also about finding what she felt was the right space to have it in. She says she knew it was the Fig and Olive from the moment she found it. The only drawbacks to it are its distance from Nairobi’s CBD (Its much closer to Limuru town) and the fact it has more window than walls.

 “But we’ll work it out,” Mary speaking confidently that the show will go on from 10am tomorrow morning.

 

 

                              

 

1984 LOOKS TOO TIMELY TO BE TRUE

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted june 14, 2024)

George Orwell wrote his dystopic novel, 1984, in 1944, a year which still presented the possibility of a dangerous tyrant taking over Western Europe. It was and still is, a cautionary tale aimed at rousing public awareness of the urgent need to defend the freedoms we enjoy.

1984 the play didn’t go on stage until 1983 when two young British playwrights, Duncan Macmillan and Robert Icke, took on the task of transforming the novel into a riveting play which was first performed in Nairobi in 2022 by senior students at Braeburn school. And as of last night, it just re-opened at Braeburn Theatre to run through the weekend. But it’s been transformed again in a more minimalist, Brechtian style by a new theatre company called Under Debate.

Some UD members have come from KADS (Kenya Amateur Dramatics Society) including the show’s director, Lee Crew. Another UD member is Daniel Hind, the lead drama teacher at Braeburn and the one who directed 1984 in 2022. Now, in the Under Debate version of Orwell’s classic, he stars as Winston, where there’s another transformation for us and especially his students to see how outstanding an actor is he.

So much of what happens to Winston in 1984 the play is enacted non-verbally. It’s the way he glides into a forbidden relationship with Julia (Rotem Yani-Cohen), the way he struggles with who to trust or doubt, and the terrible consequences of his making the wrong choice in trusting O’Brian (Adrian Massie Blomfield).

O’Brian is an ingenious villain and easily the most complex and sinister character in the play. One can easily wonder whether he is Big Brother’s top advisor or even Big Brother himself. It’s a possibility since we never actually meet Big Brother, in person. Yet he has the public in perpetual mental lockdown. Whether they are all true believers in The Party and in Big Brother or they simply live in fear of the consequences of being seen by his omniscient surveillance system in violation of his tyrannical rule, one can’t be sure. Either way, that debate is a form of doublespeak, a term Orwell invented to mean to obscure or confuse by the sheer ambiguity of the issue or its possible resolution.

Either way, Massie Blomfield masters O’Brian’s doublespeak to the tee. Initially we see him walking silently, as if fully detached from the space he circulates through. Then he converses with Winston, covertly calling him to a meeting of the Brotherhood, a group of radical activists who aim to bring down Big Brother and his government. It’s a hoax, of course, but Winston is naive enough to believe O’Brian is who he claims to be, especially as he gives Winston a subversive book, something not allowed to be read in Big Brother’s universe. But Winston vows to be totally self-sacrificing out of loyalty to the rebels’ Brotherhood. His vows are what provide O’Brian with evidence on which to torture the guy to the point where his fate is now sealed.

For me, Julia also seemed to be an ambiguous character. At once, she works for the Party, apparently loyal to Big Brother, so when she slips Winston an ‘I love you’ note, we must wonder how she knows this. They never meet until she tells him there is a place where Big Brother doesn’t surveil, but how does she know this? In any case, they meet and she throws herself at him sexually, and like most men would do, he follows her lead, and feels he loves her too. Rotem’s Julia may truly have fallen in love with Winston, but then how is it that O’Brian’s cops know exactly where to come to grab him from his lover’s arms and take him to be tortured? (Remember Delilah’s betrayal of her lover Samson in the Bible?). Rotem plays Julia with her cards so close to her chest, you really can’t know (to the actor’s credit) if she is innocent of doublespeak or not.

The cast is amazing. So is the minimalist set design which is spare yet effective, semi-abstract and almost surreal. In the end, we feel like Big Brother has won this round. There’s no hope in sight except at the play’s outset where we meet tourists in 2050 who, by their very existence, we can surmise that Big Brother must have been overthrown and the Party replaced by corporate capitalism presenting itself as the new phoenix rising.

 

 

 

GUILTY AS CHARGED.... DRAFT DONT READ YET

 

Someone might describe Heartstrings entertainment as producing ‘situation comedy’ as if that imp was a trivial genre. But when the situation is economic, concerned frankly with issues of survival, life and death, it’s also political. For most Kenyans are feeling the economic pinch. They’re feeling it in terms of taxex designed by government and found in nearly every aspect of their ordinary everyday lives which are no longer ordinary but extraordinarily tough.

Heartstring’s production of ‘Guilty as Charged’ reveals just how dire the situation has become for Kenyans who feel the injustice of being told to ‘tighten their belts’, especially when their leaders fly by private jets or by government helicopters costing multi-million US dollars. The claim claiming it’s in wananchi’s interests to have their leaders look ‘presidential. But the critics would claim we the public are being bamboozled, hoodwinked, and mesmerized by our leaders are using what George Orwell called ‘doublespeak’ or saying or doing one thing while really doing the opposite.

Don Carlo (Mitch) has devised his own bamboozling scheme to obtain the cash he feels he needs to cover all his lavish expenses, including payment of his child support to his ex-wife. That’s a spoiler since Don presents himself like a wealthy Godfather-like mafioso criminal, when he has a lot that he’s hiding to keep up his front.

In guilty as charged, one of Don’s hustles (a term hardly used these day due to wananchi’s disillusionment with their tax-mad Hustler No. 1) is financing ‘games’ like the one devised by another inventive hustler. (Fischer Maina) who pretends to be a handsome young rich man who’s meant to fulfill every women’s Mr. Dream come true. His hustles aims to identify wealthy women with a healthy cash flow which can quickly cash into and then rob her blind. Don Corlo’s role is to finance fischer at the outset of the game, after which he will be repaid with interest. But fischer is many months in arrears of repayment and Don starts to torture him (through his body guards) to let him know he means business. Mwaning pay up or you’ll be shut up.

The woman he wooed, quickly won, and then wedded, is dr. irene, a gynochologist (NjeriHahuha) who also delivers babies. She loves the house/flat fischer bought for her (with Dom”s dirty money). Unfortunitely, fischer fell into h is own trap, forgetting to     run back to Dom with her cash because he seriously fell for her and her two big kids. Unfortunate too is the fact that all the people he has borrowed from are now coming to claim their pound of flesh. The first is Dom. But then comes the the bak representatives coming to take away all of his furniture, then comes the water man to turn off the water including the pipes. The electricity people turn off his electricity, so everything goes black and finally Irene shows up and maina confesses his crimes in part. She takes sympathy for him she just happens to have four million in her bank that is for him to use. He suddenly perks up and quickly pays all his debts. Now the future looks bright, even as Don Carlo arrives, only to discover he’s been repaid every penny he is owed by maina.  Don in turn phones the mother of his two kids to tell he’s got child support for her, so where can they meet?   They agree on phone that they can meet at her house. But as she begins to give him directions she returns from the bedroom and finds he’s the one speaking to her. But how com? Why is he who has been given a court order demand he not see his kids at their mom’s request to the court. But here is the spoiler: Don carlo is the one struggling to pay irene his ex-wife child support which are apparently are quite high. Now the truth be told that fischer was being blackmailed by Don cause fischer murdered somebody, and though he claims it was an accident it doesn’t look that way. But seeing dom being at the mercy of irene was great news to fischer.

But their amusement was short-lived. Dom and maina were not the only one weaponizing love as a tool to use in order to achieve their goals. For the Special Branch, undercover agents were regularly sent out to find criminals, especially like extortionists and murderers like maina and Don carlo. That irene was working allthe time she was with maina and even with dom  is the biggest shock of them all.

 

 

 

Guilt

CATS THE MUSICAL COMES TO KAREN TODAY

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (June 6, 2024)

Kenyan audiences have been enchanted by the award-winning musicals of Andrew Lloyd Webber ever since the 1980’s when ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ first hit the boards at the Donovan Maule Theatre.

Since then, the JCS classic has been staged everywhere from secondary schools and churches to the Kenya National Theatre and Braeburn Theatre, Gitanga where we most recently saw another Lloyd Webber Classic, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’ was staged by Braeburn school just a few months ago.

BD Life first saw Jesus Christ Superstar at the now defunct Donovan Maule Theatre in the 1980s. It was also the premiere production of the Nairobi Performing Arts Studio in 2018.

But nobody’s been ambitious enough, until now, to present us with the musical production inspired by T.S. Eliot’s poetry book entitled ‘Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats’. It’s called ‘Cats’ and it was a smash hit on Broadway and The West End of London.

The Nobel Prize-winning poet had originally written his cats poetry especially for his God-children. But children are not the only cat-lovers who have contributed to the show’s popularity. There are adults all over the world (be they cat owners or not) who have watched the show and read Eliot’s illustrated poetry, often in translation.

The book came out in 1939 and was made famous after Lloyd Webber came out with his musical interpretation of it, calling it Cats in 1981. It quickly made its way to Broadway and the West End of London where it was a smash hit more popular than nearly all 31 of Lloyd Webber’s other musicals (apart from Joseph, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita and Phantom of the Opera).
Now it’s finally opening in Nairobi out at Brookhouse School in Karen from today, June 7th through Sunday, June 9^th.

Cooper Rust and her team at Dance Centre Kenya have been working for months to prepare a production that not only features non-stop dancing by the DCK troupe, including 63 dancers ranging in age from 6 to 50. They will also be dressed up as cats, from their heads and their faces to their tails and their toes.

“All of our costumes have been painted by local artists,” says Cooper Rust, Cats’ artistic director, producer, and co-founder of Dance Centre Kenya back in 2015. She was speaking in an exclusive interview to BD Life a few days before the musical’s opening day. She added that cats’ head-gear, including the whiskers and upright ears were all made locally.  And even the cat caps that the little ones will wear are hand-crafted. The same is true of the cat masks. And even the cat caps which the little ones will wear were created by friends of DCK. But it’s the catsy face paintings of everyone in the cast, that will add 100 per cent cat credibility to the performers and their performance over this weekend.    

Having such a large cast, Cooper has gotten tremendous support from her assistant directors Caroline Slot who has been with DCK practically from its inception in 2015 and May Ombara who initially came to DCK as a voice coach for Oliver but will now also play Grizabella this weekend. 

Cats the second major musical that DCK has produced. “We’ll be producing one musical every year,” promised Cooper.  “We feel it’s important for our students to expand their versatility and range of artistic expression,” she added. DCK already has classes in musical theatre, but Oliver was its first application of the learning that some students in the show have already received. And ballet itself is filled with theatrical expression, but it’s not the same since ballet, which is DCK’s specialty, focuses more specifically on the dance. Musical theatre pays greater attention to the story, adding both songs and dance aimed at taking the storyline forward. It’s a subtle difference, but it makes a lot of sense for DCK graduates to have a broad repertoire of dance when they complete the DCK course. But that doesn’t come until after students are examined and pass rigorous tests administered by judges from the Royal Academy of Dance in UK.

A year ago when DCK staged their first musical, Oliver, they received awards at the Kenya Theatre Awards for performances by John Sibi Okumu as Fagin and Abdoulaye Diabete as Oliver.

The musical generally met with wide ranging approval, especially as all the music was live, as it will be this weekend when the DCK Orchestra takes on Lloyd Webber’s musical score and is professionally conducted under the baton of Levi Wataka.

 

 

 

MUNENE KARIUKI SURPRISES WITH INSIGHT ON MIGRATION

 by margaretta wa gacheru (june 2, 2024)

Munene kariuki is a visionary and a realist combined. As a painter currently having his first solo exhibition at 0ne 0ff gallery, one can see he also has both an intuitive insight and first-hand knowledge of what most people want and feel they need to obtain the quality of life that is fit for themselves and their families.

How he translates all that knowledge into visually interesting art is the stuff of his showcase of work that he entitles ‘Beyond’ at One Off. It’s the visionary in him that sees what’s required to get beyond all the obstacles, constraints, restrictions, and barriers, both physical and mental. It’s also the undercurrent of thought that offers hope despite the distress that people on the move are currently feeling.

Migration is a theme that Munene had been exploring long before the covid lockdown laid out so many barriers to people’s movement on a worldwide scale, not just on Kenyans’. People’s motivation for migrating ranged from mainly wars or economic hardship. Yet what Munene captures in his art are mainly portraits of people encountering specific obstacles to their momentum.

For instance, a work like ‘Remittance’ relates to the one who manages to get overseas, but then he’s constrained by family pressure to remit funds meant to sustain whole families. Yet little does family understand the hardships encountered by the one expected to remit.

  His illustration of unemployment entitled ‘Seat 1’ and ‘Seat 2’ is a diptych, each side filled with a room-full of people but just one seat. Munene’s symbolism is often accessible, but in some instances not so much. In several of the 33 paintings in this show, many use either red and yellow ribbons or barrels to symbolize the obstacle impeding the migrants’ movement ahead.

His ‘Labor Export’ feels especially relevant as Munene has painted men standing in a box. It’s the sort that farmers pack their potatoes or carrots, onions or cut flowers in. In light of news that Kenyan troops are heading to Haiti or the Middle East where they’ll fight Houthi rebels, it’s Munene the visionary who painted his ‘Labor Export’ long before the President volunteered Kenyans to go.

Meanwhile, the precarious nature of a migrant’s life (be he coming from Eritrea, Nicaragua or Sudan or Russia, India, or Pakistan) is suggested in his painting ‘The Journey’. In it, there’s only an inflatable boat and two hangman’s nooses. “You see that key painted next to the boat?” he asks BD Life. “The key is meant to represent a successful journey, but you can see there’s no success here,” he adds referring specifically all the African migrants who cross the Sahara in order to reach Libya where                                                                                                    they prepare their boat, hopefully to get them across the Mediterranean Sea. But more frequently, it does not.

Other topics that Munene covers in this show range widely from ‘gender imbalance’ and ‘Biometrics’ as a form of global surveillance to being ‘Distressed’ and other mental issues related to stress and the adage illustrated by Munene to mean to ‘Tighten up your belt’ which translates as ‘Kaza Mshipi’. It’s what Kenyans have been told to do in light of inflation, taxation, and in some cases, even starvation.

Munene never actually studied fine art in college, apart from the online courses he’s taken on YouTube. Otherwise, he was on his way to becoming a computer systems analyst while getting his first degree from Kenya Methodist University. He can’t say what exactly happened for him to take a turn about face and decide to study art.

“It was my mother who kept recommending that I go into the arts,” Munene says. So he dug in. He had already been going around to see art exhibition and got really good advice from Michael Musyoka at Brush tu Artist Collective. He also attended numerous workshops organized locally. That included one for refugee artists which is where he began to see how profound and complex is the problem of migration is, especially when someone has to flee their country to save their life.

It was from his work with refugee artists that he was invited to University of Manchester to talk about migration and the incentive it has given him to create a work like ‘Misplaced Reality’.  It was about people coming to and going from our region, specifically Kenya. Both sides encounter barriers to their entrance as well as their exit.

“It’s ironic that while many Africans want to go abroad for better education, better health care, better job prospects; meanwhile, Europeans (and now Chinese) are looking for ways to come into the country and stay,” he adds