By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted October 4, 2017)
There’s a
flurry of cultural festivals taking place in Nairobi right now.
No sooner
had the Storymoja Festival closed last Sunday than the month-long Nigerian
Cultural Festival opened at the Nairobi Gallery, launched with a fabulous array
of colorful activities, including live music, dancing, freshly - prepared Nigerian
food and even a live demonstration of how to make West African women’s
flamboyant head gear. It was all organized by the Nigerian fashionista Mrs
Paulina Otieno and Nairobi Gallery curator Alan Donovan.
The Ceremony will also be screened during the French Film Festival 2017
Simultaneously,
artworks by more than 20 Nigerian artists went on display both in Nairobi
Gallery and at Nairobi National Museum. And this coming Sunday, October 8th,
a glorious showcase of ‘The Vanishing Textiles of Africa’ will open at Alliance
Francaise.
Then
yesterday (Thursday) the third Somali Heritage Festival opened at the Kenya
Cultural Centre, running through this Sunday. Featuring lively discussions,
films, children’s games, Somali food and even theatre on Saturday at 2pm, the
theme of this year’s festival is ‘Enhancing Inclusivity’.
Finally,
from this coming Monday, October 9th, the French Film Festival will
screen a series of contemporary French films from 6:30pm every day of the week through
Friday. Simultaneously, the second Smartphone Film Festival will feature the
winning smartphone films sent into to Alliance Francaise before October 1.
More than 100
smartphone film shorts were submitted as compared to last year when only 30
were sent in. Of those 110, the weaker films will be sorted out in-house. But
then the first and second prizes will be selected by a team of film
professionals, including leading Kenyan filmmakers like Judy Kibinge, Cajeton
Boy, and Mwaniki Mwageria and the French Regional audio-visual attache Rene
Denis.
The newest
feature of the Smartphone festival is the People’s Choice award which will be
won according to votes cast by those who come at 6:30 and watch the eight to 10
film shorts (on average four minutes each) screened every day before the French
film. Vote counting will take place after the Thursday screening. The three
award winners will be announced on the festival’s final day, Friday, October
15.
Cooper Rust, dancer, choreographer and founder of Dance Centre Kenya
Meanwhile,
this Saturday and Sunday, the Dance Centre Kenya will stage ‘Urban Groove’, a
series of dances choreographed by Caroline Slot, Cooper Rust,
Francis Muturi, Anna Muinonen, Christina Lin Eliot, Raymond Ochieng and Roy
Wandah. The dancers will mainly be DCK seniors, a few from the junior
class and several guest dancers as well.
Joel Kioko, one of DCK's star dancers will perform in Urban Groove at Purdy Arms & Braeburn Theatre
On Saturday, Urban Groove will be performed at Purdy
Arms in Karen from 7pm. On Sunday, the show will be staged at the Braeburn
Theatre from 3pm.
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