ARUSHA SCHOOL TRANSFORMS CHIMAMANDA NOVEL INTO CAPTIVATING PLAY

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 30.1.2024)

Apart from Purple Hibiscus being the name of a beautiful flower easily made into a cup of herbal tea, Purple Hibiscus is also the title of the acclaimed Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's first novel. The Purple Hibiscus that we watched last Monday and Tuesday, first at Braeburn Garden Estate, then at Braeburn Gitanga Road was an ambitious adaptation of this important post-colonial novel by Braeburn Arusha's Head Teacher and the play's Dramaturg, Alison Rogers. Presiding over the school that brought us the hit musical 'Fela' a year ago, Ms. Rogers told BD Life how the school rotates every year between a musical and a play. "The novel is a set text, so we thought the best way to present the story was by staging it," she said. "We were in touch with Chimamanda who approved our adaptation," added the scriptwriter who also teaches English at the Arusha school.

We chose to watch the play twice because we had a problem with sound, and wanted to listen more carefully the second time around. That is how we know the play is a work in progress. Ms. Rogers makes no secret of this. “We like to listen to feedback since it is often helpful and constructive,” she said. It would seem she heard my silent critique of the first show, which regarded the violence of the fanatic fundamentalist Christian father, Eugene (Bradley Barrett) as excessive. It was extreme and practically overpowered the other events of the play. He had beaten and literally kicked around his wife (Luana Nsengiyumva) and two kids, Kambili (Zoe Kiame) and Jaja (Marc Attard) as if they were beanbags. He'd even made his wife miscarry twice.

But the second show was quite different. Eugene was still a fanatical perfectionist who kept a tight grip on his family as if they were dogs on a leash. But he was slightly more restrained. He still kicked them around and got Kambili sent to hospital. But no miscarriages on stage. The other feedback that Ms Rogers received and acknowledged after the Monday show had to do with the Nigerian-Biafran War that was raging as a backdrop to the family’s horrific domestic abuse. “We need to find a balance between the warfare outside and Eugene’s war with his family inside his home,” she told BD Life. That balance was practically achieved during the Tuesday performance at Braeburn Gitanga where the show’s director Miranda Rashid deployed many from the chorus to play soldiers and citizens being clobbered in sync with Eugene beating his wife and children. In so doing, Rashid and Rogers and Musical director Noela Gichuru practically transformed the drama into a musical with fight scenes carefully choreographed by Wini Nkinda and sound effects also having to make swift switches, both musically and clobber-wise. It was quite a marvel to see the difference, between the two performances.

The one thing that didn’t change was the response of the students who came to watch both days. They applauded and cheered when it was announced that Eugene was dead. However, in the second show, his death was more muted, making the Monday performance more notable. And in the book, I believe the Mum confesses to her kids that she had poisoned him, but when the police show up, Jaja, aiming to protect his mother, claims he did it and goes to jail four years. On stage, Mum’s deed disappears and the cops take Jaja at his word. The ending of the play is sadly anticlimactic. Jaja is in jail and Mum and Kambili are there, apparently awaiting his time to be free. Where they’re waiting is intriguing. They’re seated at the feet of his jail cell, a set of mobile bars that are so functional they serve as everything from the seats and wall interiors to jail cells. Spartan yet functional, they enable set changes to be swift, enabling the play’s action to flow without interruption.

The pivotal moment in the play worked in both shows. It was when Eugene’s sister, Auntie Ifeoma (Faye Treacher) persuades her brother to allow Kambili and Jaja to come be with her children during the school holidays. That time is a revelation for them as they see another family that is joyful, happy, and fun-loving, unlike their own. It gives them courage to go forth and start to explore the meaning of hope and freedom. Ms. Rogers did a brilliant adaptation of an impossibly complicated book. Congratulations to her and to all who came from Braeburn Arusha.

MIGWI AND FAMILY IN BRUSSELS 2023

DAZZLING DISPLAYS OF CONTEMPORARY KENYAN ART AT ONE OFF, CIRCLE AND RED HILL GALLERIES

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 28.1.2024)

If anyone is in doubt that Nairobi is at the centre of a thriving visual arts scene, they only need to go see two and possibly three exhibitions that just opened in the city. The three are leading venues for contemporary African art. What’s striking is that all three are filled with a different set of artists, the vast majority of whom are Kenyan although there are a few exceptions. Circle Art’s show also features artists from Ethiopia, Egypt,

Uganda, and one Kenyan living in the Diaspora. Red Hill Gallery also highlights a splendid stream of Sudanese as does One Off Gallery which also includes several ex-pats in their show. Red Hill’s exhibition is the only one in which nothing is for sale since the gallerist-owner and curator, Hellmuth Rossler Musch is also an avid collector since the early 1990s.

“I wanted to share my art with others who may not be familiar with the early period of contemporary Kenyan art,” Hellmuth tells BD Life at the show’s opening. “The exhibition is a kind of retrospective, representing Kenyan artists from the 1980s like Wanyu Brush, Morris Foit, and Annabelle Wanjiku,” he adds. Others include Justus Kyalo and Sudanese painters Salah El Mur and Abushariaa Ahmed who came to Kenya in the 90s.

In contrast, Circle Art’s show, entitled ‘Evocations’ features mainly artists who have shown their work at the gallery in the recent past. That includes artists like Dickens Otieno, Donald Wasswa, Gor Soudan, Shabu Mwangi, Souad Abdelrassoul, Sujay Shah, Syowia Kyambi, Tabitha wa Thuku, and Theresa Musoke. Circle has also exhibited works by Agnes Waruguru, Jonathan Gathaara Solanke Fraser, and Tahir Karmali. It's only the young Ethiopian artist Tiemar Tegene that I hadn’t seen before, but her paintings are evocative and powerful.

There’s a wonderful energy and diversity in the Circle Art Show—from Syowia’s masks and Wasswa’s finely polished sculptures to Gor’s delicate colorful gardens and Agnes’s mixed media textile art. There’s a lot of experimentation and growth going on before our eyes. Plus, it is rare to see so many outstanding women artists in a single show, thanks to curatorial choices of Circle’s gallerist and owner Danda Jaroljmel. The One Off exhibition has a very different feeling and flavor to it as both galleries, the Loft and the Stables, exclusively embrace the ‘family’ of OO artists whom curator-owner of the gallery Carol Lees has a special relationship with.

“Most of the art in this show is new and never seen before,” Carol tells BD Life on the opening day of the show. “I think galleries have a responsibility to show never-before-seen pieces in their exhibitions,” Carol adds. That high bar of curatorial work isn’t always easy to meet, as when Ehoodi Kichapi brought his latest oil paintings to the gallery without realizing they weren’t quite dry. He’d rolled them to bring them, but unrolling them turned out to be messy and damaged the art. Fortunately, Ehoodi had more new works ready to replace his damaged pieces. His newest paintings continue to reflect his haunting experiences of a devil woman. “The only way I can silence her {in his head] is by painting,” the artist tells BD Life.

The two spaces at One Off are effectively balanced with the Stables feeling hot In light of the artworks being shown, especially by the blood-red works of Beatrice Wanjiku which practically overpowers the calming beads of Richard Kimathi, the symbolic drawing of Peterson Kamwathi, and even the last paintings of Timothy Brooke. Meanwhile, the Loft with its pearly white walls feels cool, calming, and serene. What’s made those mood swings between cool and hot possible are the beautiful sky-blue works by two painters, Rashid Diab and Marc Lecchini.

In Rashid’s case, the women, possibly refugees from war are walking on an eternal sea of blue sand while Marc blends his blue with impressionist colors like sunflower yellow and rich grassy green. Together their art stretches half way around that gallery. You don’t notice immediately the connection between the two big blue landscapes and the others across the room. But then, you appreciate Patrick Kariuki’s delicate watercolors exploring the marvels of garden growth. It’s the land being celebrated.

Meanwhile, Elias Mung’ora’s protest paintings are also about land. Coming from a community of freedom fighters against colonial land grabbers, Elias’s complaint against the historical injustice of settler colonialism is obvious. Land can also be seen as the background to James Mbuthia’s images of beautiful multicolored African beauties. The full effect is one of harmony in the Loft.

JABOYA, ONE OF THE NOMINEES FOR THE KENYA THEATRE AWARDS, WON

“Jaboya” is Dhuluo meaning “fish for sex” and it’s a form of gendered trade that is commonly used to describe what happens every day when the fisherman at Lake Victoria come back to land and find scores of women waiting to sell themselves for fish. “It’s a function of poverty and lack of choices,” BD Life is told by Kathy Tate-Bradish, an HIV educator who works in Western Kenya. “It’s the major factor resulting in the counties along the lake having the highest prevalence of HIV in Kenya,” she addS. To best understand the meaning of Jaboya, one needed to be at KNT recently to watch Millaz Players’ performance of Jaboya. Scripted by Emmanuel Chindia, the play managed to capture the vibrant, sensual energy that swells the shore every time the men come in with their catch of the day. That’s when Women scrabble to be first in line since the transactions involve both money and fish for the sex freely exchanged. So we meet a stew of quibbling female fish mongers, all competing for access to the men with the most fish. And for a man like Odongo (Sultan ), he can have sex with no less than five women a night as we see as he argues with Otieno (Samuel Barasa) over the boat he’s promised to him. It’s the Chief (Gaitan Brian) who strongly suggests to the women that they need to stop quibbling among themselves and organize to buy a boat of their own. His suggestion is antithetical to the traditional taboo related to women never becoming fisherwomen. it's a contentious theme that runs through the play; it essentially calls on women to challenge man-made taboos. “There’s no reason women can’t be fishermen,” Chief says, sounding like a true feminist, not a government emissary spewing the conventional patriarcal party line. It takes some time for the women to hear what he’s saying and appreciate his radical wisdom. But eventually, they start believing that owning a boat of their own makes a lot of sense. But they still have probl trusting one another and identifying one honest leader among them who they can all trust. But once they do, they set up their own ‘chama’ (or economic merry-go-round) to raise the cash required to buy a boat. They can almost raise the funds required but for Sh50. That money comes from Kamum (Faith Wambui), the bright schoolgirl, Kamum (Faith Wamvui) who won a cash prize for her high marks. She understands the implications of the women being liberated financially. Yet by her making that sacrifice, she is left with insufficient funds for school fees. She’s left stranded at home. Her only hope is that her problem will be resolved once the women buy the boat, which they’re about to do as the story ends. But the women cannot end all the outmoded taboos in a single act of revolutionary courage. A remaining one involves Beryl’s family which has a timeline on sex. All sex is outlawed within a specific time-frame that the family specifies. Tragically, Opiyo (Mike Ndaka) ignores that one taboo with Beryl (Mary Mutabe) and for this, he dies, illustrating how deeply entrenched cultural beliefs still are in Luo and African culture generally. No one except Odongo feels the pain at Opiyo’s demise since they’d been bosom buddies for years. The issue at hand is the program of the women, who’d essentially been sex workers as well as fish mongers before. But now, they are on a quest to obtain their economic freedom, once they can own the boat equally, and collectively share the spoils of fishing for their own food and their fish business. One hopes Millaz takes this play to Nyanza and to the lake where they can invite women to come see the show and see themselves represented and hear revolutionary ideas that they might learn from. Jaboya is an impressive production, directed by Mike Ndeda, assisted by Faiz Ouma. The show’s choreographer did such a good job that the movements of characters flowed naturally from the script’s action. The show's writer, Chindia was masterful in assembling so many controversial issues while keeping them flowing organically until he found a logical way for the women to rise above their oppressive circumstances and find a viable means of potentially solving their problems. All power to the women and to Millaz Players as well. Jaboya is one of the many theatre nominees shortlisted for the Kenya Theatre Awards. They were announced at the official opening of the People's Choice segment of the Awards, keynoted by CS for Youth, the Creative Economy, and Sports, Ababu Namwamba last Tuesday, January 25th 2024 at Talenta Hela in Talenta Plaza. CS Ababu officially opened the public portal for everyone to vote online for their choice of winning candidates. Public voting will continues for three weeks, after which voting will be closed to tally up the winners. They will all be announced on February 23, 2024.

ECLECTIC COLLECTION AT RED HILL

Hellmuth Rossler-Musch has an eye for excellence. It’s a point made most clearly in his current exhibition at Red Hill Gallery, entitled ‘An Eclectic Selection – East African Contemporary (1980-2020)’. “I prefer calling the show a selection rather than a collection since the latter is usually associated with collecting art as an investment” Hellmuth tells BD Life, underscoring the point that he doesn’t value art in monetary terms. He doesn’t see art in terms of its resale value. “I collect art in terms of what appeals to me and to Erica [his wife],” he adds. His perspective largely explains why none of the art on display at Red Hill is for sale. Someone should come to see the current exhibition to appreciate the beauty of the showcase as well as the diversity of taste and times. For each artwork reflects a specific timeframe, a veritable snapshot of that moment in real time when conditions were ripe for that type of artistry. That is to say the artistic energies in the contemporary Kenyan art scene are moving so fast that individual as well as collective styles are changing like tides coming in from the deep. New ‘emerging’ artists are coming forth incessantly, so it isn’t always easy to sift the wheat from the chaff. But in Hellmuth’s case, he has made clear distinctions in his show. Having only begun collecting art in 1993 during the days when Ruth Schaffner, a fellow German, was alive and eager to consult with this newcomer to the Kenyan art scene, Hellmuth began on a journey over the next 30 years. It’s impressive even when it is limited only by the space available at his gallery, a place he designed and constructed himself. Structuring his showcase into three parts, he has the ‘early’ period, meaning early for his own understanding and collecting. In that group, he displays works by artists he calls pioneers. Of these, he includes Wanyu Brush, Morris Foit, Zacharia Mbutha, Annabelle Wanjiku, Joel Oswaggo, Kivuthi Mbuno, and Charles Sekano who sadly he couldn’t find space for in his assembly. Whichever side of the gallery you enter through, this earlier body of artwork is on the right. There you will see one of the finest Wanyu Brush paintings that I have ever seen. The same is true for Mbutha whose work I’ve always appreciated, but the two paintings of his on display are refined, upbeat, and expressive of an artist with a happy heart. The same could be said of the artworks by Annabelle and Oswaggo, works that seem expressive of the artist’s prime time of creative expression. If the ‘pioneers’ as Hellmuth defined them are from the 1980s, then he charts the 1990s as a time when young highly trained Sudanese artists arrived in Nairobi in flight from war in their homeland. The first Sudanese artist in this collection is one who is a decade older than the ‘invaders’ from the 90s, namely El Tayeb Dawalbeit, Abushariaa Ahmed, and Salah El Mur. Rashid Diab essentially prepared the way for the rest to follow; however, once he graduated from the acclaimed Khartoum University’s Fine Art School, he moved straight to Spain where he spent 20 years studying for a doctorate in fine art and teaching at Madrid University. He moved back to Khartoum where he’s been teaching and creating art. Most recently, he has been making prints which Hellmuth includes in the show. El Mur is also a favorite of Hellmuth’s as is Abushariaa and El Tayeb. All of these painters reflect in varying degrees the Khartoum School Art Movement which is characterized by the concern for synthesizing a style of art that blends the Arabic, African, and European. Finally, the only artists that Hellmuth identifies as contemporary Kenyan artists are Peterson Kamwathi, Beatrice Wanjiku, Shabu Lawrence) Mwangi, Justus Kyalo and Dennis Muraguri. All of them have broken out of the literal figurative or purely abstract art. Each of them digs deeply into what is now described as conceptual art. It’s ideas and emotions conveyed in visual metaphors, semi-abstract terms that may be interpreted in many different ways, depending on how deeply the viewer can get to intuiting the artist’s thoughts and feelings. It's not always easy to understand contemporary art and it’s helpful when the artist is close at hand, willing and capable of explaining something about their art. The five might not be at the gallery when you arrive, but Hellmuth is happy to share insights into all his art with anyone visiting the gallery.

YONY WAITE: A TRIBUTE TO THE DOYANNE OF CONTEMPORARY KENYAN ART

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (Posted 1.20.2024) 

Yony Waite is one of the most important environmental and visual artists of Kenya, East Africa, and beyond borders of the mind as well as of geography. In fact, Yony ‘emerged’ as a citizen of the world long before she came to Kenya. She was born in Hollywood, raised on the island of Guam, and trained artistically both at the University of California, Berkeley, and Japan where she apprenticed under sagacious Master painters. By the time she arrived in Kenya after spending time in Somalia with family, she was already a practicing professional artist. She initially came as a tourist. But then, I think she got grabbed by the land, the wildlife, and the ocean. She was briefly married to David Hopcraft and lived on the family ranch at Athi River. Fortunately, a family settlement enabled her to stay at the ranch even after the couple split up. The ranch became a home base for her when she wasn’t staying in Lamu where she would establish her second home, an old four-story Swahili house, not far from the Lamu Museum. Lamu is also where she set up her Wildebeeste Workshop and held exhibitions and ran trainings in print-making on her old printing press. She also designed projects with Lamu women groups. “I would work with her and the women when I went to see her,” Yony’s sister-in-law, Linda Benvenito told BD Life. “Together they’d produce wonderful wall hangings that Yony would sell and bring the revenue back to the women,” Linda explains. But Yony would never remain in one place for long. She was always on the move, always a hippie at heart from the Sixties. She like so many of novel, ‘On the road’ which was all about a band of buddies who traversed the US, celebrating their freedom with jazz, poetry, and ‘mind-expanding’ substances. But to travel, one needed funds, and Yony needed funds, not just to travel, but to open up spaces to be used to exhibit her art. At the time, there were few galleries. So in 1969, she and the British artist, Robin Anderson and designer David Hart started Gallery Watatu. “I never intended to run a business [at Watatu],” Yony said in words captured during her exhibition opening with Theresa Musoke and Tabitha wa Thuku at Circle Art Gallery several years back. She could have been talking about why she was happy to sell Watatu to Ruth Schaffner in 1985. The other two Watatu founders had left the gallery long before, and Yony didn’t want the responsibility, so she was happy to hand over her gallery as long as she could have a permanent foothold for her art at the gallery. But years before she left Watatu to Ruth, Yony was advocating for indigenous Africans to exhibit at Watatu. The ones that did included everyone from Ancent Soi and Joel Oswago to Etale Sukuro and Theresa Musoke. But apart from her roles as founder of two art galleries and artist producing paintings that project some of the most enchanting semi-abstract portraits of animals in the wild, Yony will be remembered for her passionate positions on war, peace, and the power brokers who benefit off of war at the expense of innocent civilians’ lives. For instance, Yony felt so strongly about the American invasion of Iraq that she sacrificed her identity as an American citizen in protest against the Iraq war. She subsequently became a full-fledged Kenya Citizen sometime after that. Up to the end, Yony refused to ‘die gracefully’. Instead, she was ‘on the road’ up to the end. She was on her third bout of pneumonia, but still, she insisted on flying to Lamu to tie up some loose ends. She then took buses to reach Mombasa, where she went to hospital, but then got on a train back to Nairobi where she went straight to Nairobi Hospital. And when she was reminded she had no will but said she wanted to leave something to her workers, Linda said, “She wrote on the back page of the book she was rereading,” It turns out, the book was Kerouac’s On the Road! Yony passed on January 13th, a day we’ll commemorate from now on. Her spirit is immortal so as much as we grieve her demise, we celebrate the beauty, light, wisdom, and joy she brought to us in her art and in her life. . A small collection of Yony’s paintings will be at One Off Gallery from January 27th. This announcement was later cancelled after the Executer of Yony's estate said all the work must come back to her estate. Yony's memorial service took place March 5th at Circle Art Gallery and ran all week, where all the art found at her Athi River Studio were on display and for sale at affordable prices.

THE ROLE OF MEDIA IN SOCIETY: Talk at KITFEST 2023

The role of media in society (dELIVERED AT kitfest WORKSHOP, 1.November.2023) ‘KNOWLEDGE IS POWER’ Because media conveys knowledge, media is sought and often for personal self interests, which is why media is protected under the first amendment in the US constitution, and under Kenya’s 2010 constitution in relation to culture being recognized as the bedrock of freedom in society. Today, media and journalists under threat everywhere for one reason, journalists as members of the media are truth tellers. It is said they write the first drafts of a ciybtry’s history. So they are being shot e.g. in Palestine, in Russia, and elsewhere for seeing what is really happening. Yet ‘what is really happening’, ‘what is the truth?’ is no longer plainly reported. Now in the US at least, the country is so divided, that the rift is turning into a deeper divide every day, the media doing its part to create antithetical universes. E.g. Fox News vs MSNBC with 2 different populations believing what’s in their media, so that millions may bring back Donald Trump to power and that’d be so damaging to the environment and the media at large. 3 questions posed to me: 1.What’s the role of media in reflecting and shaping vlues, habits, patterns of thought and action 2. Can we explore the forces operating in and around the media? 3. The role of media in preserving and communicating re: the arts and culture? e.g. Margaret Atwood wrote Handmaid’s Taleswhich initially shocked people cuz women treating like baby-makers by dominant men. sShe said she was only recollecting actual experiences which had already taking place. Then the story became a popular media series, followed by governments and dictators starting to treat women like this. E.g Iran under Sharia law, and in the US where pro-life anti-abortionists rallied to smash women’s right to control their own bodies. But that anti-abortion ultra conservative thought has brought a backlash among women who claim their right of choice. They came out politically during last US elections and toppled several right wingers. They could easily do the same in 2024 presidential election. It was all their in Handmaid’s tale. So it a book leading to a TV series, having increasing influence, awareness in society leading to political activism and women becoming a powerful force in society. Other forces include Big Money and Dark Money, Dictators wanting to crush the media, and capitalist ‘big fish’ seeking wider control over an independent media 1. Back to One: what’s the role of media is shaping values, habits, and patterns of thought? Case in point: the ‘BIG LIE’ leading to January 6, insurrection at the US Capital, which Trump now claims was peaceful—and his cult followers now believe. When trump kicked out of Twitter, he started his own Twitter equivalent knowing how important media is in staying connected with his audience whose thought and actions he now controls. Media so important Elan Musk spent $44 million to buy Twitter, let Trump back on in, but he already has his own Twitter equivalent, called Truth Social, in his effort to stay connected 2. Explore forces: Big media platforms: Fox vs MSNBC, Koch brothers & other multimillionairs and billionairs, Dark Money-Jane Mayer at The New Yorker, 3. Role of media and the arts. BD Life, Pulse, increasing interest and coverage but arts journalists complain about so little space given them. Blogs like mine and Vlogs too do well.

KIBERA ART DISTRICT IS FULL OF RISING STARS

By Margaretta wa Gacheru Kibera Art District is a flourishing new sector in the place often labeled ‘the largest slum in all of Africa.’ Setting aside the stereotypes, the new Art District was officially opened late last year, 2023, although many of the studios were already in existence when the district was launched with a parade honoring Kibera artists generally and those operating within the district specifically. But ever since the neighborhood was deemed a district, it’s received more visitors than before when previously, artists were either autonomous, independent or unknown. “Now when people come to the [HOF] gallery, they want to know about the district and who are its members,” Pato Othieno, Chairman of HOF Gallery tells BD Life. “Éither I or the gallery’s general manager Joseph [aka KaJose] Ouma are happy to escort visitors around the district to meet the artists since they’re all in the neighborhood,” he adds. The gallery, basically the hub of the district, was also officially launched late last year. “But we have been dreaming about a Kibera art district starting with a gallery for the last ten years,” Pato says referring to himself and Jamey Ponte, an American arts entrepreneur who’s been living in Kibera off and on for more than a decade. Currently, the gallery is hosting two up-and-coming Kenyan artists, Michael Nyerere and Petrix Peter, both figurative painters, in a show entitled ‘I am the people.” Describing themselves, as do most all the creatives in the district, as ‘self-taught’, what they mean is that they didn’t take part in formal training in art schools like those at Kenyatta or Nairobi Universities, or at BIFA (Buruburu Institute of Art). But they all have been mentored or coached by someone their senior. Take Nyerere for instance, he spent three years working with and being mentored by Patrick Mukabi at Dust Depot studio. Petrix who was born and raised in Kibera, was mainly mentored by a local artist, Steve Krenze of Nyota Arts. It was with him that he started painting murals in churches and doing graffiti all over town, from Lavington and Westland to Kibera and Tanzania. “It was while I was painting in the estates that I realized I loved painting people. I got everyone you see in this show to sat for me as I painted their portrait,” Petrix tells me. He adds that all those in his exhibition represent hope for him since they have struggled and triumphed over much adversity. His portraits reflect his empathy for them. Outside the gallery, there are artists working in a wide array of fields. There are sculptors welding recycled metals into larger-than-life animals like the giant zebra created by Sam Ochando across the street from HOF (House of Friends). Just next door to the gallery are glass artists who were trained by Nani Croze of Kitengela Glass. “Nani also taught us how to construct our own jua kali furnace so we could make our own Dalle de Verre glass art using recycled beer and soda bottles,“ adds Joseph. “She said she wanted to leave behind a legacy with Kenyans, so she taught 11 of us for free,” he continues. Tnen, just down the road, there is one women’s project underway. It’s the Power Women group, headed by Gladys Nyaboke. All seamstresses and tailors, the women are creating original fashions using only African textiles from around the region. As you keep moving down the road, you’ll find Peter, the chief cobbler who makes original leather sandals beaded by another group of women with whom he collaborates. But sandals are not the only leather shoe he can make. They are his most popular product, but he also makes men’s shoes on special request. After Peter’s Moya Footwear, you round the corner and arrive just down the road at Dickson Ouma’s original brass jewelry. And like almost all the artists we meet, Dickson is busy creating everything from elegant but simple brass rings and bracelets to earrings and necklaces, all of which might pass for gold. Obviously, they are not gold, but Dickson knows how to create delicate pieces that look refined and chic. Finally, there are three studio spaces currently used by Joseph, Jamey, and Petrix. There is also one upstairs apartment next door to HOF gallery. “That is strictly for visitors who are here either attending art residencies and working through the gallery; or they’ve come to entertain the locals. “The art residencies are just starting but so far, we have hosted visiting musicians who have come to Kenya especially to perform for Kibera audiences."

MT KENYA UNIVERSITY SHOCKED US WITH A POIGNANT DRAMA

M By Margaretta wa Gacheru Roses of Blood was one of the first plays staged at the Kenya International Theatre Festival (KITFEST) 2023, performed by Mount Kenya University students in the tent temporarily replacing the Kenya National Theatre stage. The program claims the show is about a dead woman, madman, and dysfunctional family. How grim. Nonetheless, the set design has an instant appeal, being portable and stretched across the wide National Theatre tented stage. Act one opens inside an insane asylum. Mad people are misbehaving everywhere with the staff having no control. Even the doctor (Warren Othiambo) can’t take charge when he arrives with the family of the sick man, Stephen (Jacob Koli). Stephen is oblivious of their presence, unaware of his father Mr Johnson (Steve Odewa), mother (Marylyn Wangari), or brother Raul (Anthony Macharia) having come to see him. Instead, he's hearing voices that torture him mentally up until his dead sister suddenly appears. She’s dressed in a pure white gown, as if she’s either a ghost or an angel. The father isn’t impressed and would just as soon leave him there forever. But the mom urges him to understand the boy is ill. The issue that made him sick was news that his beloved sister Abigail (Irene Lucy Akinyi) had died. The cause of her death is not explained and the dad claims he loved the girl too, but that doesn’t mean a real man would break down as Stephan has done. The family departs as the doctor is amusingly ineffectual. The set change is signaled with the lighting, which shifts to the room next door where Johnson and Raul are planning how to benefit themselves in the name of serving the community by setting up a water project which supposedly will serve the whole community. Now the scene has cleverly shifted to a flashback or prequel-side of this story. The water project was originally the dream of Johnson’s and his sister Audassia’s (Florence Nyasiwe) Dad. It’s Audassia’s plan to pick up the idea and run with it. She proposes it to her brother, Johnson, but this is when the crux of the story comes to light. Johnson’s misogyny is revealed in all its raw, self-righteous hues. It’s deeply rooted in his macho concept of manhood. At the same time, there’s an economic element in his resistance to having his sister involved in the project. He’d already planned to rob the project and doesn’t need her snooping around and discovering his corrupt intentions. Johnson’s seeing Audacissia’s strength as a threat might not be apparent initially. But his attitude gradually appears. It’s misogynous and self-serving. In any case, Audacissia ignores her brother’s opposition to her being involved in what he now sees as his family business. She proceeds anyway, enlisting her niece to set up their own company in order to bid for and legally win the tender to carry out the whole water project. When Johnson hears about their plan and efforts to take legal steps, his rage against his sister and daughter is manic. It leads one to seriously wonder if he isn’t the one with the mental problems. Johnson transmits his over-the-top outrage to his son Raul who, when he has a one-on-one conversation with Stephany, is also propelled by the dad’s intense misogyny to pull out a knife with vicious intent. There’s a tense interchange between Stephany who knows she’s about to die, and Raul. The scene is a shocker. What gives this story such a fascinating and powerful twist at the end is when not just Stephan, but also Raul and Johnson hear from beyond the grave. Stephany’s ‘ghost’ had struggled to break through the mental barrier that separates the living from the dead. The conditions are now ripe for breaking through again and speaking first to Raul and then to Johnson. Somehow, the ghost is able to convey to her father that he must loosen up and give the women a chance to be ``equal partners” both in the water project and in life generally. Meanwhile, Raul is in agony, seeing what evil deed he did in destroying the life of another human being. The show ends in contrition and in convincing us that Mt Kenya University had an outstanding team of actors whose performance touched us deeply. They and their director-scriptwriter all dared to address some very relevant issues, doing so without belaboring points that might otherwise have put us to sleep.

HEARTSTRINGS' SAVIOUR KEEPS THE LADIES SATISFIED

Heartstrings Entertainment took full advantage of one of their newer members this past weekend when they made Arnold Savior not only the MC of the night. They also gave him the complicated comedic role of Solomon, the night watchman in their weekend run of ‘Horses If Wishes were.’ It’s an intriguing title much like most of Heartstrings’ plays’ names: appealing, even provocative, but obtuse and ultimately, absurd, meaningless, and irrelevant to understanding the story. Savior is an organic wit and comedian who uses every bone in his body to create a style of physical comedy that feels natural and effortlessly hilarious. As the MC he came out on the Alliance Francaise stage and didn’t just produce a few funny quips and let the show roll. He warmed up his audience with a series of short seemingly improvised skits that had us howling with laughter, his humor transcending barriers of language, culture, and community bias. Then, just as swiftly as he came on stage, he disappeared, only to reappear a few minutes later. He returned as Solomon, the sleepy night watchman whose neglect of his job led to the most consequential heist and burglary to hit the home of Immaculata. Immaculata is the kept woman who sees her ‘keeper’, the man who pays for her flat, food, and luxury lifestyle, including three fundis, once every three months. Apparently, her lover and paymaster, Mheshimiwa (Fischer Murage) is a married man, which is why he visits Kalundo so sporadically. The story’s intrigue unfolds after we’ve met Immaculata and her staff, Solomon, the watchman, Fernand (Timothy Ndisii) and Kalundu (Angel Kioko), the house help hired to assist Immaculatah, by her paymaster to keep her content and prepared to receive him whenever he came visiting. In the first scene, Immaculata replimand them for their laziness. Then she sleeps and the lights go off. Then come the flashlight, apparently checking if it’s clear to come in. Then someone with a black hoodie climbs through the window and proceeds to clear the living room of anything of value, including Immacuata’s expensive computer. But before he can escape, he hides, hearing Immaculata rising from her bed, and for some reason rushing to the sitting room to check her pregnancy text, which was positive. For her, it’s distressing news. Having no one to talk to about this disruptive discovery, she calls her mom and tells her the news. It’s all overheard by the buglar who remains hidden until she goes back to bed. The next day, immaculata doesn’t seem that bothered by the heist (due perhaps to poor direction) although she calls the three in and demands an accounting. Where was the watchman, and the compound manager, and the cook? These are the same questions Mheshimiwaha (Fischer Maina) asks, having just arrived. But just moments before she comes in, a strange woman arrives, unannounced and looking for a job. She is self-assured, and wants to speak with the Memsab who doesn’t care to retain him. But once the petite Regina starts to inject her perspective and defend the interests of immaculata, she looks like she has a job. But once she continues offering relevant information to Mheshimiwas, the woman’s knowledge of the situation bowls him over. He quickly hires her for big bucks to supervise the household on his behalf. Her power grab is impressive, although the workers, including Immaculata are not pleased with having a spy in their midst. Mheshimiwa also has a lecherous eye for her; she tells him she cannot be bought. We know however that was nothing but a stratically-planned lie to gain more of his admiration and more from his pocket book. When he asks her what she’d if she was given a flat by someone, she said she’d sell it to buy land and livestock. He is further impressed by her practicality and candor, little do we know that she quietly mentioned to one of her workmates that she was the buglar. It’s a line that nearly gets lost. But now we can understand how she obtained the secrets she seemed to know. But the real shocker comes when she claims Immaculata is pregnant which is true. Of course, he wants to know who dunit? It could hardly have been him. Now is when Regina comes out with great mental guns to accuse all the men and the women of cheating right and left among one another. Finally, the shocker of the play comes as Mshemiwa asks who is the women want the most, and who’s the daddy in Immaculata’s case, they all rush to embrace Solomon, the watchman! So the mystery is solved, but it’s a shocker nonetheless. [[[story for 16 days of protest vs Gender-based violence}

CYRUS KABIRU, JUA KALI GENIUS

Cyrus Kabiru is such a humble man, the public might never know that he is globally-acclaimed as well as being the artist who created all the'junk’ radios being shown as part of the Goethe institute exhibition-installation, ‘Amplitude of sounds” featured last August 2023. It was curated by a cast of eight who apparently forgot to attribute the radios’ creator, this jua kali giant, Kabiru. Don’t expect any complaint coming from Cyrus however. He has got too much on his mind to give his lack of attribution a second thought. He has already received so much adulation from elsewhere, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York which recently acquired one of his radios. And that is just one of the many cultural capitals on the planet where his radios, ornamental ‘C-specks’ or spectacles, and Black Mamba bikes have been appreciated. His public lecture, given in LA on ‘Giving Junk a second life’ is even on YouTube. But part of Kabiru’s appeal for me is his fascinating life story which you can see revealed through his art in both two- and three- dimensional forms. Each reflects a different facet of his life, including generations that preceded him. For instance, his jua kali radios relate to his grandfather who was the first person in their village in Murang’a to own a short-wave radio. “Every evening ten minutes before 6pm, neighbors would come to our home just to listen to BBC‘s Swahili version of the News of the world,” Cyrus told BDLife when we met recently at One Off Gallery. The radio shaped villagers’ mind-sets, he said, so that if they heard about Oxford University from there, they would vow to send their child to Oxford. That went on until AM/FM radio arrived in Kenya and his ‘Guka’ got one of them. “After that, he handed down his trusty shortwave to my father who in turn eventually handed it down to me,” Cyrus said, noting that Guka’s radio was actually in the Goethe show. He received it while still commuting between Murang’a and Korogocho (near the giant junk yard) where he grew up but was sent to stay with his grandparents for fear that he’d ‘get lost’ like his friends who Cyrus said, today are either in jail, drug dealing, or dead. That decision to shift him out of town was a life-changer for Cyrus. He had already found his love of art in primary school where he’d draw caricatures of his classmates and would get paid in pennies. So, by the time he got to rural areas, he was prepared to get to work. The only problem was he had no art materials. But he found them amidst the junk that people throw away, starting with bottle tops which he could easily get from local bars. By the time we first met Cyrus at Kuona Trust, he was already creating smashed bottle top sculptures like the giant crocodile which he’d shaped with chicken wire and flattened bottle top“I had guys go to local bars and collect the tops for me,” he told me back then. He said he wanted to create art that spoke to him, like the radios he eventually made, after he’d become world famous with his C-Specks, and which also had a family story associated with them. Like the guka who wouldn’t allow anyone to touch his radio, Cyrus’s dad wouldn’t allow him to touch his spectacles. As a result, the fruit of that suppression became the inspiration for Cyrus to create his own glasses, which he named C-specks after the public took note of his unique form of sculpted ornamental eye-ware. As it got more intricate, symmetrical, and beautifully original, it was ever-worn by the artist (like a model) whenever his C-Specks were being photographed. They were then shared online, and shown in international art centres, magazines, and even by big-name Black musicians who wore his C-specks on popular African American publication. In the process, Cyrus has been invited everywhere from Hollywood and New York City to London, Berlin, Milan, Tokyo, and even Cape Town where the brand new Zeizz Museum of Modern Art gave him an entire room to showcase his C-Specks. His art is also represented in Cape Town by one of the leading galleries there. Meanwhile, Cyrus had already started developing his Black Mamba bicycle series, based on the bicycle his dad wouldn’t allow him to ride. Again, he decided to create his own jua kali bike in his own style. Another unique creation was born, which also grabbed global attention. But it’s still the C-specks that have gained the greatest attraction and hurled him into an international spotlight that few Kenyans know about since Cyrus is still a humble man, even as he has opened up his studio to apprentices whom he mentors up to now.

A ROUND UP OF KENYA'S VISUAL ARTS SCENE 2023

To offer a round-up of the Kenyan visual arts scene in 2023 is to bear witness to a dynamic, ever-expanding art world that wasn’t always easy to track. Artists were busy all over the city and nearby countryside as well as at the Coast, Kisumu, Eldoret, Nanyuki, Nakuru, and elsewhere. There is no easy explanation for what’s been happening artistically in 2023 except to note that there are also many new ‘curators’ who have appeared on the art scene this past year, and lots of new venues and galleries where art is being displayed. That includes everywhere from basements of shopping mall car parks to private homes and top floors of local ‘skyscrapers to social media. The online ‘Art Calendar’, founded by two European women, has kept us posted about these innovative locations. The covid lockdown may have had a role to play in former art hobbyists who were stuck at home remembering their early love of art which their parents had poopooed, insisting their child become either an accountant, doctor, lawyer or banker. But this past year, we’ve seen former professionals coming out as either painters, print-makers, professional photographers, or fashion designers. Social media has also played a major part in propelling their artwork into the public domain. Many young artists are putting their art on Instagram where they are discovering that their art can sell. From there, they are gaining confidence to exhibit in public. This is when we meet them, but not necessarily in one of the established galleries, like One Off, Circle Art, Red Hill, Banana Hill, Tribal Art, or Gravitart galleries. We may find them in newer art spaces like Ardhi Gallery, Uweza, or House of Friends (HOF), the latter two being in Kibera. This is also where we meet many of the new breed of curators who look for these aspiring young, emerging artists to exhibit their works. One of the most ambitious new curators is Thadde Tewa. Tewa effectively took his first course in curating as a sales manager at the sadly short-lived Polka Dot Gallery in Karen. He loved working with artists and clients so much he started his own online curatorial work for artists, creating their online catalogues, and finding unexpected spaces to exhibit artworks of creatives who craved outdoor exposure and potential sales, but didn’t know how to exhibit by themselves. The number of new curators is countless and growing.. One of the newest curators to successfully attract a whole range of young creatives to work with her is Christine Ogana. It helps that she runs a gallery space in the basement of a building that her partner owns. It also helps that her Ardhi Gallery is vast and has already had several group exhibitions including those featuring a myriad of emerging artists. Some curators have taken short courses in that field. Goethe Institute has facilitated several of those trainings. Alliance Francaise has exhibited young artists and also held public forums that probe issues in the arts. But curators are not the only reason the art world has grown so fast in recent times. Nor is it simply because there are a wide range of new galleries that may have started before 2023, but BD Life found them this past year. They include spaces like the UM Gallery in Karen and Unseen on Woods Avenue. Two of the most important new galleries cum archives to open up recently are the African Art Trust, founded by Robert Devereau, and Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute (NCAI), established ed by Michael Armitage, a successful UK-based Kenyan painter who founded NCAI to collect, curate, archive, and exhibit wonderful shows in 2023 for multitalented artists like Chelenge van Rampelberg, Swoyia Kiambi, Peterson Kamwathi, Paul Njihi, Elias Mungora, and Morris Foit among others. Both of these art institutions reflect an enduring commitment to the visual arts in Kenya. The other institutions that have been ever-active are artists collectives like those at Kuona, Kobo Trust, Brush Tu, Mukuru, Wajukuu, and the GoDown. Finally, one cannot forget the role of advanced art education, especially the degree and diploma programs at places like BIFA, the Buru Buru Art Institute and universities like Kenyatta and Nairobi. All have made a big difference in artists coming out this past year with impressive skills, knowledge, and self-assurance regarding the quality of their art. Also nearly 70 emerging artists are also in the new Kenya Arts Diary 2024.