Kenyanpoet

• Weekend Inspirational Video: Ayo 'Slow Slow(Run, Run)

  Posted: July 31, 2010, 5:12 pm by N.W

• Art Exhibition: Liz Orchardson & Margaret Matanda, Paa ya Paa 31st July

  Posted: July 27, 2010, 9:47 pm by N.W

  Painting with a Mouse: Computer Art & Poems Book Launch by Liz Orchardson
  Creating with Clay & Brush: Ceramics & Paintings by Margaret Matanda
  Chief  Guest: Prof. Olive Mugenda, The Vice-Chancellor- Kenyatta University
  Date: Saturday 31st July, 2010
  Official Opening: 2pm - 6pm
  Venue: Paa ya Paa Art Gallery Ridgways, Off Kiambu Road
  Duration: 31st July - 15th Aug 9am - 6pm Daily
  Items for Sale: Paintings & Books
  Artist contacts: Liz Orchardson (0722 769902) & Margaret (0722 225440)

• Mines & Mind Fields gets reviewed in the Lifestyle, Sunday Nation 25th July

  Posted: July 26, 2010, 4:09 pm by N.W

  As I was lazing in the house yesterday, Sunday 25th, I received a call from a fellow poet and blogger informing me that he was reading a review of my book in the day's newspaper. That took my by surprise as I was not aware that anyone was doing a review of the book.
  
  I quickly dashed to the shop and got myself a copy of the paper and hurriedly perused through it for the article.
  And there it was in the lifestyle section, 'Poetry that embraces nation’s popular culture' by Joseph Ngunjiri who also runs the blog, Kenyanbooks/ Maisha yetu.
  
  Its interesting how you can do something on an experimental basis only for it to become something bigger than you expected. Thats how I feel about the book and most of the poems which have varying styles, themes and in some cases, even taking on other personalities. I like the way that Ngunjiri was able to capture the main theme in the poetry collection which is ideally on Kenya's current culture, Urban Blues as I referred to it. If you missed the read, find a copy of it from the Nation's Website.
  
  Simon Muthiora, a poet and blogger who runs, Two Hours Before has also reviewed the book.
  
  I hope you will get a chance to come and listen to some of the poems in the book in the two events that I will be performing at over the weekend (here and here) Signed copies of the book will be available for sale.

• Rhythm & Spoken Featuring, Singer Viola Karuri & Poet Njeri Wangari, 30th July

  Posted: July 23, 2010, 4:06 pm by N.W

  Event: Rhythm & SpokenDate & Time : July 30 at 9:00pm - July 31 at 2:00amLocation:  Dass- Ethiopian Restaurant                 Woodvale Grove, Westlands, Nairobi, KenyaA Poetry and Music open mic night, featuring Singer Viola Karuri and Poet Njeri Wangari author of Mines and Mind fields: My Spoken Words(Yup, thats me)Doors open at 9pm and Performances start from 9:30pm-11:00pmNusoul groove afterparty with DJ EduardoEntry:Sh200For performance slot bookings/dinner reservations/info call us on: 0728.293.632
  (Signed copies of my book will be available for purchase)

• Exhibition: Moses Nyawanda at Le Rustique 24 July-7 sept

  Posted: July 22, 2010, 8:10 pm by N.W

  Art Nairobi and Le Rustique are happy to show Moses Nyawanda 's first solo exhibition in Nairobi for more than 7 years. Born in Bondo ,Nyanza district, Moses stopped painting for more than 7 years and begun again in 2009. Most of his paintings are done on canvas and his subjects are the people of Kenya
  
  "I paint those I interact with and currently I am interested in painting political subject since they portray the Kenyan fast growing culture greed".
  
  Most of his male characters depict the vile political subjects ( he gives them animal faces to avoid a too obvious confrontational approach to his subject ) while his women and children depict the warm social subjects, both being contemporary.
  

• Benjamin Zephaniah A Highlight at the Storymoja Hay Festival 2010

  Posted: July 22, 2010, 1:37 pm by N.W

  Poet, novelist and playwright Benjamin Zephaniah will be the highlight at this year's Storymoja Hay Festival 2010. Born in 15 April 1958, is a British Jamaican Rastafarian writer and dub poet. He is a well-known figure in contemporary English literature, and was included in The Times list of Britain's top 50 post-war writers in 2008.
  
  Zephaniah has said that his mission is to fight the dead image of poetry in academia, and to "take it everywhere" to people who do not read books". This ties in very well with the Story Moja, a publishing company that seeks to change the notion that reading is boring by nurturing a reading culture.
  
  Zephaniah has written 15 Poetry books, 5 Novels, 2 plays and produced 6 albums
  
  Last year saw the inauguration of the first Storymoja Hay Festival with the highlight being the celebrated Nigerian writer, Wole Soyinka. Unfortunately, he could not make it but it(the festival) did bring together many writers from Africa and beyond in a 3 day book festivity. (See my recap  here and here)
  
  

• Storymoja Hay Festival Poetry Competition

  Posted: July 22, 2010, 12:53 pm by N.W

  Storymoja and International PEN Kenya Chapter invite you to submit poems for the Storymoja Hay Festival Poetry Competition.
  
  They welcome bold, innovative poems that are rooted in local contexts and idioms, attentive to the nuances and textures of everyday life. Poems that help us see and imagine Kenya in its complex variety.
  
  The winning entry will receive a prize of Kshs 20,000, 2nd and 3rd places will receive Kshs 10,000 and Kshs 5,000 respectively.Winners will have the opportunity to perform during the Hay Festival, October 1-3, 2010. Winning entries will also be published in the Nairobi Star.
  
  Submit a maximum of two poems to Haypoetry2010@storymojaafrica.co.ke. The subject line of the email should be “Hay Poetry Submission.”
  
  Submit poems as attachments using either Microsoft Word (doc) or Rich Text File (rtf) formats. On a separate cover page, please include your contact information, including your name, email address, and phone number. Do not put any of this information on the pages containing poetry.
  
  Submissions close at midnight on Monday August 30, 2010.
  
  They will not be able to respond to individual queries.

• SLAM AFRICA is back, July 23rd 2010, Dass Restaurant

  Posted: July 20, 2010, 5:49 pm by N.W

  Slam Africa is on again!!!
  Featuring all new Spoken Word artists!!!
  As well as Point Blank (the master of ceremony)!!!
  Come through and enjoy another exciting
  Spoken WordSLAM Poetry Competition!
  Nuff luv
  Entrance: Ksh.300 Day: Friday 23rd JulyTime: 7:30pm - 11:00pmLocation: Dass Ethiopian Restaurant,Woodvale Grove, Westlands.

• SLAM AFRICA is back, July 23rd 2010, Dass Restaurant

  Posted: July 20, 2010, 5:49 pm by N.W

  Slam Africa is on again!!!
  Featuring all new Spoken Word artists!!!
  As well as Point Blank (the master of ceremony)!!!
  Come through and enjoy another exciting
  Spoken WordSLAM Poetry Competition!
  Nuff luv
  Entrance: Ksh.300 Day: Friday 23rd JulyTime: 7:30pm - 11:00pmLocation: Dass Ethiopian Restaurant,Woodvale Grove, Westlands.

• "Lottie Da, Poet I Am" by Lottie Porch at Paa ya Paa, 1st August

  Posted: July 19, 2010, 4:02 pm by N.W

  Lottie E. Porch is an award winning actor, writer, educator, director and producer for stage and screen. For over thirty years Ms. Porch has shared her talents in the realms of performing arts, written word, and cultural education. Whether she is acting on stage, publishing written works, teaching students in an African village, or singing a late night set at a jazz club – Lottie Porch brings her creativity to all apects of her life and work.
  
  On 1st August, a Sunday afternoon, Lottie will be performing poetry and music off her debut CD of Music and Spoken Word, 'Lottie Da, Poet I Am' at the Paa ya Paa Art Gallery in Ridgeways Kiambu.
  
  The event  will enable Kenyan poetry lovers to sample some Spoken Word from this amazingly multi talented lady. It will also be an opportunity for Lottie to hear what Kenya has to offer in Poetry and Spoken Word.
  
  At this point, I would like to make a call to poets who would be interested in performing during this event. Email me, njeriwangari(at)kenyanpoet(dot)com and I will give you more details on the day's program.
  
  Come experience some serenity from the words and the surroundings from the pioneers of art in Kenya, Phillda and Elimo Njau.

• How Come? Yossour N'Dour, Canibus & Wycliffe Jean

  Posted: July 16, 2010, 8:00 pm by N.W

  Every once in a while amidst all the crunk and bubblegum music even from artists who started out real and then gave in to commercialization somewhere, comes a song that makes you pause and listen.
  
  Thats how come, this track is getting the Friday Feature.
  
  Yossour N'Dour has proved time and again  that he is indeed one of Africa's great musicians and there is no other Afro artist that can match his diversity, Angelique is however getting close. The guy has done many collaborations with artists of a different genre than his and always managed to make the songs hits. An example is 7 Seconds with Neneh Cherry.
  
  Wycliffe is one person who has been going through lots of phases in his musical career. Sometimes I love him, sometimes I hate him. He has the potential to make very good music as is evident in this video but for sometime he has been caught up in the commercial of music and made some horrible $%$^.
  
  How come is a song that is a collaboration of 2 hip hop artists, Wycliffe Jean, Canibus his prodigy and an African Music artist, Yossour N'dour.
  
  The sound is amazing. may it usher you into the weekend.
  
  

• Conference: Broadcast & Film Africa 28th -29th July 2010 in Nairobi

  Posted: July 14, 2010, 5:23 pm by N.W

  Nigeria’s leading film producers will be showcasing their latest productions at this year’s Broadcast & Film Africa Conference, to be held in Nairobi over 28-29 July.
  
  AITEC Africa, the event organiser, has announced an exciting programme, including a Nollywood Pavilion in the exhibition running alongside the conference. Over 20 Nollywood film-makers will participate in the conference, to promote their products to broadcasters and distributors that will be attending the event from throughout Africa. Nigerian films have become increasingly popular among East African TV viewers.
  
  The conference will include a session entitled “After Nollywood, what next? – African film distribution across the continent”. Speakers on this topic include Imruh Bakari, Savannah Films, Tanzania; Lola Sanusi, Director of Operations, Continental TV; Trushna Buddhev Patel, GM Africa, Pan-African Film Distributors; Wanuri Kahiu, Film-maker; Professor Emevwo Biakolo, Dean, School of Media & Communications, Pan-African University, Nigeria; Mike Dearham, Head M-Net Library Acquisition and Sales
  
  Over 60 African and international broadcast and film leaders will make presentations on a wide range of broadcast and film industry topics in the two day conference, sharing knowledge and experience with industry managers and professionals from throughout the continent.
  
  For full details of the conference email info(at)aitecafrica.com or log on to www.aitecafrica.com

• Concert: Otto Lechner & Windhund Music, Sat 17th July @ Goethe Institut

  Posted: July 14, 2010, 12:36 pm by N.W

  * CONCERT *
  * OTTO LECHNER & WINDHUND MUSIC *
  * WHERE: Goethe InstitutMonrovia StreetNairobi
  * WHEN: Saturday 17 July, 6.00 PM
  * ENTRY: Free
  OTTO LECHNER & WINDHUND MUSICOtto Lechner, a blind accordionist and member of the famous “Accordion Tribe”, an all star group of world-renowned accordionists who were brought together by American accordionist Guy Klucevsek. Karl Ritter, a true “Guitar King” and Melissa Coleman, Cello, complete the Trio Windhund Music representing different sound worlds, its members are well known for their musical globetrotting. They move around in many areas of music, never restricting themselves to any cliché. The combination of high professional standards of music making, artistic maturity and a common understanding of musical performance spark the creation of pieces which could not have been better written if they had been pre-composed.
  
  

• Hip Hop with an African mix; Canibus, Wyclife Feat Yossour N'Dour - How Come

  Posted: July 9, 2010, 7:28 pm by N.W

  Every once in a while amidst all the crunk and bubblegum music even from artists who started out real and then gave in to commercialization somewhere, comes a song that makes you pause and listen.
  
  Thats how come, this track is getting the Friday Feature.
  
  Yossour N'Dour has proved time and again  that he is indeed one of Africa's great musicians and there is no other Afro artist that can match his diversity, Angelique is however getting close. The guy has done many collaborations with artists of a different genre than his and always managed to make the songs hits. An example is 7 Seconds with Neneh Cherry.
  
  Wycliffe is one person who has been going through lots of phases in his musical career. Sometimes I love him, sometimes I hate him.
  
  How come is a song that is a collaboration of 2 hip hop artists, Wycliffe Jean, Canibus his prodigy and an African Music artist, Yossour N'dour.
  
  The sound is amazing. may it usher you into the weekend.
  
  

• A for Africa Exhibition from July 2010 to July 2011, Nairobi National Museum

  Posted: July 7, 2010, 5:44 pm by N.W

• Moraa Gitaa shortlisted in Penguin Prize for African Writing

  Posted: July 5, 2010, 5:32 pm by N.W

  Moraa Gitaa, a Kenya based writer of the Novel Crucible for Silver & Furnace for Gold  is on a shortlist of thirteen authors gunning for the inaugural Penguin Prize for African Writing.
  
  The Penguin Group in announcing the shortlisted authors said it received approximately 250 submissions in the fiction category and 50 in the non-fiction category from around Africa.
  
  The literary awards are for "previously unpublished full-length work of adult fiction and one of non-fiction." Gitaa's entry is in the fiction category.
  
  When it launched the new awards last year, Penguin stated "For the fiction prize the judges will be looking for novels of freshness and originality that represent the finest examples of contemporary fiction out of Africa."
  
  Winners will be announced in September and each category winner will receive the equivalent of US$6,500 and a publishing contract from the Penguin Group.
  
  Moraa is also a correspondent for Mshale, a newspaper for African immigrants in the Americas.

• Blankets & Wine feat Kidum, Denise Gordon,Maia & Wendy Kimani, July4th

  Posted: July 2, 2010, 1:15 pm by N.W

  
  EAST AFRICA’S PREMIER MUSIC FESTIVAL PRESENTS
  
  KIDUM (BURUNDI), DENISE GORDON (USA),
  WENDY KIMANI, MAIA
  LIVE @ HILLCREST SCHOOL, KAREN, NAIROBIAmple parking available
  Sunday, July 4th, 2010, 1pm-6.30pm
  
  GATE: Ksh. 1,000/- Adults, Ksh. 400/- Children Above 5 Years
  
  ADVANCE TICKETS – Ksh. 800
   FOR BOOKINGS CALL SAM: 0721 377 167

• Could Kenya's latest Radio station, 97.1FM Radio One be the One for Alternative Music Lovers?

  Posted: July 1, 2010, 1:26 pm by N.W

   There's a new radio station in Nairobi, 97.1FM which I stumbled across last week while surfing channels. I am not quite sure when exactly they started broadcasting but from the look of things, its still pretty new as they are just playing music throughout with a few infomercial breaks.
  
  Despite being live for less a month, they have already proved to be miles ahead of many other stations that have been there for ages. Just a few minutes ago(and maybe, what inspired me most to write this post) is the fact that they already have a Ustream channel for those always on the net like me and for the whole world to tune in.
  
  What caught my attention and has continued keeping tuned to this new station is their selection of music. You know how deep my love for Neo Soul, Jazz and African Music goes!(I feel it in my bones.....)
  
  They are playing precisely that sort of music and not just your usual Erykah Badu, Maxwel, India Arie, not that I no longer like their music but most  stations that purport to play  'Neo Soul' only play the afromentioned artists without realizing that the Neo Soul sub-genre has grown alot since the days of its pioneers. You will rarely hear music by the likes of Adrian Evans, Nneka, Ayo, Bilal, Fertile Ground, Laura Izibor, Wayna just to mention a few.
  
   The same applies to African Music although Capital FM in its Saturday evening show does try to feature more artists than just Papa Wemba and Oliver Mtukudzi with his Todii song(did you know that Tuku has over 17 albums and most Kenyans only know this one song!... blame radio)
  
  I give alot of Kudos to Jack Ojiambo for his knowledge and selection of Jazz music which he plays every Sunday evening. Unfortunately, someone at Capital felt that Classical Music was better than jazz thus reducing the Jazz show by 1hr to only 2hrs per week with Classical getting extra slots every evening. I guess its all about how much sponsorship a show gets to determine its time  on air. enuff with the ranting.
  
  I guess God did hear the prayer of many like me who even dared hope that one day there would be a radio station that would play the combination of good Neo Soul, Jazz and African music.
  
  If  the way they have started is anything to go by, then I can assure you that this will be one great station for mature listeners who know what they want from music.
  
  There is however only one small issue I have with the station, why play the same Soul music that is Classic FM's forte? wouldn't they be better off playing the good old Soul music with the likes of Smokey Robinson, Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Percy Sledge and the sort that made Motown a legendary Record Label! This would make alot of sense as its this legends of Soul that inspired the current breed of Neo Soul Artists(See the videos below if in doubt)
  
  Currently, the station is playing alot of Soul music with some cross over tracks to RnB (I pray they don't venture into RnB as we already have Easy for that)but on weekends they do play a very good selection of African Music. I must admit that most of the songs played were fresh to my ears which means that, they have really done their homework.
  
  I am still not sure who the station belongs to as they do not have a website yet but I did notice that one, Rama Nyang who was previously at Radio Africa is  one of the presenters.
  
  Lets hope that their music preference will not change after luring listeners in.
  
  
  
  
  

Blah blah blah

Fish cakes

Alas a fish cake.

Yet more fish cakes

Guess what ... yeah ... fish cakes.

The end of the fish cakes