For more information visit Goethe website
Panel Discussion: ITHUMBA – Ntando Cele on performances in public space, Jul. 23 2012 @ Goethe
ITHUMBA is the title of a performance and the embodiment of the spirit of Mary Muthoni Nyanjiru, who was killed in a protest in 1922. Nyanjiru challenged her people and the British government to release Harry Thuku.
In Ithumba Ntando Cele is collaborating with Mumbi Kaigwa in looking at how protests have risen in the past. And if women today had to protest, what would be the trigger? Would they leave their high heels behind? What would that dance be? “My interest is in the act of gathering, chanting slogans and finally the act of shaming the onlookers by pulling up their dresses and revealing their private parts, which is still considered a curse present day” says Ntando.
The artist’s motivation, work progress and her experience of performing art in public spaces both in Africa and Europe, will be explored during the panel on July 23rd, at 6 pm. The performance is planned for July 27th in front of the Kuona Trust compound.
The panel is organized by Goethe-Institut Kenya in collaboration with Kuona Trust.
For more information: Facebook event page
Yunasi in Concert, Jul. 27 2012 @ Goethe
Date: July 27, 2012
Venue: Goethe-Institut Auditorium
Time: 8 pm
Tickets: Kshs 250 [call for additional details +254 20 2224640]
In 2004, Yunasi developed a unique East African music style called Sesube which is a combination of Sega, Isukuti, and Benga. It takes sounds and inspirations, cultural styles and languages from local Kenyan communities, and fuses those sounds with a European component. This is achieved by playing a variety of instruments, both traditional and modern.
Since the formation of the group, they have performed at festivals like Sauti za Busara, Bluesfest and Festhorn and played shows in Kenya, France, Germany, Belgium, Mayotte, Djibouti, Tanzania, Australia, Thailand and London. Furthermore, Yunasi won the 2004 Kisima Award for Best Afro-Fusion Band in Kenya, scooped the prize at the prestigious US International Songwriting Contest in 2006, and achieved the 2nd place in the World of Music Awards (WOMA) 2008.
On this evening, Yunasi will present some of their latest songs that will be featured on their upcoming album, both in an acoustic and a more energetic set.
Screenings: Sinema Hot Sun Showcase, Jul. 14 2012 @ Goethe
Date: July 14, 2012
Venue: Goethe-Institut Auditorium
Time: 4 pm
Entry: free
The Sinema Hot Sun Showcaseoffers an opportunity for film lovers to interact with creative youth from Kibera showing what they do best. The screening programme comprises award-winning “Kibera Kid”, “Mututho”, “One plus One”, “Choices”, “Majukuma2, among others. Kibera TV will present its documentaries based on slum innovation and environment management. A demonstration of how to record audio for film will be held, making this event a unique showcase of Hot Sun’s activities.
Hot Sun Foundation is a charitable trust registered June 2007 in Nairobi, working with youth in slums since 2000 in Filmmaking and training. Hot Sun Productions provides quality media services at reasonable rates. Kibera Film School offers innovative, hands on video training in creative story telling. The school trains youth in scriptwriting, camera work, editing, directing and producing. Kibera TV, the African inspirational TV is an online channel that is a voice for everyone in the Kibera community and beyond.
For more information
Conference: Popular Expression in the Silicon Savanna – Perspectives on the Digitization of Art and Life in Kenya, Jul. 10 2012 @ Goethe
While it remains to be seen whether the digital revolution will bring Kenyas ‘Vision 2030’ to fruition, digital technologies are clearly transforming the landscape of Kenyan popular culture. In Kenya today, popular music is being produced on computers and consumed on mobile phones; fiction is being published, read, and commented upon in blogs; poetry is being podcast; religious and political slogans are circulating on Twitter.
This conference brings together Kenyan and non-Kenyan scholars, intellectuals, and cultural practitioners for lively presentations and discussions on the ways in which digital technologies are transforming the production, consumption, reception, monetization, and politicization of popular expression in Kenya – all with a view toward developing a better understanding of Kenyan society in the digital age.
Organised by Prof. Mbugua wa-Mungai (Kenyatta University) and Dr. Andrew J. Eisenberg (University of Oxford), with support from the Goethe-Institut Kenya and the ‘Music, Digitisation, Mediation’ Research Programme at the University of Oxford, UK
Date: July 10, 2012
Venue: Goethe Institut Auditorium
Time: 10am-4pm
Entry: Free
For more info & programme check G.I. facebook event page
Book Launch: Rethinking Eastern African Literary and Intellectual Landscapes, Jul 3 2012 @ Goethe-Institut
* WHERE: GOETHE INSTITUT NAIROBI
Maendeleo House
Loita/Monrovia Street
Nairobi
* WHEN: Tuesday 3rd July 2012 – 6 PM
* ENTRY: FREE
Rethinking Eastern African Literary and Intellectual Landscapes
An Anthology edited by Prof. James Ogude, Dr. Grace A. Musila and Dr. Dina Ligaga
This book brings together diverse voices, genres and intellectual trajectories in an attempt to reflect on the state of production of, and engagement with, Eastern African literary cultures. The book re-visits established intellectual debates and canonical texts, while simultaneously offering a forceful engagement with popular arts and performance; particularly the manner in which genres such as drama, music and new media offer important insights into everyday life in the region. At the core of these essays is Eastern Africa s engagement with the legacy of colonial modernity, which remains a major influence on the region’s artists. The book also speaks to rich and complex sources of Eastern African cultures and how these continue to be negotiated through multiple currents, both local and transnational.
‘The anthology presents brilliantly written, erudite, and incredibly rich discussions of the various facets of contemporary East African literary cultures. The greatest strength of the collection lies in the fact that each writer places the materials under analysis in the context of a long tradition of African literary production, academic debates, and postcolonial scholarship. The essays are not only a thrill to read, but they will also be of great value to scholars of African and postcolonial literatures across the globe seeking to appreciate the shifts and continuities in the region’s culture of writing.’
Evan Mwangi – Assistant Professor of English, Northwestern University, USA.
FilmAid Film Festival, Jun 21 2012 @ Goethe-Institut
FilmAid Film Festival on Thursday, 21st June 2012
Screening 1 – 4pm: Two short refugee films and feature film Welcome to Shelbyville
Screening 2 – 7pm: Two short refugee films and feature film Africa United
Goethe-Institute Auditorium
No. 3, Monrovia Street
Maendeleo House, Nairobi
Free Entry
For more information on FilmAid: www.FilmAid.org
FilmAid has been screening films in Kenya’s refugee camps since 2001, and producing local content in Kakuma and Dadaab for almost as long. Through a filmmaker training program FilmAid provides young refugees with the resources to tell their own stories in their own voices.
The FilmAid Film Festival showcases films produced in the Kakuma and Dadaab refugee camps by refugee filmmakers. These short documentaries and dramas offer a powerful insight into life in the camps, which are collectively home to well over half a million individuals.
In 2012 the FilmAid Film Festival screens local and international films in Kakuma, Dadaab and Nairobi, bringing the world of cinema to the refugee community, and refugee stories to a wider Kenyan audience. Founded in 1999 during the Balkan crisis by award-winning producer Caroline Baron (Capote, Monsoon Wedding), FilmAid uses the power of film and media to transcend language and literacy, bringing life-saving information, psychological relief and much-needed hope to refugees and other communities in need around the globe.
Weekly Lecture Series: Kenya at Fifty, every Wednesday until July 11 2012 @ Goethe
Every Wednesday at the Goethe-Institut Auditorium – at 6pm
Entrance: Free
This series of 12 weekly lectures, convened by Professor Karega Munene and organised in cooperation with the Ford Foundation, takes stock of Kenya’s cultural, social, economic, political and intellectual growth in relation to governance and treatment of human rights since independence in 1963. During this period Kenya has had three presidents – the late Jomo Kenyatta, Daniel arap Moi, and currently H.E. Mwai Kibaki – whose styles of leadership have impacted on the lives of Kenyans differently, thus providing us with invaluable lessons that require documentation if they are to serve the country as she faces the future.
The lectures will cover Socio-Economic and Political History of Kenya; Heritage and Social Memory; Education and Management of the State; National Health: Curative and Preventive Approaches; The Economy: Formal and Informal Sectors; Education and Knowledge Economy; English, Kiswahili and Sheng Languages; Literature, Music and Dance; Culture and Religion; The Family as Microcosm of Kenyan Identity; and Sustainable Agriculture and Environmental Management.
Browse the up-to-date programme of the lectures on the Goethe Institute’s website
Experimental Music: Hauschka in Concert, Apr. 13 2012 @ Goethe
Date: April 13, 2012
Venue: Goethe-Institut Auditorium
Time: 6.30 pm
Entrance: Free
In order to strengthen the music production between both the Kenyan and German music scene, the Düsseldorf-based pianist and composer Volker Bertelmann aka Hauschka has been in Nairobi. Accompanied by Sven Kacirek, they have cooperated with several Kenyan musicians and recorded songs together for two weeks.
On this occasion, Hauschka will perform a concert and present his composed music which is based on the so-called “prepared piano”. To explore and influence the outcome of his music, Bertelmann modifies parts of the instrument, attaching various objects to the strings such as gaffa tape, kitchen foil, felt wedges, bottle tops, ping pong balls, guitar string, thus creating a new and experimental sound.
The concert is an occasion to listen to fascinating experimental music from one of the most interesting contemporary composers.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2yjycsPxRk]
Exhibition/Installation: In Memoriam, Mar. 3-Apr. 6 2012 @ Goethe
Opening date: March 3, 2012
Venue: Goethe Institut
Time: 7pm
Exhibition Dates: March 5-April 6, 2012 (Mon.-Fri.)
Time: 1-6pm
Entry: Free
One of the most notable figures in the recent history of Art in Kenya is Mbuthia Maina. Maina joined Kuona Trust’s Art studios at the National museum in 1997 and has recently been an instrumental member of the artist led collective Masaai Mbili.
He was one of the artists that started working in the 90’s in a conceptual way using different art media including video art. His background of anthropology and sociology informs his conceptual methods. His works are often illustrations of his journeys and experiences-inclusive of political histories.
Mbuthia Maina has been one of the few Kenyans exhibited at a major art event in the global art scene: Liverpool Biennale 2002.
This exhibition provides a deep insight and pays tribute to Mbuthia Maina’s work
This exhibition is curated by 3collect