Reading and Discussion: Amka Space Literature Forum, Feb. 25 2012 @ Goethe

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Date: February 25, 2012
Venue: Goethe-Institut Library
Time: 10am – 1pm
Entrance: Free

The Literature Forum brings together upcoming women writers and literary critics to share and discuss stories, poems and current literary trends with the aim of enhancing their creativity. The forum provides a space to listen to the voices of established and budding female writers – voices of women with a passion for literary adventure.

The first product of the Literature Forum is out and available in bookstores in Nairobi: Fresh Paint – Literary Vignettes by Kenyan Women. The volume comprises a selection of poems and short stories presented at the Forum over the last 3 years.

AMKA and the Goethe-Institut organize the monthly readings in the library of the Goethe-Institut every last Saturday of the month.

Participation in the forum is open to both men and women and interested participants may send their poems and short stories to amkaspace@yahoo.com

Literature Reading: The Blind Side of the Heart, Feb. 23 2012 @ Goethe

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Date: February 23, 2012
Venue: Goethe-Institut Library
Time: 6 – 8 pm
Entrance: Free
For more info check their Facebook event page

The public reading series “Stories Spoken” is dedicated to introducing contemporary German literature in English translation to the Kenyan audience.

Amid the chaos of civilians fleeing west in a provincial German railway station in 1945, Helene has brought her seven-year-old son with her. Having survived with him through the horrors and deprivations of the war years, she abandons him at the station platform and never returns.

This is a tale of hope, loneliness and love; of a life lived in terrible times; the story of a family, an era, and a fascinating woman.

Excerpts from the novel will be read in English and German by Ngwatilo Mawiyoo and Susan Nadolny respectively.

A discourse shall ensue thereafter about the readings.

Dance Performance: INBODA Nairo-Bach, Feb. 25-26 2012 @ Goethe

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Dates: February 25-26, 2012
Venue: Goethe Institut
Time: Sat. 6pm & Sun 3pm
Entry: Free

The German dance company UnterwegsTheater, in co-operation with Goethe-Institut Nairobi, supported by the Ministry of science and art research in Baden-spice, starts the project INBODA (international body- and dancework) – Nairo-Bach.

Dancers from UnterwegsTheater will work with professional dancers from the contemporary dance scene of Nairobi, combining their dance-styles with classical music from Johann Sebastian Bach among others.

The dance work will be enriched by the imagery of the internationally acclaimed video artist Lillevan (co-founder of Rechenzentrum). The idea of this production is to break the borders of space and concepts, to surprise and challenge the audience as well as the performers.

The dance workshop will culminate in two dance performances.

Participants: Adam Lukas, Kebaya Moturi, Joe Nene, Mani Obeya, Kefa Oiro, Juliette Omondi, Stavros Apostolatos, Florian Bücking, Ini Dill, Bernhard Fauser, Felix Felixine, Jai Gonzales

Concert/CD-Launch: Afree-Kah 2012 by Mcee Kah, Feb. 17 2012 @ Goethe

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Date: February 17, 2012
Venue: Goethe-Institut Auditorium
Time: 8 pm
Entrance: Free

Passionate about music from his teens, Mcee Kah has emerged to be one of the best-known rap-artists in the East African Hip-Hop scene.

In 2001, Mcee Kah launched his solo career and started working on his debut album. Later on he released the single Dandora Love feat. Zakah and Kabee, which took the air waves by storm.

Mcee Kah and his crew Ukoo Flani Mau Mau won the annual Kisima Music Award for the best Hip-Hop Group of the Year in 2005 and 2006.

His socially conscious music encourages love, peace and harmony in the society. After various tours he has been inspired to release his second album AFREE-KAH 2012, a continuation of his first album SUBIRA. Both albums have been inspired by the struggle of the marginalized groups, their strength, their role in the modern world, while capturing their history, current affairs and their vision for the future of humanity.
The new album exhibits the fusion of African instruments in digital Hip-Hop sounds as well as revolutionary Mau Mau songs.

Screenings: ESoDoc International, Jan. 29, 31 & Feb. 3 2012 @ Goethe

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Dates: January 29, 31 and February 3, 2012
Venue: Goethe-Institut

On the occasion of the first residential workshop of ESoDoc International in Africa which will be held in Nairobi from 28th January to 4th February 2012, there will screenings and presentations of outstanding films and projects from Europe, Africa and Asia.

ESoDoc International is a training initiative for documentary filmmakers who work on films with a social impact and who apply innovative techniques and methods of storytelling and distribution.

Participatory Video is one these, a way of telling stories from within, a social tool where ethics meet aesthetics. On Sunday 29th and Tuesday 31st January a selection of award-winning projects realized with this method will be shown.

On Friday 3rd February, new documentary, cross-media or participatory video projects developed at ESoDoc International will be publicly “pitched”.

ESoDoc International is promoted by ZeLIG school for documentary (Italy), in partnership with Formedia (India) and Amref (Italy), with the financial support of the new EU Fund Media Mundus (international.esodoc.org).

Concert/Album Launch/Muziki wa Kenya: Michel Ongaro – Mazoea, Jan 28 2012 @ Goethe

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The release concert of Michel Ongaro’s new album Mazoea will take place on

Date: January 28, 2012
Venue: Goethe-Institut
Time: 6pm
Entry: Free

Michel Ongaro is one of the best known singers and songwriters in Kenya. Ever since he was a young child he had a strong interest in music. Influenced by African rhythms, Jazz as well as Latin and classical music, he gradually became a multi-instrumentalist and started to compose his own music pieces. He produced his first album in collaboration with the German band The Embassadors.

Since then Michel Ongaro never stopped engaging himself in music. GI are proud to announce that the release concert for his new album will be held at the Goethe-Institut Nairobi. The album’s title is Mazoea, which in English means “habit”.
The music is largely acoustic, a fusion of Kenyan rhythms such as chakacha and bengaamong others, creating a unique sound, which you are going to experience at the concert.

Release Concert “BLNRB – Welcome to the Madhouse”, Dec 10 2011 @ Nairobi Railway Club

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What: LAST BLNRB SHOW!
Who: DJ Drazen, Just a Band, Ukoo Flani, Kimya, Lon’Jon, Nazizi, Michel
Ongaro, Radi (Nairobi)
Teichmann Brothers, Jahcoozi (Berlin)
Where: Nairobi Railway Club. See map: http://g.co/maps/tdbz4
Entrance Fee: 200/= KSh

The BLNRB project has caused quite a stir: mind-blowing parties in Nairobi, Berlin and Cologne, the international release and reviews for the album “BLNRB – Welcome to the Madhouse” from all over the world.

Now we are looking forward to its culmination. The BLNRB Release Concert, at the place it all had started: Nairobi! The artists will be reunited, for the last time you will have the chance to experience a night of great performances and incredible beats!

Get the album BLNRB – Welcome to the Madhouse at Nakumatt, Uchumi, iTunes and local music stores. It contains 18 of the best tracks from the project.

Since it will be the last show of BLNRB we are going to sum up the project with a screening of the BLNRB documentary, produced by Christian Füssenegger. The screening will start right before the concert, at 8.00 pm. Be there to get an exclusive look behind the scenes!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wkr9mnD2IaU]

Worldwide Literature Reading, Nov. 21 2011 @ Goethe

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Goethe institut is holding a literature reading on the 200th Death Anniversary of Heinrich von Kleist

Date: November 21, 2011
Venue: Goethe Institut Library
Time: 6-7.30 pm
Readings on: German and English
Entry: Free

The German poet, dramatist, novelist and short story writer Heinrich von Kleist died on the 21st of November 1811. Kleist wrote many fine plays and short stories in the 19th century. He also wrote many letters and books about his life, his ideas on financial and military reforms and his crisis experience.
200 years after his death, two German institutions, the “internationales literaturfestival berlin” (ilb) and the Heinrich-von-Kleist society, have initiated a reading of his works to take place on 21st November in different locations around the world. The Goethe-Institut Nairobi, together with the DAAD and the University of Nairobi’s Literature Department has also organized a reading of a selection of texts by Kleist in German and in English. The texts will be read by Anja Bengelstorff, Anna Mwangi, Dr. Tom Odhiambo and Dr. Georg Verweyen.

Concert: A Reggae journey through East Africa by Jahcoustix, Jamal & Friends, Nov. 18 2011 @ Goethe

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Date: Friday, 18th November 2011
Venue: Goethe-Institut Auditorium
Time: 7pm
Entrance: Free

It all started in Kenya, in 1992, where Dominik Haas found the music that would give his life a clear musical direction. He spent his free time wandering through the downtown streets of Nairobi, where he would get his first contacts with Rastafarians and Reggae music. Inspired by the spiritual background of the Rasta culture, he wrote his first poems and started playing the guitar.

As the son of a diplomat, Dominik led a nomadic life, taking him to Kenya, Mexico, Liberia, New York and Egypt. After having spent 15 years abroad, he returned to Germany in 1998 and dedicated his music to a genre that knows neither skin colours nor ideological limitations. In 1999, he settled in Munich, teamed up with the band Dubious Neighbourhood.

Today, Dominik Haas calls himself Jahcoustix. He is one of Germany’s most consistent Reggae musicians, and is considered to be one of the pioneers who got Reggae off the ground in Germany.

Jahcoustix brings a promising symbiosis of Roots and acoustic Reggae.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00RvbcnHVgY]

Concert – Muziki wa Kenya: Ma3, Nov 12 2011 @ Goethe-Institut

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Muziki wa Kenya presents:  Ma3 @ GOETHE-INSTITUT
Maendeleo House, Monrovia Street, Nairobi
Saturday 12th November 2011 – 6 PM
 ENTRY: FREE

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO2zNMKgpNk]

Ma3 (Maa-Three) is a 6-piece, quirky Afro Pop band from Nairobi that borrows its name from the inescapable public transport mini-vans that dot cities in Kenya and all over Africa.

Ma3 is made up of Kenya’s most in-demand drummer Matthayo, young electric guitar prodigy Kato, Karanja on Bass, Kenya’s only intellectual property lawyer with a prolific music career Karimi on acoustic guitar, the magical Nanjira as the band’s vocalist/front “man” and Tim Rimbui, one of East-Africa’s leading music producers – on the keyboards.

In the two short years that Ma3 has been in existence, the band has headlined two of the biggest festivals to grace Nairobi, i.e. the Spread the Love Festival with Kirk Franklin and Nairobi Kinanda Arts Festival featuring Freshly Ground, Kwani Litfest and Shukas N juice Concert.

Ma3’s sound is that of young, contemporary, urban Africa; mixing soulful English/Swahili lyrics with spell binding guitar riffs built on a solid rhythm section. Ma3’s music is definitely up your alley.

Ingia Ndani ya Ma3! – Get inside the Ma3!

Visit Ma3 ‘s website: http://ma3.co.ke/Home.html
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Ma3Band