Women, Action & the Media (WAM Nairobi), Mar. 20-22 2011 @ Various Locations


UPDATE:
Women Action and the Media (WAM) Nairobi is calling all creative women to join them on:

Dates: March 20-22, 2011
Entrance: RSVP
Schedule, Locations, and Times (final details)

HAPPY HOUR
Date: March 20, 2011
Time:6pm – onwards
Venue: Wasanii: The African Place
Location: Harry Thuku Road, just five minutes from the CBD, between the University of Nairobi and the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) and across from The Fairmont Norfolk Hotel.

Join WAM-Nairobi for happy hour(s) at Wasanii: The African Place, a restaurant/pub above the Kenya National Theatre.
Take a chance to participate in a low-key social gathering and networking opportunity with other WAM attendees and presenters.
Discounts on some drinks will be available for WAM participants (check in with WAM-Nairobi first for your discount ticket!).

GETTING WOMEN AND GIRLS ON THE FRONT PAGE
Date: March 21, 2011
Time: 1-4pm
Venue: Nairobi Java House — downtown, Koinange Street

This workshop is aimed at helping organizations better tailor their media pitches to improve the amount – and quality – of media coverage of womens’ and girls’ issues.
If you’re participating in Spot Pitch, or even if not but you want to workshop your own idea, come on by and work with WAM Nairobi coaches.
This is a drop-in workshop; come when you can and stay as long as you want.

MY AFRICA, YOUR AFRICA
Date: March 21, 2011
Time: 6-7pm
Venue: Goethe-Institut library, Maendeleo House,
Location: At the corner of Loita and Monrovia streets, directions

This is the first of two evening panels looking at how journalists from Africa and abroad represent the continent and its women, and how we can do better.
Panelists are:
Helen Nyambura-Mwaura, Reuters
Carolyn Dunn, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Karen Rothmyer, public editor of at The Star (Kenya) and contributing editor to The Nation (US).

AT THE SOURCE: RAISING LOCAL VOICES ACROSS MEDIA
Date: March 21, 2011
Time: 7-8pm
Venue: Goethe-Institut library, Maendeleo House
Location: At the corner of Loita and Monrovia streets, directions

In the second of the two evening panels, citizen journalists, literary artists, and social media experts describe breaking new ground for news and information in Kenya.
Panelists are:
Rebecca Wanjiku, blogger/journalist and staff at Ushahidi
Rachel Gichinga, co-founder, Kuweni Serious
Angela Wachuku, executive director, Kwani Trust

WOMEN’S VOICES IN A MAN’S WORLD
Date: March 22, 2011
Time: 6-7pm
Venue: Goethe-Institut library, Maendeleo House
Location: at the corner of Loita and Monrovia streets, directions

In the first of the evening sessions, journalists and other media-makers will discuss dealing with gender gaps, glass ceilings, and other perils of being female in the media world.
Panelists are:
Rosemary Okello Orlale, executive director, African Woman and Child Feature Service /International Women’s Media Foundation
Jane Thuo, executive director, Association of Media Women in Kenya
Sarah McGregor, Bloomberg News & Foreign Correspondents Association of East Africa

THE SPOT PITCH: WINNING COVERAGE FOR WOMEN & GIRLS IN 120 SECONDS
Date: March 22, 2011
Time: 7-8pm
Venue: Goethe-Institut library, Maendeleo House
Location: at the corner of Loita and Monrovia streets, directions

In the second of the evening series, ten advocates and activists will get 2 minutes each to sell the audience on their most irresistible story about the issues facing women and girls — and will get real-time feedback from working journalists.
Attendees who aren’t pitching themselves will have the chance to learn by observation about the most effective tactics for working with the media. If you want to apply to be one of the ten people who gets to pitch a roomful ofinterested media professionals, click here to learn more.

SPECIAL NOTICE
Please take Nairobi’s rush hour traffic into consideration when you plan your travel to WAM events, so that we are able to start on time.

WHAT PARTICIPANTS NEED TO BRING WITH THEM
Questions and ideas, willingness to engage, sense of humor, business cards and note-taking materials, if you are the note-taking type.
Mind you can tag along friends and colleagues who are also interested in these issues.

It is worth emphasizing that not only are brilliant people presenting at the WAM sessions, but we have extraordinary people joining us as participants — journalists, lawyers, students, bloggers, humanitarians, public relations professionals, and many others.
The time you take to connect with fellow attendees will be well-rewarded.

For questions, more information or RSVP (which they are still accepting), Email: wamnairobi@gmail.com

WAM-Nairobi is part of a global conversation on the intersection of women and gender, all unfolding the same week. Look to the main WAM office for more information and details about the WAM events happening in New York, Vancouver, and elsewhere; womenactionmedia

Book Reading: Das Leben kommt immer dazwischen (autobiography by Dr. Auma Obama), Mar. 31 2011 @ Goethe


Goethe Institut invites you to a public reading of an autobiography by Dr. Auma Obama

Date: March 31, 2011
Venue: Goethe-Institut Auditorium
Time: 6pm
Entry: Free

Auma Obama, Barack Obama‘s sister, has written her autobiography.
She has written it in German and the book has just been launched in Germany. Although it is yet to be published in English, this evening will provide the first opportunity to experience the book in English language.

Dr. Auma Obama left Kenya for Germany as a young girl and lived there for the next 16 years. She studied German at the University of Heidelberg, Film Production at the German Film and TV Academy in Berlin and later proceeded for graduate Studies at the University of Bayreuth, which awarded her a PhD in 1996. After Germany, she moved on to live in England, traveling severally to the USA following the rise to fame of her brother, and returned to Kenya in 2007 where she now works and lives.

In her autobiography, Auma Obama retraces this path of a life between different worlds and cultures. She narrates how a consciousness for her African identity developed on this journey. She gives a vivid picture of the history of the Obama family in Kenya and the life of her father Barrack Hussein Obama. And how she has accompanied her brother on his way to becoming the 44th president of the USA.

Dr. Auma Obama will be reading excerpts from the book in German and in English.

Event: Women Action and Media (WAM) Nairobi, Mar. 20-23 @ various


Women Action and the Media (WAM) Nairobi is calling all creative women to join them on

Dates: March 20-23, 2011
Venues: various in Nairobi
Entry Requirements:RSVP, email [wamnairobi [at] gmail dot com]

WAM Nairobi will be discussing some of the big questions facing women and girls in media: What are the barriers for the full participation of female journalists in East African media?
How are stories of women and girls in Kenya told (or not told) in the international press? Whose voices “matter”?

March 20, 2011
Venue: Downtown pub
Time 6pm
Entry: RSVP

Date: March 21, 2011

Venue: Nairobi Java House
Time: 1-4pm
Topic: Getting Women and Girls on the Front Page
A drop-in workshop for activists, advocates and other movers and shakers to learn strategies for winning the interest of local and international journalists — and helping them focus on the information that matters.
We’ll be at Nairobi Java House (Mama Ngina Street) from 1-4 p.m. Stop on by! (We’d appreciate a heads up to let us know your coming by [wamnairobi@gmail.com], but it’s not required.

Venue: Goethe-Institut library
Time: 6-8pm
Topic: My Africa, Your Africa
A dialogue between local and foreign journalists about the differences in their coverage

Venue: Goethe-Institut library
Time: 6-8pm
Topic: At the Source
Raising local voices across media, where citizen journalists, literary artists, and social media experts describe breaking new ground for news in Kenya

Date: March 22, 2011
Venue: Goethe-Institut library
Time: 6-8pm
Topic: Women’s Voices in a Man’s World
Journalists and other media-makers will discuss dealing with gender gaps, glass ceilings and other perils of being female in the media world.
Topic: The Spot Pitch
Winning coverage for women and girls in 120 seconds. Ten advocates and activists will get 2 minutes each to sell the audience on their most irresistible story about the issues facing women and girls.

For more info: WAM Nairobi blog

Ringtone: How Are You? Part of the Conversations in Silence Art Project

How are you? is a phrase that every mzungu (white person) entering Kibera – a slum in Nairobi – would hear. The phrase is chanted melodically by children there individually or in unison. For some of the children, it is the only English sentence they know. Others don’t understand its meaning, they just join the tune. It has become a ritual formed in a simple melody connected to the presence of white people in a slum.

How are you? is an art project by Karolina Freino & James Muriuki. It is developed as a mobile phone ringtone, created out of live recordings of children of Kibera in February 2011. It can be downloaded for free from the wap site howareyou? directly to a mobile phone or via a computer. The aim is to spread the ringtone world-wide, by advertising on the Internet and printed flyers. Please join us by downloading the ringtone to your telephone and forwarding it to others.

The project How are you? references complex postcolonial residues in our global economy, huge NGO industry, language etc. It seizes an innocent phrase that stemmed from dependence and power relation and requests for listeners’ reflection bringing this phrase to a conscious level. It dares to ask: how are you contemporary world? repeating this question whenever the participating mobile phone rings.

The work is created in a frame of a 5 month collaborative project Conversations in Silenceresearching issues of memory and commemoration within the Kenyan context. The project is organised through Goethe-Institut Nairobi.

Exhibition: Conversations in Silence, Feb. 18-Mar. 11 2011 @ Goethe Institut

Three Kenyan artists and four Bauhaus University Alumni try to fathom together the issues of public space and commemoration in Kenya.

Exhibition Opening Date: February 18, 2011
Time: 7.30 pm
Venue: Goethe-Institut Auditorium
Exhibition Dates: February 18-March 11, 2011 (Monday to Saturday)
Time: 1-6pm
Entry: Free

Conversations in Silence is a five month collaborative research project by three Kenyan artists: James Muriuki, Kevo Irungu, Deqa Abshir, as well as four Bauhaus University Alumni: Dusica Drazic, Irene Izquierdo, Karolina Freino and Sam Hopkins.

To what extent is there a collective memory in Kenya? What is the role of the state in shaping this narrative? Does this differ from how memory is created on a societal level? Does popular culture act as a commemorative tool?

The exhibition presents the results of the artists’ research and lines of enquiry: Working experimentally in various media, and often in public space, the artists seek to address those critical questions relating to issues of memory in the Kenyan context.

The workshop and exhibition is co-curated by Potash (Matathia Charles Anthony) and Sam Hopkins.

Afro Galactica: Journey into Dance, Feb. 11 2011 @ Goethe Institut

Date: February 11, 2011
Venue: Goethe-Institut Auditorium
Time: 7-10pm
Entry: Free

Urbana Africana returns with eclectic choreographic pieces that merge traditional and contemporary African dance, Hip Hop/Urban, Afro- Latin and Caribbean dance forms.

The different choreographic pieces juxtaposed, represent different people and cultures coming together, illuminating the power of dance to connect people across different historical, physical and social strata on the African continent and its Diaspora. This is an experimental dance performance choreographed by Kiki Cheptoo that will sometimes favor instant composition and improvisation.

Urbana Africana draws from the beauty of Kenya’s unmatched natural landscapes, material culture, ancient melodies and diverse human cultures.

In cooperation with Urbana Africana and Art Moves Africa (AMA)

Workshop: New Trends in Kenyan Politics? Feb. 8 2011 @ IFRA/BIEA

On the occasion of the venue of Hervé Maupeu and Daniel Bourmaud, French researchers, IFRA and its partners (BIEA, Goethe Institute and NMK) are organising a workshop on the new trends in Kenyan politics. Political decisions that might be described as rather impressive have shaped Kenya’s political landscape during the last months: new constitution; intensified prosecution of key suspects of the 2007-08 post-election violence crisis, such as several political leaders; fearless activities in the fight against corruption carried out by the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) under its new director Patrice Lumumba to highlight some. Furthermore, the proximity of upcoming 2012 presidential and parliamentary elections has allowed speculations around new alignments amongst political leaders and formations. In the context of these important political evolutions, academic discussions about according subjects might come at a good time. Five themes could be highlighted:
• The respect of constitutional changes
• The role of religions and the ethics of the religious discourse in politics
• The unofficial electoral campaign and the problem of the renewal of the elite
• The struggle against corruption
• The international pressure on Kenyan politics

Contemporary politics shall be discussed and interpreted in the light of Kenya’s past political evolution, confronting the different perspectives and approaches of historians, political scientists and professional representatives of the civil society. By entering a transition period including elements such as the establishment of a coalition government, a forged anti-corruption discourse and the necessity to imagine a post-Kibaki political era among others, Kenya has a historic opportunity to be at the dawn of either a long-claimed renewal or might see itself confronted to a simple reproduction of its political scene. The future of Kenyan politics is at stake and needs to be assessed in depth to fully understand the trends that are already shaping the next elections.

Date: February 8, 2011
Venue: IFRA/BIEA conference room
Time: 1000-1600hrs
REGISTRATION REQUIRED: Please send an email at publications@ifra-nairobi.net
IFRA_PoliticsWorkshop poster

Homages: Judi Kibinge – A Series of Retrospectives on Kenyan Filmmakers, Feb. 4-5 2011 @ Goethe Institut


2010 was a successive year for Kenyan film. The impact of films such as Pumzi and Soul Boy is a good occasion to take a closer look at the Kenyan film scene. Many of the protagonists are not well known, not even in Kenya, and Goethe Institut takes time to pay homage to their work. Homage series started by introducing Jacob Barua to a keenly interested audience last year and continues with Judy Kibinge.

Dates: February 4-5, 2011
Venue: Goethe-Institut Auditorium
Time: 4.00 pm Friday and 3.00 pm on Saturday
Entry: Free

This series will screen a representative selection of her corpus of work and will accompany the screening with a discussion with the filmmaker.

Concert: Music Battle – Benga vs Bongo, Jan 28 2011 @ Goethe-Institut

INGOMA MUSIC & GOETHE-INSTITUT PRESENT
BENGA vs BONGO
A Live Music Showcase of Kenyan Music (Benga) and Tanzanian Music (Bongo Flava)
(Crown Prince of Benga) Dan CHIZI Aceda & (Tanzanian Bongo Flava Artist) MZUNGU KICHAA

LIVE @ Goethe Institut, Maendeleo House, Corner/ Loita & Monrovia Street, Nairobi

Friday, January 28th, 2011, 8pm, Free Entry

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=184369098249281&num_event_invites=0

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P.O. Box 42476 – 00100
Nairobi, Kenya
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Launch: foot-notes online magazine, Jan 18 2011 @ Goethe-Institut

The launch of online magazine foot-notes is January 18th at the Goethe Institute Auditorium at 6pm

foot-notes.org is an artist-led initiative intended to be East Africa’s leading magazine on contemporary visual arts with focus on East African artists and their impact on the global art scene. It aims to be the directory for the most acclaimed signature artists and a showcase of nascent talent in East Africa – the meeting point for the region’s new breed of aficionados who seek emerging contemporary art platforms. The magazine wants to create a platform for critical art review and analysis with the aim of documenting contemporary art in the region thus activating interaction through audience participation in collaboration with local artists and art institutions.