ART AGAINST POVERTY – AN EU-ACP-FUNDED PROJECT | Issue 5 – JULY/SEPTEMBER 2015 1

Africa Nouveau IN THIS ISSUE

Africa Nouveau and The Jumping Village by Robert Njathika & Emmanuel Mathias

In July, the Art against Poverty (AAP) project partnered with Blankets & Wine, a well-established entertainment company that has been organising urban concerts in Kenya since 2008 and over time has diversified and expanded to the rest of East Africa, to sponsor a festival they were planning for early September in Nairobi. Blankets & Wine organised the first edition of the Africa Nouveau Festival for the first week-end in September. The inaugural edition of Africa Nouveau was organised publicly to send a message of urgency to the Kenyan leaders to ‘ACT NOW’ to hasten the social, economic, political and ecological transformation of Kenya and the continent by adopting the newly-defined Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). At that point in time, the SDGs were scheduled to be launched for countries to adopt them at the United Nations General Assembly in September.

Blankets & Wine also partnered with NGO Save the Children which was promoting this campaign; this fitted neatly with AAP’s objective of showcasing the project’s beneficiary artists.

In the run-up to the 2 days’ festival, Blankets & Wine took advantage of CEFA Kenya’s “housewarming” party at its new office premises to launch the festival officially. In this pre-festival event, the guests, mostly partner NGOs and representatives from the EU Delegation had a first-hand experience of what the festival had in store for the audience.

The artists involved from Nairobi were joined by another 18 project beneficiaries from Tanzania who staged an original 30-minute contemporary dance and music show called “The Jumping Village” that thrilled the audience.

In hindsight, the partnership with the entertainment company worked very smoothly and the previous months of negotiations and preparations proved to have been worth the effort on everybody’s part.

In Nairobi, the visiting artists from Tanzania also had a chance to visit the GoDown Art Centre, where they were offered a space to rehearse ahead of their performance at the Africa Nouveau festival. In addition, the team visited the Kuona Trust art hub and were given an introduction about the place and a chance to talk and interact with the resident artists.

On 6th September, The Jumping Village show was the first to appear on stage for the day’s programme at Africa Nouveau and the ensemble put up an energetic performance despite the

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Bagamoyo Int’l Festival p. 3

Publication of Lil’ Kanji p. 3

Karen Village graffiti p. 4

ART AGAINST POVERTY – AN EU-ACP-FUNDED PROJECT | Issue 5 – JULY/SEPTEMBER 2015 2

(continued from page 1)

numbers in audience being still limited owing to their placement on the programme.

Blankets & Wine, the organisers of Africa Nouveau, is renowned for scheduling a variety of established performing artists from different parts of the world. The competition for being among the selectees on that platform is great. It was thus a great opportunity for the AAP artists from both Kenya and Tanzania to showcase their talents at the festival in September.

The project artists involved represented various disciplines. Their names are listed below:

Musicians - The Red Acapella Trio - Victoria Gichora - Joanne Ball-Burgess - Emmanuel Kimuyu (Wasa) Rappers - Elijah Moses - Kennedy Omanwa Spoken Word - Kelvin Kaesa – Poet - Mwende Ngao – Poet Installation/Visual Artists - Onyis Martin – Creative Director - Anne Mwariri – Architecture/Pencil Art - Bebeto Ochieng’ – Graffiti - Handerson Kiruri – Graffiti - Kennedy Otieno – Sculptor - Dickson Wakwabubi – Painter Fashion - Manciny Migwi – Fashion designer

The Jumping Village

- Amina Salimu - Abubakari Kulwa - Abuu Masika - Agnes Damiani - Agnes Kifaruka - Aloyce Fungafunga - Asnath Omari Kyamuenda - Aziza Idd - Emanuel Mwakipesile - Fatuma Mwanga - Francis Mogaka Ongeri - Hamisi Kisuswe - Hamisi Saidi Mzee - chapter - Hillary Mohamed - Irene Malekela - Joka Mkupa - Kassim Zuberi - Latifa Abdallah - Mary Simon - Mshewa Mussa - Mwombeki Chrispini - Omary Hassani - Selemani Shabani - Vasco Adolat

Shooting for Video Training with partners from CVF by Clara Mduma From 9th to 17th July, project partners Cultural Video Foundation organised a video-training shoot at the Nafasi Art Space for traditional dance groups. The video-training involved artists who engage in traditional music, including Cheetah Theatre, Dar Creators and Albino Revolution. The training will be shared on YouTube for other artists to learn from it. This methodology will help artists who could not enjoy the training opportunities offered under the Art against Poverty project and give them a chance to learn from the same teachers. The training was facilitated by teacher Ian Mwaisunga from the Nafasi Art Space.

ART AGAINST POVERTY – AN EU-ACP-FUNDED PROJECT | Issue 5 – JULY/SEPTEMBER 2015 3

AAP artists in the 36th Bagamoyo International Festival of Art and Culture 2015

by Emmanuel Mathias

From 21st till 27th September, the Bagamoyo College of Art invited artists from different places of the world to perform. There were exhibitions, workshops and live events throughout the days of the programme. AAP beneficiaries from Dar es Salaam were able to participate as performing artists in the auditorium of the College. Among the groups and individual artists who performed were the following: 1. Dar Creators 2. Seven Survivor 3. Black Fit Rasta 4. Doctor Clown Tanzania 5. Theatre of the Oppressed The Management of the Bagamoyo Festival was delighted to receive the artists from AAP to perform. Performances were well received by the audience. Black Fit had the audience stand up and dance during his show, scheduled as second last during the night of the event. The other artists who really made a great impact and gelled with the public were the Dar Creators with their fusion moves and rhythms that combine both modern and traditional dance and music.

The Theatre of the Oppressed was selected to perform stage plays. The play they presented was about social conflict in the community, which needed characters to provide solutions to the problem illustrated. Since the play style invites the audience to intervene and give their opinions about the possible solutions, the crowd is closely involved and this turns out to be a learning process. The clowns’ performance followed with funny acts accompanied by magic tricks. This was the first time for Doctor Clown Tanzania to take part in a big festival since the creation of the group in September 2014. On the last day of the festival, Seven Survival (currently known as Tanzania Dar Music) came on stage to perform with their best rhythms introducing the coastal music of Dar es Salaam. The whole crowd was soon on their feet and danced to cheer the last night of the festival. All the artists who went to Bagamoyo were facilitated by CEFA Tanzania under the umbrella of the Art against Poverty project. The project also made available some music equipment to be used for the festival during the event.

Lil’ Kanji and the Falling Sun by Robert Njathika

Mwangi Gituro, one of the most consistent artists within the literature group, reached out to the project with the manuscript of a children’s book he had been working on, but had had difficulties in getting published. After attending the sessions in the literary workshop organised by the project, Mwangi submitted Lil’ Kanji and the Falling Sun, and on account of both his dedication and input, and the environmental message for a young audience conveyed by the story, CEFA was more than willing to assist him to achieve his dream of getting published. Interest in Mwangi’s work was received from Lesleigh Kenya, a young publishing outfit. Lesleigh Kenya and AAP initiated a collaboration that, additionally, brought together Mwangi Gituro himself and cartoonist Dennis Gitonga Rugendo, also

a project beneficiary, to have Lil’ Kanji hit the bookshop shelves. The book had a soft launch at the CEFA offices on 1

st September, when the author

spoke about his work and the path that had taken him to write it. Copies of this book were also on sale during the evening (with Mwangi Gituro signing sold copies for the occasion) and, subsequently, during the Africa Nouveau festival that took place on the following week-end. The publishers, Lesleigh Kenya, have managed to include Lil’ Kanji in the stock held by the Textbook Centre, a major bookshop and stationery retailer in Kenya. At the time of writing, the project is preparing the launch of Fifth Draft, an anthology authored by nine writers who form part of the literature group of the AAP Project. Mwangi Gituro is also part and parcel of this group.

ART AGAINST POVERTY – AN EU-ACP-FUNDED PROJECT | Issue 5 – JULY/SEPTEMBER 2015 4

Karen Village graffiti by AAP artists Bebeto Ochieng’ and Kenneth Otieno by Robert Njathika

In the second half of July, Anthony Athaide, the owner of Karen Village, a new art space between Karen and Ngong’, approached the Assistant Project Manager of the AAP Project in Nairobi for references on graffiti artists whom he would call upon to do some work. As a result of this, the project reached out to graffiti artists Bebeto Ochieng’ and Kenneth Otieno, who happen to have a team called the Bomb Squad Crew, which also incorporates Erick Muriithi, popularly known as “Sticky”. Bebeto and Kenneth were duly introduced to the Karen village management, Anouska and Kenjie, in the first week of August and they immediately began to ideate the possible artwork that would eventually stand out as the final graffiti. Anthony had given them only one set condition, the final graffiti piece ought to have the word “Harambee” in there

somewhere,the rest was left to the Bomb Squad Crew. The AAP Project came in to chip with the materials; the spray paint cans and the protective gear for the artists. After ten days of working on the wall, the artists delivered an extremely well-executed graffiti that had both the element that the proprietor, Antony Athaide, had requested but also contained their own signature creativity style. After this impressive work, Bebeto, Kenneth and the crew were later commissioned by the CEFA office in Nairobi to create a graffiti set illustrating the projects CEFA is currently involved in. The regional representative, Marco de Milato, had been positively impressed by their work at the Karen Village. Since CEFA had moved offices in July, it was thought that graffiti would feature nicely on an otherwise nondescript fencing wall and augur well for the future, since it would indicate what CEFA does in Kenya and also serve as a reflection point for employees and visitors alike.

Residencies at Kuona Trust

by Lucy Monari As has been the tradition over the past few months, one visual artist in Nairobi was facilitated to work at the Kuona Trust art hub for a period of 30 days and to hold – at the end of this time – an open studio to display and market his/her work. In the July-September period, the three artists that benefited from this initiative were Kenneth Otieno, Dickson Wakwabubi and Adam Masava.

Adam was the last artist to enjoy the residency under this arrangement between the art

hub and Art against Poverty. All the beneficiaries that had the opportunity to

work at Kuona Trust not only enjoyed the luxury of space and materials that they

would not otherwise have at home, but also had the chance to engage and learn from

other more experienced artists, not to mention learning to work with

new mediums that they had not explored before.

All the artists produced more art works than they would

usually produce at home in the same period of

time; they had a chance to give insights on their journeys in the development of their talents and the motivation behind their choice of art and their main themes. Some of them also managed to sell some of the paintings to visitors who regularly frequent the art hub. Although this particular partnership has reached its conclusion, Kuona Trust will remain a reference point for the artists and also a stakeholder of CEFA Kenya for the foreseeable future. By way of final summary, the names of all the painters who took part in this scheme are listed below: - Onyis Martin - John Njuguna Guchacha - Anne Mwariri - Nadia Wanjiru - Kenneth Otieno - Dickson Wakwabubi - Bebeto Ochieng’ - Adam Masava

ART AGAINST POVERTY – AN EU-ACP-FUNDED PROJECT | Issue 5 – JULY/SEPTEMBER 2015 5

COMING UP IN SHORT - October 2015: The Jumping Village goes places

(an unexpected invitation to the EXPO in Italy)

- 10th December 2015: Launch of Fifth Draft, an

anthology of prose and poetry (Goethe

Institute – 6pm)

Yoga sessions In the spirit of inter-project linkages within CEFA, the Juvenile Justice Project sought the collaboration of Art against Poverty towards working with the girls in a Rehabilitation Centre in Nairobi supported by CEFA. After an exchange of communication and consultations with the artist to be involved in this endeavour, the intervention kicked off successfully. John Guchua, an art therapist beneficiary of the project, was the selected artist to guide the girls at the Dagoretti Rehabilitation School for Girls. John embarked on an 8-day yoga tuition programme (spread over the period 13

th August-3

rd

September) with a total of 18 girls. The girls were enrolled in the programme based on voluntary choice. Judging by the final report of the artist, many more girls were interested to join along the way, but there had to be a limitation to the numbers, considering the facilities available and expected effectiveness of the workshop. The yoga workshop included introducing the girls to basic yoga techniques and postures, encouraging personal reflection and sharing about the past, as well as building the confidence of the participants. The staff of the institution were unable to join in the programme on a daily basis, but they supported the girls and ensured that the sessions stayed on course. Based on the feedback from the girls and the final report from the artist, the yoga training was highly useful for the girls, in fact a couple of them wanted to be trained as ToT for the future! The final report is to be shared with other institutions supported by CEFA in case they need John’s services in the future.

Clown therapy training of Shadow theatre

On 11th

September, Clown Doctor attended the Shadow Theatre training which was facilitated by two trainers from Italy, Tiziana and Stefania. The Shadow Theatre is used as entertainment for the children. The training lasted for 2 hours during which the focus was on techniques that can be used in hospitals as well. This is another activity that will be usable with child patients.

Cartoonist Mohamed Jumanne exhibits at Vipaji Gallery

On 16th

September, one of the project beneficiaries, Mohamed Meddy, a cartoonist now working with a newspaper in Dar es Salaam, had the opportunity to showcase his work along with other cartoonists active within various Tanzanian newspapers. The exhibition was organised by Vijana Vipaji Foundation, the Tanzanian local partner in the Art against Poverty project, with the theme “Domocrazy” and focused on the upcoming general election in the country. The exhibition was well attended by several diplomats and representatives of the National Museums. This was the first exhibition for the artist, who – on this occasion – also managed to sell five cartoons.

Art against Poverty (project code: FED/2013/328447)

Financed by the ACPCultures+ Programme of the European Union with the assistance of the ACP Group of States This document was developed within the framework of Art against Poverty project. This project is co-funded by the European Union. The contents of this

publication are the sole responsibility of CEFA and the other stakeholders and in no circumstances may they be attributed to the European Union.