Kenyan Poet's Podcast

In our season's Finale, Njeri is joined by two amazing women; Muthoni Muiruri and Wendy Njoroge who embody the new face of growing online and offline spaces for contemporary African literature. They are the founders of the Soma Nami bookstore- a book hub and Nairobi's trendiest space that prides itself on having the widest variety of books by African authors.

Njeri visited the Soma Nami bookstore to film this episode on location as she spoke to Muthoni and Wendy on how the hub has become the go-to space for literary enthusiasts hungry to find and read stories that speak to their own experiences as Africans.

Wendy & Muthoni begin by speaking on their transition having begun as a book club, to running an online bookshop, to launching a physical bookstore this year in spite of a pandemic. The duo shares how they fell in love with reading and why having such spaces dedicated to African Literature is so important.

They also speak on the growing Kenyan reading community, why we are seeing such proliferation of writers not just from Africa, but also from Kenya and the diversity in the stories being written. How do they keep the reading community growing and vibrant?

Finally, Njeri, Wendy & Muthoni discuss the recently announced Nobel Prize for Literature and what this means to us and the genre

Olivia Ambani is a singer, songwriter and marketer whose song Falling Star from her debut album THE AWAKENING was featured in a movie “Just In Time” currently showing on NETFLIX.  How did that happen within months of releasing her album last year? Her recount of this sounds almost fictional.

In this episode, Olivia and Njeri begin the conversation with her experience finishing her album last year. how she stopped waiting for someone to come along and discover her, writing from a place of deep vulnerabilities, making her dreams come true and how the album's release has opened up great opportunities for her.

Njeri and Olivia share their own experiences on how things just align but the role that creatives have to play in preparing for that moment and putting themselves out there. How does she manage to juggle marketing with singing and songwriting and how do they feed off each other.

Olivia's story of how she bootstrapped for her Awakening album production and release is full of knowledge bombs; educating herself on copyright, the music business and being intentional about owning every aspect of her music.

The final part of their convo dwells on the new Alternative/underground Kenyan sound and the different ways that artists and musicians are making money beyond the conventional music business and marketing models.

The making of this Episode was proudly supported by EUNIC Kenya

Follow Njeri Wangari everywhere @Kenyanpoet- Instagram, Facebook, Twitter.

Check out her poetry collection Mines & Mindfields; My spoken words on Amazon or wherever books are sold

Sam the Digga (Sam Ombasa ) lives to play, collect, listen to and share records. 

He is perhaps one of Kenya’s most underrated Vinyl DJs whose passion to keep the art of playing a record on a turntable in the club alive has made him a truly inspiring remnant.  

In this episode, Sam and Njeri begin the convo on growing up and their early musical influences. Both children of the '80s, cassettes were the in-were the in-thing during their formative years, so what sparked their love for vinyl records?

 Njeri starts off the poem Hip-Hop from her first poetry collection Mines & Mind Fields; My Spoken Words (available on Amazon), this prompt both to speak on the genesis of their love for Hip-Hop and the process of how they both express it. Who are their favourite rappers? They share as they give their take on the evergreen debate on Tupac vs Biggie.

Crate digging is an art that one acquires and which is often informed by a love for music in general or specific genres. Sam shares some tips as he and Njeri speak on some of their collections, how, where and why they collect vinyl.  Sam speaks of Kenya's Vinyl community, working with James Rugami - Kenya's premier vinyl dealer, and finding new ways of thriving as a DJ amidst a pandemic with curfews & close of entertainment spots.  

Siteiya Warui popularly known online as Sunshyn Siteiya is a polymath. She is an award-winning film production designer,  art director, creative designer and props master. In other words,  she is a creative fundi with a wild imagination. She sees colours vividly, knows how to play with them, how to build concepts for different sets. Perhaps the most endearing thing about her is that she is unafraid to get her hands dirty be it climbing ladders haggling at a hardware or plastering a wall.

In this episode, we begin with a poetry reading - The Twist by Edward Kamau Brathwaite from A poetry Course for KCSE book.

Siteiya tells Njeri of the pure coincidence that led her on a path to becoming a production designer.  The convo then moves to her becoming a creative polymath (Award-Winning Film Production) Designer, Freelance Art Director Creative Designer and Props Master), her work on 40 Sticks on Netflix and the experience of winning the Best Production designer Kalasha Awards in 2020. Working with Osborne Macharia for the set of Lwanda Rockman.

Siteiya opens up about her struggles working in a male-dominated industry, challenging conventional wisdom about women in set designs (  that Kazi ya mjengo si ya wanawake) & dealing with stereotypes on & off the job.

Finally, Njeri and Siteiya speak on how her love for transforming small spaces keeps her going despite being labelled too expensive after winning awards.  She also shares different projects she has been doing and her efforts in mentoring young women.

Michael Onsando is an essayist, poet and author of 3 poetry collections. His latest book just came out in July and it is something quite unlike anything you have read.

In this episode, Njeri- excited to be reading a copy of Michael's latest book, invites him for a conversation about what it took to write and publish his latest book- The perilous journey to beyond my nose. Michael speaks on why we should judge this particular title by its cover, what the process was like writing, picking the title, the art cover and how the Down River Road imprint became part of his perilous journey.

If the last time you saw a poem was during KCSE, if the only thing you read is newspapers, if you can recite several poems on demand, then this is the book for you, he explains.

Njeri asks him how different it was writing this third book from writing the first and the 2nd and what has been the growth in the journey of a reader who writes? Michael and Njeri discuss their individual growth and experiences writing and getting published. They also discuss which poets/writers they are currently reading and how they have been able to use their poetry as a stepping stone into the corporate world.

Njeri reads one of Michael's poems as they have a conversation about the role of poetry in helping us make sense of life as it unfolds around us.

In this episode, Njeri is in conversation with Wandiri Karimi, an intellectual property expert and the Director,  Kenya  Conservatoire of Music.

Kenya's  National Assembly recently exempted Kenyan artists from the 25% excise duty following a  proposal for an amendment in the Finance Bill 2021 as well as an amendment to the Copyright Act which will see artists taking the bulk of revenue generated from the sales of the ring-back tunes. Why is this ruling significant, when and how will it be enforced and what does this mean for Kenyan content creators?

Wandiri and Njeri have a wide-ranging conversation about content creators vs telecoms & tech companies including arising copyright issues as more creative works are shared/published on digital online platforms, from going viral to signing endorsements, should content creators be celebrating or are they still getting the short end of the stick? Awareness of copyright laws concerns around privacy esp around children or unwitting subjects of viral videos/memes & instances where this content is monetized, and finally, what have been some of the common copyright and IP infringement cases in Kenya lately.

Chao Maina is a digital heritage specialist, a digital humanities scholar and a headstrong historian whose activism is for a contested present, an erased past and an alternative future.

Njeri and Chao had a great conversation about why we should care about our past and why for her, preserving it is now more important than ever. How do lost memory & a lost history impact who we are, how we view ourselves and our values?

Our discussion on the intersection of tech & heritage,  the challenges & opportunities in digitizing the African heritage whilst still ensuring access, sustainability and fair usage.

Hear our thoughts on restitution and repatriation as renewed calls to recover & ongoing efforts to return all works of art and culture stolen or taken from Africa to Europe grow louder.  Chao has some strong reactions to ongoing arguments on our inability & lack of resources to preserve. Also is there a  new scramble for Africa around information resources to digitize?

Catch all this as Chao also explains to Njeri about her latest and upcoming project which will be an immersive film audio experience at Karura forest.

This is part two of a two-part conversation I had with Rehema Kibugi & Mwalimu Mbatia on their passion for teaching & learning Kikuyu and how that has sparked Rehema's interest in writing.

Rehema Kibugi is only 13 years old and already, she has the title -Child Author to her name. Her book 'The Children who Saved the Mangrove published in April this year is a 56-page story about a boy called Kamau who learns about mangroves and how they help the environment. Then one day, he comes across people cutting them. 

In this episode, Rehema reads the email response that Prof. Ngugi was Thiong'o wrote to her then speaks about her love for language and stories as she shares what it feels like being an author and what inspired her to write the book.

He taught English and science for 30 years. Upon retirement, he has found a new passion for teaching Gĩkũyũ (Kikuyu) to both young and old via zoom.

Her quest to learn her mother tongue set her on a path to discover and take pride in her identity. It also gave her the words and the courage to write to Prof. Ngugi wa Thiong'o. At only 13 years old, she recently became a child author. Her book; The children who saved the mangrove.

In  Part 1 of this Episode, Mwalimu Mbatia and Rehema Kibugi share a story of how their paths crossed, their shared passion for African languages, our identity & heritage as Africans.