In celebration of the World Storytelling Day, Nairobi’s finest storytellers will gather to launch a global online writing contest and recreate a magical day of storytelling on 19th March 2016 at Kwani? The daylong event will start at 11 am and ends at 9 pm and will include interactive performances, reading nooks, workshops on illustrating, book stalls and much more.
The aim of the event is to recapture people’s minds and encourage a culture of sharing tales and wisdom through performance and creating new platforms for African oral literature. It will also be a celebration of women, as this year’s theme for World Storytelling Day is ‘Strong Women’. There will be riveting stage performances by some Nairobi’s renowned actresses and poets namely Sitawa Namwalie, Mumbi Kaigwa, Raya Wambui, Patricia Kihoro and Maimouna Jallow whereby they will re-interpret five African novels by women authors for the stage.
This year, BAKE will be participating in the Storytelling Day celebrations by holding a Teens Online Safety Training from 2.30pm to 4 pm. The training will aim at sensitizing the youth on the risks they face using the internet and measures to take in order to counter those risks. It is meant to educate the teens and their parents about the glaring risks of encountering Cyber bullies, internet trolls and even stumbling upon pornographic sites online. This training targets teens from age 15 – 20 and their parents.
The festival is the first in a series of events by Positively African to promote oral storytelling and use the Modern Anthology of Tales to educate and engage both young and old alike on critical issues affecting the continent. By creating safe spaces that use a traditional art form that is familiar across communities in Africa, stories can help communities not only reclaim the stories of their pasts, but also to heal traumas and re-imagine their futures.
At midnight, the Re-imagined Modern Tales website will officially go live, where African writers across the world get to re-imagine the traditional folktale with messages and settings that are relevant to today’s youth – from corruption, to environmental degradation and religious radicalization. Selected works will be published in an Anthology of New Tales and will be performed in schools and communities nation-wide.
Tickets for the event are priced at Kshs.500 for aldults and Kshs.250 for kids. You can either pay at the gate or pay for advance tickets via Mpesa on the number 0701572757.