This Thursday was a special day as I had a beer with author and Cornell University professor Mukoma Wa Ngugi.
Cornell Professor Mukoma Wa Ngugi was in town recently to do a literary workshop for people in the arts and literary journalism trade. The event was facilitated by the Kenyan Chapter of the African Arts Journalists Network and hosted at the Kuona trust office in Hurlingham. It was a good turnout as folks from all the major newspaper dailies and a few others were seen learning from the Mukoma.
Mukoma is, in the interests of giving this site more traffic which always helps, the son of world-famous author Ngugi Wa Thiongo. He is no slouch on his own having authored his own stuff with his book Nairobi Heat having been published in 2009. His next book is expected out in June of next year. He also (can you tell I am copying and pasting stuff from his website Mukomawangugi.com?) has an anthology of poetry called Hurling Words at Consciousness. He is currently an assistant professor of literature at the University of Cornell and… OK just read his stuff on his website and get to know more about him.
I wasn’t a true participant at the workshop as I arrived at the workshop just after he had finished his presentation and all I got to see was some guy talking about his upcoming documentary on the post-election crisis Kenya: Until Hope is found. The documentary was pretty cool until it started wrapping up when the documentary maker appeared somewhere in the middle explaining his technique on how to deal with stress. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry as he said that all one needed to do was tap their head and state; “I am in a safe place. No one can make me feel sad etc etc.”
After this, I jipoxed (forced myself) on a drink payment that Mukoma was making to a “good friend” of mine at the Buffet Park and had a few cold Tuskers with the man. It was a very good experience. Mukoma is a cool dude and discussions were coming thick and fast on Kenya now and then (when he was growing up). There were also discussions on the literary scene in the US and in Kenya and the one book he loves from Kenya in recent times is Eva Kasaya’s Tales of Kasaya.
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