sunday saloon-nov.23.08..nairobi

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Sunday Salon Nairobi

A Prose Reading Series

Featuring:

Juliet Maruru

Moraa Gitaa

+2 Screen Writers from the Kenya Film Commission & Kwani Trust Screen Writing Workshop

& Musician

Maia

Four readers

Four unique voices

In a tranquil outdoor setting

7-9pm

Sunday 23rd November

Kengeles, Lavington Green

Entry Only KSh. 300

ABOUT THE FEATURED WRITERS & MUSICIAN

Moraa Gitaa

Moraa Gitaa was born, bred and raised in the port city of Mombasa. She has lived and worked in the coastal beach town all her life and only a year ago moved to Nairobi where she is a fulltime writer and is working on plans to initiate an organization that provides books for disadvantaged children residing in informal settlements and those challenged by dyslexia, a condition that had challenged her daughter.

She attended the Aga Khan group of schools in Mombasa and studied Administration and IT at the Coast College of Commerce.

‘CRUCIBLE FOR SILVER AND FURNACE FOR GOLD’ is her debut novel published in Canada. She has a finished crime fiction novella (INDECENT PROPOSAL) and an inspirational text (I DARED TO DREAM) that is due to be published by StoryMoja.

Until most recently she was the Kenya staff writer for G21 for 4 years and is currently a correspondent for the American publications Mshale and African Magazine. She has penned a couple of book reviews for the Sunday Nation. Moraa has several short stories published in various anthologies including G21’s Africa Fresh!–New voices from the first continent (2007) and Author-Me’s Author Africa–2008 Anthology,some of which were submitted for the Caine Prize for African writing.

In 2005-2006 with 11 other screen-writers they co-authored and created a concept in the form of a new TV crime detective series titled CID Nairobi but are yet to get funding for the 13 series shoot. She has refused to be the ‘SAFE’ under 35 year old writer that most traditional local publishers have been looking for! That is why some people refer to her as a rebel writer, unorthodox and unconventional!

She cites her greatest inspiration as her thirteen year-old daughter Tracy and the Kenyan-African woman who struggles daily to ensure she provides for her family.

Moraa has also submitted her second novel ‘THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAIL’ to the Canadian publishing firm. She is working on her third novel provisionally titled ‘SHIFTING SANDS’, of which a chapter excerpt titled ‘From Shifting Sands to Deeper Dimensions’ won the NBDC(K) National Book Development Council of Kenya Literary Awards Book Week 1st Prize in the Adult Fiction Category at the 11th Nairobi International Book Fair September 2008.

Juliet Maruru

Juliet is a 20 something year old writer, a semi-trained kindergarten teacher, a writer and Editorial assistant at Storymoja. Her yet to be finished adventure novel for teens(looks like she has not given up on teens completely), might yet be published some time next year, but you can read her work on www.jmaruru.wordpress.com.

She loves to read, to write, to work with kids. Her motto adopted from a city then off a tolerant lawyer declares that ‘she floats..’ She needs to judging from the umber of times she finds herself in a deep end.

Juliet will be reading her short story, ‘There goes my Career’ which she describes as ‘one more story about surviving in the big wide world, drowning a little bit, then finding my stroke again, and loving it all’

MAIA VON LEKOW

Maia represents another amazing side to Kenya’s dynamic musical scene. Her voice
and style has an affinity with female jazz vocalists of the 1930s and soul and folk music
of the 1960s. In all her compositions, Maia is blazing new trails in Kenya; experimenting
with different styles, and creating a hybrid sound that is her very own.
Funk, groove, and soul…all this describes the music Maia creates. Music is not
something she merely enjoys; it defines who she is. Whether busking on street corners
while backpacking around the world, or jamming with friends at university in
Melbourne, Maia’s sound has developed from playing with musical talents from
around the world, injecting her own personality, background and culture into her
sound.
Her first single, Altered Light, was the result of collaboration with a funk bass player in
Melbourne. Since then, Maia traveled to Berlin and continued writing, singing and
collaborating before coming home to Kenya and continuing her work with artists,
friends and producers. Drift, Maia’s first album, is a culmination of her travels, her
meetings, her collaborations and her experiences; a global cross-pollinated vibe.Maia weaves her
adventures, stories and memories into this album producing jazzy riffs with folk licks to soulful percussive dub, a unique addition to Kenya’s music scene.In Kenya, Maia has performed for numerous awarenesscampaigns including the Korogocho Slum Campaign and a UN (youth) campaign on awareness in Mathare and Kibera slums, raising money for various schools in those areas. Maia has also composed jingles for various advertisements in Kenya and Berlin and music composition for a South African/Canadian theatre production, Crossroads, that raises awareness in Africa on issues of rape, gender-based violence and HIV/AIDS (www.cmfd.org). Her latest composition was featured in
the much-acclaimed Kenyan production, “From a Whisper”, depicting events of the 1998 bombing in Kenya.
In her creative forays around Kenya’s extremely rich cultural scene, Maia has been
able to find a highly motivated, talented and original individual. Together, this duo
has brought life to the imaginings and possibilities of Drift.

Kato Change

As the leading guitarist, Kato is one of Kenya’s most promising guitarists. Born into a
musical family, Kato has been musically prolific since the age of three, tapping on the
drums, experimenting with harmonicas, and ultimately teaching himself the guitar.
Kato’s style is reminiscent of George Benson and Paco de Lucia, with his own origin

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