STORYMOJA

CNN describes Patel as an artist

“who exemplifies globalization as a people-centered phenomenon of migration and exchange.”

The Gulf Today (United Arab Emirates) calls her

“the poetic equivalent of Arundhati Roy.”

Internationally acclaimed Kenyan poet and performance artist Shailja Patel, dodges categories and confounds expectations. Trained as a political economist, accountant, and yoga teacher, her one-woman show MIGRITUDE received a prolonged standing ovation at the 2007 World Social Forum in Nairobi. Part poetic memoir, part political history, part performance tour-de-force, MIGRITUDE weaves together family history, reportage, and monologues of violence, colonization, and love, to create an achingly beautiful portrait of women’s lives and migrant journeys undertaken under the boot print of Empire. Shailja, a 2010 Sundance Theatre Fellow, has performed to critical acclaim in festivals in the USA and Europe, and is now overjoyed to bring her work back home.

She will perform excerpts from MIGRITUDE as the main dish in a dinner show at 7pm-10pm on Saturday 2nd October under the stars at the Storymoja Hay Festival. This is a premium, not-to-be missed event. Dinner and the show will cost Ksh 3000/. Book your ticket early.

Shailja’s work has been translated into twelve languages and has won awards on three continents. She was the 2009 Guest Writer at the Nordic Africa Institute.. Her poems are included in the online exhibits of the International Museum of Women, the Museum of the African Diaspora, and the Asian Poets Collection of New York University.

Shailja has spoken at over thirty colleges, universities, and conferences, including keynote student conference addresses at Yale and Brown. And she is a founder member of Kenyans for Peace, Truth and Justice, which works towards a just and equitable democracy in Kenya.

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