STORYMOJA

This weekend I had the joy of listening to two poems by two different poets being read out loud. Both of these poets are experienced in their verse, comfortable with the bursts of imagery and colours, happy to play with words to transmit these images to us, their readers, or listeners.

On 16th June 2011, courtesy of Storymoja Publishers and the British Council, approximately 84,300 Kenyans set the national record for “Most people reading out loud from the same text in different locations on the same day.”

Tomorrow, 16th June, over 80,000 students around the country will set a national record for “Most people reading out loud from the same text in different locations.”

To commemorate the Day of the African Child, on June 16th, thousands of children around Kenya will read aloud together from the same story. The reading will start at 9:00am, and students will read aloud in groups, either in their classes or the whole school together. Download Lydiah’s Gift…

We wanted to make sure no child misses out on the opportunity to break a World Record, so we have decided to postpone the attempt as we continue to fundraise. Stay tuned for the announcement of the new date. We continue with our mission of promoting the reading culture in Kenya – after all the Guinness World Record is still Kenya’s to beat, and God willing, beat it we shall! However, the World Record Attempt is just one stop on the path of the Reading Revolution.

From July 1st to September 15th, you can take part in a Nationwide reading marathon…

The purpose of the cybermining exercise is to identify the different types of writing you can do online. They will range naturally from short fiction, to opinion editorials and technical writing. I hope you enjoy and learn as much as I have. If you like these posts comment on them onsite, but also come back and tell us what you think. You could also nominate a blog post for next month’s Blog Posts Expo which will be on June 20th. Alright, here we go!

And now the long wait is over and you have voted.

The winner of the Storymoja Urban Narratives[May] – Peugeot 504 writing contest is:

Long before the car in front of you became a Toyota, there was the Peugeot 504; the unofficial emblem of Kenya’s 80’s bourgeoisie.

Please read these stories, comment on them for the author’s benefit, and then vote for them. The winner will receive Kshs 500 airtime and a copy of A Peculiar Kenyan by Sunny Bindra.

In this edition, Share your ‘Why I Read’ to sitawaf”gmail.com and you can read it on the 18th, plus it will appear on the Reading Revoluion Website @ http://readingrevolution.co.ke See Venue, Time and Entry details on Poster.

When you bring it down to the most basic definition, a sonnet is a poem that follows a specific structure and shows two related but different things to communicate contrastive ideas, emotions, states of mind, beliefs, actions, events…
I, for some very strangely masochistic reason, I have kept some of my school books that cover High School English Literature. Anyway, when I could get past my own embarrassment of looking into my youth, I found this sonnet.