I picture a young rapper standing on the stage, he’s dressed in a white tee shirt and blue jeans and sneakers. His right hand is holding a microphone, his brow is dripping sweat, and his eyes are gazing beyond the crowd before him, gazing at a place only he seems to see. The crowd starts chanting his name, his face lights up, and I imagine the butterflies in his tummy evaporating away as confidence comes in to fill his nervous …
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When you hear the word ‘millenial’, what picture comes to your mind? For me, the most vivid picture is that of a young guy in his mid-twenties trudging wearily in the streets of this city in the sun, bracing the scorching afternoon heat because he is a man on a mission. He’s wearing a white shirt tucked into beige khaki pants, black official shoes and a frown on his face. There’s a brown envelope tucked under his arm, inside is a …
There are times when we run out of things to distract us from ourselves. During those times, we’re compelled to endure that emptiness that lives somewhere inside of us, that void that we spend most of our lives looking for things and experiences to fill. For some reason, there is always someone who feels that void more than others, it comes like a tinge of sadness that never seems to ebb away no matter what he does. It makes a …
There is no tale as heartbreaking as that of a life full of potential going to waste, to never again have the opportunity to explore the immense possibilities that come with the gift of being alive. Sometimes I picture this young guy, what do we call him? Let’s call him Kim. Our story begins when he’s still in his late 20s, still a ‘millenial’. He is staring at the blunt squeezed in between his thumb and index finger, noticing how …
Do you know the feeling that comes with crossing over a decade? Let me tell you about it; when you’ve just hit 20 and puberty is waning like the embers of a dying fire, you’ll think that the world is your oyster. Your body is still energetic enough to handle the charged nights out with whiskey and ice and repeat it every damn weekend. Adolescence is paving way to youthful elegance, acne is clearing from your face, and your skin …
We only call our friends if we need something from them, if they have successful business ventures, we want to partner with them. When they are buying drinks at the club, we want to feel the burn of whiskey on our tongues. And when shit hits the fan? Our silence is conspicuous. It's a cold world, isn't it? …
...when the people who have devoted their lives to entertain, inform and keep us alive eventually end up lying helplessly like spent like cartridges of a revolution, someone needs to lift them up the same way they lifted our spirits when we were low and warm their hearts the same way they warmed ours with their craft. When the curtains close in on them and they leave the stage, who will remember them? …
I can’t help but notice the apparent gloom that’s found a home on many of our faces as we brush past each other in these streets of Nairobi on our way to tend to the businesses which put food on our tables every night. Often, we’re preoccupied with worries about the past and the future, lost in mazes of unending thoughts about a myriad of trivialities. We’re stuck in little prisons of our own making in our own minds, curtly …
The question many artists are compelled to ask themselves at one point in their artistic careers is; what can I do to make my art more appealing to my fans? This question is usually an afterthought to another question every artist who feels they aren’t achieving the romanticized success we all believe artists who are at the height of their careers revel in. A question of why am I not as popular as I’d imagined I would be when I …
She seems sad and lonely too, just like him. Why on earth would they be unhappy when they seem to have everything going on for them, a beautiful home, money in the bank obviously, and probably a lot of property in their name? It's like there is something fundamental lacking in their seemingly rich lives. A deprivation. To me it's a puzzle, and I can't seem to find the missing pieces. …
One of my childhood memories that I cherish is of the fiction story books I enjoyed immersing myself into during and after school. Granted, I was a slim lanky loner kid, naive and scared of the world before me. I spent most of my time aloof and oblivious of that world and preferred to stay in my thoughts. I’d be placed with other kids in nursery school, all of us dressed in checked blue uniform, and as the other kids …
If this city in the sun as we like to brand it as could tell tales, what would it reveal to us? Let’s put our beers or our whisky on the table for a minute or two and allow our minds to wander and catch a glimpse of all the wisdom these streets have soaked up over time. In fact, let us leave our drinks in the care of our favorite bartenders and get into our rides and drive to …