Poetry at the Park

Poetry at the park’s sixth edition takes arena 

By Erick Diang’a

August 7th Memorial Park received a pack of audience on 11^th October 2013 following the Poetry at the Park event that runs every second Friday of the month under the effort of Kenyan youths in Nairobi. Live band music, spoken word and poetry were the main genres that predominantly rocked the Park. 

The episode kick started at 2PM with Akapela music band raising the curtain. The band, under the leadership of Enoch Masanga thrilled the crowd when it vocalized the latest hit that has been out of the public’s ears. The quartet did its first single without instrumentals then proceeded to the second song that left listeners giving standing ovations. Akapela falls under live band music category in relation to the genres that exhibited their pieces.

The audience kept shouting at the king of spoken word, Ben Tena to take stage and project his well-orchestrated wise sayings. Every drop of his word came with a giggle but it was not long before the crowd tore into sound laughter when he mentioned how cheap Nairobi ladies paint their skins with makeup to the extent of confusing men they meet for a first date. 

Today’s performance marked the sixth edition since the inauguration of the occasion at the Memorial Park and Museum. The park fraternity together with its trustees saw it sensible to incorporate youths in achieving the sole objective of the trust that is peaceful coexistence among citizens, nations, societies and individuals. To reach at the strategy, the Park embraces all acts of art performances in a way to instill sense of unity through identification and promotion of young talents.

 October edition bore the theme of “truth”. Executive organizers of the event picked truth as the theme to sensitize the public on accountability in various undertakings; they defended the theme by reiterating that youths need to speak out genuinely what they represent in the society. 

“Prioritizing peace on whatever calls for our attention is the only way of swaying peace to dwell within the nation and its people for betterment of the society. People should discover themselves then share their discovery with the public so that reality can stand at the forefront,” said key facilitator and founder of Poetry at the Park, Mr Juma Wafula.

Since the terror attack in 1998, the Park has remained a central place in which people come to remember, reflect and support peace to shun a repeat of a similar inhuman act. 

Memorial Park and museum is also a place for school going children who register their clubs at the park so that they are trained on good leadership and peaceful reconciliation. They also watch the 1998 blast movie to make them understand values of forgiveness.  Not only does the Park welcome individuals but also corporate meetings since it’s equipped with state of the art conference halls and facilities for meetings.

Follow the link for more event stories-   http://www.memorialparkkenya.org/