Mine is to say something small – a live audio broadcast
21. and 22.4. at 19:00 (Finnish time).
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‘Remember, where you look is where you will go.’
Mine is to say something small is the third chapter of a growing personal essay, exploring fragmented memory, following a fictional timeline of one year. Ogutu uses diary-writing as a method to locate his inner self within complex, and at times confusing environments, his notes becoming an amalgam of paradoxical experiences and traces of navigating a system that may deem you “undesirable”.
This third chapter exists as a part of a long-term practice of publishing; an ongoing symbiosis between reading, writing, and publishing as staging, where chapters are released through different means of meeting with an audience. The first chapter of this diary project, titled How do you observe a stone that is about to strike you?, was released through Etcetera Magazine. The second chapter, On Thin Ice, was part of a performance reading presented in Basel, Berlin, Munich, Amsterdam, and Brussels with an upcoming reading in Hannover this May (CLINCH 2021).
The latest chapter, Mine is to say something small, was first developed as a part of a lab seminar led by Ogutu at L’Ecole des Sables in Senegal. A second draft of the text was hosted by Veem House for Performance as part of a Reading Group with the chapter as the focus for reading and conversation. With structural editing by the literary collective Jalada Africa the chapter has since grown into a new draft that will be presented in the format of a live audio broadcast.
Ogutu will broadcast live from Nairobi.
Text and presentation: Ogutu Muraya
Language: English
Duration: 60 minutes
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Ogutu Muraya is a writer and theater maker, whose work is embedded in the practice of Orature. In his work, he searches for new forms of storytelling where socio-political aspects merge with the belief that art is an important catalyst for questioning certainties. He studied International Relations at USIU-Africa and graduated in 2016 with a Master in Arts at DAS Theatre. He has been published in the Kwani? Journal, Chimurenga Chronic, Rekto:Verso, Etcetera Magazine, NT Gent’s The Golden Book series, among others. His performative works and storytelling have featured in several theatres and festivals including- La Mama (NYC), The Hay Festival (Wales), HIFA (Harare), SICK Festival (Manchester), Ranga Shankara (Bangalore), Afrovibes Festival (Amsterdam), Spielart (Munich), Theater Spektakel (Zurich), Festival Theaterformen (Braunschweig), Theatre is Must Forum (Alexandria), Theatre Commons (Tokyo) & within East Africa.
Ogutu is based in Nairobi where he continues his artistic practice and also teaches part time at the department of film and performing arts at KCA University.