Berry Heart speaks on Story Moja Festival
Sharon Mathala | Tuesday September 23, 2014 15:24
“Story Moja Hay Festival is a serious get together of the world’s renowned poets and writers. Among the artists are Nobel Prize Winner Wole Soyinka, whom I studied for my entire life as a literature graduate, Kwame Dawes, and others from UK, USA, Africa, and Jamaica,” Berry Heart said.
Berry Heart told Showbiz that being on the cover of Story Moja Hay Festival Magazine and the programme increased her brand recognition to the people in Kenya and the world. She said that she was one of the youngest artists participating at the festival.
“Our first performance was on September 18. It was at the artist reception, which included the crème de la crème of Kenya, held at Nyari Estate the residence of Muthoni Garland the founder of Story Moja Festival,” he said. On the 19th, the group gave another performance at the Kenyatta University, which Berry Heart described as “an old university but so well kept, the architecture resembles the colonial building, the tall green trees arched over grey buildings of the Kenyan natural stones”.
Quizzed about what she has taken away from her stay in Kenya, Berry Heart said during one of her performances she injured her knee and could not perform at the final event last Sunday. She said that she believes she left a long lasting impression about Botswana on the people she performed in front of and met.
Berry Heart also said that she felt they gave a different feel to the festival because “the boys danced phathisi at a high tempo” much to the appreciation of the attendants.
She said that during her performances she would take a peak at the crowd and noticed that they stood still appreciating her work.
“We impressed them with our completely different performance or Botswana Culture and contemporary art, poetry multimedia and dance. The Sunday event was cancelled because I had a knee injury and had lost my passport,” she said.
Since its inception in 2007, the Story Moja Festival has grown into an internationally established event that celebrates critical thinkers and great minds in storytelling.