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Or, Closed Mouths…

Reader,

If you’re wondering why I’m back so soon it’s because I remember this used to be a Monday newsletter. A wage work meeting has been cancelled so I’m using some of that walker’s high (a theme lately, walking between work commitments) to write to you.

The weekend had me thinking about something I’ve been complaining about in romance novels - the miscommunication trope that has folks even breaking up instead of opening their mouths - and then I realised I engage in the same behaviour. The number of times I’ve chosen to walk away from relationships instead of having a hard conversation is embarrassingly more than one and contemplating my feelings about the trope made me realise I have a huge log in my eye. So I wrote to a person and I may soon meet them so even though the thinking error that led us here hasn’t been vanquished, it’s shrinking. It took speaking to a dear friend to really confront this and there’s still a lot of work to be done on many fronts but I’m grateful for these relationships that stretch one. That, folks, is why I go in for platonic intimacy.

On that note, I’m issuing an open call for people to join me in organising a quarterly short story reading like those we’ve had in the past (applying the lesson!) for Tekayo and Jambula Tree. I’m thinking of putting one together for a short story by Eloghosa Osunde (I’m thinking of Rain) whose Vagabonds! I was pleasantly surprised by earlier this year. If you’re interested, please reply to this entry and we can plan it together.

Quick news/ things that may be of interest:

• Listen to this playlist by the inimitable Raul

• Friend of Corpus Podcast Syowia Kyambi’s exhibition KASPALE opens this Thursday at the Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute (full disclosure: my Corpus co-host & Platonic Life Partner Don is an art worker at NCAI)

• Wanjeri’s Mengi Mengi Film Club screens films this Saturday from 1pm. Details below:

  

• The TBC Book Club x Spoken Word mash-up event happens on the same day at Java Junction. Details here (you might just be able to swing both events!). 

• Francophonie month continues apace. You can find the lineup of events here

• If you’re looking to immerse yourself in some theatre, check out these events at Goethe Institut. If you’re looking for company, feel free to message me 

• I have a new address: you can send me books, postcards, letters, and assorted gifts via PO Box 102439, Jamia Posta 00101, Nairobi, Kenya

• The folks at down river road, Kenyan Readathon, Cheche Books, Rafinki, Ukombozi Library, Comrades Book House, and Isukuti Studio launched a monthly celebration of African writers on Saturday. I’m excited to see what they have planned.

I have finished no books since I last wrote to you but, in a break from tradition, I’d like to speak about a book I started yesterday - Barua Ndefu Kama Hii by Mariama Bâ, the Kiswahili translation of her iconic Une si longue lettre (So Long a Letter) - which is the first book I’m reading in Kiswahili in a while. Every year, I detail plans to read in languages other than English and every year I don’t but this year will be different by Jove! I recorded some videos over the weekend which should be up on the channel before the week is out -  subscribe if you haven’t.

As ever, please write back to me and tell me what books you’re reading or looking forward to reading — it’s always a great time talking about books.

Enjoy the rest of the week and have a lovely time reading. Talk to you soon!