Artsy memorial set to celebrate Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye
What you need to know:
- Death stopped for one of Kenya’s literary icons Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye, on December 1st 2015 and fans of her work, poets book lovers and publishers will on Tuesday evening hold an
- evening of performances and tributes in her honour.
In her poem ‘Because I could Not Stop for Death’, Emily Dickinson wrote:
Because I could not stop for Death/He kindly stopped for me/The carriage held but just ourselves/And Immortality.
Death stopped for one of Kenya’s literary icons Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye, on December 1st 2015 and fans of her work, poets book lovers and publishers will on Tuesday evening hold an
evening of performances and tributes in her honour.
ORGANISED BY PEN
The event dubbed The great MOM Memorial, has been organised by the Kenyan chapter of Poets, Essayists and Novelists (PEN) in conjunction with Phoenix publishers and will be held at
IMAX theatre in Nairobi’s CBD from 6 pm until 8pm and is open to the public.
A number of activities are planned for the evening among them readings from Oludhe’s works. There will also be performance of tribute pieces by the Nation editor Julius Sigei; writers Tony
Mochama, Stanley Mitoko, Kinyanjui Kombani, Mikhail Iossel and Flo Njagi. A screen presentation by poet and architect Dr Alf Omenya will be followed by a complimentary 3 D movie 'In
the Heart of the Sea' courtesy of IMAX Theatre.
Just as Oludhe chose to remember the unborn dead in her poem by the same title, so should we, through readings and performances, strive to always remember those who once were but are now no more. As she poetically put it:
So if you are brushed by a spider-web at nightfall
Or disturbed by the chirping of childish cricket voices
If your cow is sucked dry without a cause
Or blood-loss comes to you as disappointment
Remember us who were intended to be
And have no name to come back to
