2024 Kistrech Poetry Festival Report
What a beautiful festival we had this year! What a get-together of humanity! This is another successful event following last year’s top-of-the roof edition. The Kistrech International Poetry Festival seems to go stride after stride, and making history in its development as one of the largest and most popular poetry events in Africa.
This year we had many respected poets from around the world. We had the Swiss poet, Ali Al-Shalah, who has BA & MA degrees in literature, has produced five poetry collections and five books on criticism, and is the founder and president of many various art and cultural houses and organizations in Switzerland, Iraq, Baghdad and Babylon.
Our other guest-poet from Switzerland, Reta Lusser, is a pianist and an occupational psychologist, who brought her beautiful poetry to Kenya this year. Since Reta’s inaugural visit to Kenya in 2017, she has cultivated a deep and abiding connection with the country. In 2023, her love for Kenya inspired her to establish the “Hold My Hand” association, dedicated to supporting the education of children and young people.
From Québec, Canada, we had the poet, Marie Blay, who holds a bachelor’s degree in literary studies and a Master’s degree in creative writing. She has published two collections of poetry with Les Herbesrouges editions: Noctiluque (2020) and L’ancolie (2022). She has won several important awards in Canada including the Poetry Prize Rolande Gauvin, the literary Prize of Laval Literary Society and the mention Piché from the Trois Rivières International Poetry Festival
The other Canadians poet, Natalie Fontalvo, is a pluridisciplinary artist and she can be seen as a literary performer at festivals and poetry events. We were very much privileged to have Natalie Fontalvo.
Priya Bains (b. 1995) and Bendik Vada (born 1996) brought Norwegian poetry to our festival this year. Priya is a poet, translator and literary critic. In 2022 she was awarded the Olav H. Hauge grant by Ulvik Poetry Festival, and she received the The festival poet’s grant at Dei Litterære Festspela in Bergen. Her newest publication is the translation Hypervirkelighet (Aya Kanbar, Solum Bokvennen, 2023). On the other hand, Bendik Vada has published two books of poetry, Vak in 2017 and Virkelig igjen in 2020. He has also translated an array of poets, including Sara Uribe’s Antígona González (2021) and Uldis Berzins’ Geit og evighet (2022).
This year the festival was glad to feature the Spanish poet, Miguel Rodríguez Monteavaro, who doubles up as a musician and PhD in Asturian linguistics from the University of Oviedo, where he works as a professor of Hispanic Philology. He has published several books of poetry, won several literary prizes, public competitions and residencies. While attending this year;s Kistrech Festival, Miguel won a literary award back home. It has become the trend of Spainsh poets who attend the Kistrech Festival to win awards. In 2022 when Yolanda Castana attended she went back to Spain only to win a literature Prize.
Another very interesting Spanish poet, Moncho Iglesias Míguez, also participated in this years’ Kistrech International Poetry Festival. He is an award-winning poet, novelist and translator from Galicia, Spain. He works as a teacher.
With immense honour for us as a festival, we were sincerely glad to have the participation of Professor Marta Eloy Cichocka (Cracow), a Polish poet and photographer, Iberian Studies scholar and a Francophile, literary investigator and translator. She has published seven poetry books, in Polish and Spanish, as well as two books on literary theory of contemporary historical novel, in French and in Spanish. She is the author of the bilingual libretto of the play “Hijas del aire. Dream of Balladyna. Córki powietrza. Sen Balladyny”, directed by Ignacio García (Teatr Jan Kochanowski, Opole – Almagro International Classical Theatre Festival, 2019). She also coordinates REPUBLICA POETICA (multilingual poetry readings) and MANUFACTURA DE POESÍA (translation workshops). She is an Associate Professor of the University of National Education Commission in Cracow.
The renowned poet from Barbados, Winston Farrell, participated in the festival last year. Although he arrived late this year, he was able to carry out performances in various parts of Nairobi. Winston presently works as the Cultural Arts Officer at the Barbados Youth Service. He is a graduate of the University of Leeds with a Masters in Theatre and Development Studies.
This edition of our festival was unique since, for the first time, we received a big number of international Delegation of Chinese Poets: He Lei, Yuemei Chen, Shi Wei, Hefeng Huang, and Ye Feng Branthaver. Hefeng Huang has published four books, namely, The Last Romance, Chief Seattle’s Prophecies, Chuan Shi Dao, and Wo De Hai. While He Lei’s poetry works won the Chanjuan Award.
Kenyan poets included Prof. Evelyn Wanjiru Njurai, Dr. Evans Gesura Mecha, Dr. Christopher Okemwa, Prof. Dr. Alfred Nyagaka Nyamwange, Prof. Miriam Musonye, Ruth Jepkorir Koech, Bonface Nyamweya, Malenga Nyamwaro, and Wanjira Hezron Ruriga.
Post the programme here
Post photos of the festival here