DISCLAIMER : This isn’t yo mama’s event review. It more like my personal opinion on the whole experience. Indulge me.
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BOGOF! Yeah the name sounds oof! But it means Being Only Great Of Finesse. Not so bad now eh?
So the event happened on Saturday 4th August from 4p.m. This event brings together a mixture of arts like poetry(written and spoken) , music, photography and fine art(drawing and sketching) under the very home of finesse- the Hilton.
THE HILTON. Now everyone( even those who have never been inside ) know that Hilton is not just any hotel! I mean, I always knew it would be an awesome kind of place but even it truly awed me! It stands true to its reputation.
The guards were very friendly even though my pals and I weren’t dressed up classy or anything. They searched our bags, politely asked us to remove any metallic items that made the security archway beep, and after the security check, they smiled at us and very nicely told us “WELCOME TO THE HILTON”.
Now, I am very cynic of high class hotels considering many bad encounters at Kilifi hotels when the guards stop you, size you up then ask – “What business do you have here?” What, because I am not white and don’t have a car, I can’t come take lunch here?! Da fuck?
Anyway the reception was a good experience that made me tone down my cynicism on these high class places, so there!
And did I mention about the spiral staircase with a thick red patterned carpet and intricately furnished railings? And the chandeliers? And the engraved ceiling? Damn! It’s just a heaven of beauty. If you have watched Titanic, remember the staircase that Rose descended- now think of something like that!
Enough about the Hilton! Well, more of enough of me going ga-ga over it!
The BOGOF!
It began right on time in a room with no chairs- only the thick red Hilton carpet to sit on. That was nice. It felt like a blankets-and-wine picnic!
The M.C was funny and teasing- the kind of guy you could laugh at and tease back and it won’t be a biggie. I liked him lots! He welcomed on stage the band of the night- Lele Ngoma. Apart from two instrumentalists, there were two dude singers and one chic that were totally off the hook! Made us get up and dance what they taught us to.
Part of the crowd was a little detached and kept talking most of the time instead of taking part and appreciating the talent on stage- this sucked big time! Some of us were trying to listen! Hello!
Anyway, it didn’t put the band down, and they went on to sing about 5 awesome songs- the kind that you could listen to over and over again.
Next up was the spoken word category and it started with a dreadlocked guy who dressed up like a Legio-Maria preacher. I have no prejudices against any religion but I don’t like the idea of being preached at! Especially out at an event that I expect to be awesome. And that’s what I thought he went on stage to do! Preaching.
how mistaken I was! The guy talked a lot of real life sense that few preachers in church can dare compete with. My very reliable sources tell me that he is one of the very first spoken word poets in Kenya and after he got off stage, I had this deep respect for the man. Talk about judging a book and proving to be wrong! I was humbled. Big up Kennet B!
We also had Samo And The Almighty give us his Voila introduction from “V for Vendetta” that’s full of words that begin with “V”.- you should hear it! This guy has WORDS! And he also had a poem called COITUS INTERRUPTUS 😉 naughty huh? You’ll love it!
Then he and El poet made their collabo poem entitled “The School Bell Rings”- and this poem is not just any poem! Especially with El Poet’s famous line “And even if they cut my arms and palms away, the world will still remember that I came in HANDY.”( get the pun?)
Abu Sense was next. After a disclaimer to ladies, he gave us some hard sense with his poem XX vs. XY. I was not insulted but dude! That was some sense to deal to us!
Next came the Lyrical Number 8, with ‘Flush it’ and two other pieces, in the third, he had a full band on stage, with a beatboxer, vocalists and instrumentalist.
After that, the MC introduced a blind poet on stage and true, as the phrase goes, “Disability is not inability.” The fellow gave us an English Poem that …Uuummm, lets just say I wished I had carried my dictionary, then a pure Swahili one!! Superb!! … and then … WAIT FOR THIS … a French one! Dude! I could see the French ‘gurus’ in my company struggling to keep up!Ha! serves them right for rubbing their French skills in my face! 😀
After this poetry session the M.C called for a small break when we could view the sketches made by the fine artists! I don’t have the photos- yet- but I hope to get some! Most of the drawings I saw were good but few went above the line of AWESOME. So if you feel you have an artist in you, why not challenge the current sketch artists? Give ’em something to sweat upon.
This break was also the time people refreshed themselves with food courtesy of the Hilton. Um…It was not free. And I didn’t bother check out the prices for reasons both of us know.
But for the sake of my pride, let’s just say I had another restaurant to go to for a friend’s birthday. And while Asmara is not exactly Hilton level, its Eritrean and exotic- and not so expensive for a campus student like me. So there ends my Hilton and BOGOF experience.
4 Responses
Nice.The voice is a girl’s voice – I guess I could classify the writers gender as such. Too chirpy and a tad girlish – but for a campus student, it befits. Interesting review, light to the brain and easy. Were those the only performers? Thanks for sharing the ‘personal experience’.
hehe! guessed that right Richie! am a girl alright- chirpy and talkative as can be. and no, those werent the only performers, they were the ones i felt. like i said, ‘personal experience’ eh? thanks for commenting.