'For our Mithus, in this world here and all the others.

May you know the women who made you.

And

For our Mothers, the ones that birth and all the others.

May you be remembered, always.'

#HaldiAndHoney
(The first staging) (before the journey begins, whispering gratitude and wishing the flowers)

I am beyond excited about this!

The world premiere of Theatre for One, Nairobi Edition by @NYUADArtsCenter

1 audience member. 1 performer.1 micro play

I've been working on this for months & it's so precious to me. I'll share some process in a thread
Week One sold out within hours, but you can get (free) tickets for Week Two if you keep an eye on this link.

They should be going on sale in the next hour or so...I'll let you know

#TheatreForOne

nyuad-artscenter.org/en_US/events/2…

Early this year, a palm tree in the garden exploded in flowers...delicate fragrant creamy petaled flowers

We have been with the tree for over a decade and it had never flowered before.

It was just so beautiful. The flowers remained for several weeks, and after they fell the the ground, they revealed a twisty knobbly network of branches that stretched up the sky.

It looked like a tree was growing out of the tree.

And at their tips were globules that looked like berries.

Today's samosa cleansing is courtesy of @WauEats Herbed Cheese samosas, which is doing it's farewell lap.

Today & tomorrow are the last days you can order these schwangy 'Beyonce' of Wau as they've been called by a WauLoved

If you'd like to order peep details on the poster In celebration of these deliciousness, and in case you're wondering whether they are really worth that title; here is what WauLoveds say about them

I wanted to write something special to celebrate my 2 year quit, but I still have a long list on my to do's and I'm exhausted after an intense day...so here's a thread from the early quit days

Yesterday's eyebrow raising news about the Kenya Meat Commission (KMC) had me wondering about how we will feel the implications of this in our lives...

& it had me remembering a story about KMC from a lifetime ago

Bungoma, bumper harvests & burning bean cobs

A story thread Many years ago I lived in Bungoma, working for an NGO.

At one point I was assisting with research looking at kitchen gardens, and how HIV/AIDS in the area was affecting farming...who was doing the farming, what was being grown, what it was being grown for...

Here we go

A Chicken Tikka thread

A meandering unraveling

(Thinking about origins, adaptations, memories)

https://twitter.com/aleyakassam/status/1298531686897135618

In my search for information about the origins of Chicken Tikka, I had to wade through pages and pages of references to Chicken Tikka Masala

Some say that the Chicken Tikka Masala was named/coopted/has become the national dish of the UK (you won't find it anywhere else)

The @WauEats Beef samosas & Paneer samosas are complaining that sijui we've hyped the chicken tikka and apple pie ones so much, they're feeling neglected

So I'm here to post a thirst trap 😋

Here in a combo box, each flavour, with its own special sauce

+ deets on how to order Not that the chicken tikka samosas aren't just ridiculous. Truly. Ridiculous.

Here's the inspiration 🙃

Yes we manage to get that smoky char grilled taste into a samosa.

Imagine!

157 days of longing

A tale of yearning, of the taste of laughter, of hand written envelopes and smoky sunny afternoons, the quest to share the joy of togetherness in a triangle of crispy, juicy deliciousness (even as grief lingers)

A new chapter from @WauEats

(A thread)

https://twitter.com/aleyakassam/status/1206558346821681153

If you follow me here, you'll have heard me talk a lot about my beloved grandfather, Raju, the man who holds the full moon in his left eye....

...if he likes you, he'll let you see the man in his full moon

instagram.com/p/Btc_8_mgbnc/…

'We begin by noticing, and then we imagine.'

For this beautiful piece, for noticing & for sharing breath, shukraan @Brianmuraya - and for giving language to this - so much to think alongside, so much in here to linger on

(I ♥️the way you trace lineage)

medium.com/@brianmuraya/o… 'To notice is to rupture the unspeakable. The colonial is visible, potent, humid, intrusive and haptic in the texture of (‘this’) sociogenic fabric — it is noticeable.'

Asubuhi asubuhi (is that still appropriate after 10am),
Njahi samosa na masala chai 😅

To honour The Nest's recently published comics on Mekatilili wa Menza & Wangu wa Makeri - we decided to dust off our brazen script & play with it a little We found ourselves reflecting on a few questions:

What happens when the stories of two brazen women from Kenya’s history are told by different storytellers? What does the storyteller linger on? Where do they pour their juice?

This is SO exciting 😍😍😍

Look at all the ways our stories are being told from podcasts to books to stage shows to comics to twitter threads to photography

I'm really excited about the comics because of the place the characters in comic form take in our imagination

https://twitter.com/thisisthenest/status/1290937904005615621

It is also really exciting that @thisisthenest invited @sisterhood_lam to reflect alongside the comics

So on Brazen-versary (issa thing!), 2 years after we first staged Brazen with Too Early For Birds, The L, The A & The M did a reading of the script from top to bottom

In addition to your faves of Beef Samosas and Paneer Samosas, this week @WauEats (that's us) introduces 2 specials

Feta Samosas & Mixed Veggie Spring Rolls

All come to you fresh & unfried, so you can fry them up at home, & enjoy them HOT, HOT, HOT the way they're supposed to be The Feta, I've been working on for weeks, and this one is so delicious I almost weep

It is melty velvety salty feta, earthy black olives, plump sun-dried tomatoes for a little tartness, & fresh dhania...all in a crunchy, crispy savoury golden samosa manda

So. Good.

On June 27th 2017, I slid into @kamz26's DMs - I had left work at the agency a month or so before, with plans to write for myself - beginning with the essay collection. I wanted a piece of her art for my writing wall, the one I stare at instead of the bloody blinking cursor In a week of deep grief, I received this beautiful surprise...an original Kamal Kaur painting for my writing wall.

It joins art by @lulukitololo @bissau_art @Jebetn_ (out of frame) and of course Moojah aka Mithu

I thought Raju was crying because his body wouldn't let his soul leave.

It wasn't

We didn't know it at that time, but across the world, Raju's beloved, cherished, precious, adored daughter was beginning to transition out of this world.

His soul knew

https://twitter.com/aleyakassam/status/1286106312603054080

💔

He wept all night long

His soul knew

And his body couldn't be there with her

This morning her soul left her body

His is still here

His mind doesn't know what's happened

But his soul does

💔

(woken up by Raju's cries - his body is what we would call ziddi - stubborn, devastatingly stubborn) (we are.going to have to get better at caring for the elderly, and at helping them not just stay alive but transition out if this world)

Because @digital_heer put the brilliant idea of samosa flowers in my head, here is a thread of this week's flavours as samosas

SAMOSA FLOWERS

(deliberately selected from my archive of flower phoros)

https://twitter.com/aleyakassam/status/1285503594905702400

Classic & bold I think of beef flavoured samosas as the bird of paradise

It doesn't try to be what it isn't. It is unapologetically spicy, delicious.

With our beef, we try to do what this photo does...show you a side of sth familiar in a way you may not have experienced before

Also...

A story from the family archive:
The One With The Spoiled Meat

Thinking about the precariousness of life, about kindness, about care, about the ways in which we can affect other people's lives without even knowing it.

(This story popped into my head today)

https://twitter.com/aleyakassam/status/1283299518939791360

Raju (my gramps) told me this story many years ago when I was a teenager.

I was rebellious AF as a teen.

I didn't know what to do with all the emotions that splashed inside me with such intensity.

My family didn't know what to do with them either.

As part of the virtual theatrical show The Narratives Are Being Crafted with Sitawa Namwalie we invite the audience to turn into co-conspirators, and to write with us....

The latest episode was entitled COVID Will Show Us Things! Together, we were looking at crimes that had been lying upside down for too long

Together, we were picking at them, turning them around, naming them

Together, we were seeking language for what healing can feel like

A KaChanyado from the archive
(24.04.2019)

Once it was confirmed that they could artificially enhance the colours of the wings they would get, there was a frenzy.

Within hours, all the flowers had been licked clean.

(1/n) ▫️
Then they began on creatures; green grasshoppers, red beetles, yellow snakes, even dead multi coloured birds that they lapped at in glee.

(2/n)

In our mosque, the elders who are unable to sit on the floor, have a section at the back filled with chairs.

They jokingly refer to this as the boarding lounge.

Once you enter that section, your visa has been approved by God, and you are just waiting to depart. In the last month, every single day there has been a funeral announcement in our community.

The elders are departing one by one.

At 5am I saw a man who I used to lend books to, who went to mosque every day, who used to cup his chai in his hands in the cold...he has left