February is People Power month at the NEST, and we’re proud to announce that from 10 – 18 February 2013, we shall host Jamaican poet and performance artist Staceyann Chin for a series of extra-special Biskoot conversations with artists and activists, as well as a book-reading and performance here in Nairobi on the 15th of February.

staceyann-final

A proud Jamaican national, Staceyann’s voice was featured on “The Oprah Show,” where she spoke candidly about her experiences of growing up on the island and the dire consequences of her coming out there. Chin’s three one-woman shows, “Hands Afire,” “Unspeakable Things” and “Border/Clash” all opened to rave reviews at the Culture Project in New York City.

Through her work she seeks to question the oppression and the limitations of identity, race, class, sexuality and belonging. In addition to performing in and co-writing the Def Poetry Jam on Broadway, Chin’s work has been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Guardian. Staceyann has toured internationally, held poetry workshops worldwide and performed in London, Denmark, Germany, South Africa – and now, Nairobi.

Watch her perform “If Only Out of Vanity” on Season 02 of Def Poetry:


Hard-cover copies of her fierce memoir – The Other Side of Paradise – described as “a heartbreaking feat of unflinching memory and language”, are available for sale at the NEST for Ksh 1,800.

The Other Side of Paradise