UN-Habitat hosted a Summit on Urban Arts and Youth that brought together national and international artists, representatives of arts foundations, the private sector, arts industry and young people active in the arts. The goal of the event was to consult on the contribution the arts make sustainable urban development, specifically in terms of youth empowerment, employment, social cohesion, security, and the strengthening of local urban culture.Participants provided input into the UN-Habitat’s “Messenger of Truth programme” (MoT) – originally a special designation given to Hip-Hop artists actively engaged in urban issues. The programme was broadened to involve the informing of youth living in slums and inner cities of the Millenium Development Goals through songs and other artistic performances.
Kibera Film School sent three trainees to the summit.
Josphat Keya, John Ngaruiya and Faith Wavinya represented the views of young upcoming filmmakers from Kibera.
We realized that the film industry in Kenya is yet to grow; most participants were amazed to meet us as young upcoming filmmakers especially coming from Kibera.
We learnt that the only way we can help up bring social values, security in the community was producing films that have morals acceptable to the society, in this way we become role models to the others back in the community.
The programme was planned that different small workshops were held with different issues touching on the welfare of artists.
We managed to interact with different personalities in the artistic industry.
We really appreciate the chance given to us to attend such a function and getting to know and relate to other artists outside there.
The programme ended at 8pm with a cocktail party.
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