Kenya: Young creatives to showcase digital stories

The Youthful Cities Digital Storytelling Lab is a unique partnership between Coventry City of Culture Trust, The British Council, The Space and BBC R&D. It will see participants develop two new digital stories designed to inspire change within their cities, and forms part of a wider programme to facilitate a cultural and creative skills exchange between young people across the globe. Other partner cities include Beirut (Lebanon), Bogotá (Colombia) and Detroit (USA).

The programme celebrates cities where the citizens are activists, shaping their own futures through art, creativity, and technology. The events spotlight the ways in which digital technology and art can come together to highlight the global conversations that young adults can create together, through artists, makers, storytellers and activists.

Both teams worked collaboratively and remotely, through various stages of lockdown, across Nairobi and Coventry to create an interactive short film Our Daily Bread and a spatial audio experience titled, Now That I Know Things. The works will premiere on BBC Taster from 28 April, after which they will be available to experience on the website that showcases the organisation’s immersive and interactive experiences, encouraging users to share what they’ve just tried with their friends.

Kenyans involved in the project include Millan Tarus, Tracy Mwaura, Mike W. Khakame, Analo Kanga, Naserian Koikai and Precious Narotso, while James Grubb, Lanaire Aderemi, Demy Jozeph and Michael Mihoc are from Coventry.

“By sharing our stories with the world our goal is to inspire policymakers, activists and governments to be intentional and deliberate in combating issues that affect young people across the globe,” the creatives involved in the programme said. “We’ve all acquired skill sets that we can't wait to put into practice for future projects and made new alliances with a network of revolutionary creatives to connect with and learn from. It's been a season of learning and growth both professionally and personally. Immersive storytelling is a vast sea of cultural exchange and experimentation. It is an alchemy of poetry, laughter, music and sonic fiction to create empathy and kinship across continents."

The creatives from Nairobi and Coventry joined the Digital Storytelling lab in July 2021 and have since taken part in a specially devised learning programme designed to introduce them to a range of cutting-edge immersive storytelling techniques, tools and platforms. A series of masterclasses, creative labs and workshops were delivered by a range of digital trailblazers to mentor and support the young people, enabling them to create their own new short-form immersive and interactive digital experiences. Working with a suite of tools from BBC MakerBox, prototypes were developed before the experiences progressed to full production.

Coventry City of Culture programme manager for international and youthfulness Alexandra Talbott said: “While interweaving the unique experiences and identities of Nairobi and Coventry, these important new immersive stories highlight the shared challenges young people face as they seek to make their mark. The work reflects the immense creative talent to be found across both cities and the power of international collaboration.”

British Council Kenya head of arts Sandra Chege said: “Curiosity and a commitment to continuous learning are the foundation of this and all mural collaborations supported by the British Council. We are proud of the work the creatives have produced and are hopeful that these pieces will inspire broader conversations on the themes touched on in this project and encourage further exploration of immersive media tools as instruments for digital storytelling.”

The partnerships are inspired by research conducted by ‘Youthful Cities’, who, since 2012, have been on a mission to make cities around the world better places for your people to live, work and play. The Youthful Cities Index highlights the priorities and concerns for youth in global cities, in areas including education and employment, culture and creativity, democracy and representation, and city-making and urbanism.

Register to watch the event here, and get YouTube livestream link here.