Njeri Wangari-Wanjohi
Session Title: Has technology changed the way we write; what is the future for creative writing?
Description:
Being a creative writer, alot has changed from using a typewriter. We look at ways in which technology has changed the way writers write, publish, market and get feedback for their works. Will ebooks mean the death of hardcopy books as we know them?
Bio:
Njeri Wangarĩ – Wanjohi, is a multi talented published Poet and performer, IT specialist and arts blogger.Njeri’s love for the arts began at an early age through her appreciation of African culture. This, she found to be well expressed in many of the books that she started reading while still young and they have shaped the person she has now become.
She penned her first poem in 2004. Three years later she made her first attempt in front of an audience, performing her poetry. She is now among the most talented Kenyan poets and performers.
Njeri Wangare has come to be known as the voice of reason and change in the Kenyan poetry circles due to the content and theme of her poems which range from Culture, religion, human rights, technology and everyday challenges in the Kenyan society.
Apart from Poetry, Njeri is also an ardent blogger. She has been running her blog, www.Kenyanpoet.com for over 6 years now – a project that she initially started as a platform to publishing her poetry online. It has since grown to incorporate other forms of art as well as host other poets. She has contributed immensely to the promotion of Kenyan Poetry not only on stage but also through the internet through her reviews on art performances and by encouraging up and coming poets to start blogs and eventually share their work through performance. She is currently an author with Global Voices Online-An online portal for citizen journalists, as a writer on African Arts.
Njeri performs regularly at various poetry spots in Kenya’s capital city Nairobi as well as in institutions and companies where is invited from time to time.
Njeri also co-founded POWO(Poets and Writers Online) an NGO that seeks to equip creative writers with technology skills to thrive online through workshops and talks by leading figures in writing and in IT.
Her book, Mines and Mind Fields, My Spoken Words is available in all leading bookshops in Nairobi as well as on Amazon.
When not performing or blogging, Njeri is a Systems Administrater with East African Publishers.
Q: Tell us more about how you became interested in WordPress, what about it drives your continued interest?
I had been running my blog on blogger for 4 years and I felt that it was time to move to a self hosted domain but still retain the blog look and feel albeit with more features. Only wordpress could give me this freedom. I was able to use the migrate tool to move all my posts(over 500 of them) and the comments without any difficulty. I have been running my blog on wordpress for 2 years now. I hate coding and wordpress understands that(saving me all the html jargon) I especially love the widgets that I have been able to integrate into my blog.
Q: Why did you decide to speak at WordCamp Kenya?
I would like to share my story as well as my experience in running POWO. Alot of Kenyan writers do not know how to use the many free tools available online in their writing. I would like to talk about how POWO has impacted the lives of Creative writers and what it seeks to do in encouraging more writers to go online.
Q: What is your talk going to be about?
Creative Writing and Technology, what is the future?
Q: What is the one thing you want people to walk away with from your talk?
The immense contribution that creative writers are making in creation of local content.
Q: What is your favourite WordPress theme and/or plugin, and why?
Twitter BlackBird Pie – I am able to quote twitter updates as part of my posts with ease.
Q: What are you most looking forward to at WordCamp Kenya 2012?
Learning something new from those attending
Q: Is WordPress an effective platform for getting your message across?
Yes, its quite effective.
