Bio: Kingwa Kamencu is the founder of Blackstar Media, a communication firm that uses media tools to empower and activate changemakers. Focused on groups in arts and culture, human rights, entrepreneurship and innovation, her passion was inspired by recognizing continuing patterns of dysfunctions that members of these groups often fell prey to, and how vital it was to change the trajectory. Getting into media from the field of fiction writing, Ms Kamencu began as a freelancer for People Daily, The Standard, and The Nation, following which she joined the Media Institute as a program officer and writer of the organization’s magazine Expression Today. She later covered arts, culture and human rights at The Nation as a reporter, and later in the monthly magazine, UP Nairobi, where she served as an editor. Ms Kamencu joined civil society as a consultant to explore how communication tools could be used to give support to the human rights movement, following which she set up Blackstar Media, to further this end. A past winner of the the National Book Development Council Manuscript Award, The Wahome Mutahi Prize, the Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature, Ms Kamencu is also renown for putting her voice on the national space, where she was a presidential candidate with the Labor Party of Kenya (LPK) in 2013. A recipient of numerous residencies and programs including the African Women Entrepreneurship Cooperative (AWEC) Programme 2022 for African female Entrepreneurs, The World Association of Newspapers WAN-IFRA Women in News Accelerator fellowship 2020, The Friedrich Naumann Foundation Women in Media fellowship 2020, The Caine Prize Workshops 2008, the Les Aspin Center for Government Fellowship 2008, the MS TCDC Artivist in Residence Residency 2018, to mention but a few. She is constantly learning. She is currently the Kenya Chairperson of Voice of Media (VOM), a global union of journalists headquartered in Maharashtra, India. Blackstar Media Kenya has been nominated for key awards in the past including Shepreneurs Kenya and the Tallberg Foundation. Ms. Kamencu holds an MSc in African Studies and an MSt in Creative Writing, both from the University of Oxford, UK. She holds a BA in History and Literature from the University of Nairobi, where she graduated with a first class honors.
And Out Came a Butterfly: My Journey Through the Dark Night of the Soul
My presentation will chronicle a 10 year period in my life that was marked by breakdown, dysfunction and extreme disorientation. Moving from the identity of a high achiever as an ivy –league graduate, a rising political star, and an award winning writer, to becoming disoriented, apathetic and listless in life, unable to keep a job or support myself. Where I had once been very exuberant and outgoing, I became extremely avoidant, locking myself in my house for months on end, shunning friends, family and life as whole. It was a period where it appeared that everything I touched was doomed to fail, a sharp contrast from before where my Midas touch was apparent to myself and the world. My story is a story of ego death and disillusion, it is not a new story, it happens to the best and the brightest. Unfortunately, some get lost in the wasteland and never return. Learning about psychology, spirituality and shamanism was key to helping me survive, and begin the climb out of this dark and desolate space. It was a ten-year period of perpetual grey skies, where life had no meaning, flavor or essence. Stumbling upon Kazimierz Dabrowski’s concept of Personal Disintegration, I held onto it like a drowning person in a storm, using it to help me navigate the whirlpools and tidal waves of the period. Continually remembering that what I was going through was an organic, natural and even necessary process, kept the flame of hope alive. It allowed me to dare dream that I could ever find happiness, meaning, and gratefulness to live again.