The World’s Loudest Library: Delving into Sex, Weirdness and all that is Taboo
At the thirty-fifth edition of the World’s Loudest Library (the first at the Creative’s Garage) the energy was palpable. Entrance was a book, any piece of literature, even a roughly bound borderline pornographic novel. Drinks were passed back and forth, the gin flowing like water, conversations springing up all around as the sound system became more and more obviously empty. Books and ideas flew across the room in an endless stream of consciousness.
As music and wine flowed, the conversation turned into organized forum (no easy feat for a crowd that was rapidly becoming an outdoor sea of flirtatiously tipsy 20-somethings). It isn’t always easy in the Nairobi scene to jump right into a topic like sex; you need a kick in the ass, and for better or worse (as far as artistic quality is concerned, worse) it was Fifty Shades of Grey. A reading of some particularly raunchy East African erotica had the crowd in a frenzy; baying for blood if the speaker momentarily paused.
From that jump off at the erotic turns rapidly unfolded to the issues of sexual norms within society. It was a blurry and exhilarating piece of conversation, with barbs flying back and forth across the outdoor arena, laughter and applause spilling forth at particularly astute points. Eventually breaking up into smaller circles of weirdness, the conversations wove and bobbed its way in around itself; at times altogether and at times scattered across a baker’s dozen of boisterous little circles, their participants sitting at the edge of their tire cushions.
British travelling folk singer/gipsy of the road Jim Kroft gave a pseudo-surprise performance late into the evening (his fourth in Nairobi), but seeing as how the sound equipment got mishandled in a wine-fog, it was an acoustic and rowdy set under the stars. People belted out tunes and previous conversational points were further emphasized in little off-shoot talks during the show. Afterwards, with the energy of conversation hanging heavy upon the air, more drinks were poured and munchies solved. Truth be told this may be one of Nairobi’s loosest, newest and strangest intellectually geared events. We can only hope for more of the same.
