Kevo Stero and Maasai Mbili

Maasai Mbili Artists' Collective is an East African contemporary arts organisation based in Kibera, Nairobi

Maasai Mbili Artists’ Collective is an East African contemporary arts organisation based in Kibera, Nairobi. The studio currently comprises of a dozen members, students, interns and visiting artists in residence.
We make, exhibit and produce interactive multimedia projects, street fashion, public art, children’s art programmes, performance and animations. Sometimes the membership of the studio expands exponentially during collaborations with the community.

Maasai Mbili is an important link between the Kibera’s community and the outside world, with our artists, projects, workshops and exhibitions travelling the world but always returning home.

For b-side festival 2022

Every-day Portland: commoning news

A citizen journalism project, excavating and celebrating the everyday news stories of people on the Isle of Portland, especially stories that would never make the news. Kevo Stero will be artist in residence on Portland from August 2022. He will be finding out about the everyday news stories of residents. “What happened at the Eight Kings last night?” “What did the sea sound like this morning?” “Chesil Chippie has won another award!”

Throughout the festival, visitors will be invited to come to the Festival Hub at St. George’s Centre to share their own everyday news with Kevo, these stories will be transformed into a giant banner which will be published and paraded at this years, “Keep Portland Weird, Big Portland Parade!”

I was born and raised in Kibera, a vast slum settlement area in Nairobi, Kenya. I dropped out of school early and went onto the street, doing a bit of hustling along Kibera Drive. Most of the time I just hung out at video theatres, cyber-cafes, play- station booths; playing ludo and drafts near the big adopt-a-light in Bombolulu. I’m an extrovert, but I am a good listener too and learnt a lot about people’s everyday lives. In 2004, I became a sign-writer and then an artist under the mentorship of Otieno Kota and Otieno Gomba, the founding artists of Maasai Mbili.