Hope in a Hard Place - Beauty and inspiration from Nairobi's vast and awesome Kibera slum

In the aftermath of Kenya’s post-election bloodshed earlier this year, is the country safe and stable? How challenging is life in Africa’s largest slums, for children in particular? Finally, where if at all does joy and wonder and art exist in such a life?

“Hope in a Hard Place,” opening Friday, June 13, 2008, explores these questions. It is the first exhibition at within(Reason), a contemporary art and photo space, 1932 S Halsted St. #408 in Pilsen. Chicago photographer-artist-designer Ron Reason is the creator of the space and the show; the work will include his photographs from two months in Africa this spring, as well as paintings and mixed media by Kenyan artists, including a self-taught collective in the Kibera slum whose work has never been shown outside Nairobi.

All profits from the show, subtitled beauty and inspiration from Nairobi’s vast and awesome Kibera slum, will directly benefit Kibera’s kids. The exhibit consists of the following:

• street art from Kibera’s self-taught M2 collective (paintings/mixed media)
• Kibera’s kids: smiling against the odds (slide show and prints by Ron Reason)
• from the rubble, colorful messages of peace arise (photos and photocollage of graffiti)

In an artistic side-trip, abstract oils of the Masai tribespeople by Kenyan artists also will be presented.

“In Kenya, it’s common for locals to implore a visitor to tell the outside world that things are OK there,” Reason says. “The world news media have painted a dark picture of life there following the election rioting and bloodshed in January of this year.

“Even in early April, after a quiet day of work in downtown Nairobi, I returned to my hotel, opened my laptop to the New York Times, and read in the day’s second top headline: ‘Kenya is burning.’ A relatively minor skirmish had occurred in the Kibera slum - discontent over lack of progress in naming a new Cabinet - but the the rest of the city and country in general couldn’t have been more calm. The message to the outside world was, this place is going to hell. It’s not really a clear picture of what’s happening there.”

Formally trained as a journalist, Reason designs newspapers around the world. While on a current engagement with The Standard newspaper in Kenya, he decided to make several trips into the Kibera slum, exploring homes, businesses, drinking dens. With an estimated 600,000 to one million residents, it stands among Africa’s most vast. “In my first moments there, I happened upon an art collective in a ramshackle hut, saw bright street signage everywhere, and graffiti calling for peace, even painted on the rubble of recently burnt pubs and churches. And the smiling faces of dozens of small kids running up to the mzungu (white guy) in their midst. I felt I was onto something unbelievable.”

As it rebuilds from the skirmishes that left many thousands homeless and killed more than 1,000 nationwide, life in Kibera goes on. “Yes, it is extremely challenging - the food and housing challenges are so daunting for so many - but there’s also a side that is unusually beautiful, and that’s what I wanted to share in this show.”

100% of any proceeds from the sale of photos or artwork will go back to the Kibera slum, to benefit arts programs for the kids and to the Nicofeli Kids Club, a newly developed program of after-school activities for the children who currently have none.

For more information on how to contribute to these initiatives, contact Ron Reason at ron@ronreason.com The opening night reception is Friday, June 13, from 6-10 p.m., coinciding with Pilsen’s “Second Fridays” gallery open houses. The exhibit can be previewed at www.ArtWithinReason.com, or viewed by special appointment by calling Ron Reason at 773.562.7474. For more on his travels in Kenya and elsewhere in Africa, visit the new travel adventure blog, www.ronreason.com/TravelWithReason