Inspiring Through Words

See my work: http://vimeo.com/silvachege, My name is Silva Chege; I’m 24 year old studying for a Masters at Bournemouth University, where I’m studying journalism for the arts. The reason I choose this course is because I...

[silvachege]

BBC

The British Broadcasting Company was founded in 1922 with the aim of providing world-class news reporting to the masses. So, now, when most people hear the acronym “BBC,” words like respected and trusted immediately spring to mind—for most, but not all. Not minds like mine. When I hear the letters BBC, I’m taken back to when I was 13 years old… At the ring of the end-of-school bell, I used to…

BBC

[silvachege]

The Beautiful Empty

My body is a feast; its flesh clings to teeth, bloody and sharp.My body is a home; nestled in wounds and sores, maggots jostle for purchase and space to bore into.My body gives life to mushrooms and mould, even after its own has been given to death. My… this body, this wilted form, is not the one that pleased mirrors and graced stages.That body was chiseled, never stuffed. Worshipped, never…

The Beautiful Empty

[silvachege]

A Horror Story

It was a horror film—a supernatural slasher, to be specific. It was my first time acting in a horror film. I never really liked them much—never knew why. But I needed the money, and it was the only script I had been sent in weeks. Being on set was like being trapped in Groundhog Day: scream, cry, get covered in blood—ad infinitum. Still, I remembered all my lines and hit all the right cues. As…

[silvachege]

BookPirate

Despite being raised in a household where trips abroad were the stuff of dreams, I harbored a deep wanderlust and appetite for adventure. In an effort to satisfy this insatiable desire, I turned to the technological hellscapes of Philip K. Dick, the fantastical worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien, and Raymond Chandler’s gritty, urban jungles. Which is to say, when passports and plane tickets were out of…

View On WordPress

[silvachege]

You & Me Review

With the one-two of Russell T Davies’ executive producing and a stellar cast featuring some of Britain’s most promising talents in Jessica Barden, Sophia Brown and Harry Lawtey, one might anticipate You & Me to be a knockout. However, clunky dialogue, unearned emotional turns, and wafer-thin characterisation prevent the ITV drama from landing any real punches. From the outset, we are given…

View On WordPress

[silvachege]

Giri/Haji Review

The minute the titles end, Giri/Haji appears from the shadows, grabs you by the lapels, and slams you into your seat. It then holds your eyes and breath hostage and forces you to watch a horrifying opening scene. What unfolds is a near-balletic performance of violence and bloodshed. After the explosiveness of its starting pistol, one would expect the plotting of proceeding episodes to be slowed…

View On WordPress

[silvachege]

Dear Diary

Yes, I know, it’s been a while, you don’t have to tell me. But, can you blame me? In an attention economy consumed by social media, online gaming, and video streaming, having the time to sit down to put pen to paper is a luxury I have not had in a decade or two. God, has it been that long? OF COURSE, IT HAS… is probably what you can hear my wrinkles screaming right now. Oh, yeah, I forgot to…

View On WordPress

[silvachege]

The Spheres: Indonesia, 2041

The Spheres: Indonesia, 2041

Indonesia, 2041… With fingers as delicate as a harpist caressing harp strings, Ze stood naked before the public bathroom mirror, and began tracing the miles of 1s and 0s that now snaked their way around the meat bag that they had been conditioned to call theirs; crisscrossing over moles, stretch marks, and the self-harm scars that once brought them shame, but now stood as badges of honour and…

View On WordPress

[silvachege]

Catching Fire

This is what winning an Oscar must feel like, I think, as the room explodes with cheers, whoops and rounds of applause. As the appreciation builds and builds, I take care to pocket every last hand on a heart and teary eye so that when this day has faded, I can pull this moment out and devour it again and again whenever the familiar hunger for validation roars.  When I sense the excitement is…

View On WordPress

[silvachege]

AI: Artistic Intelligence

As a tide of phones drowned him in their camera flashes, Rohan fought harder and harder to keep a thin-lipped, ear to ear smile plastered over a tightening jaw and a throat drying and cracking like parched earth. Soon enough, the tide of flashes ebbed, reuniting Rohan with the desperate need to sift through the latest sea of star-struck faces for one with a snarl and the itching desire to destroy…

View On WordPress

[silvachege]

Digitopia

His eyes were glued to Raven, and not even moving to another part of the cafe or firing back a ferocious look could dislodge them. For what felt like a lifetime, she debated back and forth on whether or not to approach him and scare off his wandering eyes with a stern dressing-down.  In the end, she decided against doing it, feeling deep down that doing so would be futile. Even if the old man…

View On WordPress

[silvachege]

Forum

Looking through the tinted window was like watching a silent film for Maddie. One in which she was a damsel in distress, crying that all was lost as a horde of zombified photographers, reporters, and White nationalists in disguise, licking their lips with ravenous delight encircled. However, in the heartbeat before the undead sunk teeth dripping with morbid questions into her trembling flesh, a…

View On WordPress

[silvachege]

Typing...

Typing…

It is on silent. It is face down. It is underneath her pillow. Out of sight, out of mind, right? Except it is never out of mind – it is all she can think about. But it is not the phone itself that leaves her insides twisted and knotted like earphones forgotten and buried in someone’s bag, it is who is on the other side of the phone, somewhere, that she cannot stop thinking about.  It was not…

View On WordPress

[silvachege]

Voicenotes

At first, sending voicenotes was torturous. Recording one was like being alone on stage, naked and afraid, and pushed to bare his soul to a silent, faceless audience. And when he opened his mouth to speak, his voice felt wafer-thin, and it trembled under the seeming heaviness of his words. That was when he knew what to say, most times his head was a desert crying out for a raindrop of…

View On WordPress

[silvachege]

Why Mega Factories Are Bad For Fashion

Why Mega Factories Are Bad For Fashion

Dark, bleak and miserable from the beginning to its seemingly never coming end, if there is to be a silver lining out of the coronavirus pandemic, as difficult as it is to find, it is perhaps that businesses have been forced to second-guess their over-reliance on complex supply chains. For too long, juiced up on Neo-liberalism and seduced by cheap labour, clothing manufacturers have been lured to…

View On WordPress

[silvachege]

The Ethics of Leather

The Ethics of Leather

Born out of a slow, meticulous process that often needed the deftest of touches and most artisanal of sensibilities to turn raw, bloody animal hide into something worth wearing, for centuries, the word leather has been intertwined with those of passion and care, and when combined with its practical qualities – versatility and durability, it is no wonder the world of fashion did not hesitate to…

View On WordPress

[silvachege]

Underpopulation: The Next Great Crisis 

A sweeping eye cast in almost all the world’s major cities, despite what languages echo around its buildings, what food smells bellows into its air or what clothing walks its streets, exposes one fact that remains the same regardless of whether that onlooker was in Kampala or Kathmandu, Taipei or Tallinn, human beings, all 8 billion of them, are everywhere, spreading their influence (and…

View On WordPress