 isu represent not the outward appearance of things but their inward significance expressing the feelings and emotions into a physical realm where every eye and ear can interpret it into reality, a reality through which an artist will inspire, entertain and give hope to the hopeless. Today we were having some wonderful conversation with one Nicole Muteu about her passion for art, about her passion for the community and what I can say is that she's very hardworking, trustworthy, she's a template and she embraces professionalism in all that she does and she really likes empowering the community in terms of helping artists to come out in large numbers to articulate their visions that we have and passion for the society. We grew up with her from our church, we were in AC Plainsview doing our Sunday school and then later on we changed churches, went to Mavuno church whereby now she's serving in the present worship team. Yes and we still continue our friendship. Just like any other African child, Nicole has got a story to tell about her childhood and remembers what it was like growing up in her hood. It's an interesting thing in terms of being part of the child and from there in terms of my background I came from a loving background, caring and supportive and I remember when I was younger I would sing in the stairs, that's what my sister she calls me and it was just an integral part of what I wanted to do because I remember there's a point where my dad, my parents took me to you know to see someone and they asked me what I wanted to be and it was like I want to be an artist or a zisha and that was the first thing that I wanted to be. I grew up from a place of like I said love and all that however there were hardships and the moments of course certain things I lacked but to be honest my parents were there for me in each and every step even when certain situations in terms of money lacked there was that sense of support from my mum, from my dad, going to school of course there are certain things that I didn't I didn't have like you know those extra luxurious things when kids had go for games all those things extra like you know instruments and all that having those you know instruments playing some kids were they had that capability or that you know driver being taken out on Saturdays or Sundays you know you went to Burumpa you know those things they're just they're small things but those are things that um I don't experience some of them at some time but as I grew older and who was able to experience I came from South Sea and then moved to South B so most of my childhood is in South B I went to primary school I went to our lady queen of East End that experience Katharik you know Katharik and um I really loved though I really loved Katharik for some reason just for dancing and and vibes I really loved that and it was an experience of course we all from different backgrounds and my my I think I can say my aunts have really my aunties really have influenced me you know taking me to different places swimming so experiencing that and then going to school and sharing it you know some people didn't like it kids didn't like it so I kind of did get bullied I did get bullied in my childhood and I remember it was not funny but I really um I really took that when we had but I begone for my sister who you know went to school and was like no stop bullying my sister so that memory of support enough is what I'm talking about as I grew older I didn't pass years really quiet I was really shy in high school as well shy and then my sister and my brother was like you know I think this would be a great opportunity to see me in church so I was like okay cool see me in church I went to church in San that's where I started actually from church sharing my gifts with you know with some communities I said um and it was a great opportunity at AIC please see that's where I started from when I was just singing and yeah from there I was like yeah I need more like I need um to give more rather than just church but also stuff out there so from there as a bit shy you don't know not like how I should people accept me so I went through a sense of self esteem issues um going through that sense but um as I grew older I get saved from yeah as I grew older I dated someone who really influenced um when I'm today in terms of music um gave me that sense of platform so we created a friend of our mutual friend of ours called Beatty she really impacted me and she was like you know what I know that you guys can be able to do a gig in two weeks so figuring out and doing a gig within two weeks and it's Christmas period in 2019 so yeah we did the gig people loved it and it was Christmas and you know everyone was in my channel so from there I was like oh wow we can do it again continue with um continuing with confessions um on February talking about love experiences which many people don't talk about uh the love had conversations and there after um you know COVID hit I was like you know what let's uh support uh children and you know people in the streets so I came up with uh Instagram live created a poster with my sister and shared with the one um and also contributed to children and also the people who are living in the streets and they don't have money so those are the things that I did and then thereafter um this year I was able to was able to share with you know the world with serving the community through music talking about Afro-Sahili fusion you know and you know reminding people about Africa as well we're all Africans and I know we love modern things but also talking about it and just appreciating the writers who who wrote uh Swahili you know things and it was a great opportunity and yeah that's where my musical background comes from starting small but sure of her end goal this song bad found her joy in community service I was working um Monday to Friday working then during uh Saturday and Sunday church people are isolated you know and I was like I need to do this I need to create something just to challenge uh people um in terms of you know giving people or reminding people that in as much as this is happening we need to do something for the people in the streets because you know many people in the streets who are affected as well churches who are affected businesses who are affected as well so I was able to create I was just like you know what this is the feeling that I have in my heart and I was able to tell my sister and created even in workouts like singing and spamming I would sing and just write songs and I was like you know what this is what I want to do and going back uh working on Monday in the evening now strategizing what I need to do um to create that platform so my sister helped me with the graphics and I shared with her photo that I love and created that platform and after doing that I was able my family was what the ones who helped me and supported me with the money contributed that money and bought our foodstuffs and then I was able to take it off and give it and supply to the people in the streets through those experiences you learn that I would have gone in the route of you know partnership with a company that you know knows those people it would have been better as compared to just you know buying and giving to those people who went out because you don't know each one of them may have the strategy of you know this is a business that I'm doing you know let all of us like I felt like it was a business it was kind of like a business no one told me but I felt like okay why is my heart telling me this is wrong like I'm doing it for good reason but in the result it's different these are like all the caretaker I told you on he's the one cultured he has who helped me he was like the this person that I've seen he helped me distribute and then um thereafter I was like seeing just people who were really struggling was like distributing the foodstuffs I bought I went and I bought and I you know I took a photo of I mentioned that everything was you know authentic and and even people were able to know that this I didn't eat the money you know sometimes people want to eat money so I took some money I took the money out went to the naivas and those foodstuffs just oil umga and all that that's all I did and thereafter just distributed to any of my just so it was very interesting I've never done that before it was my first time and just you know having something at least to give someone although there are some who are fighting at that time they're fighting for you know it's mine but it was a great experience just it's not about me it was just being able to help someone and be like you know what you need I know that I need food you know to take you through the day because I know this situation called COVID has changed everyone's life so I was like you know what this is it it didn't change anything in my heart to be honest with you it didn't take like the person who I am but it just made me know that whatever I have can impact I felt the urge to really support people in the streets they say that we know and edge more vividly through its music than through its historians and that's why itau has taken it to her heart to ensure every artist is giving a platform to tell their story as part of our culture and history I did take someone at that time and we had this dream of you know music and he's a poet I must say so coming back looking back at artists who are doing poetry and music called flowage only in America the artists who collaborate and do poetry and music so it's not in Europe, in Kenya so you've not heard of artists you only hear like of Saudi soul we don't know points you've not heard of points and yes there are points but um bringing it together with music so we just were like oh I do music but at that time I was like you know what I don't believe you would like to I you know I had I was just I was just interested I was like I don't think you'd like it well but you let me just give it a go so with that uh with your friend you know what I know you guys can can make it I know you guys can do it and I know it is a very talented so let's do this my friend called me he was like you know what I give you a challenge to do it into us so both of us were like okay we've never done it before so the chat was to support the government and the chat supported us and we not just for the chairs it was a blessing so it was really beautiful the event happened people showed up like support people just supported and it was amazing um and we realized from there we want to continue doing doing music but this time having a reason or why we want to do it and we came up with the backyard and just music because it was acoustic it was way of us you know sharing our gifts and acoustic is more to be honest it's more cheaper so it's a safer way to express yourself um in a different way rather than having a lot of sound you know drums and all that so from there we decided to do confessions in february before um covid hit so we did um we did confessions of love talking about different our experience of love really this and then it was just impactful like people going home with something other than just music but just conversations about love using my music to serve you know it did instagram live and from there on 2021 was when I was like okay I think we need to go back but still people and you know restaurants were not opening yet so it took a hit on restaurants as well um so we waited till 2022 I was like I need to get out I need to share um you know and impact at first I wanted to do feb like love but it changed too much we were able to do um celebrating women you know we normally talk about love but we never talk about so much about celebrating women so we did an event of that type and then thereafter I I wanted to do more of it so we did swahili fusion and I realized like I don't have like a genre but there are things which I really love about music which is R&B soul so I'm more getting into R&B soul jazz um yeah we want people to come and just you know different type of music not just mainstream okay I not fans to any mainstream artist but these are just just stories stories that we all have writings some of them we wrote some of them some of them were just songs that really we resonated with and we wanted people to also resonate with because we all remember that life life can have challenges it doesn't end there Nicole has come to understand that by coming together empowering each other and creating a platform where artists can interact and express themselves will surely go a long way in fighting poverty that leads to street families and crime I was able to do confessions and confessions there were artists who share the story about love and it was a great experience many artists came share their songs and we were praying for it was amazing and that was the reason why we started that um beside kicking um and doing events is just to allow people to share their stories and there's so many platforms sometimes it's so hard the reason being why we wanted to support artists is because we tried to look for you know look for ways in places and spaces and sometimes it's too either it's clicks it's too hard to penetrate you you're given a you're given a timeline of you know um my other artists you know or you're put out you know so from there on I was like you know what the both of us were like you know what we would love to celebrate and you know help artists in the best way you may not have the finances but we would love to help people just to share their stories their stories through songs through you know through songs and just though it was mainly for you know songs and you know not other forms like you know dancing writing and maybe perhaps I need to explore that right now I'm trying to figure out for myself what I need right now you can't just bring people unless you have already within yourself figured out for yourself how you're going to bring them along but I think it would be nice to bring artists who almost you reason it you know in terms of why you want to go in terms of collaboration sometimes you may want to collaborate with an artist and they don't want to collaborate you know it's a way to support not just for myself but it going from one person to another person everyone has a different mindset so it's bringing it from self to to another person having artists have that mindset of sharing and caring about not just self but I think that's where I would want to collaborate and bring them along not just for myself but to bring legacy music is just not something we're given for ourselves it's meant to be shared and then shared from one generation to the other and I think that's where currently I feel like we are lacking as artists is supporting one another we're all winning in different ways and I think even through number one and number two benefiting I feel like even five and six wants to benefit as well and that's the challenge that I face with artists I feel like what's lacking is mentorship a lot mentorship and helping and supporting those are the two things it's just not on social media you just see people support on social media but when the rubber meets the road it's a different story I can't stop but wonder why and where her motivation comes from those encouragements when things get hard has pushed me to be here even as you're interviewing me it's it's been a journey and it's it's been now a year for me and I feel like still I'm scratching the surface you know you never get tired of selling once and you go to different directions because through jewelry I was able to meet with different designers in movement because I was able to meet people in church who love jewelry people love jewelry in church mostly and you get to see their faces get to see their faces and you're like wow this is this is what I want a friend of mine saw what I did with my business online and suggested to me to to uh to do social media for one of our friends who is in our Bible study from then one of his workmates that he was working with build so I was able to come in and assist with the social media I want people to feel good women especially I feel like the world has been really cruel to us and sometimes sometimes wearing on a basis it's just not for the opposite sex it's for yourself just make yourself feel good and that's the reason why I did it and I made a slogan called bold meets brave sometimes I told not to speak enough and I feel like we need to be bold with the jewelry wear it do you know you know make yourself out there you know regardless of what people say about you you just keep on being bold and being brave her interactions with street families left her with many questions that she soon or later needed answers we went to Gidongori to experience and to know what exactly it is that we know that I'm working I was able to you know to just hear about what they are doing in terms of awareness and institutional care you know not taking a child to institutional but to family care after they've noticed that there is a problem with that from that experience and just seeing people who love children and want to make a difference and impact children so that for me inspired me and I was like wow people out here really they really look care about kids knowing that she couldn't have achieved this on her own itawe expresses her benevolent community God has really helped me as a we are through I'm not I've just said it's just I've just scratched this obviously so much about the things that I've experienced in my life and I and I can't just say it in this medium because I believe that there's so much more slowly by slowly I'm processing and healing being in community reminded of who you are as a person as an individual and my family they've done it so well for me because as I'm talking to you're going through challenges and they have really held me down and you know helped me in a different way and laughed on me and my friends you know my friends having those banter conversations those things really has impacted me to open up and speak up and not close myself because sometimes they say of course women we talk but sometimes we don't at times we don't share with people and sometimes there are certain experiences you don't want to open up the wounds of you know your past but having those conversations really help at least starting slowly by slowly starting with a friend and trusting because sometimes it can be so hard to trust people but it just starts from someone who you believe you can trust I would like to thank God for bringing me here I'm through my friend Bob I thank you Bob for loving on me and you know giving me that challenge what I can advice everyone to do especially those who are in art entertainment is not to give up in any challenge that you have just be focused come out the best and uh trust in God and just just have confidence in what you do and know that you're gonna go for I thank God for the Bukunkus I thank God for my family um my family you know just being able to love on me and my relatives you know my aunties and my uncle supporting me in one way or another I'm really grateful to them