Odile Gakire Katese
Writer, Performer, co-creator

Kiki Katese is a Rwandan playwright, director and cultural entrepreneur and the founding director of the Woman Cultural Centre, Rwanda. As she herself describes it, she is a professional dreamer and a woman of firsts. Among her many accomplishments in Rwanda are the first women’s drumming company (Ingoma Nshya), the first professional contemporary dance company (Amizero Dance Kompagnie), the first international festival (Festival Arts Azimuts), the first national festival in Rwanda (Rwanda Drum Festival), the first coop ice cream store (Inzozi Nziza – Sweet Dreams) and the first recipient of the League of Professional Theatre Women’s Rosamond Gilder/Martha Coigney International Award. She is a fellow of Salzburg Global Seminar, and is also one of the recipients of the 2012 Carnegie Common Ground Awards, which honour outstanding accomplishments in conflict resolution, negotiation, community building, and peacebuilding around the world. Kiki has a vision that is a long one, of how art will heal and inspire her country.