Sultry. Surreal. Immersive. Pola’s digital aura is like a smoking six-shooter, blasting away the gloom and doom in the pixelated shadows.

Her online persona is like a bewitching Venusian siren song, with a beauty so entrancing, it’s as mysterious as the night sky. We have our chat on Google Meet behind dark screens, her words creating a collage of her life and times as an artist and bonafide outlaw in the metaverse.

Well, I reckon my first encounter with her work as a contemporary artist was in the late 2010s when she emerged as a model on Instagram, interpolating images of the self with styles of popular artwork, creative salutes to rebel-driven alternative culture and other distinctly African visual themes. She saddled up for her creative exploration a little over ten years ago in traditional art where she drew, painted using watercolors and oil pastels, and even carved wooden sculptures.

Names are things. Living things. Philosophically, socially, historically, culturally, and more. This celebrated act wears his like a creed. If there is ever an inquiry into how many Kenyan musicians bear names that embody who they are, or that they embody, a list without Charisma’s name is a travesty.

On asking him if the high school nickname predestined who he is; if he has been charismatic way before the name; or whether it is something he is striving to fully explore; the reflective singer, who asserts he was the best dressed at the recently concluded YM Life Rodeo event says, “It’s an innate thing for me. I think it’s always been there. My character, my personality, even when I’m not around the stage or around the music scene, I think it’s just something that’s in me. However, being in the scene now as Charisma has made me try to tap even to other levels of it.”

Our lengthy Google chat ends up being a therapy session. In jest, Charisma notes how he unpacks a few things about himself, stumbling upon personal epiphanies. From starting by me remarking how tired he sounds – he informs me that people tell him that any time of the day – to having a fun, honest, and introspective conversation, we reflect on how the lone ranger got to the top. How he separated himself from the pack. Saddling up and charting his way to conquest.

And the ride is just getting started.

It’s a crowded Tuesday evening at Unseen Nairobi, where clinks and chatter flutter over the rooftop balcony.

The evening sky over Kilimani darkens, and a tall, maybe six-foot (or a lanky 5ft11in) man wearing dark shades, his dreads hung like a string curtain over his face, smiles and stands up to meet me. An air of mystery surrounds him, and I find myself transported to the center of a saloon, chatting with the most wanted outlaw across the seven seas.

The man drinks a beer in a green bottle and watches as I pull my notebook out of my tote. He sees my novel, and we start talking about the kind of stories we truly enjoy. “I think I enjoy any good story. Romance or whatever, I wouldn’t judge. The only thing I wouldn’t like is a horror movie. I don’t watch horror movies. I would imagine I wouldn’t be able to read a book where people are dying senselessly.”