Idk as annoying as the speech problems can be, I find it kinda fun to rp with. Theres ways to work around it and use it to add flavor. Like one of my kenku pcs learned her phrases from a small british-esc woman who mentored her, so in doing so the womans voice is the voice that the kenku speaks with. The kenku learned cusswords and phrases from a burly man at a bar, so when playing her I get to fluxuate from a soft british voice to a deep masculine one depending on the phrase. It's fun, humerous and can add alot of character.

It doesn't have to be a burden.  By the time a kenku is an adult they would have heard millions of spoken words and should have no problem communicating. Sure it sounds different, but I imagine orcs have a lisp sp or all evens out.

I'm playing a Kenku in a new campaign, and I'm having a lot of fun so far with using stolen phrases, throwing character's words back at them etc. I really enjoy the way the Kenku speech limitations is interpreted in Critical Role season 2 with Kiri, which is a sort of free interpretation (using little birdlike sounds in between phrases, sometimes slightly altering phrases etc.) that nevertheless doesn't shy away from the limitations, but uses them to create a character that interacts with others in a unique way. That, plus throwing descriptions of imitated sounds and what they mean in, like the book suggests, is how I'm doing it so far. Sometimes I also throw in little quote-like phrases in different voices, but mostly I like sticking to using phrases found in game, it makes for lots of opportunities for callbacks and reincorporation of stuff the other players have done.

Regarding the "complete lack of creativity" debate - I think it might have gotten a little out of hand here guys? Like, it's not even a listed race feature, it's just lore. Me and my group's take is that Volo is not always a completely trustworthy source, and might have some sort of racist ideas about some of the beings he's writing about. From an outside perspective, the Kenku's intense focus on mimicry and imitation might make them seem like simpletons, but I find it hard to justify a hardline stance on absolutely no creative thinking based not only on the things Kenku do according to Volo himself that TransformerDDS and others have mentioned, but also the fact that they have no negative Intelligence modifier, like Orcs do. In our group, we've decided on a sort of revisionist take on this, where the Kenku are generally seen to be incapable of independent/creative thought by the world at large, but in reality their minds just work differently, finding joy in repetition and imitation, patterns etc. and having trouble, to a greater or lesser extent, thinking conceptually and creatively in ways that are recognizable to non-Kenku. I think of this similarly to how being on the autism spectrum doesn't mean I can't empathize or communicate with others, but that my mind does empathy in a different way than a neurotypical person's. And for some people with ASD, this difference is big enough that bridging the gap becomes really challenging. I don't know if that comparison makes sense to anyone else.

TL;DR: I think the Kenku are super interesting in the limitations they offer, precisely because they allow for great creativity as a player, and I'm enjoying my charlatan Trickery cleric a whole bunch. If your group or DM are being sticks in the mud about creativity don't do it, but for our group it's been a lot of fun so far!

Quote from JoDalsgaard>>

... Volo is not always a completely trustworthy source, and might have some sort of racist ideas about some of the beings he's writing about. From an outside perspective, the Kenku's intense focus on mimicry and imitation might make them seem like simpletons, but I find it hard to justify a hardline stance on absolutely no creative thinking based not only on the things Kenku do according to Volo himself that TransformerDDS and others have mentioned, but also the fact that they have no negative Intelligence modifier, like Orcs do. In our group, we've decided on a sort of revisionist take on this, where the Kenku are generally seen to be incapable of independent/creative thought by the world at large, but in reality their minds just work differently, finding joy in repetition and imitation, patterns etc. and having trouble, to a greater or lesser extent, thinking conceptually and creatively in ways that are recognizable to non-Kenku. I think of this similarly to how being on the autism spectrum doesn't mean I can't empathize or communicate with others, but that my mind does empathy in a different way than a neurotypical person's. And for some people with ASD, this difference is big enough that bridging the gap becomes really challenging...

   Exactly this! Volo's guide was written from Volo's perspective and isn't absolute. I mean how would he know about Kenku lore when they only repeat what they heard? It would be impossible, so more likely he got information from others and filled in the gaps which is why so much is left unknown in 5e you have to go back to previous editions to get more information on them.

Then the statement regarding a different way of thinking is perfect. Being an avid supporter of neurodiversity I interpreted their "lack of creativity" more as being a form of aphantasia which if you look up is not having the minds eye to read characters in a book and visualizing how they look in your head and what if this was like this that they can't visualize say a crest for a shield but they can look at a crest on a shield and be able to but the image on say a cloak because that image stays in their mind but new things don't. I mean that is my approach but doesn't have to be the only one.

I know what it's like having autism and knowing I live in a world where I could miss a social cue and hurt someone by accident, maybe a Kenku would have similar speech anxiety or maybe they would be unaware. Whatever the case treat Kenkus like a player race and not a mindless minion... If you don't, DMs, we'll all just roll up Aarakocra's ;)

According to lore Kenku "lack the talent to improvise or alter a plan"

and Cannot speak normally only mimic.

Its meant to be a challenge to rp, a unique experience. Playing an ex-spelljammer pirate Kenku Bloodhunter in a westmarches, very fun. 

I know this was posted 2 years ago, but hope you played it in the most lore friendly way if playing a Forgotten Realms Campaign.

I once played a kenku, and it was fun. Not being able to talk was hard though.

Also, I flavored the flightless curse like my kenku literally could not fly by any means. For example, I tried to ride a flying mount, and it couldn't get off the ground, I went onto an airship, and it crashed.

It was fun, but playing a kenku could seem limiting to some even without overdoing the curse.

Quote from CorvusTHEdruid >>

I once played a kenku, and it was fun. Not being able to talk was hard though.

Also, I flavored the flightless curse like my kenku literally could not fly by any means. For example, I tried to ride a flying mount, and it couldn't get off the ground, I went onto an airship, and it crashed.

It was fun, but playing a kenku could seem limiting to some even without overdoing the curse.

 Ooh that's really interesting... I've never thought of the Kenku curse being that deep.... I actually played as a Kenku with a Broom of Flying for a while, but I think it would have been more interesting if I had played with the idea that it just didn't work for him.

I just made a Kenku character and the way that my group is going to communicate is through Deep Speech, but he does know how to write in Common as well. I'll try my best to actually do it justice though, and mimic some things other characters have said in the past.

I have a Swashbuckler Rogue Kenku who in our travels has become a pirate dreadlord with a penchant for whisky and magic guns, but he still pulls the shiny switches without any forethought, pecks out the eyes of the dead and does other crow-type things (Often gets distracted during conversation and walks off). We have also decided to go away from short phrase mimicry for the sake of dialogue, and its worked really well. 

Overall, one of the best characters I've had the chance to play. 

I think a lot of people limit themselves by imitating things they heard in game.

I'm pretty good at vocal sound effects and accents, and I have a good memory for quotes, so combining them with the Bumblebee transformers thing there was a lot of fun to be had. But I didn't limit myself, I just use the voices of his closest friends if I was at a loss.

gaijin goomba plays greckles. He's a true ninja.

I've been playing as a kenku warlock. Basically, the idea is that my pact mate is constantly speaking to me so I have a pretty large vocabulary at any given time. The campaign is taking place where there are VERY few kenku so the party isn't suspicious.  But I've also been working pretty close to the dm who essentially is playing my patron. He doesn't speak to me constantly but more gives me limitations and I work around that. 

My friend had a fun warlock kenku who used his familiar gazer to mimic people like himself and then we had two characters repronouncing things. Very funny but annoying at the same time, if you wanted to go a funny route I would 100% recommend something like this. (I myself have not played a kenku)

my brother played a kenku once in a one-shot we did (I did too on a separate occasion but the story's a lot less interesting). His character concept was that he was a bard, and all he would do is cast vicious mockery and repeat back the words of something they had said, causing them to cry/feel sad.

He called himself an antitherapist.

it is to this date my favorite character in history

So, I've played a Kenku for a single session. I had a list of phrases that I could speak and I stuck to it. I'd add phrases to it if I heard someone speak them in the game, but that was it. Honestly, didn't annoy the rest of my party as much as I was expecting. Some of them were new, so they didn't really get what I was doing, but it didn't help nor hurt any part of the game. If you think only being able to speak by parroting phrases is a fun way to play, then go for it, my friend!

I'm playing a Kenku right now. Here's my advice based on my current experience:

Make notes of anything you think might be useful or entertaining that's said during your campaign.

Make a list of phrases that you think make sense and can cover specific scenarios.

For any other situation where you want to contribute just make something up. It's not beyond the realm of disbelief that in the time prior to the start of the campaign (ie. the beginning of this leg of the character's life story) they haven't heard any countless number of voices, phrases, sentences, and sayings.

Don't limit yourself specifically to a small list of pre-concocted options or, even worse, only what you've heard since the start of the campaign as it risks being far less fun to play.

They betrayed a god, as I understand it. This god took their wings, their ability to speak and their creativity. 

I just started a thread about the Kenku character I'm playing in an on-going campaign with the intent of outlining how I'm approaching some of the things I've read about what makes it difficult. Personally, I'm having a lot of fun and haven't found it to be a struggle at all. I'm anticipating the curse upon creativity will probably affect some situations, but I'm planning to handle that by not taking point at those moments and then by going for insight and perception checks to try and get info from those. Another thing I'll mention here that I didn't in my thread is that one approach that can further make mimicry easier to play is trying to communicate without getting into huge pieces of dialogue on your end -I think this is what can lead to bogging down the game and annoying your party. Opt for trying to communicate as specifically as possible. Gestures and expressions work well too. IE I rolled high on a perception check and saw a monster lurking ahead on a cavern ceiling and got some additional info specific to that monster the rest of the party hadn't seen yet. I pointed up and said, "be careful." Everyone else did their checks and then got the same or most of the same info. I also said this in my thread but Kenku players should remember Mimicry is an in-game ability too, and if you play it right and make sure you gave some attention to Deception in your skill picks, it has the potential to do some really interesting things especially if you're playing true to chaotic neutral.        

I play a kenku. But my group talks a lot and my character is kind old so basically I just say what I want to and rp that I'm using a bunch of different voices.
I am also playing a kenku who was brought up in a busy city but then lived with dwarves so every other word is in a different voice. Except when I swear. Then it's all dwarvish and the same voice.

I have a kenku for my first character and i have got some work arounds for the Rules and it's a Blast it's also the dm and my stupid stats 20charisma :P