On July 25th, Imba Means Sing, filmmaker Erin Bernhardt’s indie filmmaking debut, is making it’s NYC premiere at Symphony Space on Broadway. Imba Means Sing, an award-winning documentary about the GRAMMY-nominated  African Children’s Choir, focuses in on three children from Uganda who are given immense opportunity, but also immense responsibility, as they travel around the world performing. I vividly remember the African Children’s Choir visiting my high school. They sang and danced and pure joy radiated off of the stage. I was engrossed in the moment, but I couldn’t completely ignore the fact that these children were putting on a show. In exchange for performing, the children in the choir are given access to education, a stable living environment, and a future that would have likely been unattainable otherwise. It’s a complicated transaction, an opportunity with a real cost, that makes you wonder to what lengths a person will go to ensure a better future for herself and those she loves.

Now in existence for over 30 years, the African Children’s Choir has provided hundreds of Ugandan children with the opportunity travel around the world and pursue their dreams. Bernhardt captures this in close detail, chronicling what it’s like to be a member of this prestigious and hardworking group who leave home for months at a time all in the hope of building a better future for themselves and their families.

I am very excited to be on the host committee for the premiere and hope that many of my NYC based readers will join me at Symphony Space on Broadway for the family-friendly screening. There will also be a guest performance by 1 World Chorus, a group of NYC youth who have performed on PBS, FOX, and with Bob Marley, and a Q&A with filmmaker Erin Bernhardt. So please join me in celebrating Imba Means Sing‘s NYC premiere and come see a film that is challenging, inspiring, and thought-provoking!