One of the most special moment was the opening night of the International VSA Festival, held at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on June 6. VSA, the international organization on arts and disability, was founded more than 35 years ago by Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith to provide arts and education opportunities for people with disabilities and increase access to the arts for all.

First, Prudence performed a rousing rendition of ‘Amazing Grace’:

Prudence also sang a traditional African song ‘Jike’l Emangweni’ (Dancing Along), accompanied by musicians Dominic Shodekeh Talifero and Jason Armstrong Baker.

Finally, Prudence delivered a rousing rendition of ‘Ipi Ntombi’ (Where’s My Lady).

For more information, visit www.vsarts.org

Listen to the very interesting interview right here:

The documentary film, Music by Prudence, tells the story of a young Zimbabwean woman born with a congenital disease that twisted her body and led to the amputation of her legs. Prudence Mabhena was abandoned by her family and shunned by her community, yet through music, she found a way to share her story and advocate for change. In February, the film won an Oscar and Prudence became a national hero.

It would be nice to say that Prudence’s story provides a human face for persons with disabilities, a majority of whom – over 80 percent of the world’s 680 million or more persons with disabilities – live in developing nations. Certainly, the challenges faced by Prudence — stigma and discrimination, abandonment, barriers to education and health care – are often faced by persons with disabilities worldwide and are made even more difficult in impoverished countries that lack infrastructure and many services. Unfortunately her triumph is uncommon.

Has much changed in the daily lives of persons with disabilities since this treaty was adopted at the United Nations? Sadly, I don’t think so.

Today we celebrate the second anniversary of a landmark in international law, the entry into force of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). But here is the real question: is there something to celebrate? Has much changed in the daily lives of persons with disabilities since this treaty was adopted at the United Nations? Sadly, I don’t think so. So far the treaty has been signed by 145 countries and ratified by 85, which means it’s now binding international law for nearly half the states of the world. The Convention has an ambitious aim of promoting the equal human rights and dignity of all persons with disabilities.

I emphasize the world “all” because an important power of the convention is its recognition of the broad community of individuals with disabilities – including those with physical, mental, sensory (such as individuals who are deaf, blind or deafblind) and intellectual disabilities, regardless of whether they live in rich countries or poorer countries, or are members of indigenous groups and other minorities. The treaty also applies to little people (or persons of short stature), albinos and people who are hard of hearing.

However ratifying the treaty and enacting strong national laws and policies is only the start to achieving equality. Ending discrimination involves breaking down the barriers that people with disabilities face on a daily basis. For example, despite the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), when Prudence was in New York City following the Oscars, she wasn’t able to eat at many restaurants because they weren’t accessible to persons with disabilities. Many people assume that making a place accessible for persons with disabilities would cost a lot and affect few, but accessible restaurants and other places of business are also helpful to the elderly and to those temporarily disabled by injury. More fundamentally, the systematic exclusion of any group from public places is simply wrong. In the same way that racially segregated lunch counters perpetuated social isolation, stigmatization and discrimination, excluding individuals with disabilities from the places where we eat, shop, and interact, results in the invisibility of those with disabilities, ignorance of their experiences, and, inevitably, bias.

In order for us to change the way we think about disability, we need to listen to the voices and perspectives of persons with disabilities themselves. Voices like that of Prudence.

In Zimbabwe, people with disabilities are considered cursed, and often sent to traditional healers who poke and prod their bodies in an effort to “cure” them of their disabilities. They are often marginalized and neglected. Prudence’s magical voice allowed her to break through her isolation and exclusion. She was not alone in this struggle, overcoming this together with the other members of her band Liyana: Tapiwa Nyengera (keyboards; spina bifida); Energy Maburutse (marimba; osteogenesis imperfecta); Honest Mupatse (tenor marimba, hemophilia): Marvelous Mbulo (singer, MS); Vusani Vuma (bass marimba, hearing-impaired); Goodwell Nzou (drums, amputee); and Farai Mabhande (keyboards, arthrogryposis). The music of Liyana sends a clear message of how the lives of us all – abled and disabled – are enriched when the barriers that separate us are broken down.

Ultimately, change must come in society itself, in every-day interactions with people with disabilities and in recognizing that we are all human beings who deserve respect and dignity. In order for us to change the way we think about disability, we need to listen to the voices and perspectives of persons with disabilities themselves. Voices like that of Prudence.

Source: The Huffington Post

As Roger Ross Williams says, laughing about it in hindsight, he holds two records in the annals of the Academy Awards. One – and this is the important one – is that he’s the first African American to win a directing Oscar, for his documentary short, “Music by Prudence.”
And two, he is the first Oscar winner to be Kanyed when he stepped up to accept his award.

Sure, there have been random Oscar-speech hijackings over the academy’s 82 years – but they were before the verb to Kanye entered the lexicon, inspired by Kanye West’s obnoxious interruption of Taylor Swift’s Video Music Awards acceptance spiel last fall.

“Yeah, I’m solidified in the academy archive,” says the Easton, Pa., native, on the road last week with the subject of his inspirational doc, Prudence Mabhena, a wheelchair-bound 21-year-old from Zimbabwe with a voice like angels. “Music by Prudence,” which Williams filmed in Zimbabwe over 2008 and early 2009, premieres Wednesday at 8 p.m. on HBO2.

The Oscar-night Kanye incident – as viewers who weren’t bored silly by the otherwise somnambulistic ceremony may recall – happened when Williams, about to go into his thank-you litany, was upstaged by Elinor Burkett, his erstwhile producer.

The two had had “bad differences” over the project, as Burkett has since confirmed. A lawsuit was filed. An out-of-court settlement was struck, and Burkett was removed from the film.

But her name was still on the Oscar nomination credits, and so Burkett was there at the March 7 Hollywood ceremonies, televised the world over. She claims that she introduced Mabhena to Williams, and that without Burkett’s involvement, there would be no film. Williams acknowledges that she told him about Mabhena and her band, but says that he raised the funds, and made the inquiries and contacts that got the project rolling.

“Pretty quickly, even standing there, I realized that this was an interesting moment. This is like a moment you don’t normally see. . . . At the end, I got to point out Prudence, and that was great.”

“So unfortunately, the fact that I was the first African American to be recognized with a directing Academy Award got overshadowed,” says Williams, 37, on the phone in a van being driven (not by him) from Bethlehem to Philadelphia recently. “It didn’t get overshadowed in the African American press, but it did on E!. . .”

That said, Williams acknowledges that the usurpation on live TV brought more attention to the film – and to Mabhena, seated amid the betuxed and begowned movie-biz crowd – than it would have if his speech had gone off undisturbed. And, Williams says, Burkett’s muscling in didn’t really ruin the moment for him.

“I was certainly taken aback,” he says. “But I pretty quickly, even standing there, realized that this was an interesting moment. This is like a moment you don’t normally see. . . . At the end, I got to point out Prudence, and that was great.

“But my speech was about Prudence, and that finally the world could see the Prudence that I fell in love with, the Prudence whose spirit I was inspired by, and finally I was getting this platform to say, ‘Now you guys get to know this incredible woman.’

“That didn’t work out as planned.”

As Williams’ film describes, Mabhena has arthrogryphosis, a rare congenital disorder that deforms the joints of the body. Shuttled between family members and abused by her stepmother, Mabhena, since age 9, has lived at the King George VI School and Center for Children With Disabilities in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.

“Music by Prudence” chronicles Mabhena’s life story, her childhood despair, and her musical awakening. She and several of her classmates, also with disabilities, formed a band, Liyana. She now teaches at her old school, and is using her newfound fame to become a disability rights advocate and activist.

On her current visit to the States, she and Williams are presenting the 32-minute film, followed by Q&A sessions and usually an impromptu number or two from Mabhena. (“Everywhere we go, every screening we do, someone always asks Prudence to sing,” Williams says.)

Williams, whose family is descended from the Gullah, West African slaves brought to the Carolinas to grow rice, lives in New York. He’s been working in documentaries and television for the last 15 years, but “Music by Prudence” is his first independent project. He attended Northampton Community College just outside Bethlehem, Pa., and then New York University. A journalism major, he got the movie bug when he was assigned to cover the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, in the mid-’90s.

“So unfortunately, the fact that I was the first African American to be recognized with a directing Academy Award got overshadowed.”

“I was so impressed by the documentary filmmakers who had taken such great risks to follow their passion,” he recalls. “The amount of energy it takes to get films made, I was so impressed by that, and by the art of filmmaking. . . . I just thought this is what I want to do. Some day I’m going to be there. I’m going to be the filmmaker.”

A decade and a half later, Williams has an Oscar – and a place in the academy’s record books.

“Not bad,” he acknowledges. “Not bad.”

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer

“Music by Prudence,” which on the surface looks to be the story of a plucky African girl who loves to sing, turns out to be all that and a lot more.

If you love “Glee” and you especially love Kevin McHale’s Artie Abrams character, the one in the wheelchair, Prudence Mabhena is in several ways a real-life Artie.

She shares his exuberance, his love of music and his dedication to performing it well without bowing to physical limitations.

It’s only in all the other areas that Prudence’s real life differs from Artie’s life. Prudence has climbed mountains to get where she is today, and she will have to climb even higher mountains to get where she wants to go.

Spirited as Artie may be, his story on “Glee” is unlikely ever to match the power of Prudence’s.

Director and producer Roger Ross Williams won an Academy Award for “Music by Prudence,” which runs just 33 minutes but has the heart and substance of a film three times as long.

He mostly shoots Prudence in closeups, in which she looks strikingly beautiful. He fills the film with music of the band Liyana, in which she sings the lead vocals with a strong, melodic voice that would fit easily into popular music anywhere.

It’s only when he pulls the camera back that we understand about the mountains. Prudence was born with arthrogryposis, a cruel disorder that stunts some bones and makes other bend.

Prudence effectively has no legs, and her arms are so twisted that she must curl her hands almost into a circle to grip a pen and write. Her spine is permanently bent forward.

It’s been easier to overcome all of that, though, than to endure the human indifference.
Disabled babies in her native country, Zimbabwe, are often though to be the product of witchcraft, so they may be neglected or abandoned.

Prudence’s father left after she was born, her mother when Prudence was 2. She was brought up by her grandmother, who sang to her, until she was 7, when she was sent to her father and his new wife.

The new wife alternately abused and neglected Prudence, who recalls that many days she would drag and claw herself out into the yard and lie all day under a mango tree.

At 9, she was sent to King George VI School, where it turned out all that singing by her grandmother had nurtured a natural gift. She joined the choir, which led to Liyana.

Now 21, she teaches music and dance at the school and writes music for Liyana. The band members’ dream is to make a living – and, yes, become famous – through their music.

Spirited as Artie may be, his story on “Glee” is unlikely ever to match the power of Prudence’s.

Source: New York Daily News

The Florida Film Festival, which is taking place from April 9 till 18 this year, has become one of the most respected regional film events in the country, developing a reputation for its Southern hospitality amongst visiting artists, special guests, and the local community.

Zimbabwe’s showbiz, arts, and lifestyle magazine Zimbo Jam reports about Prudence’s trip to Zimbabwe’s capital Harare, where a whole convoy drove her and the other band members of Liyana to see Zimbabwe’s officials, with Vice President Nkomo as the keynote speaker, honoring the Oscar win.

Quoting Prudence: “This is not my Oscar alone, but it’s for Liyana, it’s for King George VI, it’s for Zimbabwe, it’s for Africa… Yes we can, this is what Obama said and now this is what Zimbabwe is saying. Yes we can.”

Read the inspiring article here.

The Zimbabwe Times reports about the arrival of Prudence Mabhena, star of Music by Prudence, back in Zimbabwe:

BULAWAYO – Oscar winning disabled musician Prudence Mabhena brought Bulawayo to a standstill when she arrived from the United States on Monday afternoon.

Hundreds of residents, who included politicians from both the MDC and Zanu-PF and the Mayor Patrick Thaba-Moyo, thronged Bulawayo Airport to welcome Mabhena, who landed at 1pm aboard a South Africa Airways flight.

Zimbabwe enjoyed its first taste of Oscar glory two weeks ago when the film ‘Music by Prudence’ won the Best Short Documentary at the 2010 Oscar Academy Awards in US.
Music by Prudence documents Mabhena’s life. She is a 22-year-old from Bulawayo who is crippled by arthrogryposis, a congenital disorder that affected her arms and legs.
She is the lead singer of her band, Liyana.

“I am very proud to win the Oscar Award,” Mabhena told journalists. “The award is not only for me but for my band, Liyana, and for all Zimbabweans. We have proved that disability is not inability.”

Mabhena said she and her band were returning to US in May to feature on the popular Opprah Winfrey show.

“After winning the award I was hosted by Opprah and musician Mariah Carey,” she said. “I am actually going back to the US in May with my band for a show with Opprah.”

From the airport, Mabhena’s car joined a convoy of vehicles stretching almost one kilometre heading to the City Hall where many city residents waited to welcome her.

Her father Herbert Mabhena, who travelled all the way from Jambezi area in Matabeleland North to welcome his daughter, could not hold back his tears when she arrived.
“I am very proud of you my daughter, you have made a great person,” he said.

Mabhena’s group Liyana was formed at Bulawayo’s King George IV School for the disabled and was discovered by Zimbabwe-born Leslie Goldwasser.
Now based in the United States, Goldwasser liked their music and Prudence’s life story while on a visit to Zimbabwe, leading to the group’s first tour of the United States where they performed at the Apollo Theatre in December last year.

Mayor Thaba-Moyo said the city was proud of Mabhena and her group.
“We feel great about what you did,” said Thaba-Moyo. “You have put Bulawayo and Zimbabwe on the world map and we are going to honour you for that.”

Souce: The Zimbabwe Times