Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love premieres at BAM's Muslim Voices festival in June. "He lives so successfully by his convictions, and shows us a very different Islam than what we see in the media," the film's director tells New York. "And his voice is extraordinary. If you watch his band Super Etoile perform, you’ll follow them to the edge of the earth." Robert Cole, who is retiring from Cal Performances after 20-plus years at its helm, says: "Of the artists we've had relationships with, certainly Youssou N'Dour is one of the greatest." At a recent UN-led World Malaria Day event, N'Dour and Malaria No More launched a campaign to encourage the use of mosquito nets in Senegal and help prevent the spread of the disease.
Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love, which documents the making of and reaction to N'Dour's 2004 Grammy-winning album, Egypt, is set to premiere at BAM's Muslim Voices: Arts & Ideas festival in June. The film's director, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, explains to New York magazine how she chose N'Dour, whom she calls "the Bono of Africa," as the subject of her film.
"He lives so successfully by his convictions, and shows us a very different Islam than what we see in the media," she says of the Senegalese singer. "And his voice is extraordinary. If you watch his band Super Etoile perform, you’ll follow them to the edge of the earth." Read more at nymag.com.
Echoing that sentiment, Robert Cole, who will be stepping down as the director of Cal Performances at the age of 78 and after more than two decades at its helm, recently reminisced with the San Francisco Chronicle about the many highlights of his time with the organization. "Of the artists we've had relationships with," he exclaimed, "certainly Youssou N'Dour is one of the greatest. He's an incredible performer who can hold the stage for two hours and keep the audience mesmerized."
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Youssou recently announced, along with the organization Malaria No More, the launch of a $1 million education campaign, titled Surround Sound, that would encourage the use of mosquito nets in Senegal. More than two million such nets are to be distributed this summer. The announcement was made at a United Nations summit for religious and political leaders from around the world, focused on faith-based initiatives, held on April 24 in recognition of World Malaria Day. It's all part of a larger goal to provide universal access to malaria prevention by next year. For more information, visit malarianomore.org.
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Not long before the UN event, I Bring What I Love, Vasarhelyi's film, received the Impact of Music Award at the Nashville Film Festival. The film's music editor, Joseph Debeasi, was in attendance to receive the award, a Gibson guitar.
The film will premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music as part of the venue's weeklong festival Muslim Voices: Arts & Ideas, which begins with a performance at BAM's Howard Gilman Opera House June 5. The screening will take place the following night, also in the Opera House, followed by a brief concert appearance by Youssou and the Super Etoile. For more information, visit bam.org.
I Bring What I Love opens in US theaters the following week, beginning at New York City's IFC Center, on June 12. To catch a preview of the film, watch the trailer at nonesuch.com/media.
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