"BREAKING THE SILENCE, BEATING THE DRUM"

It was nearly fifteen months after sitting down with Eric Falt of the United Nations Department of Public Information and Donovan, Jason Rothberg and beining asked to help put together a concert, in the UN General Assembly Hall, to commemorate the slave trade. The concert took place,  on the 25th of March and was an enormous success!!  There were amazing performers Akon, Peter Buffet, Blind Boys of Alabama, Gilberto Gil,Nile Rogers and my favorite of the evening Ky-Mani Marley - Bob Marleys son - singing the redemption song.

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our mind.
Wo! have no fear for atomic energy,
cause none of them-a can-a stop-a the time.
How long shall they kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look?
Yes, some say its just a part of it:
Weve got to fulfil de book.
Wont you help to sing
Dese songs of freedom? -
cause all I ever had:
Redemption songs -
All I ever had:
Redemption songs:
These songs of freedom,
Songs of freedom.

There were also great readings from Whoopi Goldberg, Staceyann, Carl Lewis and  CCH Pounder   Over the years, the oral history of the Transatlantic Slave Trade has been perpetuated in music by the descendants of the millions of victims of slavery. Too often, that voice has been silenced, but through resilience and resistance the beat goes on.  The concert was  the end to a series of events taking place throughout the day and around the worlld. Congratulations to all those who put the final event together.