Groundswell recently sent two hundred Robben Island Singers CDs to our community arts partner in Kwa Mashu, the largest township in South Africa. Ekhaya Multi-Arts Centre, located near Durban, nurtures the talents of local youth in performing arts and media. Ekhaya also sells Robben Island Singers CDs and promotes the Robben Island Singers through its local radio station. Muntu Nxumalo, musical director of the Robben Island Singers, has begun developing a new radio show at Ekhaya. His goal is to teach the youth to perform as a chorus for the Robben Island Singers.

Edmund Mhlongo, founder of Ekhaya Multi-Arts Centre, came to Chicago recently. Visiting schools with Groundswell co-founder, Jeff Spitz, Edmund introduced Prosser high school students to music, media and the challenges faced by contemporary South African teenagers (see a video clip from Prosser High School).

You can download Robben Island Singers songs from South Africa’s freedom struggle.

The cinematic journey of three singing ex-political prisoners traveled full circle when Muntu Nxumalo (musical director) presented our 90 minute rough cut of the film in Kwa Mashu, the largest township in Kwa Zulu Natal – home township of the singers. Muntu arranged with Edmund Mhlongo to show the film to youth involved in performing arts and media at Ekhaya Multi-Arts Center.

Muntu reports that South African high school students know very little about apartheid and the struggle for liberation and that they were in fact astonished to see the ex-prisoners engaging with American high school students and news reporters in Chicago. Muntu says the emotional impact of this story is very powerful because parents such as himself have found it difficult to talk about their prison years. Local audiences told Muntu they want more scenes in the film about apartheid, Robben Island prison and the musical response of today’s South African teens.

Consider joining our Producer’s Circle by donating $1,000. Your contribution will help cover the cost of editing the rough cut. Click here to donate.

South African playwright Edmund Mhlongo visits Prosser Career Academy on Chicago’s West Side. This cross-cultural school visit was coordinated by Groundswell Educational Films as part of our Robben Island Singers educational program.

Groundswell co-founder Jeff Spitz recently screened a rough cut of Robben Island Singers at Prosser Career Academy High School on Chicago’s West Side. Thirty-five students watched the film and then were able to ask questions to singers Muntu Nxumalo and Thembinkosi Sithole in South Africa via Skype.

Students said they liked going back and forth from South Africa to the US and having a live conversation with the ex-political prisoners. They liked the “real lives” theme of the film.

“Both sides liked the way that stereotypes in both countries are broken down by music, film, and international exchange,” Spitz said.

Students said they appreciated the chance to see a film work-in-progress.

“Kids did not want a shorter version, because they want to experience the whole journey of the singers,” Spitz added. “They understand the message about forgiveness and they discussed the fact that the Singers did not choose to become fighters, rather that conditions led them to fight for a higher cause. For freedom and equality.”

Groundswell co-founder Jeff Spitz presented a rough cut screening of our upcoming documentary “Robben Island Singers” at the Amnesty International Human Rights Art Festival on April 24th. It was the first time a rough cut has been publicly screened and was met with a very positive reaction from the audience.

The rough cut, now 97 minutes long, spurred a lively conversation afterward as Spitz sat on a panel to discuss it. “I took 3 pages of notes,” Spitz said. “This is the kind of conversation I hoped for, it was very helpful.”

Afterward, the audience was eager to discuss the over-arching themes presented in the film: apartheid, violence, forgiveness and self-actualization in two very different worlds: South Africa and America. The film tracks the journeys of three South African ex-political prisoners once imprisoned with Nelson Mandela after fighting Apartheid.

The singers have brought their message and the music that sustained them while in prison to American schools in a revolutionary cultural exchange program. More information can be found at the project’s website, www.RobbenIslandSingers.com, which also offers their music for purchase or download.

Groundswell’s award-winning documentary The Return of Navajo Boy will screen at Amnesty International’s Human Rights Film Festival on Saturday, April 24th 2010 in Silver Spring Maryland.

Filmmaker Jeff Spitz, Groundswell’s co-founder, will also be on hand to also present a work in progress screening of his upcoming project, Robben Island Singers.

For more information, see the festival’s official website.

Update: Read a report from the Amnesty International Human Rights Festival.

Groundswell is pleased to join forces with South African Partners (SA Partners), a Boston-based organization dedicated to the development of long-term partnership opportunities between the United States and South Africa.

Program areas at SA Partners bring together people here and in South Africa to support the work of redressing apartheid’s legacy and building the new South Africa. The central focus of activities is to establish mutually beneficial, long-term partnerships between South Africa and the United States. After six years, SA Partners has begun to formulate a better understanding of two-way partnerships as an important development tool.

SA Partners will be supporting Groundswell and The Robben Island Singers project in upcoming events and will also promote the trio’s CDs for sale on-site at events and online.

About South Africa Partners

South Africa Partners, Inc. (SA Partners) is a non-profit organization dedicated to the development of long-term partnership opportunities between the United States and South Africa. Building on the efforts of tens of thousands of individuals across the United States who supported the international movement for democracy in South Africa, SA Partners seeks to support those efforts which promote South Africa’s equitable and sustainable development, while building bridges between the two countries.

Director and Groundswell co-founder Jeff Spitz will be in the Washington DC area on April 24th to present and discuss both The Return of Navajo Boy and a preview screening of Robben Island Singers.

The first ever Amnesty International Human Rights Art Festival will be held in Silver Spring, MD (just outside of Washington D.C.) from April 23-25, 2010. This multi-venue, multi-media event will bring together artists, local businesses and politicians to use socially transformative art to raise awareness of human rights and justice issues, as well as the important work of Amnesty International.

Says Groundswell co-founder Jeff Spitz, “The wide range of artists, art forms and creative human rights campaigns is inspiring. I will be on a panel with fellow filmmakers Sunday, April 25th 2:30 – 4:30 to be followed by work in progress screening for Robben Island Singers.”

More information can be found at HumanRightsArtFestival.com.

Update: Read a report from the Amnesty International Human Rights Arts Festival.

Groundswell is excited to announce that the music of The Robben Island Singers is now available for purchase or download at Amazon.com and iTunes.

Groundswell created two complete albums from the Robben Island Singers documentary film journey – Songs from South Africa’s Freedom Struggle and Stories from South Africa’s Freedom Struggle. The Songs version includes the Singers’ songs from of their struggle against Apartheid while imprisoned with Nelson Mandela on South Africa’s most notorious apartheid prison island. The Stories version also includes their stories from the struggle.

Listeners from around the world can now share an experience that Chicagoans still talk about – the world debut of three ex-political prisoners who never imagined they would live to tell their personal stories, or sing the folk songs that fed their spirits in prison. Ironically, their journey continues as inner city high schools and colleges sponsor cultural exchanges between students and Robben Island Singers.

To purchase or preview the albums, click one of the following links:

Songs from South Africa’s Freedom Struggle (Amazon.com) (iTunes)
Stories from South Africa’s Freedom Struggle (Amazon.com) (iTunes)

Physical versions of the albums can also be bought at the Chicago theater company Remy Bumppo’s production of The Island, which runs until March 7th.

The Robben Island Singers movie trailer has been selected to kick off the Jubilee Film Festival in Selma, Alabama on March 6th.

The Festival Co-Directors, Erica Henry, (representing the Voting Rights Museum in Selma) will screen the trailer to introduce the theme of this year’s festival: struggle in the American South and South Africa.

Winnie Mandela will be the keynote speaker in this festival which culminates with a celebratory crossing of the Edmund Pettis Bridge, commemorating the 45th anniversary of the famous civil rights march.

Visit selmajubilee.com for more information about the festival, and robbenislandsingers.com for more information about Groundswell’s film and concert project featuring Robben Island Singers.

For the first time, Groundswell is collaborating with a theater company, Remy Bumppo, to cross-promote The Robben Island Singers and the Chicago Theater Company’s new production of the famous South African play, The Island by Athol Fugard. The play runs through March 7th, 2010.

Groundswell now has created a special exhibit in the theater’s lobby featuring The Robben Island Singers recorded music, video, newspaper articles and large photographs featuring the Robben Island Singers in Chicago’s schools. This new portable exhibition of the Robben Island Singers is now available for museums, conferences, consulate offices and other installations.

The Robben Island Singers music is also available for purchase in the theater lobby.

The Robben Island Singers school program was recently featured on ABC 7 News in Chicago. They reported on how the Singers, in conjunction with Groundswell Educational Films, are visiting Chicago Public Schools to teach important life lessons about conflict resolution through art and forgiveness.

If you look closely, you can see our documentary film crew in the background of this news segment.

Groundswell Co-Founders and The Robben Island Singers have incorporated a new company in South Africa called Groundswell Cultural Activists CC.

The new company will book Robben Island Singers concerts, film screenings and education programs in South Africa and manage school exchanges between South African and American youth. Our initial focus is to promote the Robben Island Singers as part of the cultural and heritage programming during World Cup soccer tournament in South Africa 2010.

Members include Muntu Nxumalo, Grant Shezi, Thembinkosi Sithole, Jeff Spitz and Jennifer Amdur Spitz.

Chicago-area teachers and administrators love the Robben Island Singers school program.

Phillips High School principal Euel Bunton had this to say after Robben Island Singer Grant Shezi visited his school:

“You promised that this would be a memorable experience, and it truly was. Grant Shezi’s personal testimony was compelling and credible to our students. He struck a cord with students when he identified self control as the character trait that enabled him to overcome the desire for revenge and violence. Many, many more of our youth desperately need to hear this man and his message. I wholeheartedly endorse efforts to bring Robben Island Singers to the Chicago Public Schools on an expanded basis.”

CPS Director of Policy and Program Development Diane Fager says:

“Looking at the lessons learned in South Africa, the Robben Island Singers offer students a third dimension to reflect, and a new light to examine their own experience. Students are invited to express their revelations through the arts, and the Robben Island Singers help students learn to facilitate a new dialog in their own communities. Sure their curriculum lines up with state learning standards in many subject areas, but the Robben Island Singers are much more than that. They teach students to think critically about what they have learned; to communicate their ideas to one another across cultures using visual, performing or media arts; and that they have the power to organize and mobilize their communities towards a better future.”

Check out what students have to say about The Robben Island Singers school program.

Charles, from Kenwood Academy High School enjoyed The Robben Island Singers visit to his school:

“I’m not from a prestigious neighborhood. I’m from what you would maybe call a bad neighborhood. So these singers were a real inspiration. Their songs signify hope.”

Jasmine from Michelle Clark High School has this to say about The Robben Island Singers when they visited her school:

“This whole experience, I am just overwhelmed by it. I love the entire notion of history and heritage and getting to know it and actually playing a part in it. I believe we are kind of making history right now.”

Here are some questions that students have asked The Robben Island Singers when they do Q&A sessions in classrooms:

• Is there ever a time you regret standing up for your beliefs because of the consequences that followed?

• How old were you when you went to prison?

• You all have become an inspiration to many young people today. Who inspires/inspired you to fight against injustice?

• At what point in your struggle did you feel that your anger and pain should have been replaced by action and a revolution through song?

• Do you feel that it frees you to forgive someone who has wronged you?

• Did you find it difficult to re-adjust to freedom when you got out?

• Did a lot of ex-prisoners have trouble getting jobs after they were freed because they had to leave High School?

• How much racism is still left in South America even after apartheid?

• Do you think that your message is ignored by people who don’t acknowledge the past?

• Will you guys be back next year?

Check out what teachers have to say about The Robben Island Singers school program.