In a show recorded live before an audience at WNYC Radio’s state-of-the art Jerome L. Greene Performance Space, MAJORA CARTER sat down with Grammy Award-winning musician WYCLEF JEAN for a lively conversation on his work as an artist, activist, and humanitarian.
This one-hour edition of The Promised Land is from Launch Minneapolis, winner of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s Talent Quest. It is produced by Emily Botein with Mary Beth Kirchner. The executive producer is Marge Ostroushko.
Wyclef Jean
Yéle Haiti
Majora and Wyclef talk about how he’s created awareness of the needs of Haiti, his native country — a nation of crushing poverty and limited access to education. Wyclef talks about the childhood that inspired him to give back, and he tells Majora, “If people can feel better about their community and where they live, then they’d feel better about themselves.”
Wyclef’s foundation, Yéle Haiti, has created small-scale, manageable, and replicable projects that are making a difference. He performs “Yéle,” a song he wrote whose lyrics translate as “If you have an ear, listen. If you have a mouth, speak.”
Wyclef performs a love song, “911,” for the crowd at the Greene Space. He tells Majora that for him, it’s about making the most of the time he has: “There were many people before us. There will be many people after us. In the middle there’s a little gap, and that’s where we can influence.”
Wyclef tells his story about being the last person to talk to a friend who was shot.
Host: Majora Carter
Majora Carter speaks to visionaries who are changing lives and communities. Meet an ex-convict, a co-op worker, and a youth advocate – among others – working together to make their South Bronx neighborhood better.
Follow Majora on The Promised Land blog
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