Peter Mawanga, a Malawian musician and advocate for underprivileged children, will present a free, public concert and lecture on Sept. 21 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Peter Mawanga, a Malawian musician and advocate for underprivileged children, will present a free, public concert and lecture on Sept. 21 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The program, “Hearing is Healing: The Intersection of Music and Public Health,” will be at 5:30 p.m. in the Nelson Mandela Auditorium of the FedEx Global Education Center, located at the corner of Pittsboro and McCauley streets.
A video presentation will accompany the lecture-performance. Mawanga, who sings and plays guitar and keyboards, released his first album, “Citylife,” in 2002. Its controversial lyrics brought attention to social issues. His music has become so popular in his home country that the president of Malawi has quoted his lyrics in speeches.
Besides music’s power to facilitate change, Mawanga will discuss his project with Andrew Magill, who graduated from UNC in 2009. A Fulbright-mtvU fellowship recipient, Magill will work with Mawanga to document the story of AIDS through music.
Mawanga is known for his concern about street children and orphans whose lives have been devastated by AIDS. In 2004, he founded Talents of the Malawian Child, a non-governmental organization that lets underprivileged children collaborate with him on an album. All proceeds support children affected by AIDS.
The Sept. 21 program at UNC is sponsored by the Curriculum in Global Studies and the Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases. Guests will have the chance to meet Mawanga at a small reception after the performance. Parking may be available in the garage under Global Education Center after 5 p.m. on a first-come, first-served basis. For a campus parking map, visit www.dps.unc.edu
To learn more about Mawanga and his music, visit http://www.mawanga.com
Photo: http://uncnews.unc.edu/images/stories/news/arts/2010/1.jpg
Global Studies contact: Lara Markstein, (919) 962-5442, laram@email.unc.edu
Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases contact: Lisa Chensvold, (919) 843-5719, lisa_chensvold@med.unc.edu
FedEx Global Education Center contact: Laura Griest, (919) 962-0318 lauragriest@unc.edu