Prudence Mabhena: Out Of Struggle, A Soaring Voice : NPR
The music of Prudence Mabhena and her band, Liyana, is a powerful sound that echoes out of a country in crisis: Zimbabwe. The band's success is all the more extraordinary because all the members of Liyana are physically disabled — most of them born that way. In Zimbabwe, that can be a death sentence.
The film Music by Prudence won this year's Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject. That's a category you might otherwise have missed, except that at this year's ceremony it provided a moment of drama when the director's acceptance speech was abruptly interrupted by an aggrieved former collaborator. That caught people's attention — but the real drama can be seen in the film itself. It premieres May 12 on HBO.
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