James McBride’s Music Students Perform “I Hear a Song”

“For the last seven years I’ve run a program that teaches music to children from the Red Hook, Brooklyn housing projects where I was born. We teach piano, bass, and drums in the basement of small church founded by my parents, New Brown Memorial Baptist, in Red Hook. These kids have talent, dedication and heart. They’re being raised by some of the most extraordinary parents, grandparents, aunts, and cousins one could imagine. Many have been in the program since they were as young as 8 and as teenagers, are now teaching the younger kids. Every year we host a concert at the church. Because of the pandemic we couldn’t do that this year. Instead, we put together this video to celebrate their hard work. These children are a cause for celebration. They are a reason to hope. They are living proof that God exists. They are the last line of reason and discourse in a world gone mad, and this is their song.” -James McBride

Musician and writer James McBride pens poignant new novel

About James McBride

Red Hook Summer

James’s newest work is co-written and co-produced with the great American filmmaker Spike Lee. It is the story of an Atlanta boy named Flik, 12, an atheist, who is forced to spend the summer in a Brooklyn housing project with his minister grandfather, played by Clark Peters of HBO’s “The Wire” and “Treme.” It was filmed in the church founded by James’s parents and the housing project where James was born. It is a powerful, touching work, with rousing gospel spirituals and a magnificent score by Bruce Hornsby and Judith Hill. Nationwide release is August 24, 2012. Check independent film listings in your area.

Miracle At St. Anna

MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA was released as a major motion picture in Sept. 2008 by Touchstone/Disney and masterfully directed by American film icon Spike Lee. James McBride wrote the script for the film. Miracle At St. Anna was co-produced by Black Butterfly Productions and Forty Acres and a Mule Productions.