John Forté to join Patti Smith and John Legend at Forum Music Fest

We are excited to announce that John Forté
will join us at The Forum Music Fest on May 1.

John Forté's life has been an amazing story of twists and turns, major accomplishments and hard knocks. Today he tells his story and the lessons learned with music as his vehicle for sharing and healing.

John Forté is famous for his work with the multi-platinum group The Fugees. He wrote and produced two songs on their Grammy winning album, The Score. After the breakup of The Fugees, he recorded two solo albums, PolySci and I, John, which featured industry legends Herbie Hancock and Carly Simon, and will soon release an album titled Water Light Sound.

Few understand second chances better than John Forté.

After serving seven years of a 14-year sentence following a conviction on drug charges, he was granted a rare commutation of his sentence by President George W. Bush. His strong advocates included Carly Simon and Sen. Orin Hatch. Recognizing prison as an opportunity to redeem himself, Forté created a music program, conducted weekly round table forums for inmates and began pursuing his degree at the London School of Economics.

Released from Fort Dix on December 22, 2008, Forté resumed his career by starting to record in the studio, writing a book and serving as the subject of a feature-length documentary about his life. He teaches a music course to teenagers at In Arms Reach, a Harlem-based initiative committed to promoting a positive environment for children of incarcerated parents and at-risk youth. Forté uses music as a therapeutic means of addressing anger, stress and pain, and hopes that the catharsis of song composition will help children deal with the stigma of having an incarcerated family member. His historic commutation has also made him an ardent supporter of prison reform. He argues that a sentence need not be unreasonably long to provide just punishment, deter criminal conduct and protect the public from harm.

Raised by a single mother in Brooklyn, John was a brilliant young musical prodigy. A dedicated student, Forté was awarded a full scholarship to the prestigious Phillips Exeter Academy and attended New York University until his career in the music industry took off. He is a classically-trained violinist.

Hear John tell his story in his own words...

Other Links

Live @ Joe's Pub-NYC

Blog @ The Daily Beast-How I Went From Prep School to Prison

Wyclef Jean: Hip-Hopping Humanitarian

As you may know, Hip-Hop Musician and Humanitarian Wyclef Jean will be a panelist at our Forum Music Fest on May 1, 2010. A Haitian native, Wyclef has long been an advocate for the people of Haiti, fighting to bring hope and change to the distressed nation. Since last week's devastating earthquake, Wyclef has been on the ground in Haiti aiding in both rescue and humanitarian efforts. In an interview with Oprah, he described the disaster as "an apocalypse, the seventh hell." Amidst his efforts, questions arose last week about the legitimacy of his foundation, Yele Haiti, after financial records released by The Smoking Gun suggested a potential misappropriation of funds. Wyclef directly addressed these allegations in a press conference on January 16th, 2010:

"Have we made mistakes before? Yes. Did I ever use Yele money for personal benefit? Absolutely not. Yele's books are open and transparent, and we have been given a clean bill of health from an external auditor."

All this recent press may have you wondering...

Who is Wyclef jean?

Wyclef Jean is a multi-platinum musician, actor, producer, and former member of The Fugees, a group MTV ranks as one of the best hip-hop groups of all time. Although best known as a hip-hop artist, Wyclef embraces many forms of music and all expressions of culture, from classic rock to ska to down and dirty bass to country to thugged-out rap to folk and reggae.

The son of a preacher, Wyclef was born in Haiti and moved with his family to Brooklyn, New York when he was nine-years-old, before moving again to northern New Jersey. He received his first guitar from his mother and studied jazz through high school. He briefly attended Eastern Nazarene College, before dropping out of school to pursue music.

In the early 1990’s he formed the hip-hop trio The Refugee Camp (a.k.a. The Fugees) with Lauryn Hill and Prakazrel “Pras” Michel. The group’s debut album, Blunted on Reality, sold poorly, but their follow-up album, The Score, became one of the largest-selling and most influential hip-hop records in chart history, selling over 18 million copies worldwide and eventually becoming a multi-platinum, Grammy-winning album. Their cover of Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly" topped U.S. airplay charts for weeks.

Despite their groundbreaking success, The Fugees have remained in limbo, with a follow-up album to The Score being continually postponed as all three members cultivated solo careers. Wyclef released his first solo CD, The Carnival, in 1997, featuring the single “Gone Till November” which earned him a Grammy nomination for best Male R&B Vocal Performance.

He has since recorded six solo albums, collaborating with guests including (click link to listen to the collaboration) Kenny Rogers, Earth, Wind & Fire, Mary J. Blige, Santana, Shakira, and many others. His latest album, Wyclefjean, is scheduled to be released in February 2010.

In all, Wyclef has sold more than 31 million albums throughout his career. Over the years, he has emerged as a leading champion for Haiti, serving as a spokesperson for many issues and created his foundation Yele to help children both in Haiti and the United States by providing scholarship opportunities, food distribution, humanitarian aid and now, earthquake relief.

We applaud Wyclef for his long standing support of the people in Haiti-come back soon to learn more about what you can do to help.