From M.T.V. to the historic Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Yewande Austin's music (www.yewande.com) speaks universal truths about issues that many artists shy away from poverty, race, war. While moments performing with the Black Eyed Peas, Enrique Iglesias, India Arie and Sean Paul are memorable, it is her work as an internationally renowned public speaker, lecturer and social activist that has become perhaps her greatest joy.
Since 2004, her educational venture, the Global Institute for Diversity and Change, has produced award-winning multicultural, leadership and social justice programs at universities across the globe. When she's not lecturing, this honorary cultural ambassador (U. S. Embassy in Malawi, Africa) utilizes music to promote education, sustainable skills and AIDS prevention to vulnerable children from Africa to the Americas through her humanitarian organization, the Change Rocks Foundation. As an M. A. candidate in Ethnomusicology at the University of Sheffield in England (Class of 2010), she has dedicated much of her research to promoting music as a formidable weapon in the fight against global poverty. It is this inspiring commitment to social change that has ignited an inspirational movement around the world.
