News

Shangilia has been donating food and clothing and performing for the internally displaced.

Excerpts:

Sunday Nation, 30 March 2008, Young Nation
"Kenyan children record album in the US " by Fred Orido

"To many a local musician, recording music in the United States is a big dream. This is because the richest and most popular musicians come from the US. So, when children from Shangilia Mtoto wa Afrika recently toured the US, they were accorded that rare opportunity of recording an album with the New York based Micocci Productions. Their album, titled Rejoice Child of Africa, is indeed a masterpiece and it's likely to steal the show in the market for a long time."
Click here to view newspaper clipping.

Sunday Nation, 23 December 2007, Young Nation
"Kenyan children take US by storm" by Fred Orido

The Shangilia choir was on a tour organized by New York based Micocci Productions.........During the concert the children had a rare opportunity to share the stage with some big names in the world of music including South African jazz and pop trumpeter Hugh Masekela. Together they performed in a week-long six-city Songs of the Spirit tour in New york State..........The Shangilia choir also sang with the American folk and blues heroine, Odetta;; JD Steele and the folk singer, Tracy Grammer and made friends with other renonwned artistes who took part in the concerts that promoted peace and unity..........The choir indeed received a standing ovation from fans at the Millennium Stage in John F. Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts. Following the performance at the Kennedy Centre, Shangilia's director Japheth Njenga, his accompanying staff and others were hosted by the Kenyan ambassador to Washington DC at a sit-down dinner in his residence. The ambassador to the United Nations also hosted a reception for the Choir at the Unicef Headquarters where the children also performed..............

New York Post, Monday, 24 December 2007
"Night isn't silent on 42nd St" by Frank Scheck

This updated version of Langston Hughes' gospel musical, returning to Times Square for the first time since its original production 46 years ago, boasts a soul-stirring musical and religious fervor.
..................The adorableness factor is raised considerably by the presence of the Shangilia Youth Choir of Kenya as a chorus of angels, and a real baby who elicited coos of admiration from the women in the audience. In one of the show's most powerful segments, "Silent Night/7O'Clockk News," the choir sings the familiar cdarol as De Shields reads aloud newspaper stories of violence and turmoil abroad. And I'm not just saying that because the paper he was reading form is the one you're reading now.

New Yorker magazine
"Black Nativity"

........But, once the action moves inside, it's pure Technicolor gospel fantasy, replete with a sparkly red curtain, a cast of dozens, and a groovy four-piece band...............Along the way, Mary and Joseph get turned away, the baby Jesus arrives (iin jaw-dropping fashion), and moments of unexpected and affecting stillness occur, like the moonlit appearance of the Shangilia Youth Choir of Kenya, dressed in show-white party outfits and holding hands. (The Duke on 42nd Street, 229 W. 42nd St. 646-223-3010. Through Dec.30.)

THEATER REVIEW | 'BLACK NATIVITY'
By CARYN JAMES

"Christmas in Times Square, With Buses in the Manger"
André De Shields in the Classical Theater of Harlem’s production of “Black Nativity.”
Published: December 7, 2007

What would Jesus say about “Black Nativity,” the Classical Theater of Harlem’s new variation on Langston Hughes’s malleable 20th-century retelling of the original Christmas story? With Christian and seasonal generosity, let’s begin by pointing out the unmistakable spirit of joy at the heart of this production, which takes the 1961 work that Hughes called a gospel song play and transplants it to Times Square in 1973, a change that allows Mary and Joseph to wander through the neighborhood at its seediest, taking shelter in the Port Authority Bus Terminal instead of a manger.

This version brings in music heavily indebted to Motown and witty costumes that capture the neon-colored fashion catastrophe that was the ’70s. As the preacher and narrator, André De Shields arrives in a bright red suit and goes on to strut, sing, dance and infuse the piece with unrelenting energy.

But we also have to consider that pesky commandment about not lying. And, honestly, the ’70s transplant just doesn’t work. Much of the problem is the music, unevenly conceived, and performed by a cast that never approaches Mr. De Shields’s energy. A group supposedly modeled on Gladys Knight and the Pips sings “Wasn’t It a Mighty Day,” but this Gladys’s singing and dancing — not to mention her wig — make the group seem like Tina Turner and the Pips. There’s a similar slapdash quality to this production, which eventually moves out of the ’70s to make a plea for peace today.

The most charming touch in this “Black Nativity” is the appearance of the Shangilia Youth Choir of Kenya, a small group of girls and boys (a couple of the boys do great back flips onstage) whose faces exude joy even before they open their mouths to sing. They bring a necessary jolt to this disappointing piece, too often flat when it is meant to have the feel of a revival that can blow the roof off the theater.

“Black Nativity” continues through Dec. 30 at the Duke on 42nd Street, 229 West 42nd Street, Manhattan; (646) 223-3010 or dukeon42.org.

The Ithica Journal, Wednesday, 26 December 2007

"Kenyan children serve as ambassadors for orphanage" by Krisy Gashier

...............The Youth Choir has sold out performances around the country and in Upstate New York, including performances in Rochester, Oswego and Binghamton.

Older News Excerpts

"Miracle on 42nd Street," Joy Goodwin's New York Sun review of Black Nativity:
 
"Perhaps Mr. Preisser's (the director) most moving innovation is the casting of the Shangilia Youth Choir of Kenya as the Chorus of Angels.
Their delight in performing songs and back handsprings is palpable, and the authenticity they exude is the lifeblood of this unusual show."

Shangilia Brass Band feature article in the Sunday Standard Newspaper 7 October 2007

The Shangilia Brass Band is gaining momentum and was recently featured in the Sunday Standard, click here to view the clipping.

Lord of the dancers: The Traveller Msafiri (Kenya Airways magazine) Edition 58 February - April 2007

We were recently featured in the msafiri magazine (an inflight magazine for Kenya Airways) click the following link to download the story.

Lord of the dancers article

Japheth Njenga on the BBC in Call that Justice, 13 November 2006: 

"We have children who actually do not know where they came from. They have no family members. These children need protection. In Kenyan society, the street child is already condemned. A child on the streets is taken to be a criminal, brushed off, marginalized. And so they do petty crimes, snatching handbags, necklaces, watches. But the worst thing is that the society, community does not give them a chance to defend themselves. The other day there was an incident in town where a child was hit by a vehicle. People ran to see what happened and one of them actually turned back and said " it's only a street child," and the whole group turned back.

The children are treated like criminals even before they are taken to court They are not taken through formal schooling which  means they lose alot of time in their lives. They have to pick up bits and pieces of their lives and put it together again....."

2006

9 August, Kenya Times,
".......unanimous that they want to meet the first mother of this nation...."

7 August, Kenya Times,
"Children's home petitions government. ...the home's director, Japheth Njenga says the time has come for the government to chip in its assistance to not only Shangilia but to all those other geunuine homes....."

6 August, Children's World, Kenya Times,
"12 Year old Josephat Mungai from Shangilia.........is an acrobat. He is a standard three pupil and likes eating healthy food to make him fit for his art"

30 July, Sunday Nation,
"Shangilia children get recognition in Greece"

23 July, Children's World Kenya Times,
"Children from Shangilia...display acrobatic stunt during a recent concert before they left the country for Delphi, Greece for a tour."

16 July, Young Nation,
"Mary Wanjiru touring the world through dance"