Music With A Message. Changing the Community, One Song at a Time.

MISSION: The Music With A Message youth band (MWAM) empowers youth to write and perform original songs that spread positive messages of hope, love, inspiration, and healing to inner city families and communities.  MWAM is making a change, one song at a time.

WhO ARE WE? The Music With A Message youth band (MWAM) is a project of the Renaissance Youth Center, a South Bronx non-profit organization serving inner city youth from the ages of 2-19. The MWAM band features 25 of New York’s most talented youth with a passion for performance. Band members are drawn from the Renaissance Youth Center's music programs and open auditions held across N.Y.C. Mr. Bervin Harris, co-founder of the Renaissance Youth Center and MWAM director, is an accomplished singer-songwriter, producer and recording artist, formerly signed to Capitol Records. He has written and produced for Grammy Award winning artist Mary J. Blige, comedian Eddie Murphy, and rap icon KRS-One. Check out our EPK.

WHAT WE DO? Each summer, the MWAM tour performs 45-60 concerts at housing developments, parks, beaches, schools, theme parks and sporting events across the five boroughs of New York City as well as across the country. The MWAM band transports its own equipment to indoor and outdoor venues on a custom tour truck with a mobile stage. The band performs original songs exploring themes of positivity on every topic from family issues non-violence, love, and health and nutrition; to name a few. Performances will feature accessible lyrics and catchy melodies addressing social issues faced by so many communities across the country.

WHY THE NEED? Studies in recent years have proven the increased influence of music on the attitudes, thoughts, and actions of today’s youth. Often, the messages being sent through music is not positive; MWAM’s mission is to change that by planting seeds of hope and positivity in communities where hope is often not felt.