Breath of Heaven Children's Ministries recently teamed up with PLAYe, an interactive experience where artists come together to create and share their art, to share Stories of Africa in an effort to raise awareness and help a village.

PLAYe is a playground for artistic expression. It's a multi-layered open mic experience designed to help artists excavate their own insights through spontaneous, original art. Set up in a gaming format, PLAYe pushes each artist to create on the spot. Each experience provides inspiration that launches artists into the creative process through featured art and 5 minute talks. PLAYe is an artistic work-out, where artists dialogue and discover by exercising their unique talents.

A live performance by vocalist, songwriter and musician, Emily Adjoa Skinner, winner of "Best Female" at the SoCal Music Live Acoustic Competition, provided inspiration for the artists in attendance. Born and raised in New York by musicians she began performing at the age of two. In 2000 Skinner won a highly sought after voice scholarship to the Crane Conservatory, NY. She chose instead to experience the culture and music of East, South and West Africa, where she lived for two years and received the name Adjoa. In 2006 Skinner moved to Los Angeles to pursue her career full-time as a vocalist, songwriter and musician, playing piano, guitar, drums and flute.

In addition to Adjoa's live performance, compelling stories were told by Carrie Arcos and Micah Orloff of Breath of Heaven Children Ministries detailing recent visits to the Breath of Heaven Children's Village in Lusaka, Zambiaalso inspired artists to express themselves on the fly.

"PLAYe is another great opportunity to increase awareness of the crisis in Africa. If we can inspire artists to express themselves with such a significant cause, then there is hope we can reach many," said Micah Orloff.

For more information on future PLAYe events, see www.playelive.com