Youssou N'Dour helps launch Muslim Voices: Arts & Ideas, the largest, multi-venue celebration of Islamic cultures ever presented in the United States, in a sold-out concert with his Super Étoile band at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)'s Howard Gilman Opera House on Friday, the festival's opening night. The following night, BAM will host the New York premiere of the film Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love, which documents the making of and reaction to N'Dour's 2004 Grammy-winning album, Egypt, and received the Special Jury Prize at the 2008 Middle East International Film Festival. Following the screening, Youssou and his band return for a one-hour encore performance. Catch a preview of the film at nonesuch.com/media.

The Village Voice's Richard Gehr, in his preview of the BAM events, describes Youssou's band as "astonishing" and Egypt, the album at the center of the film, as "a masterful expression of personal faith embellished with Cairean strings and, of course, the slippery Wolof beats that underlie N'Dour's complexly ecstatic mbalax sound."

Muslim Voices is a joint presentation of Asia Society, BAM, and the New York University Center for Dialogues and will run from June 5 to 14. The festival highlights the rich diversity of Muslim cultures by presenting over 300 artists, performers, cultural entrepreneurs, policy makers, and scholars from around the world and will include performances, films, exhibitions, talks, and many other events at Asia Society, BAM, and other venues throughout New York City.

For more information on the BAM events, visit bam.org, and for more on the many other events taking place as part of the festival, visit muslimvoicesfestival.org. I Bring What I Love opens in US theaters next week, beginning at New York City's IFC Center, on June 12. For more information on the film and its theatrical release, visit ibringwhatilove.com.