Topper Carew is known for co-creating the television show “Martin.” But starting next week, he hopes to be known on a more universal level.
On Jan. 30, Carew plans to send a payload of his latest project to the International Space Station (ISS). The project, a video of young children singing “This Little Light of Mine,” will broadcast from the ISS for the entirety of February, which is also Black History Month.
The song “This Little Light of Mine” first resonated with Carew when he was working with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Mississippi when the activist Fannie Lou Hamer would sometimes sing the song during rallies. The lyrics of the song called back to something Carew’s grandmother used to say.
“We all have a little light inside of us that lives right next to our heart, and that’s the light that conveys love and joy and peace and understanding,” he recalled. “When you meet people, and you’re meeting them for the first time, you should recognize that everybody has a little light inside of them.”
In order to complete this mission, Carew is working with the private spaceflight company Nanoracks and its sister company, the space education firm DreamUp. According to Carew, “a broadcast studio that’s the size of a shoebox” will be sent up in the payload to the space station on Tuesday to begin its month-long broadcast back to earth.
“When it comes over where you are, if it’s at night and it’s a good clear sky, you might be able to look up and see it,” he said. “It will look like the third brightest star in the sky.”
You’ll be able to get a bit clearer of a picture if you head to the film’s website, where you should be able to see what the film looks like broadcasting from space, and compare that image to the film in its original form. You’ll also be able to track the space station and the video as it orbits the earth.
Through this endeavor, Carew said he hopes to bring a little positive energy to what he views as an increasingly dark and divisive world. Sometimes, he said, people will come up to him and let him know how watching a few episodes of “Martin” turned their bad day around. He wants to recreate that effect with “This Little Light of Mine,” just on a bigger scale.
“I just wanted to do something that will make people feel a little more hopeful, a little more positive,” Carew said. “Even if it’s only for a minute or two.”
Update: After the publication of this article, the launch date for the recording was moved from Jan. 29 to Jan. 30. This article has been updated to reflect that change.
