BlackKoldMadina

Kimberly Rivers Roberts, a.k.a. Black Kold Madina, starred in the Academy Award nominated documentary film, Trouble the Water - winner of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize, Full Frame Documentary Grand Jury Award,and the Gotham Independent Film Award.

In addition to starring in the film, Kimberly produced, wrote, and composed four songs that were featured in the Oscar-nominated film, including her hit song Amazing which is undoubtedly the heart of the movie. Additionally, Kimberly’s title song Trouble the Water, which can be heard during the film’s ending credits, was submitted and accepted for consideration for an Academy Award for Best Original Song in a film.

Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers interviewed Blackkoldmadina at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and reported that "A star is born."According to Travers, "Kimberly’s star power comes from the music she writes and sings." "[A] glory abides in [Kimberly’s] voice," said Travers.Kimberly, her music, and her story have also been written about in Vibe, Essence, Ebony, Jet, Sister to Sister, and Source. She represented her state of Louisiana and was quotedin Esquire’s 2009 Meaning of Life issue. Time Magazine listed her performance as herself in Trouble the Water the fourth best performance of 2008. Kimberly also took the cover of Independent Film Magazine and has been written about in many other publications.

Kim has now founded the Amazing Unbreakable Speakers Bureau, which provides motivational and inspirational speakers to organizations.

"My reason for starting AUS is because God has blessed me to be able to bless and enlighten people from all over the world with my life and experiences. In a world where people are in need of hope, in spite of obstacles and tragedies one may have to over come, we all can use what we have to help others obtain a higher understanding and better quality of life through teaching of the mind and sharing our experiences."

Trouble the Water was the winner of the 2008 Sundance GRAND JURY PRIZE, 2008 Full Frame GRAND JURY prize winner, 2008 GOTHAM INDIE FILM award winner, 2009 NAACP Image award nomination, 2009 Producers Guild of America for feature Documentary (nomination), 2008 AFI/Silverdocs special Jury Prize, 2008 Council on Foundation Henry Hampton award for excellence in film and digital media, 2008 working films award, 2008 Kathleen Bryan Human rights award, official selection 2008 New Directors/New films (museum of modern arts and film society of Lincoln center) Named best documentary of 2008 by the film critics association and alliance of women film journalists. 2009 Roger Ebert Golden Thumb award winner and came in 2nd place for the national film critics circle award.

Time magazine named Kimberly Rivers-Roberts 4th best performance of 2008, Kimberly was honored in 2010 by the Female Hip-Hop Awards for her work as a Rap-artist, humanitarian, and for her work in Trouble the water. Mrs.Rivers-Roberts was honored as a Katrina hero by the Navigation foundation September 2010, and co-starred in the HBO series TREME as Devines friend Kim Roberts. Her song Trouble the water was also nominated for an Academy award in 2009.