In 1998,
Ken Wydro and Higginsen founded the Mama Foundation for the Arts with a mission to uplift the Black musical treasures of Gospel, jazz and R&B, and "to heal and inspire through the power of collective music-making." For the Mama Foundation, Wydro co-created and directed several musicals performed in various theaters and churches in Harlem for decades. Today, the Mama Foundation is an intergenerational and interracial Harlem institution.