The September 19th Benefit Concert was an incredible success! About 50 people showed up in support of the cause to watch me and 3 other singer songwriters rock our jams. Elana Brody opened up the show wailing out some meaty tunes while pounding the ivory keys. She was followed by the beautiful Trinidad native, Annya Li, who graced us with lovely acoustic melodies as well as a wicked Caribbean style rap. Then I along with my sister, Faith Gilmore, sang our songs for the remainder of the benefit. It was awesome to be able to back one another up with sisterly harmonies. Faith’s vivacious performance included songs from her latest album, Bold as Lions, and I sang about 7 of my own tunes, one of them being a newbie entitled “Traffic”, based on the issue at hand. Thanks to David Glickstein (guitar), Jason Arce (guitar), Johnny Wolf (cajon) and their hard work in playing both of our tunes the set went smoothly.

It was evident that the room was filled with a incredible energy and everyone seemed to have an enjoyable evening. Much thanks to the generous donations of the guests in attendance, a $100 donation from The Red Lion, and A-21 merchandise that was sold, together we raised nearly $600. I am so blessed to have had the help of everyone that made the idea of this show a reality, and now because of it women and men who have been trafficked will receive much needed aid and more people are aware. Approximately 27 million people are trafficked in order to generate $40 billion a year. I hope to continue raising  awareness of this terrible crime and ask that you take the time to see what you can do in your own community to bring about recognition of the harsh reality of what some people will do to make a dollar.

Also I am currently NYC Tastemakers’ Artist of the Month! Go here to see!

Thanks so much for your support!

Love

-Hope

I scored a free ticket to a show the last week of May, one night after work. It was for The Roots, it was pretty dope. It wasn’t what I expected though, they actually had quite a few guest artists come on stage every once in a while to perform. I really liked the opening band, Elevator Fight. I had heard one of their songs before. The lead singer, Zoe Kravitz, Lenny Kravitz’s daughter had a really great stage presence. It was a fun unexpected thing to do.

I should really start making it a goal to see at least one live performance a month.