Performance: Vocal Activist Melanie DeMore

Singer-songwriter Melanie DeMore has a remarkable voice, weaving the fibers of African American folk music with soulful ballads, spirituals and her own original music. DeMore beautifully brings her audience together through her music and commentary. She has toured extensively, singing at festivals, universities, in coffee houses and concert halls. Her recordings Share My Song and Come Follow Me are both heartfelt collections of her music.
In addition to her solo work, DeMore facilitates vocal workshops for professional and community-based choral groups and has taught her program called “Sound Awareness” in schools, prisons, and youth organizations in the US, Canada, Cuba and New Zealand.
DeMore was a California Artist in Residence with the Oakland Youth Chorus for 10 years and has received an award from the Music Educators National Conference for her work with young singers and artists. She is on the music faculty at St. Paul’s School in Oakland, CA where she teaches a cappella singing. DeMore is also a founding member of the Grammy nominated, critically-acclaimed vocal ensemble ‘Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir’, a group that tours extensively in the US and abroad.
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This performance was part of the Neighborhood Funders Group's National Convening that took place in June 2016 in Oakland, CA. NFG once again gathered national and place-based funders from around the country for its biennial convening. The theme for this year's conference, Philanthropic Strategies for People, Place and Power, explored best practices for cultivating social, racial and economic justice and community well-being. NFG provides a space for funders to grapple together with the big, complex issues of our contemporary moment.
www.nfg.org/nfg...