A Place At The Table - Songs of Justice and Love

Since answering the call to music ministry at Pilgrim UCC in Carlsbad California  three years ago, I have written songs of love, faith, and justice for the Progressive Christian movement. My music promotes social justice and inclusion of communities traditionally marginalized by the Church. As a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, I strive to reframe the conversation about God's love through a lens of acceptance. But my music more widely encompasses a larger call to action to fight for justice, equality, and inclusion through community action and love. 

While the ten songs in this album have grown from my work as a ministry leader at a Progressive Christian church, the message of the power of love and community is relevant and applicable to people of all faiths and people of no faith. This album is about love and community as much as it is about God. While a number of songs call God by name, other songs refer to the Divine simply as love. The songs include "Welcome At God's Table," "We Will Make it Through," "Create Community" and "What Will You Say."

When I lost my dad in February of this year to a heart attack, I committed in front of friends and family gathered as his celebration of life to making this album. Forever and aways my biggest fan, my dad implored me to record the music I shared with my local community in order to reach a wider audience. He and I shared the experience of rejection by the Church for our queerness, and so the songs in this  album are representative of our struggle. A song I wrote for him called "Serenity Prayer" acknowledges his hard work to achieve sobriety, which helped us to have an extremely close relationship in his final years. I also have included two songs written by him, "Don't Give Up" and "Younger Generation," as part of the album. My dad enjoyed the songs I shared with him through videos of my music at Church, and I dedicate this album to him.

 

To make this dream a reality, I need your help. This studio album of original songs will be recorded in Pacific Beat Recording Studio in San Diego, California. It will be produced by Grammy award winner Alan Sanderson with contributions from renowned musicians. The project is a full production costing $10,000, and I need your support to get into the studio in August. Through your financial support, we will complete the album for release this holiday season on all music streaming services (iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, etc.) as well as in physical form as a CD. Thank you for helping me to bring to fruition a project which will bring healing to LGBTQIA+ people of faith, create a songbook of social-justice music for the Church of the 21st century, and honor the life and love of my dad.