GLIDE ANNUAL HOLIDAY JAM THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2020 a Virtual Concert Benefitting GLIDE Programs and Services
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GLIDE ANNUAL HOLIDAY JAM THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2020 A Virtual Concert Benefitting GLIDE Programs and Services Artist Committee: India.Arie, Joan Baez, Lisa Fischer, Roberta Flack, Michael Franti, Goapele, Tom Johnston, Ledisi, Valerie Simpson, D’Wayne Wiggins GLIDE ANNUAL HOLIDAY JAM THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2020 A Virtual Concert Benefitting GLIDE Programs and Services Featuring performances by INDIA.ARIE • JOAN BAEZ • LISA FISCHER • MICHAEL FRANTI GOAPELE • TOM JOHNSTON • LEDISI • D’WAYNE WIGGINS Plus MINISTER OF CELEBRATION, MARVIN K. WHITE • GLIDE ENSEMBLE And our Mistress of Ceremonies RENEL BROOKS-MOON Rise Up For Change 1 Dear GLIDE Community, Welcome to GLIDE’s 2020 Holiday Jam! I can’t imagine a more fitting theme for this year thanRISE UP FOR CHANGE. This has been a challenging year for all of us. At times, it has felt like so much of what GLIDE stands for was under threat due to the health pandemic, economic fallout, and increased racial and social unrest. So many around us are struggling to meet their basic needs, feel isolated or afraid, and question the growing divisions across the nation. Guided by our values, GLIDE has responded by rising up during these difficult times. We see this happening all around us as people choose courage over fear, justice over oppression, compassion over indifference. We see hope in the face of adversity. I am so proud of the entire GLIDE community — our staff, our donors, our volunteers, our partners. We come together every day to ensure those who are most vulnerable get their needs met, achieve stability, and have a voice on their paths to transformation. GLIDE’s work has never been more important — or more in demand. During the COVID-19 crisis, we have stabilized thousands of lives and have kept a growing number of individuals and families from falling into homelessness. Tonight, we appreciate you joining us on this journey — to RISE UP with us, for those we serve. As we officially start the holiday season, thank you for your continued support and partnership. I wish you and your loved ones much peace and good health. With gratitude and appreciation, Karen J. Hanrahan President and CEO 2 GLIDE ANNUAL HOLIDAY JAM Dear GLIDE Family, I am so delighted and honored to welcome you to this year’s Holiday Jam: Rise Up for Change! We have all been adapting and adjusting these days! While crises are not welcome events, they can call forth the best in us, summoning our courage, our compassion, and our imagination; giving us the opportunity to practice grace and gratitude. At GLIDE, we have always seen that kind of strength and resiliency in the communities we serve. Our clients were already challenged by life’s stresses, and yet the challenges facing them now are truly unprecedented. It has required us to innovate with renewed energy and focus. It has required us to work together in new ways, and to see the promise of a better way even in the midst of the toughest of times. In all these efforts, we’ve found and nurtured opportunity — for reflection, for connection, for truth-telling, and ultimately, for our work to be in service of transformation toward a world that is open, equitable, just and loving enough for everyone. I am so grateful to have you with us in our work. Sincerely, Kaye Foster Chair, Board of Trustees of the Glide Foundation Rise Up For Change 3 Dear Beloved Friends: We are grateful that you have chosen to spend this evening with us. Welcome to GLIDE’s 2020 Holiday Jam — RISE UP FOR CHANGE! This year has been tumultuous as we experienced more racial injustice, more political and social divisiveness, more economic insecurity as the COVID virus infections continue to surge. GLIDE has stood steadfast amidst fear, addiction, and growing food and housing insecurity. We as a community still found ways to come together and RISE UP FOR CHANGE. For nearly six decades, GLIDE has been rising up to meet the challenges laid before us. We are proud of our legacy and are assured by the strong leadership of our President and CEO, Karen Hanrahan, our Minister of Celebration, Marvin K. White, our brilliantly diverse Board of Trustees, and our hard working GLIDE staff and a community of lay leaders — that GLIDE’s values will be carried forward even more powerfully into the future. The support of our generous community partners is more in need now than ever with even greater challenges facing us. Thank you for standing with us as we strive to build a stronger, more sustainable and transformative GLIDE for everyone who needs us. Tonight we are here to celebrate our resilience, our perseverance and the power of love. We are grateful that you help us keep going…keep standing with the poor, with communities who have faced racism, homophobia, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and cruel immigration detention. Keep rising up for social justice and equity, for body autonomy, and a better quality of life for all. Let us together, RISE UP FOR CHANGE! With gratitude and unconditional love, Rev. Cecil Williams and Janice Mirikitani Co-Founders 4 GLIDE ANNUAL HOLIDAY JAM Beloved Community, The GLIDE family is honored that you heard and answered the call, the cry and the song to RISE UP FOR CHANGE tonight! Throughout the continual assault on our dignity, our lives, and our communities, we keep being invited to lay down. But that is not who GLIDE is. We have been gathering in unconditional love. We have been healing in the midst of hurting. We have marched together, rallied together, and volunteered together. We have been feeding the hungry, showing dignity to the drug user, and helping the homeless navigate systems to survive and thrive. RISE UP FOR CHANGE is not only the theme of our Holiday Jam, it is what we know we must do. Tonight, some of the world’s most talented musicians and friends of GLIDE will sing RISE UP FOR CHANGE. We invite you to sing along because we know there is a greater likelihood that our voices will be heard when we join them together. We invite you to allow the songs into your home and meet you exactly where you are. We invite you to know that GLIDE is meeting the clients we serve where they are. We hope that you are inspired to rise with us. We hope that whatever you need to stand up to personally, that you feel supported by GLIDE to rise also. We hope that you know that we will all fall down in complacency, if we don’t RISE UP FOR CHANGE together. Let’s continue to rise, Marvin K. White. Minister of Celebration Rise Up For Change 5 Maja Kristin proudly honors Spencer Haywood for his groundbreaking legacy and advocacy work, as well as his inspiring personal story of transformation. Spencer is an NBA Hall of Famer, Olympic Gold Medalist, and celebrating 30 years in recovery! Spencer continues his work through the Spencer Haywood Foundation which supports nonprofits pursuing social justice initiatives and organizations that provide health counseling, and education, welfare, and sports development opportunities in marginalized communities. 6 GLIDE ANNUAL HOLIDAY JAM SoMa Equity is honored to celebrate Eunice Feathers, GLIDE’s Walk-In Center Manager. Eunice and her team go above and beyond the call of duty every day to serve our community with care and compassion. Thank you Eunice for your inspirational leadership and boundless love! Rise Up For Change 7 INDIA.ARIE Among the neo-classic soul artists to emerge in the early 2000s following the success of artists like D’Angelo and Lauryn Hill, Atlanta’s India.Arie was poised to make a major impact. A studied songwriter and guitar player rooted in the soul and blues of the past, as well as in positive-minded contemporary hip-hop, Arie debuted with Acoustic Soul. Rich with resonant hooks and mature lyrics — impressive, considering she had been writing songs for only five years — the album established a remarkable career that has entailed four Grammy® Awards and five consecutive placements in the Top Ten of the Billboard 200. Arie completed her follow-up, Voyage to India, in September 2002. Four years later, the singer hit number one on the all-genre Billboard 200 for the first time with Testimony: Vol. 1, Life & Relationship, which also netted her three Grammy nominations. After a hiatus from the industry, she returned to Motown, where she released her fifth consecutive Top Ten album, Songversation, in June 2013. She performed with Stevie Wonder during the Songs in the Key of Life tour and, in 2015, teamed up with Joe Sample for Christmas with Friends. Her next release was the single “Breathe” in 2016, which was inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement. The following year Arie put out her first ever EP, SongVersation: Medicine. In September 2018, she premiered her new single, “That Magic,” The song serves as the lead single from her sixth studio album titled Worthy which was released on February 15, 2019. 8 GLIDE ANNUAL HOLIDAY JAM JOAN BAEZ Nearly through with the second decade of this new millennium, Joan Baez survives as a force of nature whose musical and social influence is as incalculable as ever, almost 60 years into her career. At the heart of that career is an abiding concern for universal human rights and freedom that has earned Joan a place at the table with all those who share, or challenge, her beliefs. Joan marched on the front lines of the Civil Rights movement with Martin Luther King, Jr., from Mississippi to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at Dr.