Singer- Songwriters are an odd sort of group. They see life and
the world around them differently. Everything is a song. They find
solace in conveying their feelings and emotions by writing lyrics
and putting them to music. They speak from their hearts and dig
deep into their souls to capture and convey life events and
stories expecting nothing in return but to touch another spirit,
to get a reaction or a laugh, or to share a feeling with anyone
who will listen. Songwriters For A Cause came about for two
reasons. The first was the desire for songwriters to share their
art. That’s what we do. But most importantly, because we
recognized that there was a need to do something to help a
struggling organization keep afloat so that they can keep doing
what they are doing, something that is so desperately needed and
often overlooked. Domestic violence is all around us. We are all
affected somehow. Someone we know, or something we’ve gone
through, and there are still women and children out there that
have no place to go because there are not enough shelters and
homes out there doing the work. And those that are doing what they
can struggle for every penny to stay open. Cup O’Karma:
Community Cafe for a Cause helps transition those in the program
to become self-sufficient by providing training and work
experience to those ready to go out into the world. Cup O'Karma is
one of the programs operated by the National Advocacy &
Training Network, a grass roots, AZ based non profit group. The
Cup also allows singer-songwriters to showcase their talents with
weekly open mics and personal performances that give us the
opportunity to do what we do and to also support the organization
at the same time.
As both a victim of domestic violence and a singer-songwriter, I
am very appreciative of the work that is being done and feel very
at home at the Cup. When I was a young child in the midst of the
chaos that is brought on by domestic violence, there was no place
to go. You didn’t talk about it. As a young child, I thought
everyone lived like that. As an adult I know no one should EVER
live like that. NATN SEEDS is doing everything in their power to
make sure that no one will live like that again. And as I became
more involved with the entertainment part of Cup O’Karma, I
wanted to do more. But what could I do? I’m a singer-songwriter.
And what do singer-songwriters do? They write songs, so I wrote
one. I dug deep and I spoke the words that were eating me inside
for so many years. I set them free in a song, “IN THE CLOSET”,
and that became my song for the Cup, for my journey. From that,
other songwriters wanted to write songs to support the cause and
thus Songwriters For A Cause was born. After such a wonderful
response for the idea that began to flourish, we decided to put
all those songs together on a cd, songs about domestic violence,
about relationships, about recovery, about growth, and then we
would sell the cd to help this very deserving cause, hopefully our
first cause of many.
Songwriters For A Cause is proud to present our very first cd,
“AND FROM THE DARKNESS THERE IS LIGHT” featuring 16 songs from
19 different artists supporting the NATN/SEEDS program.