Lea Gilmore, Music, Culture and Ministry

Jack Dappa Blues Heritage Preservation Radio

Lea Gilmore, Minister for Racial Justice and Multicultural Engagement, First Service Music Director, and First Lady of the Church speaks with us about her journey in music, faith, and the advocacy of racial justice.

Lea Gilmore is a blues, gospel, and jazz singing civic activist. a recipient of the Blues Foundation’s W. C. Handy Award: Keeping the Blues Alive and was named as one of 25 “Women Shaping the World” by Essence Magazine. She was featured in the October 2005 Leadership' issue.

Over the past eight years, Gilmore has lent her voice to support the cause of ridding third world countries in Africa of leprosy and TB by headlining Gospel concerts in Europe, sponsored by the Damien Foundation, a Belgium-based nonprofit, appearing before 300,000 in concerts throughout Belgium alone. A former deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland and Program Director for the Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers, Gilmore has testified before local, state, and federal commissions on issues ranging from immigration laws to civil rights and liberties of women of color.

Ms. Gilmore is the founder and director of “Umoja (meaning "Unity" in Swahili) Musica,” an international effort promoting non-violence, peace, and human rights, embracing the power and reach of African-American traditional music in union with the traditional music of other cultures. The critically acclaimed first CD, "Umoja Gaelica" featured award-winning African American musicians and traditional musicians from Scotland, Northern Ireland, and England, singing songs of freedom and hope. The project will be reprised and recorded in 2020 in Scotland, with a focus on youth participation.

Lea also hosts MUSIC MONDAY @ GOVANS!

For more information contact [e-mail] https://www.aclu.org/lea-gilmore https://leagilmore.net/about

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