Times are scary. Harmony heals harm.

Pledge $1 or more to sustain my medical treatment monthly and you will get to download my new "Hi From Pillows" EP of 7 songs PLUS you'll get access to all of my songs from 2016. Good deal.

Do you believe in what I do (including organizing uplifting shows with my new band "manybest")? If you become a patron of my music by pledging a dollar or more per song (I post two songs per month), you will be allowing me to keep my body upright enough to play music. My medical treatment is not fully covered by insurance (big surprise) and thus is costing several thousand dollars per month for me to afford medicine that helps me be able to sit upright in a chair and use my fingers to write and play instruments. I believe that everyone deserves a fair shot at safe housing, medicine to make them better, clean water to drink and air to breathe, and a feeling of safety. I believe we can build a a world in which not just the rich can have those things, but in order to continue making songs and aiding in the movement for that world, I need a foundation of support from you all. By setting up a recurring payment system, Patreon gives artists a predictable income flowing from a few bucks coming from a lot of people rather than relying on one-time fundraiser donations on sites like GoFundMe or million dollar loans. Since I'm not able to work a desk job while going through treatment, this is one of my only shots. So pledge a few bucks and you'll support my work in the world in addition to getting access to scores of all of my music videos, lyrics, and protest songs. Think of Patreon as “people’s insurance” - insuring we have a future with art, love, and justice for all.

Follow my projects on Facebook and Instagram @KPHMusic

My Story: Why Do I Need Thousands of $ Per Month?:
In summer 2014 I moved from Seattle to Washington, DC to start my dream job training youth in advocacy on national policy issues and was LOVING IT. Getting paid to do something you love that feeds to a more just world - pretty, sweet, right? I also was pursuing my dream of being a musician in a more committed way than ever and life felt like a dream. I got a bug bite while camping in WV, though, and suddenly, my plans were thwarted. Mid-action, I ran out of steam and my body started shutting down. It took the doctors a while to figure out what was going on and why my body was fizzling, but finally I was diagnosed with an illness affecting my heart, brain, and joints. It's called late-stage Lyme disease. You can read more about the disease here and sexism and racism in healthcare exacerbating chronic illness epidemics here. Insurance isn't covering my medical bills. Pesky illness! Pesky medical issues! Getting in the way of my plans to make a career out of social justice work and music!

My medical treatment has so far been successful and I'm making progress, but I've still got a long ways to go. I'm trying to raise enough money that I can count on every month from lovely, generous people like you, in exchange for me continuing doing something that may be valuable to society that I can also do from bed as I heal: creating and facilitating tunes that people can listen to, sing along to, chant in the streets with, and generally use to process this wounded world we're living in as we work for a better, more just one. The money I get from you all won't go to fancy guitar distortion pedals or microphones; I'm a fan of a lo-fi production process anyway and record most of my songs on Garageband from bed, with donated work from recording producers and collaborating musicians. Instead, I desperately need that money for life-giving medicine that I would not be able to do hardly anything without.

If you become a "patron" of my music on Patreon, it means you are pledging to sustain my work with a certain amount of money that will charge automatically to your account every time I post a song on this site for "patrons only." I will try to post about 1-2 songs/videos per month, but you can set a maximum limit per month according to what your income allows. Songs I write may cover topics ranging from climate justice to income inequity, feminism to war. And if you donate $50 or more per song, I will write songs at your request! Need a song for your next food justice rally? Or want a song with which to serenade your sweetie? I got you. Oh, and I might write some songs that aren't explicitly about social justice, too. They might be about my own personal journey (and yet the personal is political, right?)

Thank you so much for your support! And even if you can't give money - no worries! The most helpful thing you can still do is to share this page and spread the word.

“You can't help it. An artist's duty, as far as I'm concerned, is to reflect the times.” - Nina Simone

"If there's a world here in a 100 years, one of the main reasons will be music. It can leap over barriers of politics...religion...and race...and people who never thought they'd be doing things together will be listening in and joining on the same song." - Pete Seeger