Kaeley Pruitt-Hamm: CC Vol. 1 Artist Feature
"The Canary Collective" represents the canaries in the proverbial coal mines of the world who are feeling the effects of the Earth's imbalance and distress in their bodies. We must keep singing our songs.
Suddenly bedridden from a perplexing and debilitating disease called "Environmental Illness" (and a ton of other names for her symptoms such as Lyme Disease, POTs, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, and Interstitial Cystitis) Kaeley took a pivot in her career. After working 5 years in the non-profit world as a Seattle and DC-based community organizer, Kaeley turned to music as a way to heal and connect with others in a similar boat. Kaeley quickly found she was not an anomaly and was definitely not alone - an increasingly staggering number of young people are diagnosed with autoimmune and difficult-to-treat conditions every year. When insurance did not cover all of her life-saving medical treatment, her friends and family supported her through crowdfunding and Kaeley is sustained as a disabled artist with monthly donations via Patreon.
She released an EP "Hi From Pillows" in 2017 with Local Woman Records and dreamed up and co-organized "#BedFest 2017," a virtual music and arts festival in which hundreds of other bedridden artists from around the world submitted songs and visual art expressing the pain of struggling to afford medical treatment and performed via international video conference. She also co-founded and helped organize a series called "Sick Womxn and Queers Shows" in the Pacific Northwest in which music, poetry, and interactive educational skits were used to demonstrate the importance of humans doing something to make healthcare, housing, and clean air and water more affordable and accessible to all.
With her grant-funded full-length album "The Canary Collective: Vol 1," Kaeley collaborated with more "canaries" to make a Cat Power, Joni Mitchell and Sufjan Stevens-inspired collage of poetry, songs, and quotes from other chronically ill artists such as Jen Brea of MEAction and poet Leland Chazen. Their video entry to NPR's Tiny Desk Contest in 2020 was featured on the "All Songs Considered" blog. She hopes to continue to use her music and unique performance style as a tool of encouraging dialogue around the ties between our healing bodies and our healing ecosystems on this planet.
