Night of Giving

On Saturday, December 17, 2016 Mikail Graham will present the eleventh annual Night of Giving, a benefit for Hospitality House featuring a host of great local musicians. Performers at the event, which will take place from 4:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. in both halls at the historic Miners Foundry in Nevada City, include local favorites Paul Kamm and Eleanore MacDonald, Barwick & Siegfried, Kimberly Bass, Saul & Elena Rayo, the Nevada Union High School Choir, The Earles Of Newtown, Buck Star, Yuba Rio Hot Club, The Heifer Belles, Bob Woods, The Rattlin’ Bones, and many more.

“As this past year has been quite challenging for most of us on many levels, including a spectacularly volatile political season, we decided to emphasize community unity at this year’s Night of Giving,” said Graham. “Much of our inspiration comes from a short poem I recorded with Utah Phillips about a year before his passing called ‘What We Need.’ In barely a minute Utah gave a heartfelt rundown of what every human being needs and deserves. Full of human kindness and good common sense, his list concludes that what we need most is to be able to count on each other, with each of us contributing to the common good as best we can.”  All who attend the event will receive an elegant letterpress broadside edition of the poem “What We Need,” produced and donated by Full Circle Press.

Attendees will also hear directly from Hospitality House guests about their experience with homelessness. Dinner at the Night of Giving, prepared by students and graduates of the Hospitality House Serves culinary job-skills training program, will be available for a small donation, and there will be a no-host bar. Event-goers can also check out terrific local deals at a silent auction table and shop for curated vintage items at a special Bread & Roses Thrift corner set up at the Foundry for the evening. Suggested donation for advance tickets is $20. Children ages 12 and younger are free.

Tickets are available at the door; Bread & Roses Thrift, 840 E. Main St., Grass Valley; BriarPatch Community Co-Op; or at hhshelter.org. Sponsors include Nevada County Association of Realtors; Telestream; SPD Markets; Chan, Moon and Kirschbaum, Optometrists; Janet Peake, MBA, CFP, EA; InterWest Insurance Services-Chip Arenchild; Caliber Collision; Janet Peake, MBA, CFP, EA; Nana’s Artisan Bakery; Grass Valley Sign; Mill Street Clothing; Coldwell Banker Grass Roots; Nana’s Artisan Baker; Community 1st Bank; KVMR; KNCO; The Union; YubaNet and Nevada City Music Events.

For over a decade Mikail Graham has presented an evening of top local talent to help spread the good news about all the many services Hospitality House offers to homeless residents of Nevada County. Musician/producer Graham is a third-generation native of Nevada City and a founding broadcaster of KVMR. He has been coordinating musical events since the early 1970s and is currently the house sound manager for The Center For The Arts.

The mission of Hospitality House is to bring homeless people in Nevada County into a circle of community caring that offers shelter, sustenance, medical care, advocacy, opportunity, dignity, and hope as we assist them in transitioning from homelessness to housing. The community shelter moved into its year-round facility at Utah’s Place in December 2013. For more information about Hospitality House, go to: http://hhshelter.org.