Still We Rise: GLIDE Comes Together in Celebration
Still We Rise: GLIDE Comes Together in Celebration
November 18, 2021 was a day of hope and joyful reunion as the GLIDE community gathered in-person for the first time in two years, at GLIDE’s major fundraising event, the Holiday Jam.
The 2021 GLIDE Annual Holiday Jam: Still We Rise returned as a modified in-person event that brought the community together for music, storytelling, and celebration to support GLIDE’s comprehensive programs and services to help more people off the streets and out of poverty, center equity and build empathy to bring about lasting change in San Francisco.
After two years of social isolation, the Jam saw record turnout and earned the accolade of one of the most attended fundraising events in GLIDE history. Thanks to the incredible generosity of our donors, GLIDE not only reached its fundraising goal but exceeded it by raising more than $1,200,000 in support of GLIDE’s life-changing programs and services.
This year’s musical guests included 10-time Grammy winner and legendary artist Bobby McFerrin, three-time Grammy awardee and Oakland’s own Fantastic Negrito, and the renowned and uplifting GLIDE Ensemble and Change Band under the direction of Vernon Bush. Renel Brooks-Moon served as the Mistress of Ceremonies, as she has done for the last thirty years of Holiday Jams.
The event was dedicated to GLIDE Co-Founder and Holiday Jam creator Janice Mirikitani, who passed away in July 2021. In her opening remarks, President and CEO Karen Hanrahan honored the memory of Janice Mirikitani as a cherished teacher, poet, friend, and fearless and mighty force for justice.
Hanrahan also invited attendees and those watching via livestream to join GLIDE in an ever-deeper partnership to help bring lasting change not only to our city but to the world. “Our core values, unconditional love, and radical inclusion have transformed millions of lives through the years. We are all in this room tonight because we can’t imagine our lives without those values. We can’t imagine our lives without GLIDE. And we can’t imagine not giving our all to make the world out there, like the world in here.”
