MINER: an evening of gratitude concert for the benefit of HD families living in poverty

On September 3, 2023, at The Lodge Room in Los Angeles, about 200 people gathered in an evening of solidarity with HD families living in poverty in Latin America, to celebrate the contributions of many of these families to the identification of the HD mutation in the 1980s and 1990s. The band MINER, led by singer Kate Miner, who is also from an HD family, performed in the first US-based fundraising event for Factor-H. You can read about her life story with HD in this link.

Jenne Cole, Kate’s sister and HD advocate, and Factor-H president, Ignacio Muñoz-Sanjuán, introduced Factor-H efforts to help families in Latin America, and showed a moving video where the lyrics of Miner’s song ‘Hey love’ framed images of the families from Venezuela that Factor-H is supporting. In the amazing venue at The Lodge Room, life-size images of 16 of the children Factor-H supports through their Abrazos program filled the walls of the concert hall. The images were taken by Venezuelan photographer Vladimir Marcano, a long-time collaborating artist of Factor-H.

Altogether we were able to raise close to $15k for the benefit of Factor-H programs assisting these families. We wanted to thank all of our supporters who donated generously for the event and those who joined us in a wonderful evening of music and solidarity. Finally, we wanted to thank the Lodge Room and the members of the Miner band for their support of this event. We could not have done this without your generosity and kindness.

Below you can find the video with the Hey Miner song blended with images from the Venezuelan HD communities, created by another long-time artist collaborator, Gindel Delgado.