Asheville, NC’s Community & Renaissance Asheville Hotel Come Together to Help Seriously Ill, Iconic Asheville Singer
Asheville, North Carolina (PRWEB) August 20, 2016 -- Kat Williams, one of Asheville’s hardest working musicians with more than 150 gigs a year, is used to singing her heart out on the stage, but stage 5 kidney disease has sidelined her and she finds herself relying on her friends and fans and a community she has helped support for 20 years.
Friends are working together to promote the Save Kat campaign and will hold a ticketed event
Sunday, August 21 at the Renaissance Asheville Hotel. Proceeds from the event will help to pay the rising medical bills, transportation, and research, as Williams prepares for an organ transplant.
Kat Williams was the entertainment for the hotel’s groundbreaking ceremony when the hotel became a Renaissance Hotel, and holds a special place in their history. Kat gives tirelessly of her time and talents to many of the same charitable organizations that are supported by the Renaissance Asheville Hotel.
Ms. Williams will head to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta next week for testing and to meet the medical team who would be in charge of her kidney transplant when a suitable donor is found and she is on a second list with the Duke Kidney Transplant Program at Duke University. She does not have a genetic family of her own, having been a child of the foster system in Buffalo, NY, and she is worried about finding a potential donor.
Williams found her heart’s calling at a karaoke bar in Asheville. She had no professional training, but with encouragement from friends, she started singing at Tressa’s when the jazz lounge first opened and gathered a following which led to a regular Friday night gig at Magnolia’s on Market Street. Williams went on to perform in Las Vegas and open shows for Chaka Kahn in California. She was featured on the NBC show “America’s Got Talent.” The Christian Music Hall of Fame nominated her for 2009 Urban Performer of the Year and she was nominated for an Emmy for her contribution to the “Hands of Hope” music project.
Williams has purposely focused more on performance than on a recording career. Her philosophy is simple: “I have no competition. I can only give you the best of me” and with that philosophy has put her voice to use in social causes, following in the footsteps of her musical idol, Nina Simone, who hailed from Tryon in Western North Carolina. Her favorite charity and cause is Caring for Children, based on her own hard-won experience growing up as a foster child. Williams sings each week with the Unity Church of the Blue Ridge, summoning the good old gospel sounds of her youth.
The entire community is looking ahead to a successful operation and recovery and to the next stage of Kat Williams’ career.
The Save Kat campaign fundraiser will be held 5-8 p.m. on Aug. 21 at the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Asheville. Tickets are $20 in advance with food, and music by Free Planet Radio, West Sound, and Kat’s musical friends. For tickets, click on tinyurl.com/savekatwilliams.
Wendy Whitson, a NC native, has donated a custom signature piece of art to be auctioned off at the “Save Kat Williams Fundraiser”. Her inspiration for the art is based upon the monumental challenge Kat Williams is facing and Kat’s favorite song, “Amazing Grace”
About Renaissance Asheville:
Renaissance Asheville is a full service hotel located at 31 Woodfin Ave in downtown Asheville, NC. For more information, contact the Director of Sales, Pola Laughlin, at 828-252-2711, or go online to http://www.renaissanceasheville.com.
Pola Laughlin, Renaissance Asheville Hotel, http://www.wcghotels.com, +1 (828) 210-3007, [email protected]
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