About the Author: Hope Medford

Hope has always been involved in the healing and creative arts, from visual arts and music, to sustainability education and community health. Music: The hand drummer for world roots rock band, Medicine for the People since 2007, Hope has been playing percussion for almost twenty years. Her first teacher was Babatunde Olatunje, and she has studied with master drummers in West Africa, Peru and Brazil. She is honored to use indigenous instruments on a modern stage. Hope has also facilitated drum circles and taught rhythm classes to over 2,500 participants. Hope has been the percussionist for the tribal roots rock band, Medicine for the People (nahko.com) since 2008. Art: Hope has been painting since childhood. She studied art at the university level, and has held many solo shows of her work. She often combines rich color and lines, poetry, and textures of natural earth elements to tell the story of her journeys and create worlds seen through her dreams, travels, and visions. Social Projects : Hope was a founding board member of Tryon Life Comunity Farm, an environmental education center in Portland, Oregon. She co-created their education program, which includes permaculture, natural building, sustainable energy and social justice. She has trained and worked as midwife and doula, assisting over 400 births in the U.S., Africa, and Indonesia. She created a natural birth support curriculum and taught In the U.S., Brazil and Peru. Hope is a board member of Honor the Earth, an indigenous environmental justice project, working alongside the Indigo Girls and Winona LaDuke.
  • By Published On: December 12, 2014

    "A Sensual Hip-notic journey of World beats infused with Maternal Soul..." 'Purify' is a powerful fresh sound of strong dance beats mixed with emotional layers and tapestries of percussion. The sound imbies influences from reggae to R n' B - to tribal and street roots infused with an undeniable feminine essence.

  • By Published On: February 25, 2014

    This honors the beauty & strength of mothers, from which we all come ...filmed at a traditional aboriginal birthing pool in Australia~ women visited this Ti Tree lake during labor and birthed here, cleansed and purified by the natural Ti Tree oils in the water.

  • By Published On: January 21, 2014

    Choreographer, Neille Arnold, created this dance to expresses the journey and struggle of a woman seeking her voice, and finding her power through the drum. It was performed live on stage at -SHEbeats- Hope's CD release party in Minneapolis June 2013.