TGF - Pop Fundraiser

The Traveling Guitar Foundation is focused on inspiring and educating children through music by ensuring that their schools’ music programs remain available to them. Outside of his philanthropic endeavors, Damon Marks is a guitarist and songwriter who has performed and recorded with a diverse range of notable musicians over the course of his career including Bret Michaels, Beyonce, Melanie Fiona, Marco Mendoza and Elle Varner. As a performer, Damon has also garnered national recognition for his work as a touring guitarist on Alicia Keys’ Freedom Tour. Damon also helmed and played lead guitar for the female-fronted rock band, Lipstick Magazine. In his work with the Foundation, Damon has displayed the same passion, energy, business acumen that helped propel his career in the music industry. Initially, Damon and other TGF Board Members helped the Foundation establish a substantial presence in the New York tri state area. In the New York area alone, Damon has appeared a live guest on WABC TV, NBC, FOX 5, NJ12 TV, and WPIX CW11 Morning News. He has also appeared on radio stations such as Z100, Power 105, Q104.3 and 103.5 KTU. However, the Foundation has also recently established a national presence, holding educational guitar clinics and school assemblies in California, Georgia, Florida and Pennsylvania. The Foundation also bolstered its national profile by staging outdoor concerts at Guitar Center locations and appearing at the 2011 Warped Tour. During this time, Damon has interfaced with superstar athletes and musicians who have taken notice of the Foundation’s mission and work, such as Alicia Keys, Allan Houston, David Tyree, and Dikembe Mutombo. The Traveling Guitar Foundation has also secured and maintained sponsorships with ESP Guitars, Marriott Hotels, Line 6, Guitar Center, Jim Dunlop and Mogami Cable. People of Poetry Foundation (POP) is a New Jersey non-profit dedicated to spreading the literary art of poetry and spoken word through our live performances and workshop programs to our youths in public and private schools, those in mental health locked facilities, rehab facilities, group homes and support groups. Through our partnerships with Traveling Guitar Foundation (TGF) in their dedication to keep music education in schools around the country and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and its 1500 affiliates nationwide including Puerto Rico and Canada, along with Project Return Peer Support Group (PRPSN) and their 120 mental health support groups in Los Angeles County, POP is able to maintain its vision in showcasing through various outlets how poetry and its essence is not only at the very heart of all creative expression and therefore crucial in its modern exposure to our youths but also an effective tool in coping with various emotional and mental health challenges. Its founder, Yashi Brown, is a poetess, public speaker, and mental health advocate with a newly released book of poetry, “Black Daisy in a White Limousine”. She is an official national advocate for NAMI, the most formidable grassroots organization and preeminent voice on Capitol Hill for mental health and Treasurer for Project Return Peer Support Group an extension of Mental Health Amercia (MHA) Los Angeles. In addition, Yashi has brought on board world renowned Tony Award winning poet “Poetri”,co-founder of the largest spoken word venue in the country, Da Poetry Lounge, in helping to advance POP’s mission in sharing this amazing and highly diverse art form.