“This show ends up being a journey. You may be seeing this in your hometown, but leave feeling you’ve been somewhere,” Chavez said.
She’ll take audiences on that concert trip at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Clark State Performing Arts Center, which is sponsoring the show as part of its Club Kuss series of more intimate concerts.
Though she hails from Texas, Chavez’s grandfather is a Buckeye, who was living in the Cleveland area, where he met her grandmother. She looks forward to performing here Thursday as her visits here have been limited.
“I love meeting people through my travels. There’s joy everywhere I go and I’m excited to return to Ohio,” Chavez said.
Having traveled the world, Chavez has used her music and other means to uplift other women, sometimes reflecting on her own experiences. When not performing, she and her wife do charitable work for places like El Salvador.
Despite being in a gang-infested area, they went on a mission trip there in 2009-10 to teach English in schools where many of the young women wanted to go to college but had no means and began filling that gap, seeing more equality and establishing a college fund.
“When people are living in their light, we have a better world,” she said. “Art is meant to reflect life, it’s where my music comes from. I’ve experienced what it means to make myself small in the worked and done some deprogramming to express my light.”
At the show, she’ll share her stories about her life, work and music, things she said people can connect to.
Like many other performing artists, Chavez found the COVID-19 pandemic a tough time as she could only perform online and appreciates live shows and wants to Clark State crowd to be part of that feeling.
“It’s important for us to connect and I love performing live and give an unforgettable show, taking an audience on a journey and I appreciate the energy a live audience gives, which I didn’t get doing that online. The presence of humans in a room is a beautiful exchange,” she said.
But it doesn’t end there. Just as, if not more, satisfying is meeting the audience after a performance.
“My favorite part is talking and shaking hands, asking about their lives and hearing stories from people and sharing a beautiful story. That’s what in it for me,” she said.
This concert will round out the Clark State Performing Arts Center’s 2024-2025 season. The Club Kuss series offers seating closer to the stage and complimentary desserts as part of the experience.
Tickets cost $20 each or $10 for students with proper ID. For more information, go to pac.clarkstate.edu/shows/2024-2025/.
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