Support this fundraiser
Hello,
from Denise Padilla, Sarah Dawson and other friends of Kamara Thomas.
Kamara is a radiant force in our lives. Her art, music, mothering, and deep love for community are threads in a tapestry that continues to touch many friends, family, collaborators and community members, and right now she needs us.
This past June, Kamara learned the devastating news that the breast cancer for which she underwent a left breast mastectomy and chemotherapy in 2022, had returned– this time metastasized into her lymph nodes and shoulder tissue, stage 3.
Specifically, it is Triple Negative Stage 3 cancer, which means that it's more aggressive and harder to treat with hormone therapies or targeted drugs used for other types of breast cancer. This new diagnosis means that her cancer is more invasive and dangerous than in the past.
Two weeks ago, a flurry of tests– bone scans, MRIs, CT scans, and ultrasounds– determined that while her cancer had metastasized, it remained regional and had not spread to her organs or bones.
A huge sigh of relief, but the reality is still daunting: Kamara faces a much longer process than last time, including:
- 5 months of chemotherapy + immunotherapy treatments
Followed by:
- Surgery
Followed by:
- More chemotherapy
Each stage brings fatigue, nausea, pain, and vulnerability that make even everyday tasks a challenge for her and her children.
A Fierce Comeback
After her first battle with breast cancer in 2022, Kamara hit the ground running. She dove headfirst back into life. She released her Tularosa album and presented theater work at a summer residency at Santa Fe Art Institute. Then for the next two academic years, she commuted back and forth from Durham to New Jersey to work as a Princeton University Arts Fellow-- teaching songwriting and multidisciplinary storytelling, presenting her storyworks Tularosa and Xulgaria, and pouring her experience into socially-engaged creative work with Princeton students and Trenton, NJ high-school students.
Since her Princeton fellowship ended last summer, Kamara been been a busy artist, returning to her alma mater The College of William and Mary for a residency, and teaching music and theater to K-12 students in Hyde County, NC. She has also been re-rooting herself back home in Durham, NC, performing and being a force for artist advocacy through her project Country Soul Songbook, farming in community at Tierra Negra Farm, teaching somatic voice work and facilitating communal art-making and healing.
Kamara was planting the seeds for her future, with visions of creating a Durham-based performance company and starting a small business. Just as she was settling in and regaining her ground, on June 12, 2025, everything was upended with this latest cancer diagnosis.
How Your Donation Helps:
Kamara’s presence – her body, mind, and spirit – IS her work. As an independent artist and musician, her income depends heavily on contract and gig work, and her ability to show up in person for teaching and facilitation. But now, with chemotherapy and surgery ahead, not to mention immune-compromised status for the next 9 months, all of her income streams will be interrupted.
Every contribution - big or small - makes a direct impact and will go swiftly and directly to Kamara. We've set the current goal at $37K to cover the most immediate needs, but we will likely need to increase this amount as Kamara's treatment and recovery unfolds. We invite you to check back for updates and donate along the way.
Your donations will help with:
- Cost of medical care: insurance and deductibles, chemotherapy, surgery, ongoing medical appointments, possible emergency needs and medications, none of which are optional.
- Helping to financially stabilize her household by providing lost income and living expenses (groceries, gas, house maintenance, monthly bills) for her and her children during the next 5 months of chemo treatment, and the following 4 months including surgery and additional chemo, plus possible additional months of recovery.
- Supporting Kamara’s artistic practice while she’s unable to work at full capacity.
- Wellness expenses outside of insurance that will help Kamara maintain and recover her health.
Kamara remains fierce in her determination to survive. She wants to use this journey as food for artmaking, to remain a powerful mother to Cherokee and Isis, and to keep creating bodies of transformative work, not just for herself, but for her community.
Once Kamara is a little further along in this process, she will launch a Substack where she will be writing about her experiences and where you can offer sustained support through a subscription.
Kamara’s life, art, and love have touched many of you reading this right now. For those who haven’t met her, we hope you will soon. Let’s stand with her now, in this moment when she needs us most. Please donate today and share this widely with your networks!
In loving community,
Denise and Sarah
Organizer and beneficiary
Kamara Thomas-Hartin
Beneficiary