I live in the North Carolina Piedmont. I write songs, think deeply about landscape and place, befriend trailside plants and animals, spend time with our rivers, collect sounds, and try to not get spun out by the madness of our times. This site is a simple place to keep track of the different projects that come and go. Most of my creative work sits somewhere between music, writing, and audio production, along with occasional volunteer and community efforts which may or may not appear here.
A Little Background
When I was sixteen, my father and I survived a plane crash in the mountains of Colorado. After three months in the hospital, spent a long time in recovery of my body and then my soul. I go back periodically to the plane crash site to retrieve parts of my soul and psyche that were scattered to the mountain and the aspen trees.
That experience shaped much of what followed. It led to years of exploration of different spiritual traditions, trying on different costumes, and constantly changing the lenses I was wearing to square with my intense and painful experiences. I have been a yoga and meditation teacher, a chant leader, a podcast and radio host, a speaker and workshop facilitator, a community practice social worker and a administrator in nonprofits and in higher education. That early experience of facing death, PTSD, and a brain injury, continue to inform the way I think about resilience, attention, the preciousness of life and the ways people care for one another and our home.
A couple things below that may be of interest, I don’t know.
#FaceEquality
I am an advocate for the #FaceEquality movement. As a burn survivor with facial differences, I have direct experience with the discomfort and discrimination of having a visible difference in an appearance-focused society. James Partridge, founder of Changing Faces and Face Equality International, called this having a “distinguished appearance”. I always liked his positive spin on everything. James was a hero of mine and, briefly, a friend. He passed in 2020, but not before he could get Face It: Facial Disfigurement and My Fight for Face Equality off the press. I highly recommend it and his seminal book Changing Faces: The Challenge of Facial Disfigurement, which was a boon for me in the hospital. I still occasionally work with Face Equality International, an organization that I love dearly. It is one way to keep in touch with this great man’s legacy. Read my piece about James shortly after learning about his passing.
The NC Jaycee Burn Center’s Aftercare Program, the Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors, and Charlene Pell’s Facing Forward, inc. have been other important organizations for support and edification. I have worked with them for two decades now. I encourage you to check them out.
Burn Endowment
Through the generous startup funding from my hometown community in Rocky Mount, NC, and the forethought of Catherine and David Combs, my parents, I oversee a small endowment in my name. This fund The Blake Tedder Burn Endowment supports burn prevention and fire safety education, victims and their families in the recovery from burn injury, and therapeutic support for burn survivors through small grants ($250-$1500). I disburse funds annually to one or a few orgs: the North Carolina Jaycee Burn Center Aftercare Program, the Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors, Face Equality International, the North Carolina Firefighters Burned Children’s Fund, and fire department safety programming.
If moved, you can make a gift to this endowment here. Thank you.
News / Articles
6/2022 – WRAL.com – Medical marijuana bill stalls in North Carolina. Why cannabis advocates are frustrated
5/2022 – Journey Magazine – What to Expect: Getting Back Out There (p. 20)
8/2021 – News of Orange – Plane crash survivor tributes those who helped him1/2020 – Carolina Country – Retired Chaplain Embodies the Spirit of the NC Jaycee Burn Center
3/8/2019 – Chapelboro.com – Chapel Hill Fire Crews Discouraging Potential for Bonfires [Video]
6/3/2014 – UNC School of Social Work Magazine – Two MSW students turn life-altering experiences into advocacy for others
7/18/2011 – WRAL – Carrboro man to return to scene of plane crash [Video]
6/30/2011 – Private Website – Burn Survivor Camps are the Best Medicine for Children with Severe Burns
5/21/2011 – WRAL – Camp for burn victims helps build confidence [Video]
7/18/2009 – WRAL – Carrboro man recalls treatment at Jaycee Burn Center [Video Missing]
The Blake Tedder & Friends Annual Charity Crimmus Jam 2004-2008, 2015
Annually, from 2004 to 2008, dear friends and community partners in my hometown Rocky Mount helped me put on a charity concert raising money for the Blake Tedder Burn Endowment. It started as a fun way to bring our large community of high school friends back together during the holiday break during our college years. Each year the concerts got bigger and bigger and featured some of our areas “top” musicians (yeah right). We can’t vouch for the quality of the music, but the memories and fellowship were what it was all about. We rebooted the Crimmus Jam in 2015 for sweet reunion. Some of my favorite memories are from playing on stage with some of my favorite people from our early days of making music. You know who you are. And I love you.
