Share My Life with KEM in conversation with Gary Graff

We’re thrilled to welcome Detroit raised, Grammy Award–nominated artist KEM to our West Bloomfield store to talk about his memoir in conversation with award-winning music journalist Gary Graff!

"KEM is part of a lineage of the greatest musical artists to come out of Detroit -- a guy who's all about the craft and the art rather than the spectacle of being a star. The result has been a catalog of consistently strong and always advancing music, much of it drawn from the surprising life story that he reveals to us in Share My LIfe."- Gary Graff

This event is free to attend. However it helps us in planning to receive your RSVP. Please register here so we know you plan to join us: https://sb-kem-wb.eventbrite.com

About the Book
Grammy Award–nominated artist KEM shares his life in this revealing and remarkable memoir tracing his transformative journey from homelessness to gold-selling artist.

Known for his smooth affecting crooning and dapper style, KEM’s journey to the stage is nothing short of inspiring. In Share My Life, KEM goes back to the very beginning before his time to introduce his grandmother who worked as a sharecropper in the South and had thirteen children. As KEM’s family rises from the sharecropping and ultimately lands in Detroit, there is an unspoken mantra of “hard things are better left unsaid,” which has devastating consequences down the line. And so, KEM grows up in the midst of an impenetrable silence. His mother is never without a beer in her hand, and his relationship with his father is oddly tense. Emotionally starved, KEM internalizes harmful feelings, eventually spiraling to drug use in his search for relief.

At nineteen, KEM is homeless, roaming the cold Detroit streets. In the overly bright AA halls, KEM comes across men like himself verbalizing their feelings. The meetings helped him discover his own voice, using music as an outlet that has since touched millions.

In Share My Life, KEM chronicles his incredible journey of self-discovery. The young boy who struggled with feelings of worthlessness becomes a man willing to put everything on the line for his dream.

About the Author:
For all of his life, KEM has been driven by music and the emotions involved in bringing it to life. Today, the internationally renowned R&B singer/songwriter has to his credit: one platinum-selling album (KEM: Album II); two gold-selling albums (Kemistry; Intimacy); three Grammy nominations; five #1 hit singles (“Love Calls,” “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” “Why Would You Stay,” “It’s You,” and “Nobody”), along with several sold-out national tours and international shows. He is the author of Share My Life. 

David Ritz is a songwriter who has collaborated with stars like Janet Jackson and Marvin Gaye, as well as a renowned ghostwriter who has authored more than fifty books for some of the biggest stars in music: Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Ray Charles, Lenny Kravitz, Joe Perry, Smokey Robinson, Don Rickles, and Willie Nelson, to name a few. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Essence, People, Art Connoisseur, and elsewhere. He lives in Los Angeles with Roberta, his wife of nearly fifty years.

About the Conversationalist: 
Gary Graff is an award-winning music journalist based in Detroit. He is a regular contributor to Billboard, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Media News Group, Ultimate Classic Rock, Consequence, and other publications, as well as to radio stations in Detroit and Milwaukee. He is the author of Alice Cooper at 75; co-author of Neil Young: Long May You Run,  Rock 'n' Roll Myths: The True Stories Behind the Most Famous Legends, and Travelin' Man: On the Road and Behind the Scenes with Bob Seger; and the series editor of the MusicHound Essential Album Guides. He is also co-founder and co-producer of the Emmy Award-winning Detroit Music Awards. Graff lives in Beverly Hills, Michigan.