Urban Farming was founded
by Taja Sevelle in 2005. The mission of this charity is to eradicate hunger and
the organization is now the official charity of Atlantic Records. Taja
has had 3 years of experience working on a potato farm, which included discing
and plowing fields, driving trucks, lifting 100 lb potato sacks onto semi-trucks,
cutting potatoes for seed, planting and harvesting. The farm was certified for
seed potato in the last year that Taja worked there, which familiarized her with
some of the sanitation processes necessary to become certified to sell seed.
Taja
is no stranger to hard work and rural life. When she was in fifth grade, her parents
left the city for a year and home schooled her in their cabin in the wilderness.
The winter temperatures would fall regularly between 20 to 40 below zero (f) and
there was no road access, no running water or electricity. (No television, no
radio.) Her family brought water from the lake in buckets and during the harsh
winter months an ice auger was used to hand drill through 2 feet of solid ice,
whereupon the water was ladled into buckets and hauled back to the cabin. When
she returned to public school in sixth grade she was a year ahead of her classmates.
Initially, Taja Sevelle wanted to become a botanist, but her life took a turn
when she decided to become a recording artist and was signed by Prince.
-Taja
Sevelle graduated from high school close to a year ahead of her class and subsequently
signed a recording contract with Prince in the same week she was accepted
into the Berkeley College of Music in Boston. -The first song she wrote,
'Love is Contagious', became a #3 hit in England and was in the
top 5 in 15-20 cities in the United States. She has made six music videos, recorded
three cds and one ep and toured in eight countries, garnering rave reviews in
People, Billboard, Time Out New York and many more.
-Taja
Sevelle has song catalogs that are co-published by Warner/Chappell Music Publishing
as well as North Star Media. Her current and future songwriting is published by
her publishing company, O.W. Music Publishing. She was a songwriter for Warner/Chappell
Music Publishing and has written for Johnny Mathis with co-writers Burt Bacharach
and Denise Rich and has collaborated with other songwriting legends such as Thom
Bell, Prince and Nile Rodgers to name only a few.
-Taja
invented a kitchen appliance which is currently being manufactured and is targeted
for release on QVC Her partners on this project are Larry King (CNN) and his
wife Shawn King.
-
Miss Sevelle has written a 400 page novel, 'Rain On A River', and has started
writing her second novel, 'The Joke', as well as an autobiography and a biography
about her Godmother who lives in Detroit, Michigan.
-She
has worked as a radio DJ a program producer and a radio news reporter. Taja produced
a weekly radio program on food and nutrition just prior to garnering her recording
contract with Prince. She also managed a Health Food store during that
time.
Taja about Global Warming: http://www.stopglobalwarming.org/campaigns/sgw/bio/tajasevelle
Taja Sevelle: www.tajasevelle.com