Spero is a musician, educator, land steward, community organizer & currently a grateful visitor of Lenape lands (mid-Hudson Valley, NY). Her life work spans the land-music-youth triangle, her passions a guide to her offerings. Since 2020, her business project True Foods has built a local community of land stewards who grow, preserve & share food as a practice in self-determination and collective health.

She is a performing musician, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, playing stages, farms, homes & venues across the NE region. Her love of West African rhythm has deeply influenced her musical tastes and style, blending traditional rhythms with soulful, ethereal melodies. DearKeeper, her latest duo project with her beloved partner, Josh Hines, is a folk/neo-soul duo inspired by nature & the magic of living on spaceship Earth. Weaving luscious harmonies with rhythmic finger-style guitar, they create a tranquil, contemplative atmosphere sure to move you.

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Born in Philly & pre-schooled in Tokyo, I spent the rest of my childhood in a preparatory school on South shore of O’ahu. My mother raised me on steady fix of classic Motown, folk & soul. I got my musical start listening to music from the 60’s & 70’s; the spiritual awakening, cultural renaissance… the timeless, permeating, undeniable era of solidarity, heightened consciousness, and peaceful resistance form the bedrock of my own musical aspirations and creations.

In 2012, I earned my BS in Brain and Cognitive Science from MIT; although fascinated by animal behavior, psychology and neurological phenomenon, I quickly left academia in search of a more grounded and balanced approach to life. Over the years I’ve rediscovered and grown to love the practices of my ancestors — growing food, cooking, teaching and learning from young people & loving our way to collective freedom.

I’ve worked with young people & music across the country — public schools in downtown Honolulu - a Director position with the Mosaic Program serving children from largely White, low-density, low-income populations in southern Vermont - annually at the Appalachian Institute for Creative Learning for youth who don’t fit in with traditional models of schooling in the foothills or North Carolina - “breakout session” leader at the Boston’s Children Choir (MA) summer program which hosts kids from the housing projects of East Boston. Recently I’ve become enamored with the Sudbury School model of education; I believe in giving children the space and time to explore their intuitions and imaginations in a safe, non-hierarchical environment. Children can (and do) learn quite a lot without adult punishment or approval. They are the most deeply entrenched in the workings of their own choosing and design. It is this creative, curious spirit in all of us which gives us the ability to connect with our inner nature and devise solutions to new problems. In my interactions with young people, I strive to first and foremost, listen and learn from them, to respect their unique and creative ideas and foster their spontaneity.

One of my main studies is Sabar, a style of traditional Senegalese percussion. I studied under master drummer, Lamine Touré, Wolof Griot, son of Marie Sow — and Patricia Tang, ethnomusicologist and author of “Masters of the Sabar: Wolof Griot Percussionists of Senegal”. During college, I rose as a student leader in Rambax MIT, the school’s percussion group. I’ve traveled to Senegal three times with the group to study sabar in it’s indigenous context with Griot families. Earlier this year (2020) I visited the Dagara Music Center in Accra, Ghana for the first time to study Ewe and Dagara tradition with the Woma family to gain another perspective on West African music and culture.

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Spero has performed in a multitude of venues from Lincoln Center with Gamelan Galak Tika, the ICA in Boston, to the bush in Kaolak, Senegal. She has sung with "The Long Count", a "rock opera" multi-media installation by Matthew Richie featuring Aaron and Bryce Dessner (The National), Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond) and Evan Ziporyn (MIT’s Center for Art, Science & Technology) and played bass with Billy Wylder, a 4-piece folk-rock band based out of Boston with sensibilities from the Sahara Desert.