A singer, songwriter, producer, and humanitarian, Goapele Mohlabane took the R&B and neo-soul worlds by storm in the early 2000s and as of 2024, continues to be an active musician and advocate. Born to a South African father exiled for his anti-apartheid activism and an Israeli Jewish mother, Goapele studied a Boston’st Berklee College of Music before returning to her hometown of Oakland, where she released her first album, Closer, in 2001. This album, especially its titular single, became a surprising radio success, reaching No. 63 Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. Determined to have fuller control over her burgeoning music career, Goapele formed her own independent music label, Skyblaze Recordings. Under this new label, she reworked the album for national distribution as Even Closer in 2002, followed by Change It All in 2005, Break of Dawn in 2011, Strong as Glass in 2014, Dreamseeker in 2017, and Colours in 2023. Passionate about social justice from an early age (she led a pre-teen peer support group as a child), Goapele has performed at numerous rallies and demonstrations for human rights around the world, and in 2006 the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights made her its first Human Rights Cultural Hero.