Leigh Blake

Leigh Blake
Founder and President

For more than 30 years, Leigh Blake has been an advocate, harbinger and creator of the arts from music and film, to fashion and the visual arts. Blake has unleashed all of her expertise to combat the issue she believes will define our generation: AIDS

Having worked in at a publishing house, as a make up artist, as an Artists Agent, a journalist, and a PR – all before the age of 24 – Blake befriended Talking Heads on their first tour of the U.K. As a fan and friend, Blake helped market the band in England.  The punk movement was in its heyday and Leigh was inspired by the movement particularly in England where many young people revolted against the class system and created a movement that sought to dismantle such disparity.  From there she worked with Talking Heads in the US and became part of a scene that included Patti Smith, The Ramones, Andy Warhol, Jean Michel Basquiat, Debbie Harry to name just a few.

Missing England she returned to work at the most famous fashion house in London, Browns, where she began her fashion obsession.
In 1986, her film career started in earnest as producer on a short film on the legendary highway Route 66, directed by cinematographer Ed Lachman, and made for the PBS series “Imagining America.” The film was very well reviewed and Leigh returned to England flush with the experience to head up the music video division at the legendary Palace Pictures, working with Nik Powell, Stephen Woolley and Joanne Sellar. At that time Harvey Weinstein was sniffing around trying to figure out how to create a distribution company with independent films.  Many years later and back in America, Leigh would go on to co-develop and associate produce Larry Clark’s controversial first feature “Kids” with Gus van Sant.

While her creative career was thriving, AIDS was starting to gravely affect Leigh’s peers in the arts. Leigh turned her creative prowess to making a difference and co-founded the Red Hot Organization, the seminal music industry initiative that raised funds for HIV/AIDS research and education by bringing together top artists such as David Byrne, Madonna, Annie Lennox, U2, k.d. lang, Jim Jarmusch, Wim Wenders, Jonathan Demme, Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger and many others to collaborate on music and television productions. Leigh produced the first Red Hot projects “Red Hot + Blue” and “Red Hot + Dance” from Palace Pictures in London. “Red Hot + Blue” was a triumph as the first AIDS benefit produced through the music industry. It was seen in more than 60 countries, raised millions, was aired on ABC as the first AIDS benefit on American television and was nominated for an Emmy.  Red Hot + Dance was also very successful and included the legendary supermodel collaboration “Too Funky” by George Michael.

In 2001 Leigh became more involved with Africa. Her experience with the Red Hot organization and her travels in Africa, led Leigh to create, and serve as Executive Director of Artists Against AIDS Worldwide (AAAW), an organization dedicated to the eradication of AIDS in Africa. In 2001 Leigh conceived a campaign that featured a star-studded remake of Marvin Gaye’s classic song “What’s Going On” at its cornerstone. Urged on by her Co-Executive Producer and dear friend Bono, more than 40 artists including Destiny’s Child, Fred Durst, Nona Gaye, Alicia Keys, Ja Rule, Jennifer Lopez, Nelly, Nelly Furtado, Nas, Diddy, ?uestlove, Britney Spears, Staind, Wyclef Jean, Eve, Lil Kim and Christina Aguilera signed on for the remake of the song, as well as participate in a “making of” documentary of the project made in conjunction with Executive Producers Gary Goetzman and Tom Hanks and their company, Playtone.

With money raised from her work with Red Hot + Blue, Leigh began the building of a clinic in Kenya in partnership with New York University Medical Centre,  which has become a model for many other clinics Leigh would go on to build and support all over Africa.

In 2003 Leigh officially founded Keep a Child Alive, (KCA) to provide vitally needed anti retroviral medicine to children and families with AIDS in the impoverished world. She created Keep a Child Alive, reinventing and modernizing the model of charitable organizations with the amazing Alicia Keys.  Keep a Child Alive remains a modern version of the charitable response to AIDS and will always feel in your face, irreverent and ever changing.”

Alicia and Leigh are a formidable team with Leigh providing the AIDS background and producing expertise and Alicia using her considerable talents to be the voice for those who are affected by AIDS and drawing business attention to the organization.

Keep a Child Alive has a record for firsts. KCA was the first NGO to ask the public for donations to specifically fund the AIDS treatment that people so desperately needed. Then, KCA created the beautiful documentary Alicia in Africa: Journey to the Motherland, which became the first film of its kind to be made available on the Internet for free worldwide on www.aliciainafrica.com. KCA pioneered and implemented the first charitable text-message campaign in the United States which was most successful when used on American Idol.

To date, Keep a Child Alive has served more than 250,000 adults and children obtain life saving HIV/AIDS medication and regular, ongoing HIV care and testing. Keep a Child Alive is very committed to orphan care in Africa and India and recently expanded into India.  Launched at the Clinton Global Initiative Keep A Child Alive pledged their commitment to providing safe homes for women and children stigmatized by the disease.
“My goal for the organization is to provide treatment to as many people with AIDS as possible, care for as many children orphaned by AIDS, protect those infected with HIV via violence, and create safe houses for those stigmatized and abandoned by their families.”

Keep a Child Alive couldn’t do any of this without the amazing commitment of Alicia Keys and all the incredible donors and corporations who help us get our message out every day whilst ameliorating the incredible pain and trauma associated with the disease.

Leigh Blake currently resides in New York City with her eleven year old son. She considers service the best anti-depressant in the world!  No beach on any island, no gift, no car, no home could make her happier than she is today because of the incredible feeling of fulfillment that seeing children and families reborn and safe provides.

In her spare time she is the co producer of an upcoming film about the legendary Fela Kuti to be directed by Steve McQueen with Chewitel Ejiofor playing Fela and produced by Focus Features.