Kiki Carter

Kiki Carter (born Kimberli Wilson; November 21, 1957 in Gainesville, Florida) is an environmental activist, organizer, musician, songwriter, and columnist.

Carter was the first of four children born to a father of British descent, Harold Wilson, and an Italian mother, Priscilla Normandy (Patti Greenwood). She attended 12 different schools before graduating from Gainesville High School in 1974.

In May 1984, Carter married first husband Rick Carter. She had only known him for one month when they eloped to Las Vegas. Together, they had a son, Richard, in 1986.

In February 1998, Carter married singer/songwriter, Greg Webb, the lead singer of the Gainesville, Florida based Rhythm and Blues Revue, changing her name to Kiki Webb. They began collaborating musically and formed the acoustic duo, Dancing Light. The name dancing Light came from a song of the same title, written about a vision Carter (then Kimberli Wilson) had after a near-death experience.

Carter and Webb moved to his family's property on Leech Lake in northern Minnesota in 2000.

As a euphonium student at the University of Florida Carter won the Sigma Alpha Iota "Outstanding Freshman Musician Award" for the 1974-75 year. Throughout her college years, Carter performed in various ensembles, symphonic bands and wind ensembles as principal/solo euphoniumist.

In the summer of 1976, Carter traveled to Ruston Louisiana to study with euphonium soloist, Raymond Young, then head of the Department of Music at Louisiana Tech University.

In 1979, University of Florida Music Department Chairman Budd Udell included a euphonium solo written for Carter in Forces One, the first movement of his Symphony for Band. The Symphony was premiered at the Music Educators National Conference convention in Miami Beach on April 9, 1980 with Carter performing the solo. The same year, Carter was one of eight national finalists in the Tubist Universal Brotherhood Association's national collegiate solo contest for euphonium.

Carter graduated from the University of Florida in March 1981 and briefly did post-baccalaureate work as a theater major, before leaving to audition for euphonium jobs in Washington D.C. military service bands. She started studying with Brian Bowman, euphonium soloist of the United States Air Force Band in Washington DC. During her studies in DC, Carter worked as a governess for Washington Post publisher, Donald E. Graham and his wife, Mary.

While in Washington DC, Carter began playing guitar and writing songs. She became disillusioned with the prospect of a professional military band career and returned to Gainesville in February 1982. Through a mutual friend, Carter met Michele Marino, who began managing Carter's career. Marino booked Carter's first television appearances a solo performer on The Kim Edstrom Show. Carter started playing in area clubs, often accompanied by pianist and singer, Sidney Bertisch.

In 1984, Carter and Marino travelled to Los Angeles, California, where Carter won the weekly music contest at the Palomino Club in North Hollywood The contest brought her to the attention of Capitol Records VP Joe McFadden who gave her his business card and suggested she contact him. Through manager, Michele, Carter came to the attention of Robert L. "Bumps" Blackwell, songwriter, record producer, and manager of Little Richard. Bumps arranged for Carter to sing with a group appearing in a 1983 Los Angeles television show with Billy Preston. Robert Blackwell managed Carter until his death in March 1985.

During those years, Carter made several trips from Gainesville to Nashville to meet with Capitol Records. Before a deal was struck, Capitol Records experienced a major restructuring and her contacts had been replaced.

She and her husband, Greg Webb, later began touring Minnesota, as the acoustic duo, Dancing Light. As Dancing Light, they released their first full-length CD, Meadowdance in 1993.

Carter and Webb co-founded independent record label Sunblossom Records, and she is founder of music publishing company Shebreana Music (BMI) They started Saturday Cafe Concert Series, a weekly Concert series in Northern Minnesota. They continued to perform at benefit concerts.

At the end of 1986, Carter's mother, author Patti Greenwood learned of the US Department of Energy's plans to build a demonstration irradiation facility in Gainesville, Florida.

Greenwood shared the news with Carter. In early 1987, Carter called the local television station, ABC affiliate WCJB-TV to alert them to plans by the United States Department of Energy and the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to build a food irradiation facility in Gainesville, Florida, using radioactive caesium-137. This project was part of the United States Department of Energy's By-Products Utilization Program (BUP). The BUP was born out of a Congressional mandate to find uses for by-products of plutonium production.

Carter was invited to appear live in the studio with the WCJB anchors. Soon a grassroots movement was galvanizing with Carter and her mother at the epicenter.

Carter and her mother founded the organization Citizens Against a Radioactive Environment (C.A.R.E.) to oppose the use of Department of Energy stores of radioactive caesium-137 in a demonstration food irradiation facility. The caesium-137 was slated to be used at six different demonstration irradiators through the country, one of which was proposed for Gainesville, Florida. After a groundswell of public opposition, public debates, and public forums, the caesium-137 was never used in the facility.

Carter organized a state-wide coalition of concerned citizens called the Florida Coalition to Stop Food Irradiation in response to plans for another irradiator in Plant City, FL. and national TV and helping to organize fledgling groups in other communities.

Working as an environmental activist expanded Carter's awareness of other environmental and social justice issues. She helped wherever she could, appearing at public meetings and performing at benefit concerts. She became active in helping to raise awareness of radon issues in Alachua County and helped provide free test kits to residents. Her pet projects included the I.C.E.S. fruition project, where she organized plantings of fruit trees in Habitat for Humanity homesites, and promoting the use of reusable bags in grocery stores.

Carter was an independent candidate in 1988 for the Alachua County Commission, losing to wildlife artist Kate Barnes.

In 1992, Carter wrote a weekly column for the Marion/Alachua edition of the Tampa Tribune called Environmentally Speaking.

Carter often used her musical talents and connections to organize and participate in fundraising concerts for her environmental causes, including a 1996 concert at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts featuring world-renowned violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and the Gainesville Chamber Orchestra. Carter also composed songs and produced regional television commercials for the United Way.

She became active in the Leech Lake Head Start program on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation where she chaired the parent committee of her son's Head Start program and was elected to chair the policy council of the Leech Lake Head Start program.

In the fall of 2005 Carter and her husband helped organize the Great Gala for the Gulf, a benefit concert for survivors of Hurricane Katrina, held at the Moondance Jam site in Northern Minnesota. raising over $5,000 for relief to survivors.

Carter is currently a vocal proponent of the campaign to establish a United States Department of Peace.