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I’m deeply honored to be a featured keynote speaker for the Opening Plenary of the 2025 Rotary International Conference in Calgary, Ontario, Canada this June. Since my second TEDx Talk came out this past summer, amazing invitations keep coming. This is, by far, the biggest one yet. Rotary International has a membership of about 2 […]

Last week marked the six month anniversary of Hurricane Helene. Over a hundred people were lost to the storm, and so many structures, livelihoods, and personal possessions that held particular value for folks. My immediate family was very fortunate, though so many people we love were hit hard. One thing of mine washed away, though, […]

2024 was quite a year. Here in Western NC, it will always be the year of Hurricane Helene, but there was so much more, and so much of it was wonderful. It does my heart good to remember. Like the very last thing that happened, for instance. I spent the last weekend of 2024 in […]

Thanks for being interested in my Patreon community. It’s now been over five years since I decided to experiment with it, and I can’t tell you how important it has become to me, in terms of my art, in terms of community, and in terms of keeping me going professionally. I was looking for a […]

I will not soon forget this past weekend. Deanna, Mason and I road-tripped to NYC to see Our Town, the classic Thornton Wilder play, in a contemporary interpretation on Broadway. A song that I co-wrote and sang with my brothers from Abraham Jam, Billy Jonas and Dawud Wharnsby, is used at the opening of the […]

I’m thrilled to announce that registration is now live for our 2025 Roots & Branches retreat, Oct. 2-5 in Montreat, North Carolina. Please check out the details below. I look forward to spending some time together!

It has been quite a year for me, with the release of the new TEDx talk and a beautiful calendar of events. I’m deeply grateful, and somewhat baffled, to find that my career seems to be on an upward trajectory here in the second half of my fifties. But Broadway? That wasn’t even on my […]

Dear friends, It has been an extraordinary couple of weeks in Western North Carolina. The destruction has been incomprehensible, and the community solidarity and compassion overwhelming. My family and house are fine, and so many friends are not. Power came back yesterday, and I put together this music video to my song, Here for You, […]

We are in countdown mode for the release of my TEDx talk, You Are Changing the World Whether You Like it or Not, and excitement is building. We have a great team working on putting this together, we have launched a whole new website, and we are planning and rehearsing for the online Launch Event on Tuesday night, July 30, […]

I’ve been a fan of Christine Lavin’s since I first discovered her music in the early nineties. She’s insightful, sings and plays beautifully, and she is incredibly, side-splittingly funny (often ending her concerts with a baton-twirling routine).  A great entertainer, and, as I’ve discovered more recently, a wonderful human. I kind of guessed that last […]

I got the word yesterday that my song September Me is a finalist for the 2023 USA Songwriting Competition in the Folk Category. The winners will be announced on Nov. 22, and there are some great songwriters on the list. I’m honored to have made it this far. Below is the Folk finalist list, if […]

Such a delight to have a good long conversation with my friend Alonzo Johnson about changing the world, on the occasion of my new book, You Are Changing the World Whether You Like It Or Not, being published on Chalice Press.  I hope you will enjoy it, too.

powered by Crowdcast (note that David and Hannah have created a web page that goes into the details of production and other aesthetic choices they made in the making of the Look Away video. Check it out at www.LookAwayProject.com) Join Hannah Garrity and me this Saturday at 2PM for the release of the new music […]

Hey friends, I’ve got some exciting news to share.  The release date for my new book, You Are Changing the World Whether You Like It Or Not, has been set!  It will be out in bookstores on July 25, 2023, less than three months from now.  Foreword by Brian McLaren. What’s more, you can now […]

In 2004, Deanna and I got married. Being a fairly nerdy pair, we couldn’t think of anything more fun to do on our honeymoon than go to Guatemala, stay with a family in a homestay, and go to language immersion school for two weeks. It was a blast. We made some friends while we were […]

Hey friends, I’m taking an amazing trip with good friends this summer.  You’re invited. My dear friends Gareth Higgins and Brian Ammons lead retreats in Gareth’s native Northern Ireland, and they have changed a whole lot of lives through that work. Here’s a bit about their retreats from their website, irelandretreats.com: The story we tell […]

As the world continues to gradually reopen, I’m so enjoying being back on the road. To facilitate that process, I’ve just begun working with not one, but two new booking agents to help me organize the calendar and connect with the venues who might value what I’m doing. In the early part of next year, […]

I’m thrilled to have received the word that my song “September Me,” from this year’s release, Still, was tied for #1 as the most played song on folk radio in September, 2022! It’s an honor to share that slot with the legendary Canadian folksinger James Keelaghan. Folk Alliance International compiles the data, and just put […]

Big news to share! I have signed a publishing deal with Chalice Press to publish a new edition of my book Worldchanging 101: Challenging the Myth of Powerlessness.  The new book, with significant updates and new material, will be called You Are Changing the World Whether You Like It Or Not, and is due in […]

I really enjoy a good conversation.  All three of these were good conversations, on varying topics, and I hope you will enjoy them! Resilient Expats, with Kim Adams https://resilientexpats.com/ep-28-you-are-changing-the-world-with-david-lamotte/ Kim holds conversations about living and parenting cross-culturally, and we had a rich conversation touching on many topics. Let’s Talk About It, with Pripo Teplitsky https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/peace-begins-at-home/id1435550119 […]

Every Monday, I send out a video of a song to my Patreon community, just to start the week off with a little bit of music. Last week, I had to work for it! Jess Fox, who helps me out with video, thought it would be fun to chop together an outtake reel, and did […]

Hey friends, Thank you for stopping by to check out this new project.  I’m really thrilled to be launching this Kickstarter campaign to help birth this collection of songs, and I appreciate your consideration of helping to midwife!  Here’s a little video about the record and how Kickstarter works (with big thanks to David Saich […]

On the first weekend in May, I’m gathering some friends for a weekend retreat in Montreat, North Carolina.  I’d love for you to join us. Here are all the details. Hope to see you in the mountains in May! David    

  Here’s a new song I wrote in the last few minutes of April, 2021.  Here in Western North Carolina, the trees and flowers and mountains themselves seem to be coming alive again, just as vaccines become more common and new possibilities emerge for people to safely gather again. The stories in the song are […]

Hi friends, On Sunday, Oct. 18, 2020, at 4:00PM, I’ll be offering a few songs and stories from Black Mountain.  You can tune in wherever you are, for free, on Crowdcast, or watch on Facebook and chat with folks there. To reserve your ‘seat’ at the Crowdcast concert, click here. Feel free to spread the word […]

Which Way Is Forward? A Conversation and Workshop on Race and Racism with Tyrone Greenlee and David LaMotte. 7 – 9 PM, Monday, Jan. 14, 2019 at the Black Mountain Public Library. 105 N. Dougherty St. | Black Mountain, NC 28711 | (828) 250-4756 Light refreshments will be provided. Suggested donation $10. Please register in […]

Chonita is visiting! And you can meet her! When I close this laptop, I’ll be getting in the car and heading to Atlanta to pick Chonita Pablo Lacan up from the Atlanta airport. Sarah Robinson Bryan, the Director of PEG Partners, will be road-tripping with me, and we can’t wait to see our friend and […]

PEG Partners, the organization that Deanna and I founded in 2004 to work with schools and libraries in Guatemala, turned 12-years-old this year.  Here’s a bit of an update about the work we’re doing there.     If you’re inclined to join us in this work, you can learn more or make a donation by […]