AMY CRAY

I HEARD SO MUCH GOOD ABOUT YOU

IT’S NICE TO FINALLY MEET

I’m a natural builder, creative producer, maker of things and experiences. I think liberation comes from exploration, optimism, and innovation, and that’s what I live for.

I’ve worked as a private chef, sommelier, choreographer, musician, writer, art director, nonprofit founder, record label owner, estate manager, and interior designer. I have walked these wild streets as a chief of staff and assistant to some of the most prolifically talented artists and brilliant entrepreneurs in the world for over 20 years. I’m most comfortable immersed in a new subject, culture, or piece of music.

Generally I have three plates spinning and two projects on the back burner, and this is the unifying home for all of it.

You’ll find links to external sites for things already up and running, info about my new endeavors, social media feeds, ways to get in touch, and (hopefully) lots of creative zeal.

Current Projects

meridian estate management

Fractional household and estate management practice for Bay Area families. We provide ongoing, senior-level operational support, from running day-to-day estate ops and managing residential builds and remodels to coordinating family offices and helping entrepreneurs wrangle large projects, on a retainer basis.

BABY GRAND ASSEMBLY

Artist management and production house focused on developing and nurturing creative work the world needs.

MY COLOMA

An original musical that I can’t actually talk about publicly just yet. But trust me. I’m in deep.

NEW ALBUM: THIS IS THE TRUTH

A solo record I’ve been working on for a million years because it keeps changing shape. It’s the same piano and vocal-forward sung poetry as on my first record (links below), but this one’s grown up with real roots and the wisdom of deeply-lived experience. It’s very much inspired by the narrative chordal honey of Robert Glasper, the sharp vocal authenticity and precision of Laura Mvula and the confessional, vocal-forward bluesy cyclical song structures perfected by Fink.

I’m working under the pseudonym North Fork these days. Inspired by the badass-only whitewater rafting leg of the American River which runs through the foothills of the Sierras.

FOREVER HOUSE

I’m building out an artist retreat venue in Northern California, currently in the design phase. This one’s gonna take awhile. As soon as there’s something interesting to reveal, I’ll write about it!

pOEtry is badass

i want to be good

feb, 2022

i want to be good

to wake up to warm blueberry sugar crust, light dappling our arms, fingers still interlocked

i want my children to feel brave

compelled to create, steadied by full bellies and constant intrigue about the parts of the world they do not yet know

because they deserve to find what makes them ache, leap

i want to shake and wheeze by the bank of some rippling body of warm water because my best friend is so damn funny

i want to force you see the bright side, and to let go of the things that aren’t real, even if i need to arm wrestle or make a power point

i want to know you’re drinking water, well fed, immersed in a life surrounded by people who don’t let you get away with shit

like giving up or surrendering the inconvenient things, those things that are also sacred and vital

because you deserve to be seen

i want to do the hardest things, fall apart, and put myself back together again, with and without you

and to be strong enough to walk away from shiny pretty things that do not serve me

i want to stand on the front lines when the people i love feel threatened or maligned

to drive with my foot on the dashboard and coffee in one hand, even in my stick shift, because that is correct

to be delighted for true company, and at home in deep solitude

i want the grandkids to play tag before dinner

leaves in their hair

i want bustling thanksgiving tables with family and friends from every phase of our lives coming together to toast l’chaim

i want a forever home with apple trees i planted finally bearing fruit, to be plucked by generations of hollering, laughing, wild humans who will grace the earth after i am long gone,

a legacy.

i want a good sentence, a perfect coffee, a killer chord progression -

the kinds that make me exhale, grab my heart and
i want to run down the hall with my eyes wide and show them to you

reading and mindlessly doing that graceful thing with your fingers, swishing them back and forth

i want to lie face up in some green place, where love is with us after all these years

still

my hands running through your hair under the protection of the sun that is ours

i am not remotely surprised by any of it

because we deserve to be seen