Casme Ann Carter wrote her first song in the third grade when she was in the hospital with a broken arm, inspired by the sick people around her to sing “Father, heal your people.” Years later, that sense of compassion brought her back to New Orleans from Atlanta to found a mentoring program for young girls.
Carter began her music career singing in gospel groups, and she spent several episodes on the NBC musical competition show, “The Voice” in 2020. Beyond music, however, Carter, 40, defines herself as a humanitarian.
Her passion: Mentoring young Black women through a program she calls “Daughter of the King.”
Carter lived in the 10th Ward of New Orleans outside the St. Thomas public housing development, where she said her family volunteered often, until she was 9 years old when the family moved to Algiers.
She went to college for a year at Dillard University before the architectural engineering program at Tennessee State University inspired her to leave home. She left early to sign to a label in Florida, but the deal there went bad, and instead, Carter focused on touring with different bands to make money.
Carter said she will sing anything and called herself a “gumbo” artist with her “roux” being love.
In her years of touring, Carter was part of a performance called the “Power of Choices” with a motivational theater group, and she said the experience showed her the need for female role models in the Black community.
She was inspired to found Casme Cares, a community outreach program she began to feed less fortunate families and mentor young Black girls. She then founded For You mentoring, where she made it a goal to teach young woman about self-love, suicide, rape and abstinence. For You has since become Daughter of the King, founded in 2017 and named for Carter’s 2014 album and 2015 self-help book by the same name.
Carter said she has spoken to nearly 20,000 youth to date and has mentored 60 girls throughout her years.
“A lot of my responsibility and accountability in life is to spread love,” Carter said, adding “you can do whatever God puts in your heart.”
Ingrid Crawford- Shelton, 32, met Carter in 2012 when they were both living in Atlanta, and she went to take photos behind the scenes at one of Carter’s photo shoots. When Crawford-Shelton went through a period of homelessness, Carter made arrangements for her to have a safe space to sleep.
“The younger people that she helps, I was one of those people,” Crawford-Shelton said. “I admire her for everything that she’s doing.”
Amber Green, 33, another former mentee of Carter’s, followed her in 2010 on social media after …….
Source: https://www.nola.com/entertainment_life/article_31da7f2a-463e-11ec-9775-87fa045c57cc.html