FIRE Historical and Cultural Arts Collaborative in Kalamazoo is beginning a series called Fire Starters, featuring artists who got their start on the FIRE stage. The series begins Saturday night with a performance by 26-year-old jazz, rhythm and blues singer Meagan McNeal.

Meagan McNeal remembers exactly where and when she presented her first concert of music:

[Meagan McNeal] “It was August 18, 2008, I believe. That was my very first show as an artist and it was at Fire.”

Since then McNeal has been hard at work writing and performing music from her homebase in Chicago. She spent two summers working as an intern at a record label in Los Angeles and plans a move there next month to keep growing as a professional singer. McNeal says she’s always been interested in human nature and she likes to use music to explore some universal questions.

[Meagan McNeal] “I have a fascination with human behavior and the mind and what causes people to act the way they do. Whether it’s really loving, or bad, or whatever they do. Even when I was a little girl, I used to say to my mom that I wished I could crawl inside someone’s mind to see why they act the way they do. So, I think a lot of that is what inspires me. I feel I have a lot of growth and development to do as an artist. I want my music to help people understand each other better and the way that we can love each other better as humans. We have a lot more in common than not and we should really focus on love and the world would be a much more peaceful place if we can tap into our human similarities.”

For her concert Saturday, McNeal plans to talk with the audience, answer questions and reminisce about getting her start on the stage of Fire. She will be accompanied on piano by Lawrence DeFrance of Benton Harbor. She plans an intimate evening of songs, some that she has written and some, written by other,s that have inspired her. She says one song in particular changed the course of her life and started her down her current musical path.

[Meagan McNeal] “Of the ones that are responsible for me becoming a singer I definitely have to include You and I by Stevie Wonder. My aunt asked me to sing it at her wedding when I was nine years old. I was kind of upset at the time because I wanted to be in the wedding as a bridesmaid. But, looking back, I see how important that moment was to me.”

Singer and songwriter Meagan McNeal performs tomorrow night at 8 at FIRE on Portage Road in Kalamazoo.