Music for Mental Health Concert returns
The 6th Annual Music for Mental Health Concert returns on Friday, September 8th at Siberia, located at 2227 St. Claude Ave.
Tickets are available at the door for a minimum donation of $10 per person, and the event is open to ages 21+. The doors will open at 7 p.m. and the show will begin at 7:30 p.m. This Mental Health Benefit Concert, presented by the Brett Thomas Doussan (BTD) Foundation & The Preservation Hall Foundation, will feature four local musical acts.
This concert's performers will be Charm Taylor, Marc Paradis (of Johnny Sketch & the Dirty Notes), Mikayla Braun and SaxKixAve. The event, hosted by founder Kathryn Rose Wood, will consist of the artists trading stripped-down, song-and-storytelling performances together on-stage.
In commemoration of National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month in September, the concert highlights the performers' personal experiences with mental illness. The curated songs relate to their respective mental health journeys.
The concert debuted in 2017 with music being the main communication vehicle to create a space for individuals who may not typically attend an explicitly-mental health based event, or feel comfortable expressing their mental health concerns.
By bringing together a variety of performers to speak on their mental health journeys, the concert has become a safe space for listeners to find comfort in the music and stories, as well as connect with their community.
In this time of post-pandemic anxieties, injustices and socioeconomic distress, the concert is an opportunity to bring discussion to the needs surrounding mental health matters in Louisiana. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), over 194,000 Louisiana-living adults reported an inability to access mental health care, with 41.8% citing cost as the primary issue. Similarly, 62.3% of Louisiana teens experiencing depression did not receive mental health care in 2021. For teens without care, the high school drop-out rate was 2 x higher than students who did not express mental health needs. In Louisiana, suicide continues to be the 14th leading cause of death in all individuals in 2021, and was the 3rd leading cause of death in ages 10 to 34 as reported by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
In an effort to support these needs, the concert aims to shed light and hope, through music and story-telling, as well as local non-profit mental health organizations providing community help resources to attendees. All the concert's proceeds are distributed directly to Louisiana-based mental health organizations, including NAMI New Orleans, AFSP Louisiana, the New Orleans Musician's Clinic, Children's Hospital and more.
For more information, visit https://btdfoundation.org/
