The 3rd Annual Music for Mental Health Concert is back on Friday September 20! The event will feature performances from Kristen Diable, Spirit McIntyre, Dominic Minix (Yung Vul), Assata Renay, Paul Sanchez and founder, Kathryn Rose Wood. Together the artists will be engaging in songs that tell stories for all of the audience to relate, sway and even cry to.

The new year is already off to a great start with a new partner and beneficiary for the concert, Project Fleur-de-Lis (PFDL). According to Wood, “PFDL, a targeted program of Mercy Family Center, offers schools and youth-serving organizations trauma-informed programs, services, and restorative practices to address mental health disparities in the local community. As part of their suicide prevention program, PFDL has partnered with the organizers and artists of past Music for Mental Health concerts, as well as with the BTD Foundation, to adapt Music for Mental Health for schools and youth community agencies across Orleans and Jefferson parishes.

With national statistics citing suicide as the 2nd leading cause of death in people ages 10-24, and a 2016 report on the prevalence of teen suicide in Louisiana, with 50 students having completed suicide that year in Orleans Parish alone, the program was born of the need for relatable mental health outreach and education opportunities for local youth and young adults, and the respective stakeholders’ passion to develop such a program. With the knowledge that music is one of the prime connectors in a community, Music for Mental Health: In Schools is avowed to being a diverse, informative, and approachable resource for schools and the youth that inhabit academic institutions.”

This year’s Music for Mental Health Concert will help fund the continued piloting of Music for Mental Health: In Schools, while striving to grant further funding to ensure long-term programming state-wide.

This year’s concert is sponsored by the Brett Thomas Doussan (BTD) Foundation and the Wayfare Resturant.

The event will take place at Gasa Gasa in New Orleans on 4920 Freret Street. Prices for tickets are $10 and the age limit is 18+ for entry. 

For ticketing and information please click here. For more information about the BTD foundation please click here.