Psyche, Science, and Society

Susan McKeown: Singing in the Dark

October 30th, 2010

One of my favorite Irish singers, Susan McKeown, has a new show, Singing in the Dark, that is about creativity and madness, using music, poetry and song. She evidently starts performing it tonight. Here is a video describing its creation:

Here is the description and a schedule for it:

October 30
SINGING IN THE DARK:
10 am to 4:30 pm IRISHNESS, CREATIVITY, MADNESS Kimmel Center at NYU, 60 Washington Square South An exploration of suffering and creativity from Irish and Irish-American perspectives with discussions between academics, psychiatrists, artists, psychologists, physicians and psychotherapists on the topics of addiction, asylum, creativity, culture, collective trauma, emigration, ethnicity, exile, family, faith, depression, incarceration, mental illness, post-colonialism, poverty, psychosis, the rural and refuge. Participants include: Angela Bourke, University College Dublin, author of Maeve Brennan: Homesick at the New Yorker. Patrick Tracey, author of Stalking Irish Madness: Searching for the Roots of My Family’s Schizophrenia.

8:00PM Symphony Space, New York, NY Album release with guest appearances by author Kay Redfield Jamison (Touched with Fire) and New York Public Library Director of Public Programs Paul Holdengräber, and the premiere performance of songs from the album by Susan and an eleven piece band featuring: Lindsey Horner, Shahzad Ismaily, Dana Lyn, Ryan McGiver, Allison Miller, Isabelle O’Connell, Eamon O’Leary, Lorin Sklamberg, Sonelius Smith, Jason Sypher and Doug Wieselman.

November 13 7:30PM Regent Theatre, Arlington, MA
November 18 5:00PM Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, MD
November 26 9:00PM WOW Hall, Eugene, OR
November 27 8:00PM The Secret Society Ballroom, Portland, OR
November 28 Thomas Berry Hall at The Whidbey Institute, Whidbey Island, WA
November 29 Traditions Fair Trade, Olympia, WA
December 2 The Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse, Berkeley, CA
December 3 Denver, CO (tbc)
December 4 Taos, NM (tbc)
December 5 The Outpost Performance Space, Albuquerque, NM

Entry Filed under: Mental Health,Music,Psychology