2024-01-25 - Songs Of Deep Emotion And Bright Light, City Winery, New York

On Stage :

The Release Recovery Foundation, Caron Treatment Centers, Karen Marks and Rich Pagano are grateful to present the 2nd Annual “Songs of Deep Emotion and Bright Light” event that will benefit the Nic Pagano LGBTQIA+ Scholarship Fund. This Scholarship Fund was created to raise funds for continued assistance of families and individuals in the LGBTQIA+ community in need of financial help.

The concert take place at City Winery in New York City on January 25th. The current artist list includes John Sebastian, Jennie Muldaur, Martha Redbone, Jimmy Vivino,Willie Nile, Kate Pierson, Joseph Arthur & Rich Pagano (Music Director).

Each artist will perform a short set that illustrates an emotional and compromising element and/or a level of promise and faith. The flow will be melancholy blue to electric heat.

One month before his accidental death due to fentanyl poisoning on July 2nd 2022, Nic, Karen and Rich were eating lunch near the sober house that he was residing in at the time when the conversation turned to the plight of the LGBTQIA+ community and its fear of ostracization and assumption of lack of communal inclusion within the treatment world. Nic, leaning to an eventual career in social work, singled out the transgender community in particular for its marginalization. Unfortunately, this month's hateful incident in Colorado is a clear indication that the stigma, fear and threats against the gay community need to be confronted, disarmed and dispelled.

The Release Recovery Foundation and Caron Treatment Centers have partnered in the creation of the Nic Pagano Scholarship Fund which is based at Caron Treatment Center in Pennsylvania. This scholarship aims to improve access to care for the LGBTQIA+ community.

Since its inception in the fall of 2021, the Nic Pagano LGBTQIA Scholarship has awarded 6 financial scholarships to clients in need of substance use treatment. Services also address stigma, heterosexism, internalized homophobia, and discrimination as well as addiction. Over the last 18 months overdose deaths are up 25% in New York City with the LGBTQIA community as a group up 30% due to lack of treatment information or simply a fear of being different.

“We started The Release Recovery Foundation to help individuals who just didn’t have the same access to treatment that I had growing up. We identified the LGBTQIA community as one where we could make a difference,” said Zac Clark, a Caron Board Member who co-founded the foundation.

Setlist :

In The Sun

Travel As Equals


Recording :

Sadly, there's no audio recording of this event.
If I am wrong, thank you to inform me by email.

Poster :