Excitement Surrounds Inaugural Mental Health Show Series with Powerful, Personal Stories - Tickets On Sale Now
They are the stories of resilience from those who lived it and want to help others. This Is My Brave CharMeck 2024 show series will use performing arts as a way to end the stigma around mental illness, substance abuse and community violence. It’s about finding and forming a place to share the pain, the struggle, the vulnerability but most of all, hope.
Three performers are available for interviews and engagement with the media before the show to give insights and a preview.
Arkevious Armstrong will deliver a spoken word performance entitled Broken Crayons Still Color about “my youth was spent navigating a challenging path. But the broken crayons still colored my life into who I am today.”
Gwendolyn Devins will perform poetry titled My Secret Garden, where she will share her message to “open the shutters and let the flowers bloom in the garden of hope.”
Beth Gatlin will share original music entitled I know about the “darkness of depression blossoming into the light of hope.”
“The performances are powerful, and these shows will spotlight the individual struggles and the enduring sense of hope for all,” shared Ebony Rao, Mecklenburg County Public Health lead for Resilience in Communities After Stress and Trauma (ReCAST), the team that’s leading the show series. “I hope the community comes out to see these performances, they are truly a must see.”
Public Health and its partners will also provide a Resource Fair before each show. It will allow the audience the opportunity to learn about programs and other helpful and healing pathways.
This Is My Brave CharMeck 2024 Show Schedule
- Adult Mental Health Show: September 27, 7-8:30 p.m. (Resource Fair at 6 p.m.)
- Youth Show (13-21 y/o): September 28, 2-3:30 p.m. (Resource Fair at 1 p.m.)
- Adult Community Violence Show: September 28, 7-8:30 p.m. (Resource Fair at 6 p.m.)
Location: Central Piedmont Community College - The New Theater at The Parr Center, 1201 Elizabeth Ave.