Music, dance, painting, and poetry are powerful mediums for expressing one's deepest emotions. Whether navigating the journey through depression and overcoming suicidal thoughts, surviving the loss of a loved one, or any stage in between, art serves as a vital tool for communication. It helps people find hope, healing, and restoration.
Join us for an artistic evening where stories of suicide survival are told through music, dance, and art.
The Square Room: 4 Market Square, Knoxville, TN 37902
September 20, 2025
7:00 PM
$35 General | $50 VIP
Featuring
Classical Music Premiere
Seven Songs for a Dead Son: "The Tim Poems" by Janet Burroway set to music by composer Philip Wharton.
Read The Tim Poems"When I first met Janet, she was just reengaging with the world after her son's suicide from PTSD. She made the decision from two choices: she could give up or write. She's a writer so she chose to write. In The Tim Poems, I feel a mother's sense of profound loss. Without clinical intent, some hint at the stages of grief and others more explicitly: shock in Roadkill, bargaining in Monologue, and acceptance in Terra Cotta. The poems never try to answer the question "why?!" - for even though the question hovers always, there is no answer - just working through loss, carrying on, and even finding humor in the ironies of living."
- Philip Wharton (composer)
Janet Burroway
Author
Philip Wharton
Composer
Belle Toh
Pianist
Carla Hanson
SopranoJazz Music Premiere
New jazz music compositions by Greg Tardy that have been written to share his own story of surviving suicide.
Greg Tardy
Composer & Jazz ReedmanDance Performances
Beautiful contemporary dances choreographed by McKenzie Duncan.
Art Walk
We are inviting the suicide survivors of our local community to share their stories, art, and poetry to be presented as part of the art walk experience.
The art can be your own creation, or it might be the art of a passed loved one that helped you in your healing journey.
Artists have the option to list a sale price on their displayed artwork. We will not charge any fees, but welcome donations so we can bring this project to other cities.
Submissions are accepted until September 6, 2025.
Email [email protected] with the following information:
- Your Name (and whether you are comfortable with us sharing your name as first name and last initial, or in full)
- An attached photo of your art, or copy of your poetry.
- Your story that you'd like to share.
Live Painters & Auction of the Live Paintings
During both the Classical and Jazz music parts of the evening, two local artists, Leanne Thomas and Nicholas Cockrell, will be painting live.
Leanne Thomas
Nicholas Cockrell
There will be a total of four paintings. All the paintings will be available for silent auction during the event. Proceeds are split between the artist and bringing this project to other cities.
About the Project
Music, dance, painting, and poetry are powerful mediums for expressing one's deepest emotions. Whether navigating the journey through depression and overcoming suicidal thoughts, surviving the loss of a loved one, or any stage in between, art serves as a vital tool for communication. It helps people find hope, healing, and restoration.
Beauty from Ashes is our first Meraki Project. Meraki [may-rah-kee] is a Greek word that means "to do something with soul, creativity, or love; to put something of yourself in your work". The Meraki Projects will be a series of expressive artistic experiences that will promote hope, healing, and restoration. Each project will have a specific focus with the goal of bringing the experiences to cities around the world.
We chose a project centered around suicide survival and healing because we are living in a time of mental health crisis, and we want to be a conduit for hope, healing, and restoration - starting in Knoxville, TN, and shining throughout cities across the world.
- More than 800,000 people die due to suicide each year
- A person dies by suicide every 11 minutes in the U.S.
- Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death in the U.S. for ages 10-14 and 25-34
- Youth and young adults ages 10-24 account for 15% of all suicides
- Males account for 77.97% of all U.S. suicides
- Veterans are at a 57% higher risk of suicide than their non-Veteran peers
These heartbreaking statistics are contrasted by statistics that shine a light of hope:
- More than 90% of people who survive a suicide attempt do not go on to die by suicide. This demonstrates that intervention, support, and time can significantly alter a person's trajectory.
- Nearly 75% of U.S. adults do not make additional suicide attempts. National, lifelong studies have shown that recovery involves not just the absence of future attempts, but also improvements in key areas of life, such as being married, employed, and having strong social connections.
- Suicide attempt survivors often find profound meaning in helping others by using their own lived experience to educate communities and emphasize that recovery is possible.
- Suicide loss survivors also find healing in transforming their pain into purpose by sharing their story, finding others who understand their grief, and helping others.
Beauty from Ashes is a concert that focuses on the hope that exists in the courageous choice of survival by sharing the stories of suicide survivors.
Join us for an artistic evening where stories of suicide survival are told through music, dance, and art.
