Concert | A Night of Powerful Queer Storytelling with Pop Musician Jake Wesley Rogers (In a Park)

Pop musician and songwriter Jake Wesley Rogers headlines a night of powerful queer storytelling. A spirit enveloped and transformed by music, Rogers learned early how to generate connection through songwriting.

Singer, musician, writer, and 2019-2020 National Youth Poet Laureate Kara Jackson will open, preceded by a DJ set by NYC-based electronic pop musician Bright Light Bright Light, co-presented by C'mon Everybody. The NYC Civic Engagement Commission will be on site with The People's Bus, a former Rikers Island bus transformed into a mobile community center and work of art by The People's Artist, Yazmany Arboleda.

About the Artists
Pop musician Jake Wesley Rogers has had accolades heaped upon him by the likes of major magazines and media outlets such as Billboard, Rolling Stone, and Vogue - who profiled Jake for their Youthquake project as a Gen Z creator who is pushing the conversation forward - as well as GLAAD - for whom Jake was nominated this year for Outstanding Breakthrough Music Artist, alongside a show-stopping performance at the ceremony. Then there are people like Elton John (who had Jake perform with Grammy-winning Brandi Carlile at his feted 30th annual Oscar-viewing AIDS foundation benefit this spring), Kate Hudson, and countless other A-list devotees who've flocked to the singer-songwriter's pulpit over the past few years. This fall, he will be opening for Panic! At the Disco on their arena tour.

Kara Jackson is a singer/songwriter, musician, and writer from Oak Park, Illinois. Jackson served as the third National Youth Poet Laureate from 2019-2020. She is the author of Bloodstone Cowboy (Haymarket Books, 2019). Kara's highly anticipated debut album under September Records was released on Apr 14, 2023.

Bright Light Bright Light is Welsh pop artist, producer, & DJ Rod Thomas. He has collaborated and toured with Sir Elton John, Erasure, and Scissor Sisters to name just a few artists, and just before COVID toured Europe opening for the legendary Cher. His 4 studio albums have won praise from critics and contemporaries alike, particularly 2020's #1 UK Dance album Fun City, which featured 12 LGBTQ+ artists including Justin Vivian Bond, Sam Sparro, and Andy Bell of Erasure. As a DJ, he brings his love of pop culture formly into the sets, mixing pop, disco, soul, R&B, movie songs, and songs of niche gay interest for the sole purpose of bringing joy to the world. Called "Working Girl-era realness" by Rolling Stone, he is an artist that aims to create community through music and cutate DJ sets that make people feel optimistic.

Doors open at 6:00 pm.
*For Deaf and hard of hearing communities, there will be an ASL interpreter at the left side of the stage.