Lyric Benefit Concert Strives to Raise Awareness For Suicide Prevention

By Caroline Hewitt
for Hottytoddy.com

Music is often used as a source of healing.

More Than Music, a local benefit concert striving to raise awareness for suicide prevention, will be hosted Friday, Nov. 30 at The Lyric Oxford. All proceeds will go to The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the nation’s largest nonprofit organization dedicated to suicide prevention.

Photo from The Lyric’s Instagram page.

The event kicks off at 7:30 p.m. with Oxford natives, The Busty Petites, followed by the band CBDB. The event will also include a speech by Dr. Phil Baquie from the Wellness Center of Oxford, as well as giveaways, merchandise sales, and information tables.

Katie Kaczmarz, host of the event and marketing manager at The Lyric, began planning the benefit concert this summer. With the help of sponsors around the community, she made her idea a reality.

“Music brings people together, so I thought this would be a fun way to get the community involved in change,” Kaczmarz said. 

Dr. Baquie said he will speak on the topic of suicide prevention during the benefit. 

“It didn’t take any convincing when Katie Kaczmarz told me about her vision to create an event for suicide prevention. We are dealing with a major public health concern,” Baquie said. “Suicide has increased nationwide by 25 percent in the past 20 years. It is becoming an epidemic.”

Ole Miss alum, Lee Ingram, promotes advocacy for suicide awareness after losing his twin brother, Ben Ingram, to suicide on July 22, 2017. Since then, Ingram has self-published his brother’s book titled “Dreams About Food” and has started a scholarship at Ole Miss in his brother’s name.

“I was so thrilled to see an event about suicide awareness happening in Oxford,” Ingram said. “I reached out to Katie about whether I could set up a table to tell my brother’s story, and to sell his recently published books.”

“Dreams About Food” is a series of Ben Ingram’s short stories written for his senior honor’s thesis at Ole Miss. The book will be sold during the event for $10 and all proceeds of Ingram’s book will support The Benson Reed Ingram Scholarship.

“I think that suicide and mental health is a scary subject for most and an uncomfortable one to discuss. As someone who has dealt with anxiety and depression, the irony is that openness and acceptance is the best way to overcome it,” Ingram said. “If we can be more open as a society about the reality that mental illness, depression, anxiety, and suicide are quite normal things for someone to experience, then I think we would see less pain in the world.”

Kaczmarz said she hopes the event helps others celebrate life and why it’s worth living.

“The goal of this event is not only to raise money for AFSP, but to inspire hope in at-risk individuals by gathering as a community and showing them we care,” she said.

More Than Music welcomes attendees of all ages, however, anyone under the age of 18 needs to be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Tickets for the More Than Music are $15 and can be bought at The Lyric Oxford’s box office Wednesday through Friday from 12-5 p.m. or purchased online here.