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.