On the evening of October 30, 2010, Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Susan McKeown debuted her latest album , entitled Singing in the Dark, to a packed house at the Symphony Space concert hall on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. In her latest venture as a solo artist, Ms. McKeown explores the ability to confront and better understand mental illness through poetry and song.

With each new musical offering debuted by Ms. McKeown, the audience was treated not only to her stunning vocals but also to reflections by Ms. McKeown on the inspirations behind each piece. While there was no intermission during the performance, halfway through the musical component of the evening, Ms. McKeown was joined onstage by LIVE from the New York Public Library’s Paul Holdengräber and New York Times best-selling author, and professor of psychiatry at John Hopkins School of Medicine, Kay Redfield Jamison. With Mr. Holdengräber acting as moderator, the trio discussed both cultural understandings of and personal experiences with mental illness, and how poetry and song can be used to explore depths of the spirit and mind otherwise difficult to navigate.

In discussion with Mr. Holdengräber and Ms. Jamison, Ms. McKeown revealed to the audience her personal experiences with mental illness, disclosing a brief bout of depression that she suffered while pregnant, as well as the impacts had on her by the mental illnesses of friends and relatives. Ms. Jamison, on the other hand, has long dealt with her own bipolar disease, and spoke from first-hand experience of the fear and stigma surrounding mental illness. From this perspective, Ms. Jamison drew a distinction between the display of melancholy in art and music as a timeless element of the human condition, and the unromantic, brutal and even debilitating reality of mental illness. Ms. Jamison noted that many of the poets whose works Ms. McKeown looked to in composing “Singing in the Dark” were more than just melancholy, suffering from chronic and severe mental illnesses in times when science could not understand their pain. For many of these poets, it was the poetry itself which served as an outlet and a mechanism by which they could express their suffering.

It is this studied linkage between creativity and mental illness that inspired Ms. McKeown to devote an entire album to an artistic exploration of the topic. Ms. McKeown described the selection of poems on the album as poems that spoke to her and which she wished to remember.

The poets whose works are explored on the album range from such greats as Theodore Roethke and Anne Sexton, to Lord Byron and Chicago’s own Gwendolyn Brooks. The musical accompaniments are likewise varied, at times taking on distinctly international tones. Ms. McKeown’s interpretation of “In a Dark Time,” by Theodore Roethke, which Ms. McKeown noted is one of her favorite poems, takes on a decidedly Irish flavor with an accordion accompaniment. An audience favorite of the evening, “The Crazy Woman,” written by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and Chicagoan Gwendolyn Brooks, seems to pay homage to Chicago’s jazz roots with its piano and percussion infused score.

Despite the gravity of the subject matter explored on the album, Ms. McKeown’s powerful vocals and masterful poetic interpretations impress upon the listener more a sense of hope and yearning than of bleakness and despair. The album as a whole captures the catharsis that can accompany and even encourage art sprung from such a dark place – with the songs themselves acting as a form of consolation to both artist and audience.

The concert debut of Singing in the Dark was produced in association with the New York Public Library: LIVE from the NYPL and New York University’s Glucksman Ireland House, with additional support from mental health organizations Fountain House, National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Bring Change 2 Mind and Mood Disorder Support Group (MDSG).

Singing in the Dark can be purchased on Ms. McKeown’s website at www.susanmckeown.com. A portion of the proceeds from the album sales will go to support Fountain House, NAMI, Bring Change to Mind and MDSG.