#KeepGoing: Living through the music amid mental health issues

The sun has been tucked in to sleep, but the people inside Saguijo Cafe in Makati are still very much awake and alive to support “Live; Live – A Mental Awareness Gig Series,” that advocates mental health, with the help of local bands and their music.

To break the stigma of mental disorder stereotypes, “Live; Live” was created to raise mental health awareness through various speakers, who shared their experiences and issues about their mental health, and bands like the Pamphleteer, Runaway Crimes and TheSunManager who played some of their songs to set the mood.

After every band’s last song, a speaker takes over the stage and everyone falls instantly silent to listen to the speaker who shares personal stories about mental health.

“If it wasn’t for the alcohol, I wouldn’t be speaking right now,” John Mari Marcelo, one of the speakers, jokingly said.

Marcelo, a photographer, singer-songwriter, explained the difficulty of ‘wanting to live.’ His struggle with depression and anxiety existed until now, but with people around him and his passion for writing, music, and photography, being his “tether to life”, he realized “it’s good to live.”

Marcelo was just one of the many who suffer mental illnesses, and it was evident that night that everyone around him in the café related to what he felt.

“Live; Live – A Mental Health Awareness Gig Series” was an event produced by the team of Red Ninja Production, Move Forward Productions, and Raccoon Productions last Sept. 22. All proceeds went to the National Center for Mental Health.