Jake Wesley Rogers | Kara Jackson | Bright Light Bright Light

BUD LIGHT MUSIC SERIES

Doors 6:00PM/Show 7:00PM
Join us on Thu, June 15 for a 2023 BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! concert featuring Jake Wesley Rogers, Kara Jackson, and Bright Light Bright Light.

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. 

*Please Note: A limited amount of chairs will be available at this show, but you are also permitted to bring your own. For our d/Deaf and hard of hearing communities, we will have an ASL interpreter at the left side of the stage.  

About the artists

When he calls from Los Angeles in spring 2022, Jake Wesley Rogers is certain of one thing: he is, without a shadow of a doubt, ready to finish the debut album he’s long dreamt of making. He’s confident and cautious in equal measure, he says; the pressure is immense, what with 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. And has he mentioned he’s opening this fall’s eagerly anticipated Panic! At the Disco arena tour alongside Marina? (As PAPER Magazine predicted upon the release of his major label debut, “Give Jake Wesley Rogers a stadium.”)

Born in Kansas City, MO, Jake calls his early songwriting experiments at age 11 “like in Harry Potter when they accidentally do magic before they go to Hogwarts.” Musical theater became his creative outlet; songwriting became his escape. For Jake, music didn’t simply define his childhood; it enveloped it and informed his future. Songs were his ticket to enlightenment; music was the key to connection and commonality. Still working proudly alongside hit songwriter Justin Tranter (and signed to his imprint of Warner Records, Facet Records), Jake remains an artist with a melody and a message. Never preachy but always poignant, his lyrics – on breakout singles like the recent “Lavender Forever” as well as the beloved songs from his 2021 EP, Pluto – have enraptured audiences from all over the world.

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 song 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. www.brightlightx2.com @brightlightx2 on all socials

Founded in 2015, C’mon Everybody was born out of a desire to amplify the underserved creative voices of LGBTQ/QTPOC people (and allies) and to serve as a safe space for the queer community. At our core, we aim to promote inclusion, to uplift, and to offer our stage to those who have struggled to fit into the larger live arts community of New York City.