Melissa Etheridge will be rocking out at Cape Fear Community College’s Wilson Center on Sunday, September 15, 2024 at 7:30pm (doors open at 6:00pm) as a part of her newly launched I’M NOT BROKEN tour. The tour is in support of the acclaimed singer-songwriter’s new album: I’m Not Broken (Live from Topeka Correctional Facility).
The album, slated for release on July 5th, was created in conjunction with a two-part docuseries entitled Melissa Etheridge: I’m Not Broken which will premiere at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival in June.
The docuseries tells the story of five female inmates from the Topeka Correctional Facility who sent a letter to Melissa Etheridge to tell her how much her music meant to them, and of how a friendship grew out of those letters, and inspired Melissa to create and perform an original song in their honor.
Melissa’s emotional connection to the women and their experiences was in part based on her own lived experience of losing her oldest son, Beckett Cypher, in 2020 to complications related to opioid use. The Etheridge Foundation was launched shortly after his passing by Melissa and friends, with the goal of supporting the research and development of new and better treatment options for recovery from opioid addiction, including plant based pharmaceutical and holistic interventions.
Finding the strength to channel her grief into an actionable vision of how to improve the lives of the millions of people and families impacted by opioid addiction each year is a testament to who Melissa Etheridge is as a person and an artist. And it seems aligned with her often stated philosophy that music has the power to heal.
In addition to the symbiotic roots of I’m Not Broken there’s also the not unsignificant fact that when Melissa was an impressionable 8-year-old in Leavenworth, Kansas the one and only Johnny Cash came to her hometown and performed at the federal penitentiary. That performance resulted in the seminal Live At Folsom Prison album and, as Melissa explained to Boston’s WMEX, made quite an impression on her young self: “….Since then I’ve always felt like that is a real way of giving back to people and maybe using the power of music to lift them up.”
Long time fans will attest that Melissa Etheridge’s music is uplifting, and that the artist behind the music has been equally inspiring: being open about her sexuality at a time when the music industry and society at large was less than supportive of LGBTQ+ rights, surviving cancer and being transparent about both the heartache and the triumphs, partnering with Al Gore to raise the alarm about the perils of ignoring Climate Change, channeling her grief into a cohesive plan to help and heal, and – most recently – using her talents to uplift a community of women that felt unseen.
Melissa Etheridge is a force for good, and we’re privileged to welcome her back for a second appearance at the Wilson Center.
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