Seán Barna - An Evening at Macri Park (2023) [Hi-Res]

A simple declaration of peace and reality shouldn’t ignite a movement, but when it does, it’s good to have a photographer around.

And so it was, in April of 1966, when three patrons of NYC’s Julius’ bar stated: “We are homosexuals. We are orderly, we intend to remain orderly, and we are asking for service." Today, the photo of this moment hangs on the wall of Julius’. Today, gay bars in NYC are not only legal, but plentiful, thanks to the artistic tradition of telling the truth about a time and a place.

Singer-songwriter Seán Barna, a viscerally outspoken queer artist and performer, is embedded in this tradition. With his second LP and Kill Rock Stars debut, Seán invites you to An Evening at Macri Park—a character study of the dimly-lit Brooklyn queer bar, Macri Park, and the creatures who thrive within its walls.

Seán was a semi-professional drummer by age fourteen and graduated with a degree in classical percussion at age twenty-two. Barna has since served as the drummer of Deaf West Theatre’s Los Angeles production of Spring Awakening and the national Broadway tour for The Producers. Living in Berlin in 2011, as a regular at an English-speaking open mic at the now-closed Neukölln bar, Lagari, Seán began to explore his voice as a songwriter.

Recorded at 1809 Studios in Macedon, NY, Seán would write late into the night as producer Dave Drago and his young children slept. Early in the morning, they would record the previous evening’s riches. Moving fast, the bar Macri Park became the center of a song cycle documenting giddiness, grief, history, and everything in-between. He enlisted friends, including Counting Crows’ Adam Duritz and David Immerglück, harpist and songwriter Mikaela Davis, Danielle Ponder, and Maria Taylor of Azure Rae, to bring this world to life.