CONCERT SERIES
Love Fights Back: Joy Springs Forth
On May 3, 2026, the Community Church of New York was proud to host the third concert in our Love Fights Back series. Under the leadership of Darnell White and Matt Podd, dozens of talented vocalists from all across the city (and a very talented band) came together to bring communal joy and power to Midtown Manhattan.
These concerts serve as a way to lean in to our resistance to rising threats against our friends and neighbors who are immigrants, queer and trans people, people of color, religious minorities, the unhoused, and all marginalized communities. In these times that try our souls, the Community Church honors its 200 year legacy serving as a home for justice-based values and activism for liberation by keeping love at the center of everything we do. Joy and beloved community empower us and serve as crucial reminders for why we must keep going, and why our cause is well worth fighting for. As Darnell White and Matt Podd put it in their original song “Fight On,” “this battle is long, but we’re strong, and when love fights back we will win.”
Love Fights Back: Songs of Joy & Justice
Our second annual winter concert, Love Fights Back, took place on Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025.
With music direction by our very own Darnell White and Matt Podd, singers from all over the city came together with our community to raise our collective voices against oppression everywhere. We enjoyed an evening of inspiring music that reminded all that the only way we can tackle the challenges facing us today is in solidarity and action.
Love Fights Back!
Following the success of Love Sings: A Winter Concert in December, 2024, the Community Church of New York followed up with a Spring Concert: Love Fights Back!
Taking place on Sunday, May 18 at 5 PM at 209 Madison Ave., the concert aimed to create music and build collective power in these times of uncertainty and fear.
Director of Music Darnell White and Assistant Director of Music Matt Podd, members of our amazing choir, musicians, and performers from all over the city provided an evening of uplifting, empowering music.
Love Sings: A Winter Concert
On December 22, 2024, our professional choir, under the leadership of our incomparable Music Director Darnell White and Assistant Music Director Matt Podd, performed a wide array of holiday and winter pieces for the Community Church of New York’s Love Sings: A Winter Concert. Some are likely to be familiar, but we guarantee there is nothing “standard” about these performances. Anyone who follows us on social media or takes part in our services, either online or in person, knows how special this music team is - and we are excited to share the recording of this phenomenal concert!
Donations collected during the concert went to support the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Disaster Relief Fund, which gives grants to UU congregations and non-profit entities in the wake of disaster and emergency situations. Funds like these provide urgently needed mutual aid to communities like those in Western North Carolina, which were devastated by hurricane-related flooding in October, 2024.