Mad Pride 2008 Events in Seven Nations

Mad Pride Latest Dispatches from All Over Our Mad, Mad World!

Update 22 August 2008

Read an article by Mad Pride concept co-founder Simon Barnett, click here.

Update 19 May 2008

Local and international artists, both emerging and professional, are invited to participate in an interdisciplinary call for work addressing human rights and psychiatry, and mental health and arts. For more information, click here.

Update 11 May 2008

New York Times ran an article today on Mad Pride, click here.

Here's a calendar of some of the upcoming 2008 Mad Pride activities, click here.

Now on the MindFreedom web site: A 20 minute online video of Mad Pride Toronto 2007, including their parade, interviews, and more, click here.

More videos are up, including Mad Pride events and "Mad Minutes," click here.

To catch the Liz Spikol psychiatric survivor Mad Pride YouTube videos featured in NY Times click here.

With the Climate Crisis, isn't there proof that what's called "normal" may have at least a little room for improvement? Click here to read today's blog entry by MindFreedom director David W. Oaks, responding to The NY Times article.

Update 28 April 2008:

Mad Pride Week - Toronto 2008 Monday July 14th to Sunday July 20th. Each day there will be great Mad Pride programming somewhere in the City. Click here for details.

Update 22 March 2008:

We are human! Click here to see psychiatric survivors saying "I am human!" Calling all psychiatric survivors! You are encouraged to take a photograph of yourself with a sign saying you are human being -- feel free to be creative. E-mail that in with a caption and we'll do what we can to post.

Update 20 January 2008:

Bed Push tips! You can now read about tips on how to create your own "Bed Push," click here.

Update 18 January 2008:

There's a new graphic for Mad Pride 2008, created by Canadian artist Irina Lyubchenko, which you are welcome to use under the MindFreedom Creative Commons Copyright. You may use the graphic as long as you credit Irina Lyubchenko and your use is not for commercial gain. To view and download the 3.2 meg color graphic click here.

For inspiration for your Mad Pride 2008 events, check out the Mad Pride events from 2007:

For the Ghana photos, news reports, more photos, video and a directory of known Mad Pride 2007 events from Africa to Canada...

 click here.

For Mad Pride 2008 Bonkersfest announcement click here.

For a Background on Mad Pride '07 by Krista Erickson, click here.

by Krista Erickson, chair, MFI Mad Pride Chair

A few highlights of 2007 events include:

• Bonkers Fest was celebrated earlier this month in England with Mad Pride events planned from now until early October.
• The Great Escape Bed Push. For the third year, activists in England will symbolically escape psychiatric institutions, dressed in pajamas and 'hot tail' it with a psychiatric bed to a place of safety and celebration while raising awareness about the over-use of forced treatments in mental health services and the need for holistic choice based services. This year the Great Escape goes international with bed pushes scheduled in Canada and the US.
• The first-ever Mad Pride parade in Belgium.
• A street march and other Mad Pride events in Ghana.
• Several events in Toronto and Vancouver Canada.
• A vigil in Albany, New York and a rally in Buffalo, NY.
• Mad Pride celebration at MindFreedom's Creative Revolution conference.

If you are planning a Mad Pride celebration, please let us know at pride@mindfreedom.org

For news reports, photo, video and a directory of known Mad Pride 2007 events from Africa to Canada...

Frequently Asked Mad Pride Questions

What is Mad Pride?

Mad Pride counteracts some of the discrimination and prejudice often shown towards people who have experienced mental distress and difference by promoting the economic, political, social, and cultural integration of users/survivors of psychiatry into the larger society. Mad Pride celebrates the creativity, strength and resilience of the human spirit. Mad Pride empowers psychiatric survivors and raises public consciousness through various activities such as art, theatre, music, poetry, protests, vigils and more.

It doesn't have to cost you much! To view a brief video of a really inexpensive and incredibly fun "Mad Pride" event in England click here.

How do I join the Mad Pride 2007?

MindFreedom has a Mad Pride Committee made up of interested MindFreedom members to help promote and support Mad Pride events worldwide in 2007. Representatives from Ghana, Ireland, Canada and the US held an international teleconference planning meeting. We want more members to join us.

If you are interested in being a part of this committee, or holding a small or large Mad Pride event, please email pride (at) mindfreedom.org.

Special Mad Pride 2007 News Preview: IAACM!

With support from MindFreedom International, Mad Pride 2007 will launch a vision of Martin Luther King, Jr.! In ten speeches over five years and in his writings, Dr. King said the world was in dire need of new organization, the "International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment," or the IAACM. It has taken psychiatric survivors to help make this dream come true. During July -- Mad Pride Month 2007 -- watch for news of the launch of the IAACM. All who follow Dr. King's nonviolence guidelines may consider and call themselves an IAACM leader.

For background on the IAACM see:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/kb/mental-health-global/iaacm

Listing of MAD PRIDE and related events is for information purposes only. A group listed is not necessarily a member, sponsor or affiliate of MindFreedom, and listing is not necessarily an endorsement of the group.

Mad Pride E-mail Lists:

MindFreedom sponsors an e-mail list that both members and non-members are on to discuss Mad Pride activities all over the world.

You can join here:

http://www.intenex.net/lists/listinfo/madpride-talk

There is also a Mad Pride "news" list that is open to all, for announcements about Mad Pride activities, anyone can sign up here:

http://www.intenex.net/lists/listinfo/madpride-news