MindFreedom's Report on Mad Pride 2009 Events

MindFreedom International -- MAD PRIDE 2009 NEW

 JULY IS MAD PRIDE MONTH!

MindFreedom reports on Mad Pride '09 celebrations throughout the world, including Ireland, New York, Toronto, Oregon and others.

Heard of Gay Pride?

MAD PRIDE celebrates everyone's "creative maladjustment" as Martin Luther King, Jr. so often proudly described his own psychological state.

Every month is Mad Pride Month, but especially July!

Said Mad Pride activist Mike Crowley, "I think Mad Pride is important because I know for a fact that madness can be found in everyone, regardless of whether they've been diagnosed or not.  We are the Mad! When we oppress others considered mentally different, we oppress ourselves. But we don't have to; Mad Pride is creativity aimed at ending our society's pattern of hurting ourselves."

The 2009 Mad Pride celebration in Toronto will be a whole week long. The celebration in Ghana last year had over 6,000 people. But small or large, all Mad Pride events count!

 MEDIA INTEREST IN MAD PRIDE!

This is a perfect time to brainstorm your own Mad Pride event. National media are more interested than ever in MAD PRIDE. On 15 July, a national TV news show is interviewing MindFreedom director David Oaks for a later special segment on MAD PRIDE, stay tuned!

Mad Pride events in 2009 come on the heels of two major media articles over this past year on Mad Pride: One was in Newsweek in May 2009 -- http://www.newsweek.com/id/195694. Last May there was even a Mad Pride article in the "Fashion" section of The New York Times -- http://tinyurl.com/nytimes-madpride. Mad's in style.

Last month, Canadian radio station CHLY did a four-segment special on MAD PRIDE, including an interview with Ruth Ruth, chair of the MindFreedom International Mad Pride Campaign Committee. To listen to the four interviews, free, click here: http://tinyurl.com/chly-madpride

 MAD PRIDE EVENTS THIS JULY '09

OREGON: Mad Pride events continue this July with MindFreedom Mad Pride at the Oregon Country Fair outside of Eugene, Oregon, USA. You can participate in MindFreedom Mad Pride skits and talent show every day at this year's Oregon Country Fair, in the Community Village Stage Green at 3 pm. Singer/songwriter David Rogers will be one of the treats. Learn to screen for normality from David Oaks, director of MFI! Bring your Mad Pride talent to the stage (watch out for the tap dancing eight year old)! For more info click here: http://tinyurl.com/mad-ocf  (By the way, because of OCF, there will be no MindFreedom Web Radio on second Sat. of July. Next show on 8 August will have Mad Pride reports. Watch MindFreedom News for details)

NORTH CAROLINA: The other side of the USA then answers with The Second Annual Mad Pride Asheville, North Carolina, sponsored by MindFreedom International and Asheville Homeless Network. The event will be held on July 11, 2009 from 1 pm to 5 pm at the Old Magnolia Tree in City-County Plaza. Info: http://tinyurl.com/asheville-madpride09

NEW YORK: In Albany, NY, survivors of electroshock and their allies sponsor a protest of use of electroshock on children. On Bastille Day, Tuesday, July 14, 2009, protesters speak out on the East Lawn of the Capitol Building (at State and Eagle Streets) for most of a 24-hour period, from 9 AM - 2 PM and 5 PM - 9 AM. (Bastille Day has been a traditional day of protest by psychiatric survivors for decades, at the suggestion of MindFreedom member Myra Kovary, thus leading to the designation of July as Mad Pride month!) Info: http://tinyurl.com/albany-09

TORONTO: Mad Pride is coming to Toronto! Again! The City of Toronto has officially proclaimed July 13 to 19, 2009 as Mad Pride Week! This is a week long festival of free arts, education and heritage activities which engages in community development, raises rights awareness and celebrates the lives of persons who have been impacted by the mental health system. The official opening is on Tuesday July 14 at 11 am with The Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, The Honourable David Onley, Ontario Human Rights Chief Commissioner Barbara Hall,  Member of Provincial Parliament Cheri Dinovo, Toronto City Councillor Gord Perks,  and other invited guests. Week long activities will raise awareness using various forums from panel discussions to theatrical presentations.

Mad Pride Toronto Organizers have booked Metro Hall Rotunda at 55 John Street from Tuesday, July 14 to Friday, July 18th to showcase the great and MAD community. They have a parade permit so we can count on our traditional BED PUSH Parade on Saturday, July 18th from CAMH to PARC. This is one of many cultural events, check their web site for updates. Toronto is the home of Friendly Spike Theater, a sponsor group in MindFreedom and where Ruth Ruth does much of her culture work. Info on Toronto Mad Pride see: http://tinyurl.com/toronto-madpride09 If you search for Mad Pride on YouTube, you'll find videos of Toronto's past Mad Pride events.

Update: Toronto event success! To read the news coverage, click here:

http://www.nowtoronto.com/daily/story.cfm?content=170483

To see the YouTube, click here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZUh9yc9C_A  

VANCOUVER, CANADA: This just in, Gallery Gachet once more plans Mad Pride events, this time on 18 July 2009. For more info go to Gallery Gachet.

EUGENE: In Eugene, Oregon, get some Mad Pride going with the Green Your Mind Summer Film Series free movies about changing the mental health system, co-sponsored by MindFreedom International! The next one is "Take These Broken Wings," about full recovery without psychiatric drugs after a diagnosis of "schizophrenia." See: http://tinyurl.com/wings-200907

 SUCCESSFUL MAD PRIDE EVENTS EARLIER THIS YEAR:

A few of the Mad Pride 2009 events that have been held this year already include:

IRELAND: Mad Pride Cork, Fitzgerald's Park, June 7th 2009: Mad Pride Ireland was amazed by the crowds who turned out for the Mad Pride Ireland event in 2008, and in 2009 organizer/poet John McCarthy kept the mad vision alive, despite what we hear was some rain. Info: http://madprideireland.ie

SAN FRANCISCO: Independent Living Resource Center San Francisco, a sponsor group in MindFreedom International, has completed their Mad Pride Mad Hatter competition. The challenge was to "make a hat -- the 'madder' the better." Mad competitors used whatever they had at your disposal: found objects, recycled objects, buttons, cloth, paper ... the limits only existed in their imagination. The only rule was: "HAVE FUN". Maybe your community group could hold a Mad Hatter competition? To check out this year's event see: http://tinyurl.com/sf-madhatter

MINDFREEDOM YOUTH COMMITTEE members were featured in an interview about the mental health system and youth in the new issue of the youth publication WIRETAP. To read the interview go here: http://tinyurl.com/youth-mental-health

DIRECTORY: Of course, those reading MindFreedom news know that everyone declaring, on the Fourth of July, Mental Independence from Inhumane Mental Health Care by launching the MindFreedom Directory of Alternatives was a Mad Pride event! For info on the new directory, especially for providers who wish to list their mental health service, see: http://www.mindfreedom.org/directory

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 A MADLY-ASKED QUESTION:

How Can I Get Involved in Mad Pride?

Escape the Mad Closet! Speak your mind! Get close! Go deep! And celebrate!

Why do YOU think Mad Pride is important? E-mail your quote to news@mindfreedom.org, and you may be quoted by MindFreedom interns Anne and Katina who are preparing new Mad Pride literature to distribute internationally. (Thanks, Anne, for compiling material for this news release!)

Is your MAD PRIDE event missing from this news item? Then e-mail it in to news@mindfreedom.org.

And everyone, what MAD PRIDE events will YOU hold over this coming year! When? October and May are called Mental Health Months, those are nice. But then, so are the other months!

Learn more!

Martin Luther King said repeatedly that the world is in dire need of an International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment (IAACM). Many laughed. But Mad Pride makes MLK's IAACM vision a reality today! MindFreedom's physician-clown Patch Adams is chair of the IAACM. Help make Martin Luther King's dream come true! See many quotes by MLK, and see a video clip of him, about "creative maladjustment" here:
http://tinyurl.com/mlk-iaacm

The MindFreedom MAD PRIDE Campaign folder is also inspirational at:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/campaign/madpride

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 MAD CULTURE!

MindFreedom hosts two free, public e-mail lists, open to all, about MAD PRIDE.

1) NEWS: MindFreedom is re-starting the MAD PRIDE NEWS LIST. This is for occasional one-way news announcements related to MAD PRIDE. If you join just one Mad Pride list, this is it! If you get your MAD PRIDE event to just one place, this is where!

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

2) TALK: Chat on a Mad Pride Discussion e-mail list with others who are holding, or who want to hold, MAD PRIDE events. Ruth Ruth from Canada, John McCarthy from Ireland, Dan from Ghana, they're all there. Where are you? Join here free:

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

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PLEASE FORWARD this MAD PRIDE 2009 NEWS far and wide, to all interested people on and off Internet!

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