NEWS: Canada Ghana UK Mad Pride 2006 Events Begin

[mindfreedom-news at intenex.net]

NEWS: Human Rights & Mental Health - 20 June 2006
http://www.MindFreedom.org - please forward

    Mad Pride 2006 Celebrations in Canada, Ghana, UK, USA Begin!

    International Committee Planning Now for 2007

    How Will *You* Show Your Mad Pride?

by Krista Erickson, chair, Mad Pride International Coordinating 
Committeee

Mad Pride 2006 events are already well underway this year thanks to the 
wonderful and creative work of Gallery Gachet in Vancouver, Canada.

This year, extensive Mad Pride events will also be taking place in 
Toronto, Canada plus in Ghana, England, and the USA among other 
nations. Celebrations of Mad Pride are planned from now until September 
17, 2006!

BELOW please find the latest listing of Mad Pride celebrations! Spread 
the word!

Mad Pride celebrates the creativity, strength and resilience of the 
human spirit. Mad Pride provides an opportunity to empower psychiatric 
survivors and raise public consciousness about human rights through 
various activities such as art, theatre, music, poetry, protests, 
vigils and more. All are welcome.

Since 2000, this is the 7th time that MindFreedom has promoted Mad 
Pride events internationally. MindFreedom has now established a Mad 
Pride International Coordinating Committee to launch Mad Pride around 
the world. A four-nation planning teleconference next week has Mad 
Pride 2007 on the agenda. If you are interested in participating in 
this work please contact MadPride by e-mail: pride at mindfreedom.org

For information about past Mad Pride events, frequently asked questions 
about Mad Pride, ideas for how to have your own Mad Pride celebration 
and updates on current Mad Pride events visit:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/mindfreedom/madpride/index.shtml

or use this smaller web address:

http://tinyurl.com/n7784

BELOW is the current list of known Mad Pride 2006 events. If your event 
isn't listed please let us know.

~~~~~~~~~~

MAD PRIDE 2006 EVENT LISTING

~~~~~~~~~~

FROM VANCOUVER, CANADA

WORLD MAD PRIDE HUMAN RIGHTS + PSYCHIATRY ARTS FESTIVAL!

Mad Pride is a growing international movement which asks the question: 
Could madness be a sane response to an insane world?

World Mad Pride Vision

** Build awareness of the connection between war, human rights, and 
health. Promote awareness of social determinants of mental health, 
linking with impacts of militarism, conflict, economic, and social 
insecurity.

** Profile the work of the UN and World Health Organization on mental 
health and human rights

** Create links to worldwide campaigns for rights of individuals for 
health and security

** Challenge stigmas of people living with mental health issues

** Contribute to dialogue on mental health human rights through the 
sharing and showcasing of artistic expression on these themes

Check out art exhibitions, films, comedy and performance cabaret, and 
panel discussions. Local and international artists contributed artwork 
addressing mental health, human rights and psychiatry. World Mad Pride 
takes place in June, as Vancouver welcomes the world to the World Peace 
Forum 2006 (June 23-28), United Nations World Urban Forum (June 19-23), 
and Towards a Just and Lasting Peace Conference (June 16-19). Events 
are free or by donation.

Here are only a few of the many events that are planned in Vancouver, 
Canada:

** WORLD MAD PRIDE EXHIBITION -- June 2 to July 2, 2006, Gallery Gachet

Artist Reception: Sunday, June 25, 2-3:30pm

View paintings, installations, photography and more from Peru, the UK, 
Guinea, Zambia, and 15 Canadian communities addressing human rights and 
psychiatry, mad pride, and psychiatric survivor's experiences.

** ECOPSYCHOLOGY: PARKS VS. PROZAC -- Saturday, June 17 2-4pm, Gallery 
Gachet

"To claim we have no ethical obligation to our planetary home is the 
epic psychosis of our time. A culture that can do so much damage to the 
planetary fabric that sustains it, yet continues along its course 
unimpeded, is mad with the madness of a deadly compulsion." -Theodore 
Roszak/

Could reconnecting with our natural environment constitute a 
cutting-edge prescription for intelligent mental health care? Join this 
afternoon discussion. Cherise Clarke will introduce Gachet's art and 
healing model, as well as delve into the concepts of Ecopsychology, 
presenting the work of Theodore Roszak, and others.

Dr. Hester Parr of the University of Dundee, Scotland will present her 
research into the use of nature spaces to assist in mental health 
recovery in the UK. We will view highlights of her documentary film 
Recovering Lives: Mental Health, Gardening, and the Arts.

Shawn Kelley and Jason O'Brien of My Own Back Yard Community 
Association (MOBY) will share the experiences of integrating mental 
illness with addiction and homelessness in the creation of a communal 
garden in the Commercial/Broadway area.

** FILM SCREENING

Thursday, June 22 7pm, Free

Carnegie Community Centre Theatre, Directed by Laura Sky, (90 mins.)

Post-film discussion with Ron Carten, Coordinator, Vancouver Richmond 
Mental Health Network

In February 1997, Edmond Yu, a psychiatric survivor who was 
experiencing a mental health crisis, was shot and killed by Toronto 
police following an altercation on a city transit bus. Award-winning 
Toronto filmmaker, Laura Sky, created the documentary film Crisis Call 
on Yu's case. The film addresses the critical issues facing police, 
legal experts, mental health workers, the public and psychiatric 
patients and poses the question: "What can be done to prevent a mental 
health crisis from escalating into violence?" For answers Sky talked to 
police, psychiatric survivors, and many others involved in crisis 
interventions. Crisis Call documents their candid, often compelling 
stories as they challenge the system and search for solutions.

** THE WOMEN OF AL RASHAD RECEPTION http://www.ritaleistner.com

WORLD MAD PRIDE ARTISTS' RECEPTION -- Rita Leistner Artist Talk & 
Reception: Sunday, June 25, 2-3:30pm, Gallery Gachet

Complimentary beverages and food

World Mad Pride presents Rita Leistner's photographic portraits of 
women residents at the al-Rashad Psychiatric Hospital in Baghdad. It is 
situated on the outskirts of Sadr City, a sprawling slum of two 
million, in northeast Baghdad, frequently wrought by fierce fighting. 
Inside the walls live 900 people, 300 are women, many diagnosed with 
schizophrenia, but mostly prisoners of the conflict, which denies them 
their ability to live independently.

Direct from Brooklyn, NY, meet Rita in person on June 25 for her artist 
talk and reception. Her photographs and stories from Iraq have been 
published in The Walrus, Newsweek, Time, Colors, Rolling Stone and 
Macleans, among other publications. She is co-author of Unembedded: 
Four Independent Photojournalists on the War in Iraq, published in 
October 2005. The book will be on display in the Gallery and available 
for sale.

Rita's other recent projects include profiles of US soldiers; and a 
feature on gravediggers in Najaf during the siege of 2004.

We appreciate Rita Leistner for coming to Vancouver to share this 
important work with us. http://www.ritaleistner.com

** MENTAL HEALTH, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND 9/11 -- Sunday, June 25 3:45-5pm, 
Gallery Gachet, Free

Presentation by Zahra Rasul (UBC) and Alex Imperial (SIKLAB), and 
Members of the World Mad Pride Committee.

This event follows the Rita Leistner Artist Talk & World Mad Pride 
artists' reception starting at 2pm.

This panel exposes how war, human rights, and health are 
interconnected. Psychiatry often narrows definitions of mental illness, 
by removing the social context. This panel and audience discussion will 
promote awareness of the many social determinants of mental health, 
linking the impacts of militarism, conflict, economic, and social 
insecurity.

Closer to home, George Bush and the US psychiatric and pharmaceutical 
industries plan mandatory screening of all US school children. This 
will likely reinforce social exclusion by race and economic class. 
Mental health's social context is being ignored.

Alex Imperial has worked with the Community Legal Assistance Society's 
Mental Health Law Program, and is an organizer with SIKLAB, an overseas 
Filipino worker's rights organization in the Downtown Eastside. He will 
address the human impacts of economic policies on migrant workers 
worldwide.

Zahra Rasul is particularly interested in the ways in which Canadian 
nation-building is facilitated in the post 9/11 world through 
discriminatory laws and policies. In the "War on Terror," moral panic 
has been incited by the state in an effort to delineate "us" and 
"them." Her talk will, using Foucault's conception of madness, explore 
the construction of Muslim men as "crazed terrorists," "suicidal," and 
"homicidal."

** WE DON'T LIVE UNDER NORMAL CONDITIONS -- Sunday, June 25 5 to 7pm

http://www.aperiofilms.com/wdlunc.html

by donation Gallery Gachet. Directed by Rhonda Collins., (71 min).

There is a tendency afoot today to blame the epidemic sweep of 
depression in the US on bad genes or screwy brain chemistry. But what 
if the causes do not emanate from the individual? This artful 
documentary brings six people together for three days of emotional, and 
sometimes heated, discussion about the sources of their despair. 
Intermixed are hard-to-find facts which challenge the psychiatric 
industry's claims that depression is a biological disorder.

** MAD PRIDE CABARET -- Friday, June 30 7pm,

Gallery Gachet, by donation, Complimentary snacks.

Live music, comedy, readings and performance with Stand Up For Mental 
Health (comedy), Sarah Griffin (Toronto graphic novelist show 'n tell), 
Irit Shimrat (music video from the frontlines of the mad movement), Ron 
Carten (reading from his new book), Jan Derbyshire (Blue Head solo 
performance from her Firehall playwright residency), Cherise Clarke 
(stage reading), Al Mader (Vancouver slam poet), and Barbara Phillips 
(Kamloops' performance poet).

Enjoy a whole hour of comedy at 8pm with Stand Up For Mental Health, a 
group founded by counsellor and stand-up comic David Granirer. The 
troupe teaches stand up comedy to people with mental health issues as a 
way of building confidence and fighting public stigma. A chance to 
laugh at surviving the mental health system!

for more info: http://www.standupformentalhealth.com

** ASYLUM SQUAD WORKSHOP -- Sunday, July 2 12-4pm, Gallery Gachet, By 
donation
Sarah Griffin, Graphic Novelist

Direct from Toronto, Sarah Griffin, creator of Asylum Squad comics with 
a hands-on workshop to express yourself and produce your own cartoon or 
zine! Pre-register. Materials supplied.

For more information: E-mail: madpride at gachet.org
phone: (604) 687-2468

~~~~~~~~~~

FROM GHANA, AFRICA

MindFreedom Ghana celebrates Mad Pride!

Theme: Free Minds at Ease!

July 2, 2006 -- TV Discussion

July 5, 2006 -- Radio Discussion

July 6, 2006 -- Cultural Event & Symposium

July 8, 2006 -- Presentation To Accra Psychiatric Hospital

July 14, 2006 -- Street March

Dan Taylor, who is the Secretary of MindFreedom Ghana based in Accra, 
Ghana, announced, "Our Theme for our Mad Pride event is 'Free Minds At 
Ease.'"

Dan explained that, "MindFreedom Ghana is poised to take Ghana and 
indeed Africa by storm in July 2006 to highlight the problems and human 
rights of users and survivors of the mental health system."

Dan said that bigotry against people diagnosed with psychiatric labels 
is common in Ghana: "Our friends and relations have long been 
stigmatized for living with or surviving psychosocial disabilities and 
so we MindFreedom Ghana will do what it takes to reverse this."

MindFreedom Ghana has joined the MindFreedom Mad Pride International 
Coordinating Committee. Dan hopes this will inspire other groups to 
participate this year. Dan said, "Let all MindFreedom Groups in the USA 
and other parts of the world join in this event to accentuate our cause 
in diverse forms!"

You may e-mail your best wishes to MindFreedom Ghana, a leader of Mad 
Pride events in Africa and internationally, via their e-mail address 
mindfreedomghana at yahoo.co.uk

~~~~~~~~

FROM ENGLAND -- August 6 to 10, 2006.

For the second year, psychiatric survivors and allies in England will 
be celebrating Mad Pride by conducting a "Bed Push." They will start in 
Brighton, UK and in pajamas push a bed with a manequin tied down in it 
in "restraints" for 50 miles over five days. This creative approach 
gains widespread media attention, and the 2005 Bed Push was even 
featured in a documentary shown on UK television. The Mad Pride Bed 
Push 2006 will end up at the ex-site for infamous Bedlam psychiatric 
institution where all are invited to a "mad hatters' tea party." For 
more information and photos of Bed Push 2005 see:

http://www.kissit.org

~~~~~~~~~~

USA

IN THE UNITED NATIONS, New York City

August 14 to 25, 2006

MindFreedom's United Nations delegation, led by Celia Brown, will be 
participating for a third year inside the UN in the continuing 
international negotiations surrounding a proposed treaty on the rights 
of people with disabilities, especially focused on trying to keep 
language in favor of forced treatment out of the document.

You are urged to call on the USA and other nations to support strong 
human rights proposals in this effort, which is formally entitled the 
"Ad Hoc Committee on a Comprehensive and Integral International 
Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of 
Persons with Disabilities." This is the fifth year that MindFreedom is 
the only group of its kind with United Nations accreditation as a Non 
Governmental Organization (NGO) with Consultative Roster Status. For 
more information see this UN web site:

http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/rights/ahc8.htm

~~~~~~~~~~

FROM OREGON, USA -- Saturday July 8, 2006 - 1:00 PM

The Oregon Country Fair (OCF) will include MindFreedom Director David 
Oaks as part of its popular "Spoken Word" program. You may hear David 
at "Chez Ray's Next Stage" discuss Mad Pride in a talk entitled, "Free 
Minds, Madness & Frivolity."

David will also give a brief workshop each day at OCF at 5 pm at the 
Doors of Expression booth in the Community Village, which is where 
you'll also find MindFreedom material throughout the fair.

These events will include Normality Screenings. Learn to do screenings 
for normality wherever you live. For tips about this easy guerilla 
theater, plus downloadable "Normal Free" coupons to copy and hand out 
(both USA and international versions), see:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/mindfreedom/madpride/index.shtml

or use this smaller web address:

http://tinyurl.com/n7784

For information about OCF, which draws tens of thousands into Oregon's 
woods each July, see:

http://www.oregoncountryfair.org

~~~~~~~~~~

FROM NEW YORK STATE, USA - Bastille Day - 14 July 2006

Celebrate the Human Spirit

Break the Silence About Psychiatric Oppression

Activities will include a vigil, memorials, round table discussions, 
teach-ins, guest speakers, and much more! Support (or participate in) a 
fast to oppose the use of shock treatment on children in New York 
State.

Activities will be educational and informative to highlight human 
rights in mental health and to create a vision of what needs to be done 
for our future. For more information phone The Alliance at (315) 
947-5888 or 1-800-654-7227.

~~~~~~~~~~

FROM CHICAGO, USA -- Saturday, July 22, 2006

DISABLED AND PROUD 2006: Celebrating Disability Arts and Culture

Disability Pride Parade

Join the MindFreedom Mad Pride contingent as we march in the Third 
Annual Disability Pride Parade. If interested please contact 
krista at intenex.net

For information about the Disability Pride Parade see:

http://www.disabilityprideparade.com

~~~~~~~~~~

FROM OHIO, USA

There are all kinds of creative ways to support Mad Pride, small or 
large, as an individual or in a group! Of course, there are all kinds 
of creative ways... this is about Mad Pride!

Long-time psychiatric survivor activist PAT RISSER of Ohio, USA has 
published a new essay today on his web site about the importance of Mad 
Pride in his personal recovery from the harm of psychiatric labeling 
and segregation. Pat calls on people to support Mad Pride, and is 
joining the Mad Pride International Coordinating Committee. See his 
essay here:

http://home.att.net/~LetFreedomRing/updates/MadPride.html

~~~~~~~~~~

FROM TORONTO, CANADA

Friday, July 14, 2006 has been proclaimed Psychiatric Survivor Pride 
Day in the City of Toronto. To celebrate we are coordinating The Mad 
Pride 2006 Weekend September 14th to 17th 2006.

In 1993, Toronto Psychiatric Survivors, a burgeoning political and 
cultural movement of people whose autonomy had survived the psychiatric 
system, and local organizations, primarily West End Survivors (a peer 
support group), and Parkdale Community Legal Services began holding a 
yearly event to educate each other, and the public about who they were, 
and the issues that impacted them. Issues like poverty, psychiatric 
abuse and assault, and lack of safe, affordable housing.

Beginning in the year 2000, Pride Day, as this day was known by many 
survivor communities in Toronto, aligned itself with its global 
counterpart, Mad Pride Worldwide Day, celebrated on July 14th.

Today, the issues of poverty, psychiatric abuse and assault, and lack 
of safe, affordable housing are still here, but SO ARE WE!. Therefore, 
with true survivor spirit, The Mad Pride Toronto 2006 Organizing 
Committee and The Friendly Spike Theatre Band, a company dedicated to 
producing theatre with marginalized individuals and communities, 
Parkdale Community Legal Services, and Parkdale Activity and Recreation 
Center announce the official proclamation of July 14, 2006 as 
Psychiatric Survivor Pride Day in the City of Toronto and encourage 
everyone to support Psychiatric Survivors in their work for equal 
rights!

In celebration and recognition of Psychiatric Survivor Pride we will 
present THE MAD PRIDE TORONTO 2006 WEEKEND:

** Opening and Awards Ceremony and Rights Forum: 12 noon - 3pm on 
Thursday, September 14th at Parkdale Activity and Recreation Centre, 
1499 Queen St. West, hosted by Parkdale Activity and Recreation Center, 
and Parkdale Community Legal Services.

** Community Treatment Orders: Imprisoning With Drugs in the 21st 
Century: 4pm - 5pm on Friday September 15th at The Peace Lounge, 7th 
floor, OISE Ontario Institute for Studies in Education 252 Bloor St. 
West (accessible from St. George Subway). Presented by Erick Fabris.

In the last few years, psychiatry has brought its commitment powers out 
into the community. This research presentation brings forward how 
psychiatric inmates have dealt with forced treatment outside of 
psychiatric facilities. New psychiatric laws across the US and 3 
Canadian provinces, including Ontario have introduced a law to enforce 
treatments, monitoring, and appointments for people released from 
hospital, supposedly with their consent. This new legal power is named 
the "Community Treatment Order" or "CTO" (or "Involuntary Outpatient 
Committal" in the US). Many of the myths about CTO's are discussed in 
this presentation. Survivors and allies continue to struggle against 
these laws, and have even prevented them >from being passed in New 
Mexico this year. Horrible experiences by CTO inmates shed light on how 
mandatory treatment beyond psychiatric facilities are being used and 
abused in Ontario. Treatment orders may be a cheap new form of 
institutionalization by use of chemical restraint.

** CAPA Reception 5pm - 7pm Friday September 15th at The Peace Lounge, 
7th floor OISE Ontario Institute for Studies in Education 252 Bloor St. 
West (accessible from St. George Subway)

Come and join CAPA (Coalition Against Psychiatric Assault) on Friday 
evening to schmooze and enjoy refreshments. CAPA members will be 
present to share information of Toronto's antipsychiatry organization 
and to answer any questions.

** The Places We Share, a new play by The Friendly Spike Theatre Band, 
8pm to 9:30 pm Friday September 15th and Saturday September 16th at The 
Alchemy Theatre, 133 Tecumseth St. (one block west of Bathurst ,south 
of Queen St. West). A lighthearted and thoughtful story examining the 
nature of our shared existence on the margin of society.

** Scenes from The House on Lippincott: 2pm - 3pm Saturday, September 
16th at The Alchemy Theatre 133 Tecumseth St. (one block west of 
Bathurst, south of Queen St. West)

A reading from The House on Lippincott by Bonnie Burstow especially for 
Psychiatric Survivors.

** Reception and Open House 4pm - 6pm Saturday September 16th, at CAMH 
(Center For Addiction and Mental Health), The Empowerment Office, 1001 
Queen St. West. hosted by The Empowerment Council and featuring the 
work of PSAT (Psychiatric Survivor Archives Toronto).

** Now, Who's Crazy Now? 10pm - 11pm Saturday September 16th, Alchemy 
Theatre, 133 Tecumseth St (one block west of Bathurst and South of 
Queen St. West) Written and presented by Elly Litvak. This one woman 
show from Vancouver, Canada chronicles Elly's journey from chaos to a 
fulfilled life of balance and recovery.

** Writer's Open Stage 2pm - 4pm Sunday September 17th, The Alchemy 
Theatre 133 Tecumseth St. (one block west of Bathurst and South of 
Queen St. West)

An open stage will be offered to writers of every ilk whose work uses 
experiences of psychiatric survivors, and or madness. Featuring Mel 
Starkman - Hope For Change, Lorretta Clark - 3 Rivers of Blood and 
Destiny, and Caroline Fei-Yeng Kwok - The Tormented Mind, and many 
more!.

** Patient Built Wall Tour 6pm - 8pm Sunday September 17th, The Ground 
of CAMH Center for Addiction and Mental Health 1001 Queen Street West.

Guided by Geoff Reaume. The purpose of this tour is to remember the 
contributions of the men and women who lived, worked and died in the 
Toronto Insane Asylum, as is represented by the boundary walls that 
they built which stand as enduring testament to their abilities and to 
use the past to challenge discrimination experienced today by people 
who have a psychiatric history.

** Remembering Patients Past = The Last Harrah - closing reception 
hosted by Angel Queen - 8pm - Sunday September 17th, The Garden, The 
Grounds of CAMH Center for Addiction and Mental Health, 1001 Queen 
Street West. We will gather in the Garden by the wall in remembrance of 
patient past with the hope of growing.

For more information contact Ruth Ruth at Friendly Spike Theater at 
(416) 516-4740 or by e-mail at
friendlyspike at primus.ca

Friendly Spike Theatre Band is a Sponsor Group of MindFreedom 
International.

- end Mad Pride 2006 event listing -

~~~~~~~~~~

    ACTIONS * ACTIONS * ACTIONS

** Please forward this Public Service Announcement far and wide, both 
on and off Internet!

** Hold your own Mad Pride event at any time!

** Want to coordinate your event with others, participate, join in and 
support the international MAD PRIDE campaign? E-mail to 
pride at mindfreedom.org

~~~~~~~~

    Join MindFreedom International, donate, or renew your membership 
today!

Do you want to...

* Win human rights campaigns in mental health?

* End abuse by the psychiatric drug industry?

* Support the self-determination of psychiatric survivors?

* Promote safe, humane and effective options in mental health?

You are not alone! MindFreedom is a nonprofit human rights group that 
unites 100 sponsor and affiliate groups with individual members, and is 
accredited by the United Nations as a Non-Governmental Organization 
(NGO) with Consultative Roster Status.

MindFreedom is one of the very few totally independent groups in the 
mental health field with no funding from governments, drug companies, 
religions, corporations, or the mental health system. While most of 
MindFreedom's members are psychiatric survivors, *all* who support 
human rights are invited to join and become active leaders.

JOIN, RENEW, DONATE, or give GIFT MEMBERSHIPS to MindFreedom 
International today:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/join.shtml

For a MAD MARKET of books and other products to support human rights 
campaigns in mental health: http://www.madmarket.org

MindFreedom International Office: 454 Willamette, Suite 216 - POB 
11284; Eugene, OR 97440-3484 USA

web site: http://www.mindfreedom.org
e-mail: office at mindfreedom.org
office phone: (541) 345-9106
toll free: 1-877-MAD-PRIDe or 1-877-623-7743
fax: (541) 345-3737

Please forward.