This is my first post. I also feel that I am walking the line between brilliance and madness.

Great poetry show last week in Northampton with Edward Bartok-Baratta at a crowded room in First Churches. Edward's voice calls forth visionary possibility out of the pain of a life torn by violence. mp3 of "Old New York Where I Lay Down My Head."

sometimes i just want to die. 

I was diagnosed bipolar about a year and a half ago, I'm unmedicated (I watched Lithium turn my father into a robot, and then leave him completely out of it when he decided he didn't want to feel l

Short .mp3 audio of Icarus collective staffperson Bonfire Madigan Shive talking about creativity, mental health, and what the Icarus Project means to her at the 12-06 Open House celebration at Fountain House.

In some ways what you hold in your hands is my perspective as one of the founding members working with a young radical organization in its first year on the ground in New York City. I think it's an important document for that reason because it gives a sense of what we were doing at the beginning and the spirit in which we were doing it. Icarus is rapidly (and thankfully) branching out way beyond its founders into new directions and I think it's important to record the history as it happens.

What am I doing here?