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Campus Icarus Project at Evergreen State College in Olympia Washington organized a week of Mad Pride events June 1-5, including film showings, discussions and lectures, a spoken word gathering, candlelight vigil, a string labyrinth in the campus square, acupuncture demonostration, activist strategy, and more...

Intergalactic co-coordinator Will Hall came up from nearby Portland to participate, giving a talk on What Is Mad Pride? that inspired a group discussion ranging from shamanism and revolutionary politics to psychedelics, psychiatric abuse, coming off medications, the right for students to organize peer groups, activist trauma, the culture of strength and 'putting on a good face,' and the women's movement. An ear acupuncture demonstration gave everyone a chance to feel the healing power of chinese medicine, and led to a group discussion about community based healthcare alternatives to expensive medical bureacracies and technologies. With scores of students involved over the week-long series of events, it was busy, but we also had a chance to hang out and have fun!

"Our campus Icarus group has a whole group of regulars," says organizer Laura Brack. "We've created a family for ourselves." Icarus activists spent time on the campus square distributing literature, and talking with people about mad pride. It was finals week and even turnouts were in the 10-20 people range, making for more intimate and personal discussions and planting seeds for Icarus in the coming year.

Icarus organizers from Seattle came down to mee and connect. One Seattle Icarista that Icarus support groups were banned on his community college campus, facing counseling center opposition. This led to a discussion about the importance of independent peer support groups, where people have somewhere to go that we can speak freely about our experiences without fear of being judged, locked up, or kicked out of school. We also strategized a possible nation-wide campaign for the right to have independent meeting spaces on college campuses.

Evergeen activists created a string and stick labyrinth in the campus square after the labyrinth Icarus escapes from, and covered their mouths with tape to protest social silencing around discussing madness and different states of consciousness that get labeled disorders. A film showing featured Great Speeches from a Dying World, The Video Works of Per Frykdahl,  The Devil and Daniel Johnston, and The Doctor Who Hears Voices.

Evergreen is a very progressive school, and Icarista Rosie even got college credit for her Campus Icarus organizing -- in her evaluation she writes, "We've proven that with the support of our community we can soar beyond the contemporary medical model like the fucking phoenixes we all are!!!"

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