hey! this is a zine i wrote that you can order if you go here:

http://www.microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/zines/1852/

this is the intro to it:

Welcome to My World

All of this writing was done between December of 2004 and December of 2005. It's a mix of stories, dreams, journal entries, meeting notes, late night visions, not-so-well-thought-out musings, and politically and emotionally charged shouts-outs to my totally fucking beautiful friends and the incredible people who make up our Icarus Project community. It's definitely not polished writing. All of these words were originally posted on the Icarus website forums and many of them are taken out of longer discussions with real live characters who you can usually find hanging out around here: https://site.icarusprojectarchive.org.

The Icarus Project began in the Fall of 2002 as a website for folks struggling with the label of "bipolar disorder" who were distrustful of the mainstream medical model. My best friend Ashley McNamara and I started it because we were two lonely, crazy people trying to find other lonely, crazy people like us. Today, due to the hard work and passion of a bunch of brilliant folks, the Icarus Project has become an emerging radical support network for thousands of people all over the world who are trying to create a new culture and language for the extremes of consciousness that are labeled "˜madness' and "˜mental illness.' We're a bunch of big dreamers, but I've learned to never underestimate the power of big dreams.

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.

But this is a very personal zine, sometimes embarrassingly self-involved, sometimes more about my relationship with my dead father than with the new radical mental health cultural revolution. In some ways this zine is a document of my particular breed of madness and manic-depression. You get to hear me rant about my superpowers. You get to hear me talk about wanting to throw myself in front of traffic. You get an inside view into my sketchy love/hate relationship with pharmaceutical drugs. It's grandiose and messy, and very very human. I hope it captures some of the feelings I had while it was all going on and you can ride my bipolar wave like an adventure story and an illuminated treasure map.

I hope more than anything that these words make you feel empowered and inspired to tell your own stories, to learn to cultivate your own mutant superpowers, and to find other people to do it with you.