Sunday 9/21/08

 

Present:

Silverelf—St Louis, MO

Inel—Asheville, NC

Bmad—San Francisco, CA

Malonedies—Vancouver, BC

 

Facilitator—Silverelf

Scribe—Inel

 

Meeting Agreements:

Use screen names in notes

Say name before speaking

Practice stepping up/stepping back

Call will be one hour (folks can stay on longer if they choose)

*6 will mute you if there is background noise (use *6 to un-mute)

 

Agenda?

Personal check ins can flow into topics of interest.

 

Personal Check In:

 

Malonedies—Flustered, multi-tasking, juggling act.

 

Silverelf—Just back after 3 weeks in MN for RNC support w/ Eris and Candace. St Louis Icarus has been on summer hiatus with energy to start up again this fall. Planning on outreach to University students to introduce Radical Mental Health principles and Icarus ideas.

 

Inel—Excited about Autumn. Local group still going strong/mutual aid happening constantly. Book discussion group, Hello Cruel World, half way through and going well. People making proactive commitment to get through winter/dark days. (other stuff…I don’t take notes when I talk)

 

Bmad—Extensive travel/living in many worlds. Work as an artist/performer, being support to a lot of people experiencing crisis/trauma. Seeing breakdown as portal to break through. Participated in group dealing with gay shame with a lot of radical queer groups and others. Excited so many knew about Icarus and how radical mental health is a part of all our work. 2 Icarus organizers just returned from academic conference in Oxford. Sees this as victory. Looking at how these papers, TIP folks, this work is infiltrating and changing culture and how we listen

 

Silverelf: Wants to touch base on media publication group. Wants to create a collaborative intro to radical mental health, power point, and talking points for presentations. Is kind of involved in Media Pub group…created PDF of Navigation the Space Reader.

Suggestion: check in with media/pubs rise up list and post in forums interest in collaborative project.

 

Interview w/Silverelf about Icarus for STL newspaper was scrapped by editor.

 

How’s the newsletter/zine going?

 

Mention of Crooked Beauty film shown last fall’s tour. Is a helpful tool to start discussions. Recent post with link to current trailer on web forums.

https://site.icarusprojectarchive.org/fo.....highlight=

 

Note: October 6th is the last day to register to vote. Madigan reminded us that folks in institutions have the right to register and vote. It would be cool to do outreach to folks to make sure they knew they could exercise their right if the wanted.

 

RNC Mobilization Report Back (Silverelf):

Planning began 6 months ago to support mental health/activist trauma.

Candace/Eris collaborating on an official report back & write up for the site.

They collaborated with Northstar & Seeds of Peace.

Had 12 rooms dedicated to wellness in basement connected to a church, staffed for 7 days, 12-16 hours a day with herbalists, trauma counselors, massage therapists, etc. offering holistic care.

Street medic culture has traditionally been more masculine/take care of soldiers. What has been missing is wise women/nurturing energy.

A lot of older people took support roles. These people had not been involved in actions in 20+ years. They brought insights and were impressed by what folks were doing. It re-radicalized old cynical organizers.

The down side was that it took its toll on organizers.

Up side is that infrastructure can stick around for future mobilizations.

It was hard to be disconnected from what was happening on the streets being in logistical support rather than engaged in the excitement happening on streets. Wellness center was not as utilized #’s wise as expected. Likely because it was a new thing but set stage for future and what is expected.

Mass arrests the first day.

Police across the entire city/homes raided/pull over/general arrests created an environment of intense paranoia and fear.

Most helpful was that people could get kava/massage/talk/be calmed before returning to streets. Everyone involved were amazed with the work.

Need for decompression afterward in local communities and long-term trauma care.

Inspired by autonomous health care and dedicated health empowerment/new cultural means as positive measure.

 

 

Theatre of the Oppressed (Malonedies):

Inspired to be learning more about TO and how it can be used in mental health. Icarus member Reece is at TO workshop today and not able to be on call. Active with Gallery Gachet in Vancouver, BC (http://www.gachet.org/) member driven, supports homeless/street/poverty/housing/issues of gentrification.

Start TO thread on site to explore interest in community.

 

In progressive psych circles it is becoming more standard practice to use actors network therapy. Also Mad Science/Mad Pride used on college campuses (bmad).

 

Interested in forming Rad Mad Cheerleaders to fuse support/activism. Could mobilize for actions and also for mutual aid. (Inel)

 

Announcement (Silverelf):

American Psych Association (APA)

Finally banned (2 wks ago) members from supervising interrogation and torture. Icarus members did letter writing to influence this.

 

NETWORKING IS WORKING! (bmad)

Bmad has open time to travel/tour on own terms. May make it to Vancouver.

 

Check Out!

Awesome meeting!

Thanks Everyone!