Symptom, Resistance, or Madness? : Suicide within Our Communities

Symptom, Resistance, or Madness? : Suicide within Our Communities

Symptom, Resistance or Madness?

A Forum for Conversation and Mutual Support

Join us for our August 2018 event (on Aug 1st), where we will come together as a community to talk about suicide, the desire for death, and destructive needs in the context of life, survival, and resistance. Within the biomedical model of mental health, “suicidal ideation” is seen as a symptom of psychiatric illness. It is seen as an individual illness to be treated with medications, such as Clozaril or Lithium which supposedly “target” suicide. Yet much is missing from this psychiatric model, such as questions about existence, love, belonging, and connection. Suicide unequally impacts different communities, for example rates are highest among Native Americans among all other ethnic groups. Suicide is also disproportionately high among LGBT youth and within our transgender community across all ages. In a hierarchical society where minorities are oppressed, it can feel as if society was not meant for certain people to thrive. Racism, transphobia, homophobia, classism, ableism can become internalized into self-hatred. Is suicide an indicator of individual pathology, or of societal oppression and cultural illness? Is death a resistance to living under impossible circumstances? What does it mean to live and to love ourselves? Please join us as we share our stories, build community, and support each other around our pain, suffering, life/death, and rage.

From the NYC Icarus Organizers to our mad friends and community: You are beautiful and deserve love. If you are struggling, please let someone know. In the words of Audre Lorde, “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”

BRING YOUR ARTWORK, POEMS, MUSIC: We will have time to share any creations/expressions around sorrow/suffering, death/life, despair/hope, oppression, and identity.

EVENT AGENDA:

General Breakdown:

  • our project introduction
  • shared reading of our Community Agreements
  • group Introductions and Safety Guidelines
  • Arts Open-Share
  • Various perspectives on suicide and suicidal ideation
  • Group Discussion (loosely facilitated by Icarus organizers)
  • Movement Activity
  • Sharing of support and resources
  • Closing Activity
  • Check Out

TRANSPARENCY: Though we are committed to collective liberation and are a mixed race collective, our history has traditionally brought in white, middle class people. In order to protect Queer Trans People of Color (QTPOC) from tokenization and psychic harm, we as a collective commit to prioritizing the needs of QTPOC in our public events and promoting QTPOC leadership in our collective. We acknowledge the emotional labor that QTPOC may perform in these spaces, which often go unrecognized. Therefore, we want white cisgender people to independently undo racism, gender binarism / sexism, while remaining accountable to QTPOC. We are currently engaging in an ongoing process of integrating these goals internally within our organization, among our mixed race organizers, and within the structuring of our external events. * ACCESS ISSUES: The space is accessible for wheelchair users but does not have a bathroom for wheelchair users. We use mics to support people who are hard of hearing.

Bluestockings is wheelchair accessible, with no steps or platforms, and wide aisles between shelves. Our bathroom is not wheelchair accessible. There is a Starbucks two short blocks down the street with an accessible bathroom (at Allen and Delancey). Metered street parking is readily available in the blocks surrounding Bluestockings. Bluestockings is not a scent-free space, but we encourage visitors to please refrain from wearing perfumes, colognes or other scented products (including essential oils) and smoke far away from the entrance to the space. And then we’ll hang out for a little while and be gone until another month. Make sure to sign-up for the mailing list at the event or email nycicarus@gmail.com.

NYC Icarus FB event NYC Icarus website

DATE: Aug. 1th, 2018 TIME: 7pm LOCATION: Bluestockings Bookstore, 172 Allen St, Manhattan

Hope to see you there! Mad love, Icarus Project NYC