Icaristas from near and far will be gathering at the US Social Forum in Detroit this summer, June 22-26. Join in the planning  discussion on the forums! Also check out and join the monthly community call.

Bay Area Icarus was revived last summer, and we are officially full of surging, irreverent life.   We held our first event on Valentine's Day--Mad Love.  We had an open mic, a skilled MC, a cabaret of musicians and poets, and the evening skyrocketed to a close with the Brass Liberation Orchestra.

If you were there, you know.  If not, read on!  Almost as good. :)

The second annual Reelabilities film festival was held this past weekend in the NY metropolitan area. The festival’s mission statement cites “dedication to promoting awareness and appreciation of the lives, stories and artistic expressions of people with different disabilities.” In addition to award-winning films the weekend’s events included discussions and other special programs intended to “bring together the community to explore, discuss and celebrate the diversity of our shared human experience.”

Angel Adeyoha writes: I was happy to attend the annual NASCO (North American Students of Cooperation) Institute as a representative of TIP. I presented a workshop on "Radical Mental Health on Campus and in the Community through an Anti-Oppression Lens" I have been considering so much lately how my work organizing in explicit anti-oppression circles around topics of race, gender and class converge with my work as a coordinator for TIP. This weekend and this workshop really merged those parallel lines for me.

Icaristas Sam Kendakur, Will Hall, and Bonfire Madigan Shive presented at the Rethinking Psychiatric Crisis: Alternative Responses to First Breaks conference in New York City. They joined more than 200 researchers, people with psychiatric diagnoses, policymakers, clinicians, advocates, and family members from several countries including Finland and the UK to discuss effective hospital, labeling, and force alternatives. Check out the slideshow here, and more info at the International Network Towards Alternatives for Recovery website.

http://bacque.graeme.tripod.com/articles.htm