Mad Pride Week is all about great culture and arts, including at MADx, SOS and the Mad Hatter Street Fair. For those of you who missed it, Tim Brown appeared on the Arts and Culture program at CJRU The Scope at Ryerson, on July 5, 2016. 

What did he miss? Let us know in the comments. [Please note that Tim’s lungs were crushed under 2.5 atmospheres of anxiety throughout most of the interview].

Mad Pride Week 2016 began July 11 at Ryerson University at the Ryerson Annual Activist Lecture by Navi Dhanota. The speakers and questions unearthed challenges and insights into activism in the education system and beyond: from community organizing to litigation.

Members of the Mad Pride Toronto Planning Group welcomed students, faculty, activists and the public.

Dialectical Living answered our seven questions about their workshop and Mad Pride. Check out the Introduction to Mindful Living workshop at Mad Pride Week Toronto on Friday, July 15 at Ryerson University (4:30-5:45 SHE 660 (99 Gerrard St E, near Jarvis)) [Full event list]

Q. What are you most excited about with your workshop at Mad Pride?

1. Dialectical Living is most excited about sharing with Mad activists and allies the innumerable benefits of mindfulness in everyday life on July 15th at Ryerson University (4:30 – 5:45 pm SHE 660 (99 Gerrard St E, near Jarvis)). Thanks to Mad volunteers for setting up this great space.

Q What do we need to know about you and your Mad Self (as a group or individual)?

2. What you need to know about Dialectical Living is we are a peer based organization. That means all Dialectical Living employees and volunteers have lived experience.

Q How do you describe your experience with madness?

3. Our peers have various experiences with madness. One of our peer workers, Kristen, wrote a great piece on being a mother with a mental health history. Check it out!

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Ryerson Annual Activist Lecture
Deemphasizing psychiatric diagnosis in postsecondary academic accommodation: A radical reimagining

Working in alliance with Psychiatrists, Psychologists and other Heroes: The Good, Bad and the Ugly

Friendly Spike Theatre Band – “What’s Next…the Big C” Preview Show

Friendly Spike Theatre Band – “What’s Next…the Big C”

Friendly Spike Theatre Band – “What’s Next…the Big C”

Intro to Tai Chi 
Panel discussion – Anti-black Racism & Madness 
Peer Supporter Strategy and Discussion Session 
Improv Workshop for Anxiety
Introduction to Mindful Living
Friendly Spike Theatre Band – “What’s Next…the Big C”
MADx by night

Mad Hatter Street Fair & Marketplace along with the Mad Hatter Tea Party, Hat Showcase, & Contest

Survive our Stage

Mad Pride Bed-Push Parade featuring social-justice band Samba Elégua!

Saraƒin is a writer, illustrator, cartoonist, and mad identified person. Asylum Squad, the webcomic, was born during a year long stay in a Toronto mental institution as a creative means of passing Saraƒin’s time. She will be selling her work at the Mad Hatter Street Fair and Marketplace.

1. What are you most excited about with your new book, Asylum Squad: The Jung Ones 2?

I am excited, as I always am, at the prospect of making new fans, and advancing the storyline.  This book was the most action packed in the series thus far, and was a joy to work on.

2. What do we need to know from previous issues to understand the new book?

It helps to have at least read The Jung Ones pt 1, even better to have read Monster Hospital 1 & 2.  There are recaps in each new volume of events that occurred in previous books.  Basically, at this point, Liz Madder and company are well into the Ajna Project: an experimental drug treatment program based on Jungian psychiatry, that they signed up for, and were accepted into, during their stay at St Dymphna’s psychiatric hospital.

3. How do you describe your experience with madness? 

I do not like psychiatric labels, for I have been given many in my life, and none of them seemed to stick or describe me very well.  I prefer to use the term Mad, even though I don’t consider myself a “sufferer of mental illness” – rather, I feel that I see the world through an unusual perspective due to a form of spiritual emergency that started in my mid 20s.

4. What does Mad Pride mean to you?

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Here’s your Guide to a Mad Week…

What is Mad Pride?	Events
Volunteer – Mad Pride Toronto	Participate and Perform Art, dance, comedy, sketch, writing, poetry. Music. & Peer supporters.
Donate	Contact and Share   torontomadpride@gmail.com www.torontomadpride.com www.facebook.com/torontomadpride Twitter: @madpridetoronto Donate: https://chimp.net/campaigns/mad-pride-toronto