ABOUT THE EVENT

This month, PBS is screening a new movie called Bedlam that examines the United States’ mental health crisis. While we know that every story has a point of view, and no movie can include every perspective, we believe that additional voices and context (particularly those of ex-patients, psychiatric survivors, and others who experience the world in ways that are often called mental illness) are needed to ensure that this documentary doesn’t further marginalize or harm those of us with lived experience of mental health challenges.

On Monday, May 11th, IDHA is hosting a virtual community discussion about the film with the goal of reclaiming our history, fostering critical dialogue, and proposing a vision for the future informed by lived experience, grounded in rights and social justice. The event will open with a panel discussion about the film, facilitated by activist, educator, and IDHA Training Director Sascha DuBrul. The panel will be followed by a brief Q&A and open community discussion.

Please register via Zoom to join. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with call-in details.

This community discussion invites a range of perspectives about the documentary. We invite anyone who is interested to join us, including but not limited to: individuals with lived experience, trauma survivors, clinicians, peer specialists, family members, activists, and artists. Given the intersectional issues presented in the documentary (e.g. decarceration, poverty), we are particularly keen to be joined by movement organizers from outside the transformative mental health movement.

NOTE: Closed captioning and ASL interpretation will be available. This webinar caps at the first 100 people to join. The session will be recorded and shared with all registrants.

ABOUT THE PANELISTS

Azza Altiraifi

Azza Altiraifi (she/her, they/them) is a Mad disability justice advocate and Afro-Arab community organizer living in northern Virginia.

Azza currently works as a research and advocacy manager at the Center for American Progress, and is part of the 2019 inaugural cohort of the Forward Promise Fellowship for Leaders by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She also serves on the Advisory Committee for the Georgetown Law Tech Institute’s project on algorithmic fairness and disability rights. Previously, she served on the working group for the Congressional Black Caucus Emergency Taskforce on Black Youth Suicide and Mental Health, which published its report in 2019. Azza remains an active community organizer in the Northern VA area, hosting and facilitating dialogues and trainings centered on equity and racial justice.

Azza is a published writer on the history of exclusionary immigration policy, mental health policy, and disability justice. She conducts media interviews with local, national and international media outlets on issues spanning from anti-racism movement work to disability justice. Azza has been featured on outlets such as the TODAY Show, NPR, Al Jazeera, Bloomberg News, and USA Today. For her work, Azza was selected to receive the Charles P. Monroe Civil Rights Award by the NAACP Arlington Chapter in 2019.

Patricia Berne

Patricia Berne (she/her, they/them) is a Co-Founder, Executive and Artistic Director of Sins Invalid, a disability justice based performance project centralizing disabled artists of color and queer and gender non-conforming artists with disabilities.  Berne’s training in clinical psychology focused on trauma and healing for survivors of interpersonal and state violence.  Her professional background includes offering mental health support to survivors of violence and advocating for LGBTQI and disability perspectives within the field of reproductive genetic technologies.  Berne’s experiences as a Japanese-Haitian queer disabled woman provides grounding for her work creating “liberated zones” for marginalized voices.  She is widely recognized for her work to establish the framework and practice of disability justice.

Akeem Browder

Akeem Browder (he/him), is a social justice advocate and agent of change. The Bronx native works to honor the legacy of his brother Kalief Browder, and mother Venida Browder by working with elected official, lawyers, doctors, college students and community based organizations to change laws, policies and regulations that devastate poor communities and families that have been impacted by mass incarceration and solitary confinement in State prisons.

An outspoken advocate for the rights of people disenfranchised and deprived of equity. Akeem serves as a national catalyst, changing the injustices that currently exist in the justice, education and mental health system across America.

He is the founder of Shut Down Rikers, and the Kalief Browder Foundation. A civil engineer by trade, currently finishing a postgraduate degree in Sociology and he is currently traveling the country promoting the six-part Spike TV docu-series Time: The Kalief Browder Story.

Felix Guzman

Felix Guzman (he/him) is a poet, organizer, peer specialist, and psychiatric survivor. Currently facilitating debate classes at Rikers Island with the Rikers Debate Project, Felix is also a proud member of Vocal-NY, Coalition for the Homeless, Fortune Society, Community Access, and countless other organizations. Recently appointed to New York City Council’s Commission on Community Investment and the Closure of Rikers Island, Felix is to collaborate with representatives from city agencies working within social services, corrections, and social justice organizations, alongside other impacted advocates to bring resources to the communities directly impacted by mass incarceration to help to successfully close Rikers Island by 2027 and address social service needs as preventative means. Felix is also working towards starting his own nonprofit called Men Can Be Abused, an organization committed to ending the stigma around men who have experienced abuse during relationships romantic in nature and between members residing within the same household. It is the goal of Men Can Be Abused to change law enforcement and respective court responses on matters of domestic violence and intimate partner violence as it relates to directly impacted male survivors.

Leah Harris

Leah Harris (she/her, they/them) is a mad queer writer, ex-psychiatric patient, and suicide attempt survivor who fights for harm reduction, human rights, and disability justice. Leah writes for the webzine Mad in America.