CALL for WRITERS for a new anthology

The Firewalkers Project is looking for well-written, authentic writing for an upcoming Anthology that focuses on the following themes:

    Emotional turbulence
    Altered states
    Spiritual breakthroughs
    Visionary meltdowns
    Ecstatic visions
    Crazy blessings
    Mad gifts

What we are seeking is accessible, enjoyable, surprising pieces that relate to the themes listed above. We are interested in creative nonfiction and essays that show insight, humor, quality of writing and diversity of experience.

Submissions can be emailed as an attachment to malaina@vocalvirginia.org.

Submissions must be in 12pt Times Roman font, double-spaced, with numbered pages (max 20). All submissions should be accompanied by a one paragraph author biography. One submission per person. No poetry please.

Writers will retain all rights to their work. Previously published work will be considered. There is no payment except for a copy of the book. This is most definitely a labor of love and a chance to define this experience that may be labeled as “mental illness’ in our own terms. The anthology is being planned as a self-published book.

Our first book, Firewalkers: Madness, Mystery and Beauty was also self-published and has sold over 1300 copies and 10,000+ people have visited our website, read the book or attended a Firewalkers event.

Deadline is March 1, 2012.

I haven't actually READ any of these yet...

http://www.featherproof.com/Mambo/

But I'm pretty much swooning over the cover designs, the website, the burbs...plus there are free mini-books to be had.

Chicago's Featherproof Books.

plus oragami books
http://www.featherproof.com/Mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=279&Itemid=48

This is art (and I want to pretty up my house for the new year)

http://www.soojinkang.net/dressed%20furniture.html

Dressed Furniture by Soo Jin Kang. It dresses nice, mostly in velvet.

This whole site is in Spanish

and I don't speak Spanish. But I can see that this is a lodge and spa in Chile. And I can see that  I would like to be there now.

I am hoping for a new year that feels like this picture. And I am wishing you the new year of your dreams as well.

 

http://www.huilohuilo.com/alojamiento/montana-magica-lodge

Thinking of Jerome Caja

I culled this photograph of Jerome from http://www.boston.com/community/photos/raw/2008/12/a_long_way_from_mayberry.html

I've been paying more attention to my dreams lately. And I woke up this week remembering Jerome Caja and seeing his work in San Francisco almost 20 years ago. I saw little paintings of drag queens done in nail polish on tin foil. Beautifully done. Campy and wise and wacky. He also used bottle caps, plastic ashtrays, liquid eyeliner, glitter and coal.

He was also a performance artist and a character.

Read more here: http://www.queerculturalcenter.org/Pages/Caja/CajaIntro.html

Plenty more of his racy art to be seen on the web

Toby Liebowitz, you saved me!

I have been depressed for a spell. I really can't put my finger on the reason why. I had this great experience of being alive in Chicago and came home to an ugly feeling of not being good enough. Then I started Kickstart's saddest and loneliest project, while plush dna dolls pull in thousands of dollars. And then I look at this:

and it felt like a religious experience. (Ok, I will be totally honest. I was thinking "oh, if I could make an image like that I would never be depressed or lonely or bored again. Because everyone knows that artists don't feel pain.)

I looked it up. It was drawn by Toby Liebowitz (http://inbruno.com/menu) Bruno is her the land of her imagination? I read that somewhere. It is the cover for the new Fleet Foxes record.

Anyhow, stare at this a while.

Kickstart!!!

If 300 people pledge $20, a new Firewalkers Anthology will be born! 

Firewalkers is a book designed to radically rethink mental illness. These are stories to learn and share. It has given hope to those who felt limited. It has helped mental health professionals become more understanding, more expansive and more creative. It has opened the minds of people who were only familiar with the medical model - hospital, meds, being a patient...

It is the book you want to hand someone who has just been diagnosed and thinks life is bound to suck from here on out. This book is a resource of options.

Firewalkers chronicles the profound, turbulent, spiritual experience of living through a mental health crisis. What our society labels as “mental illness” can be a sacred quest that has the power to enrich us, reveal unknown strengths, and transform our lives.

Want to see a new Firewalkers Anthology in print? Click below!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1186064533/the-firewalkers-project

All I want for Christmas

http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/art/all/05719/facts.trespass_a_history_of_uncommissioned_urban_art.htm

the good stuff at home

I came back from Chicago with Proximity Magazine.

Proximity is a magazine dedicated to contemporary art and culture.
Our mission is to amplify discourse on local and global art ecologies. We hope to serve as a map of artists, collectives and alternative spaces to commercial galleries, museums and universities ­as a means of connecting and cultivating sustainable creative communities.

http://proximitymagazine.com/magazine/issue-7/

I'm looking over a million rad ideas on the plane ride home, tons and tons of sites to look at, and there is my friend PATRICK COSTELLO.

http://ptackcostello.blogspot.com/

We just had dinner together two weeks ago in little old Charlottesville. He is one of the nicest, most fun people around. I knew his work was amazing. Turns out that his blog is one of the raddest and I think we need to do a project together pronto.

Here are some images. You dig?

Signs that you are in Chicago

I just spent a week in Chicago. Here is what the streets looked like:

These are not the best pictures, but you get the idea. Chicago does not look like the woods of central Virginia. I stayed at the home of Maria, who has been one of my two best friends since High School. Is she sassy? You judge. She is pictured here with Khadisa.

I say all this first, but the reason for the trip was a visit to Dominican University. Here I am with the brilliant Letecia Villarel Sosa, who teaches a graduate level course called "Advance Family Practice".

I am sure the reason I look so engaged is that she is so engaging! She shows "Crooked Beauty" and "Open Dialogue" to her class, gives readings from Robert Whitaker and one from me (!). Anyhow, it is break from pathology and social work terms and whatever else. She organized an auditorium of soon-to-be-social-workers to listen to me talk about my story, the Firewalkers Project, Icarus Project and peer support. An absolute honor.

One great thing about being in a city is just to see all of the amazing art and work happening. I will post some more about that later. Now I need a nap.