Kelechi Ubozoh and L.D. Green / We’ve Been Too Patient: Voices From Radical Mental Health

The Bindery hosts Kelechi Ubozoh and L.D. Green, editors of the new anthology We’ve Been Too Patient: Voices From Radical Mental Health, along with contributors Jeneé Darden, Ramon(a) Rio, Sascha Altman DuBrul, andShizue Seigel for an evening of readings and conversation. Please join us!

Overmedication, police brutality, electroconvulsive therapy, involuntary hospitalization, traumas that lead to intense altered states and suicidal thoughts: these are the struggles of those labeled “mentally ill.” While much has been written about the systemic problems of our mental-health care system, this book gives voice to those with personal experience of psychiatric miscare often excluded from the discussion, like people of color and LGBTQ+ communities. It is dedicated to finding working alternatives to the “Mental Health Industrial Complex” and shifting the conversation from mental illness to mental health.

“Justice is not possible unless we make space for the stories of the margins. What more powerful elucidation can there be than to cast light on the margins of the mind? We’ve Been Too Patient shreds stigma and replaces it with dignity, autonomy, and power. This anthology heralds the necessity of our messy radical neurodivergent brains, so that we might call forth a world where we are never again forced to be ‘too patient.’” – Sonya Renee Taylor, activist and author of The Body is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love

L. D. Green is a genderqueer writer, performer, educator, and mental health advocate. They co-edited and contributed to We’ve Been Too Patient: Voices from Radical Mental Health and have published and performed in many other venues, including The Body is Not an Apology and Foglifter. They write poetry, non-fiction and speculative fiction and are a Lambda Literary Fellow. They are an English professor at Los Medanos College.

Kelechi Ubozoh is a nationally recognized Nigerian-American writer and mental health advocate featured in The S Word documentary and O, The Oprah Magazine. Her first book, We’ve Been Too Patient: Voices from Radical Mental Health, will be released from North Atlantic Books and Penguin Random House in Summer of 2019.

Jeneé Darden is an award-winning journalist, public speaker and mental health advocate from Oakland. She’s also a host and reporter for NPR station KALW. Jeneé blogs at Cocoa Fly and is pitching a book about Black sexuality. Her first book, When a Purple Rose Blooms, is a collection of essays and poetry about Black womanhood. Jeneé is an alum of UC San Diego and the University of Southern California.

Ramon(a) Rio is a Xicanx non-binary queer trans-femme radical Licensed Clinical Social Worker and community organizer.  Ramon(a) was a former writer for The Body is Not an Apology.  Ramon(a) is also a trainer with Bloom, a Transgender Healing Collective, and is a leader with the Hayward Collective.

Sascha Altman DuBrul is cofounder of The Icarus Project, a network of peer based mental health support groups and media project.  He has a Masters from Silberman School of Social Work, worked as a Recovery Specialist/Trainer at Columbia’s Center for Practice Innovations and is currently Training Director for the Institute for the Development of Human Arts.

Shizue Seigel is a Japanese American writer/editor whose six books include Civil Liberties United, Endangered Species, Enduring Values, and In Good Conscience. Over 50 years ago, she had to kill the person her parents raised her to be to make space to find herself. She hopes freedom comes more easily to women and girls today.

Please note: this event will be held at The Bindery, 1727 Haight.

This is an all ages event with mature themes. The bar opens at 7pm; event starts at 7:30pm.

As with all of our events, seating may be limited; you can guarantee a seat by pre-purchasing the book below — when checking out, just be sure to include a note that you’d like to attend the event.

RSVP appreciated but not required.