bp Magazine: “This Is My Brave” Goes Virtual with Stories of Recovery
In response to the pandemic, a “Brave” new world was created to continue to reach and empower those with bipolar and other psychiatric conditions.
What does a mental health group centered on stage performances do when a pandemic makes group gatherings impossible?
For seven years, This Is My Brave put on live productions featuring people whose essays, poetry, or music share what it’s like to live with a psychiatric condition. The aim is for performers to feel more empowered while giving human faces to diagnoses.
Like so much else during the pandemic, This Is My Brave moved online. The nonprofit also used this period to rethink how best to bring personal stories to audiences across the country.
Jennifer Marshall, who has bipolar I disorder, launched This Is My Brave in the Washington, DC, area with the late Anne Marie Ames. Their first show in 2013 led to 70 performances in different communities, including college campuses, each with a new cast of participants.
Then the pandemic struck in March 2020.
Click here to view the full article featuring This Is My Brave’s response to COVID-19.
Written by Elizabeth Forbes and originally published as “A ‘Brave’ New World,” in bp Magazine, Spring 2021.
