#GetSomeJoy 2017-2018 Mental Health Campaign
#GetSomeJoy is a year-long multimedia campaign to promote mental and emotional wellness among Black folks through fellowship opportunities, dynamic live events, powerful written and video content, wellness resources and education, and engagement through storytelling and therapeutic creative expression. Target launch date: Friday, September 1, 2017. Key elements include:
Live events (wellness fairs, showcases, roundtables, panel discussions, talks, etc.)
Educational resources (Mental Health First Aid trainings, creative writing and Literary Therapy writing workshops)
Wellness hub (Online community with resources and support, informative articles, essays, video storytelling, and a database of Black mental health professionals and fitness/dance/swimming/writing/sewing/nutrition/reiki/yoga/pilates/bootcamp,etc. coaches, teachers, and practitioners)
Social media initiatives (Twitter chats, live Facebook and Instagram videos, collaboration with brand partners, etc.)
Influencer storytelling series (Brief, candid videos from Black actors/musicians/politicians/entrepreneurs, etc. on their MH journeys)
#GetSomeJoy Tour (Offering wellness expos, talks, workshops, brand activations, roundtables, game nights, and live recordings of The Extraordinary Negroes podcast in 10 U.S. cities)
PREVIOUS PARTNERS:
ABOUT THE HOST & ORGANIZER:
New York City-based food-lover Alexander Hardy is an essayist, mental health advocate, cultural critic, dancer, lupus survivor, and co-host of The Extraordinary Negroes podcast. He has written for Ebony Magazine, CNN.com, Esquire, Gawker, Courvoisier, The Huffington Post, Saint Heron, and Very Smart Brothas, among other outlets. Before shifting his creative and professional focus to mental health, he founded and worked as director of Panamerican Languages and taught dance and CardioDance classes while living and working in Panama City, Panama. Alexander now teaches creative, essay, and academic writing and spreads awareness as a certified Mental Health First Aid Instructor. When not writing on TheColoredBoy.com or talking about self-care or Janet Jackson, he enjoys cheese grits, power naps, James Baldwin, and rice. Alexander does not believe in snow or Delaware.
#GetSomeJoy: A Blackstravaganza for Mental Health Awareness featured new writing by host Alexander Hardy, greatness from Hari Ziyad (Editor of RaceBaitr and contributor to AFROPUNK and The Black Youth Project), Jayson P. Smith (writer, curator, and Emerge-Surface-Be Fellow with The Poetry Project), and Alise Leslie, mental health advocate and blogger at InMyMentalMind.com. Filmmaker, world traveler, and photographer Darnell Lamont Walker; Managing Editor at TheRoot.com Danielle Belton; and Andrew Shade, Founder and Editorial Director of Broadway Black joined Alexander to get really real about self-care, therapy, healing, and how our work and mental wellness affect one another. May 31, 2017 at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, NY.
Colored Boy and Friends: Mental Health Awareness Edition, a conversation series and literary showcase, featuring multimedia journalist Bene Viera; playwright, filmmaker, and co-founder of The Each-Other Project Donja R. Love; and audio producer, co-founder of Bondfire Radio, and host of TK in the AM, Keisha Dutes. Alexander read "Close Encounters of The Mac & Cheese Variety" and included a cathartic rant session called "Here's What The Fuck I Think" featuring world traveler, artist, and the filmmaker behind Seeking Asylum and Outside The House (a mental health documentary), Darnell Lamont Walker. May 2016 at the Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz Memorial and Education Center in Washington Heights, NY.
Colored Boy and Friends: Spring Edition, media personality and author of Don't Waste Your Pretty, Demetria Lucas; world traveler and Founder/CEO of Tastemakers Africa, Cherae Robinson; and pop culture connoisseur, literary superthug and Jezebel staff writer, Clover Hope.
Also:
A Very Extraordinary Watch Party | Resisting Limitations: AfroLatin@s and Radical Identity | Colored Boy and Friends
To discuss partnership and ways to support this initiative, contact Alexander Hardy at mr.alexhardy@gmail.com or at (757)933-0348. You're so pretty.