Conversations on art and mental health
Cracking Up: The Inner Lives of Comics An evening with Maria Bamford
8pm, Wednesday, May 9, 2012 The New School, Arnold Hall 55 West 13th Street, 2nd floor, NYC
It’s no accident that “cracking up” is a central metaphor for madness and hilarity both. It’s also no accident that the funniest people in the world-and the most incisive and brutally truthy-are so often intimate with the wilds of the mind. What’s the nexus between the raw power of comedy and the raw agony of suffering? What’s the difference between what an audience finds crazy funny and a psychiatrist finds just plain crazy? Continued
How do the pains and idiosyncrasies of mental illness intermingle with the joys and distinctiveness of creative art? What draws working artists to the themes of struggle and recovery? Where do the concerns of artists overlap with the interests of psychiatrists, psychotherapists, and clients? How does the creative process relate to the broader process of emotional growth? What does it tell us about how people make meaning? Join us for conversations with top artists ranging across the literary, visual, multi-media, and performing arts whose work touches on mental health issues.
