What is Mad Pride?
Mad Pride counteracts some of the discrimination and prejudice often shown towards people who have experienced mental distress and difference by promoting the economic, political, social, and cultural integration of users/survivors of psychiatry into the larger society. Mad Pride celebrates the creativity, strength and resilience of the human spirit. Mad Pride empowers psychiatric survivors and raises public consciousness through various activities such as art, theatre, music, poetry, protests, vigils and more. MadPride Asheville is part of a 9-nation disorganization of similar festivals, featuring week-long festivals in London and Toronto and others in Portland OR, Montreal, and various other cities in the US, Canada, Belgium, England, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Ghana. MadPride Asheville is an individually-organized event. It is nominally co-sponsored by MindFreedom International, Asheville Homeless Network, Asheville Radical Mental Health Collective, and the In
