Pieces: In My Own Voice

Watch the Trailer

balletbennett — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 21:13:17 +0000

Through drama, dance, and music this thought provoking theatrical production depicts the lives of those living with a mental health diagnosis. Experience the darkness of stigma and the light of recovery.
The video below was created to introduce the concept of using theater to increase awareness of mental health issues in our communities.

Meet the Director

balletbennett — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 21:03:01 +0000

In response to troubling signs of growing mental health challenges in the African American community, in 2007 Brenda Wesley developed an African American Outreach Program; ASK (Access, Support & Knowledge). To lead her program she reached out and formed a partnership with NAMI Greater Milwaukee (National Alliance on Mental Illness). ASK is designed to educate the community and work to provide access to care for those who need it the most.

Brenda, a trained mental health education facilitator, has conducted numerous ASK presentations throughout Milwaukee. Brenda’s unique perspective is based in first-hand experience: two of her closest family members live with mental illness. She has become an advocate for those without a voice and has been hired by NAMI as their Outreach and Education Coordinator.

Wesley continues to live and work in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with her family. She continues to devote her time and energy by educating the community. She sits on various community committees as part of her advocacy work. She is part of The Mosaic Milwaukee Partnership Program, which engages leaders of various cultures and backgrounds to build trust, friendship and communication. Brenda is a 2009 graduate of the Emerge Wisconsin Program, which trains Democratic women candidates. Because of her advocacy work she was awarded the 2007 TLS (Transitional Living Services Advocate of the Year Award.)

Brenda does public speaking and has done many presentations and workshops as part of her community work, speaking on behalf of those with Mental Illness. She has presented for the Wisconsin Kidney Foundation Women of the World Series, Milwaukee Medical College, Milwaukee Public Schools and many civic groups, parents groups, churches, etc. She is the Author and Director of Pieces: In My Own Voice.

Pieces, is her fourth work, other works include:

What If? which asks the questions- What If Jesus never died? What If we did not have grace?What If He decided to come down off the cross? Have you ever wondered what life would be like without Him? Experience the agony and pain Jesus endured upon his death for man. See the tragedy of man’s continual sins committed in the light and knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Behind the Veil: Encountering Jesus - Through worship, praise dance, song, and spoken word this stage play draws believers and non-believers into the presence of God. The revelation of the character and person of Christ and the many prophecies which are experienced behind the veil.

The Closet: Journey through the life of a little girl and watch as she develops into a woman.
Scattered along her way are the trials of betrayal, abuse, illness and many hardships
and heartbreaks. Retreating to the safest place she knows, her closet, it becomes the
place for peace, contentment and love.

“I understand the stigma attached to mental illness in our community, however, early intervention can save families an untold amount of unnecessary anguish. All it takes is a willingness to step up and ask for help. My hope is that people will be moved and stirred to make a decision to begin, or continue, to support those diagnosed with this illness. Sometimes all people need to see is that glimmer of hope through the darkness.”

-Brenda Wesley

email: brendawesley@piecesinmyownvoice.com

Our 2012-2013 Season

balletbennett — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 01:59:52 +0000

Please check back frequently as we are always adding new dates. For booking information click here.

Friday, March 15th, 2013

Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church

1345 W Burleigh St

Milwaukee, WI

6:00 pm

Free Admission/ Open to the Public

Saturday, February 23rd, -Excerpts

Stonefly Brewery

735 East Center

Milwaukee, WI

7:00 pm

Sponsored by NAMI Greater Milwaukee and Milwaukee Odyssey

Free Admission/ Open to the Public

For more information on Creativity Heals click here.

Saturday, September 15th

Reuther Central High School

913 57th Street

Kenosha, WI

Showtime: 7:00 pm

Sponsored by NAMI Kenosha

Free Admission/ Open to the Public

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 15, 2012 in Loving Memory of Justin Small

UW Milwaukee

2200 East Kenwood Blvd.

Milwaukee, WI

Matinee: 1:30 pm

Evening: 7:00 pm

Free Admission/ Open to the Public

Booking Information

balletbennett — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 13:09:13 +0000

The production of “Pieces: In My Own Voice” is accepting bookings through the end of 2013. With each performance we are able to bring understanding and awareness to those suffering with a mental health diagnosis. It is our goal to come along side those who have loved ones and family members struggling with mental health issues and offer support and encouragement.

With mental health diagnosis steeply on the rise in our communities we have a need for this information more than ever before. Too many are suffering in silence, or worse; living in open rejection from families and friends. It is time to stop viewing the person in the shadow of the illness. With the proper skills and resources it is possible to take away the shame and to see that person for who they are apart from their illness.

“Pieces” will enrich your community with hope, backed by the latest research in the field of mental health. It can be used as a tool to educate college communities, churches, and high schools about mental health. The production is available to come to your event, your campus, your community center, your child’s school, your church, or your theater. It is our goal to spread a message of hope, help, and healing.

For more information and to book your date, please contact:

N.A.M.I of Greater Milwaukee: (414) 344-0447

Or request more information via email: info@piecesinmyownvoice.com

“Pieces” partners with MPS

balletbennett — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 20:44:22 +0000

We are excited to announce that “Pieces” has partnered with the Milwaukee Public School district to create a Jr. company made up of Milwaukee’s youth to tour the public schools in the city. The cast for this production was carefully chosen through an audition process conducted by our Writer/Director Brenda Wesley. View the trailer here:

With mental health issues affecting our youth in epidemic proportions it is vital that we equip our young people to effectively deal with the challenges that lie before them especially in regards to mental health. “Pieces” will carry a message of hope from students to students.

It is our desire that as these youth watch the production they would realize they are not alone in their struggle, that healing is possible, and that struggling with mental health is not shameful. We also aim to educate youth with powerful facts which will tear down stigma and negativity that have kept mental health issues hidden in the dark for so long. Now, more than ever in our schools it is time to take away the shame. It is time to teach our youth to stand up and support one another. It is time to empower our youth with the information they need to be instruments of healing in themselves and in their communities.

We hope you will come support our youth cast as they shed light on this important issue. Below is an article from the Milwaukee Public Theater website with performance dates listed.

Pieces: In My Own Voice
Teens Reach Out to Teens in Original Theatrework about Mental Illness

Approximately 20% of adolescents have a diagnosable mental health disorder. Suicide is the third leading case of death in adolescents and young adults. These and other factors underline the importance of meeting the mental health needs of this age group.

And yet, it is estimated that 70 to 80 percent of these children get inappropriate mental health services or no help at all. The lack of education about these diseases leaves the warning signs unrecognized, and countless lives ruined.

Pieces: In My Own Voice is a play by Brenda Wesley that educates audiences about mental illness and provides on-going informational resources. Ten multi-cultural teenagers from the Milwaukee High School of the Arts will bring to life the people behind the labels of “Schizophrenia”, “ADHD”, “Depression”, “Anxiety”, “Bi-Polar Disorder” and “Suicide” in this original theatrework developed to dispel stereotypes.

The production is a creative component of the successful ASK (Access, Support & Knowledge) program, which was developed by the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Greater Milwaukee (NAMI). Milwaukee Public Theatre has partnered with NAMI and the Milwaukee High School of the Arts to develop and tour a teen version of this play to ten Milwaukee Public Schools this spring, thanks to a grant from the MPS Partnership for the Arts, the Wisconsin Arts Board, CAMPAC and the United Performing Arts Fund.

Six of the ten performance sites have been confirmed, with four more to be scheduled in May. All of the hour-long shows are open to the general public at no charge by contacting MPT at 414-347-1685.

Premiere: Tuesday, April 24, 4 pm, Milwaukee High School of the Arts

• Tuesday, May 1, 4 pm, South Division H.S., 1515 W. Lapham Blvd.
• Thursday, May 3, 4 pm, NAMI Youth Leadership Summit, Serb Hall, 5101 W. Oklahoma Ave.
• Tuesday, May 8, 2:45 pm, Rogers St. Academy, 2430 W. Rogers St.
• Thursday, May 10, 4 pm, Roosevelt M.S., 800 W. Walnut St.
• Tuesday, May 15, 3 pm, Hopkins-Lloyd School, 1503 W. Hopkins St.
• Thursday May 17, 4 pm, Northwest Secondary, 5496 N. 72nd St.
• Tuesday, May 22, Mitchell Street School, 1728 S. 23rd St.

Please contact MPT at 414-347-1685 or by email if you’d like to attend these school performances.

What people say…..quotes from the youth cast:

“Even if someone looks like they’re happy, they might be hiding a mental disorder.” –Jackie Perez (role: Bipolar Disorder)

“A lot of people have these disorders and making fun of them or judging them doesn’t help, what they need is support” –Tyree Madlock (role: PTSD)

“On TV you always see adults having or showing symptoms of these disorders but no one pays attention to the fact that kids have them as well.” –Niko Galvan (role: ADHD)

“No one can really judge because you don’t know what they’re going through, they could be suicidal and you could push them over the edge.” –Summera Pillard (role: Narrator)

“Even with dealing with it I’ve learned I’m not the only one, the script describes how I am, so I know I’m not crazy, there are other people who feel this way.” –Annaleah Lovelace (role: Major Depression)

“You shouldn’t laugh at anyone because it might lead to suicide or something worse, it could bring down their self esteem, you should reach out and try to help.” –Champange Goss (role: PTSD)

“Many people have these disorders due to a trauma that occurred in their lives. Tormenting someone who survived a fire is much like ridiculing someone with a mental disorder, the only difference is that in the sickness of someone with a mental disorder, the fire took place internally.” –Paige Coe (Stage Manager

Meet the Cast

balletbennett — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 22:53:19 +0000

The cast of “Pieces” is a diverse group of dedicated individuals. Use the links on the right of the page to read each cast member’s unique story.

About NAMI-National Alliance on Mental Illness

balletbennett — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 04:13:16 +0000

Our Mission:

NAMI Greater Milwaukee is a community-based, self-help, support, education and advocacy organization dedicated to improving the lives of those with mental illness, their families and those touched by mental illness.

Our History:

On February 26, 1979, Mrs. Roz Libman along with a small group of Milwaukee area families formed the Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Greater Milwaukee, Inc., in response to their shared problem of trying and failing to get help for their children with severe and persistent mental illnesses. The goals and objectives set forth in the Articles of Incorporation in 1979 were in part: “To survey and critically rate all public and private mental health facilities, services, programs, individuals and their operating budgets; to provide information and referral….; to institute an active and aggressive program of mental health education; to …support research….; to participate in mental health planning;…”

NAMI of Greater Milwaukee was an outgrowth of the 1970’s consumer movement. The families of mentally ill persons were tired of being made to feel responsible for their family member’s mental illness. Families, they said, were as much victims of the illness as is the person who has the brain disorder. They felt victimized by mental health professionals who seemed to blame them and at the same time refused to respond to their pleas for treatment for their family member. The families wanted to be seen in a fair and accurate light and began to assert their needs, just as other devalued groups were doing.

The organization revised its mission in 1991 to include the offering of direct services to consumers. It added a minority service access program, and a helpline and upgraded its newsletter to be a conduit for information on education, advocacy, legislation and research. NAMI GM founded “The Consumer Satisfaction Team” and “Our Space,” a consumer club.

The “Pieces: In My Own Voice Project”

balletbennett — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 21:06:25 +0000

The Pieces:In My Own Voice Project is an effort to encourage those who are battling mental illness to step out of the darkness and help us drive down the stigma and negativity that has kept these illnesses in the dark for so long.

To join us, upload your video to youtube.com or any other video hosting site and post the link here or to our blog at www.piecesinmyownvoice.blogspot.com. Add your voice to ours as we start conversations about mental health.

Recovery is possible…recovery happens! Let’s start a conversation.

Here is the script available for use when making your video:
“Hi, my name is (insert name) and I live with the most stigmatizing illness, Mental Illness. I am in recovery from (insert diagnosis). But, I am here to tell you Recovery is Possible, Recovery Happens! I am a Survivor! Lets start a conversation.”

L.A. Times writes about Schizophrenia in the African American Population

balletbennett — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 20:37:35 +0000

Here is an article from the L.A. Times:

Race And Mental Illness: Do African Americans Suffer More Schizophrenia Or Is It Bias?

By Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times February 7, 2012

Black Americans are far more likely than their white countrymen to be labeled schizophrenic, one of psychiatry‘s most serious and intractable diagnoses. But a new study suggests that psychiatric bias, compounded by the squishiness of diagnostic standards in psychiatry, may account for some of that difference.

When a patient arrives in a clinic speaking incoherently, beset by delusions or hallucinations, and either severely withdrawn or manic, schizophrenia is a distinct possibility. But sometimes those same symptoms point to extreme cases of depression or bipolar disorder. Before assigning a diagnosis of schizophrenia, a physician is expected to rule out these more treatable conditions.

The new study found that in a group of 610 patients seeking treatment at six regional psychiatric clinics scattered across the nation, African American patients were diagnosed with schizophrenia more than two and a half times as often as were white patients. That was the case even when the diagnosing psychiatrists based their conclusions entirely on reports of a subject’s symptoms and his or her responses to a structured interview, with any hints of the subject’s race stripped away.

Even when African American patients showed significant signs of a mood disorder such as depression or bipolar disorder, it was the severity of their psychotic symptoms that jumped off the page to the color-blinded psychiatrists. For white patients, even psychiatrists blinded to race were more likely to balance signs of psychosis with signs of a mood disorder.

The article appeared Monday online in the Archives of General Psychiatry. The study also looked at Latinos with psychiatric symptoms, but found that they were assessed no differently than whites.

“In African American subjects, psychotic symptoms may be overvalued by clinicians, skewing diagnoses toward schizophrenia-spectrum conditions,” the authors of the new study write. They suggest that “previous discriminatory experiences, and reactions to them, i.e. healthy paranoia,” may lead some African Americans to express their fears and anxieties in ways that are interpreted as more extremely psychotic, or that delays in seeking treatment may make their psychotic symptoms more prominent than evidence of their mood instability.

The results also challenge mental health practitioners “to consistently challenge their own diagnostic assessments” when treating individuals from racial groups other than their own.

http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-race-mental-illness-20120206,0,6144413.story

Commentary: An Explanation for Increased Black Schizophrenia

It’s African-American Mental Health Awareness Week and a new study says Black schizophrenia is overhyped.

By Cord Jefferson BET February 14, 2012

Though you may not have heard of it, African-American Mental Health Awareness Week begins this week at California’s UC Riverside. A convening of mental health professionals from around the United States, AAMHAW says its goal can be summed up in one sentence: “Replace misinformation about mental health and erase prejudice, fear, and blame, thereby reducing stigma and disparities to the African-American community.” As it stands, the taboos about mental health woes in the Black community are many, and they’re only augmented by the fact that just 2 percent of psychiatrists and 2 percent of psychologists are African-American. AAMHAW hopes to help change that, and it turns out the week may be arriving just in time.

The Los Angeles Times recently reported something very frightening: A new study shows that African-Americans, who are diagnosed as schizophrenic at disproportionate rates, might not be suffering from increased instances of schizophrenia at all. Rather, they may be suffering from incorrect diagnoses brought on by biased mental-health practitioners.

“The new study found that in a group of 610 patients seeking treatment at six regional psychiatric clinics scattered across the nation, African-American patients were diagnosed with schizophrenia more than two and a half times as often as were white patients,” writes the Times. “That was the case even when the diagnosing psychiatrists based their conclusions entirely on reports of a subject’s symptoms and his or her responses to a structured interview, with any hints of the subject’s race stripped away.”

That doctors were diagnosing Blacks as schizophrenic more often even when blind to race suggested that it wasn’t just doctor bias that was resulting in incorrect diagnoses. The behavior of Black patients mattered, too. The authors theorize that “previous discriminatory experiences, and reactions to them, i.e. healthy paranoia,” might result in Blacks explaining their anxieties in a way that sounds more psychotic, even when it’s not.

The study, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, ultimately recommends that doctors treating patients of a different race should “consistently challenge their own diagnostic assessments.” In other words, don’t jump to conclusions and, perhaps, try putting yourself in their shoes. Sometimes, the simplest lessons are the ones easiest to forget.

http://www.bet.com/news/health/2012/02/14/commentary-an-explanation-for-increased-black-schizophrenia.html

Photo Gallery

balletbennett — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 15:35:23 +0000

Captivating moments from rehearsal to performance.