Expressions: A Literary Magazine Breaking the Silence Surrounding Suicide and Mental Illness
Submitted by Ryanne34 on Sun, 06/03/2007 - 00:15.
Last updated on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 14:27.
Vital Stats
ongoing project
01/01/2007
05/01/2007
Money Raised: NoneProject Photos
The Problem
"Expressions: A Therapeutic Medium for Breaking the Silence" is a literary magazine created, organized, designed, and published by Students Against Silence (SAS), a Columbia University organization dedicated to preventing suicide and raising awareness about mental health related issues in the Columbia community. One of our club’s first orders of business for the spring semester was to create this magazine, or what we like to call a "medium for breaking the silence." In an American culture that promotes internal strength, or at least the outward appearance of it, mental illness and particularly suicide are viewed as personal weaknesses, taboo subjects not to be mentioned in polite society. However, suicide is the third leading cause of death for young adults between 15 and 24 years of age, and a staggering 90% of suicide victims have a diagnosable psychiatric disorder at the time of their deaths.
Why It's Important
Another point of interest is that science has proven that creative individuals, or artists, are disproportionately prone to depression and suicidal tendencies. Everyone in a university setting is brilliant and creative in his or her own way, so it is only natural that the university should be the place where mental health is fostered and issues are dealt with in an open environment. Yet historically, it hasn't been. That's why we channeled all of our resources into creating this first annual literary magazine. It is a way for students and other members of the community to voice their experiences relating to mental health in a medium that is best suited to their individual talents.
The Plan Of Action
Poetry, essays, drawings, meaningful quotes, and photographs were all featured in Expressions. We designed and published fliers and posters to promote the magazine, collected submissions, designed the cover and layout of the magazine, and had it published; it was an entire group effort that made our success possible. We began promoting the magazine and asking for submissions in January, and by early May, we distributed 500 copies of our finished product to dorms all across campus, just in time for the most stressful week of the year--finals! We received numerous compliments on our project, but the most gratifying reward was seeing many of the talented individuals who contributed to the magazine actually become members of our club. We plan to publish Expressions each year, and we will continue to work towards our goal of making our university and our community and mentally healthy and happy place to be.
Project Updates
10/15/08
Update: This year's project was a huge success, thanks in large part to DoSomething. We were able to publish our magazine in time for reading week and exam week, and I believe it was a stress relief for many students. We got many more submissions this year than in the last year, and we also got a greater diversity of submissions. Unfortunately, we will have a much harder time in the next few years because Columbia has stopped giving us funding, so we might have to move on to a different project. However, this will give us the opportunity to be even more creative in our effort to break the silence of mental illness.
Final Grant Update
10/15/08
Ryanne PerioNumber of people impacted: Hopefully the entire Columbia community!
Describe the impact the grant had: Winning a DoSomething grant really made our project possible. The previous year, we received much more funding from Columbia, so we were able to publish our magazine on our own, but this year, we got much less funding, so we wouldn't have been able to publish without DoSomething.
Project highlights: 1) Getting as many submissions as we did 2) Getting the publication out on time so that it could be useful for most students 3) Getting a great response from students on how much Expressions helped them
How did the project unfold and develop? Our project was very successful this year. We got many more submissions, including some artwork, photography, short stories, essays, and poems, than we did the previous year. We were able to distribute our publication during Columbia's reading week, which students agree is the most stressful time of the entire year.
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Comments
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You are totally right that it seems the most creative individuals are also the wons battling mental health issues. Your project sounds like a great opportunity for intervention, prevention as well as education. Great job!
We were so excited to win a Plum Grant from DoSomething! Though our project will begin in the spring, the extra money ensured that we will be able to keep our literary magazine running. Our university significantly cut our funding this year, so there was a great deal of concern that we would not be able to do the literary magazine again. Fortunately, we will be able to afford it this year thanks to DoSomething. Starting in January, we'll be putting out flyers to collect submissions for our magazine, and maybe we'll even be able to do it in color this year! We'll keep you all updated as our project progresses in the spring.
This is a much needed response to an unnecessary problem. I, too, am working at stomping out stigma. My organization, Out of the Silence, has a similar goal: to silence the stigma surrounding mental illness through creative expression. Perhaps we could collaborate.
Please check out my project on DoSomething:
http://www.dosomething.org/node/32493
Or on its online home:
http://www.stepoutofthesilence.org
And e-mail me your thoughts.
Thanks!
-Caitlin
Thanks to everyone who has been keeping up with our project! It's been a difficult process this year, but I'm thrilled to report that we received a total of 24 submissions--a significant climb from last year. I'll be working on the layout this week, and our magazine should go to press within the month. I'll be sure to keep you all updated as the project advances.
Some other projects to consider if you're interested in doing something like this on your campus:
We held a film screening of "Cut: Teens and Self-Injury" with a panel discussion featuring the film's director. It got a great response and really got to the heart of the stigma surrounding self-harm.
We are also currently working with the Humane Society of New York City to bring a group of puppies to our campus for National Stress Out Day. The project I have in mind is providing cupcakes and puppy petting to our students as a way to break from the stress of daily college life.
This is so cool!
Love the puppies thing. And am totally into cupcakes.
How do you guys suggest reaching the stressed out kids who would never come to something like this? There is this girl at school who seems totally bummed out. majorly depressed. I don;t think she'd ever join these activities or seek out a counsellor. I'm not friends with her--but I do worry about her.
Dear marryme,
What we *try* to do is make our events fun for everyone on campus and market them to everyone. What I mean by this is . . . instead of advertising our events specifically to people with mental health issues, we try to make them something everyone can enjoy, mental health issues or not. We've found that offering food at our events is always a great way to get college kids to come to our events too :D We don't want people to feel strange or stereotyped by deciding to come to our events. We might get some people to come get free pizza and watch a movie with us, just to let off some stress. Another group at Columbia (possibly the student government, although I can't remember) brings in a massage therapist to give free massages on a certain day during exam week. Again, the idea is that these are things EVERYONE can enjoy. No one has to feel crazy for wanting free pizza or massages!
But, with all that said, I'm not a professional, I'm just a college kid running a club. If you are concerned for your friend's safety or think she might hurt herself or someone else, you should contact a mental health professional to help.
Hope all this helps!
Ryanne