Breaking mental stigmas

After a friend's suicide in 2003, Rha Goddess had had enough of the suffering people in her life underwent from depression. The isolation and shame stemming from the suicide compelled Goddess to express her own pain and experiences through the only way she knew how: performance art.

"We don't know how to talk about [mental illnesses]. We don't know how to deal with this," Goddess said. "Because art is my vehicle and my medium of expression, I chose to express it through my art."

A self-described hip-hop activist, Goddess will perform LOW: Meditations Trilogy Part 1, a solo theater piece exploring the cultural stigma existing around mental illnesses from Oct. 15 to 17 at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center.

Goddess said the inspiration for LOW came in about 2003 when a number of her close friends and family were suffering from mental illnesses. The final straw was the suicide.

Goddess said she has been involved in combining hip-hop and social activism for 20 years. LOW is part autobiography, based on her own personal experiences, and part documentary, with interviews of others who have experienced mental illnesses.

The occurrence of mental illnesses on college campuses increases because of the stressful environment students are placed in, said James Jones, president of the Prince George's County chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Jones added that it is a problem more college administrators need to address.

With LOW, Goddess hopes to confront the fear surrounding mental illnesses - not only in the scope of a university, but as a problem that needs to be faced everywhere.

It is necessary to "cross that threshold of cultural silence," she said. "What will it take for us as a community to even be able to provide that support or help build that bridge when we have people who we love who are suffering?"

According to Jones, NAMI's goal is similar. Founded in 1979, NAMI is dedicated to the support and advocacy for those who suffer from mental illnesses and their families and to eliminating the social stigma of mental illnesses.

"It is the big elephant in the room that no one talks about," he said.

Goddess, members of NAMI and the Mental Health Association will participate in a pre-show discussion Oct. 15 on the effects of mental illnesses on individuals and their families.

While touring with LOW, Goddess has worked with various chapters of NAMI in pre- and post-show discussions in an attempt to create an open dialogue with members of the audience.

LOW will also be part of the Hip-Hop Mental Health project on Oct. 16 with additional pre- and post-show discussions about perceptions of mental illnesses.

Goddess said she sees these discussions and LOW as opportunities to "humanize the issue" in hopes of getting people to understand that mental illnesses should be treated with as much sympathy as cancer or any other disease.

NAMI shares Goddess' goals, Jones said.

"What we have to do is continue to attack that stigma and share with as many organizations as we can that it's okay to discuss mental illness, just as we would any other disease," he added.

By using art to express her own personal experiences, Goddess said she hopes LOW will create more compassion between everyone and promote direct communication, which has been lost in the technological era.

"There is a sense of numbing happening," she said. "We are becoming sort of desensitized. ... So how do we begin to get back to [compassion]? How do we begin to break through to that?"

LOW runs Oct. 15 to 17 at 8 p.m. in the Kogod Theatre in CSPAC. Tickets to LOW are $7 for students and $35 for the general public.

dnhan@umd.edu