Dixon Place presents...
"Salon Lounge at Dixon Place"
a monthly showcase of performance/literature/film-video by women
an International Women Artists’ Salon series
Saturday, 20 May 2017
Host: Heidi Russell Curator: Simi Toledano
Tonight we honor how women artists are using their creative voices to open and expand the dialogue about mental health.
Historical Honoree – Carrie Fisher
Carrie Fisher spent decades advocating for mental health treatment and against stigma. Carrie has been celebrated for her artistic career. She’s also been recognized as a mental health advocate, and she often intertwined the two. Afflicted with bipolar disorder, she educated the public about the condition as if she were on a mission. Her books, notably the 1987 semiautobiographical Postcards From the Edge, interviews, and her 2009 one-woman show, Wishful Drinking, painted a realistic portrait of a woman who struggled mightily but endured. Thank you, Carrie!
Music- Rebecca Stabile
Crazy People; Borderline
Rebecca Stabile will be playing two of her songs about her experience living with madness and in the mental health system. The first, "Crazy People," speaks to her many experiences of being misunderstood and dismissed by psychiatrists. Second is her adaptation of Madonna's "Borderline," which reminds her of the pain that deep connections can cause.
Rebecca Stabile loves to create theater, music, and film. She is a physical actress and clown, writer, singer/song writer, and a mental health advocate. She has lived experience with madness and in the mental health system. She organizes with the NYC Icarus Project and leads mental health workshops.
Contact Becca at bec42584@gmail.com
Performance - Becca Bernard
The Fainting Room
The Fainting Room is an explosive release of physical comedy, music, and candid confession. This raucous show explores the ideas behind the historical phenomenon “female hysteria,” celebrating self love and vibrators and rejecting the idea that it is better to be unhappy with someone or something that doesn’t fit than to be alone.
Becca Bernard (Writer, Performer) is a Brooklyn, NY based performance artist who blends physical comedy, music and dance to communicate her ferociously optimistic perspective of the world. In addition to performing onstage as an actor, she is a resident clown for the Zany Umbrella Circus, the hospital organization Lev Leytzan and works with a troupe based out of the Celebration Barn Theatre. Becca studied Commedia Dell’ Arte, mask performance and clown at the Accademia Dell Arte in Arezzo, Italy and has an MFA in theatre pedagogy.
Contact Becca at bernardrn@gmail.com
Literature/Visual Art - Lucy Torres
The Taste of Broken
The Taste of Broken chronicles the harrowing journey into finding the name and cure for an unknown illness- and the loss and love found along the way.
Lucy Torres is a writer, poet, artist and activist based in NYC and has been an architect of literary worlds since the age of nine. She is the author of The Taste of Broken, an autobiographical poetry book chronicling the harrowing journey into finding the name and cure for an unknown illness - and the loss and love found along the way. In May of 2017, an experimental adaption of Taste of Broken was showcased at Lehman College, with a talks of a second adaption hitting the NYC art scene in late 2017. Lucy is also a LaGuardia Performing Arts Center (LPAC) LAB 101 Grantee, has featured at the Inspired Word Series and Queens Literary Festival and showcased her artwork at Local Project. Lucy is a women’s rights activist and feminist, and an advocate for gender/racial/class equality, fighter of self-love and body positivity. She spends her time working on her art and enjoying life with friends, family and partner.
www.lucytorres.co You can find her e-book The Taste of Broken on Amazon.
Curator – Simi Toledano
Simi Toledano is a Brooklyn-based performance and theater artist, writer, educator, activist and mystic. She is passionate about the alchemical power of storytelling and creative expression as tools for healing, unity, and connection. Though she is a trained actress, Simi's artistic eye has recently been focused on directing. Some credits include The Philadelphia by David Ives at the Producer's Club and Black Star by Kendra Augustin at The Secret Theater. She most recently directed Jacqueline Lynch's one-woman show Rosemarie at the Cinema, at Dixon Place lounge. Simi is a regular host on International Women's Artist Salon weekly radio show and can also be seen telling personal stories on stages across NYC. Gratitude to God/dess.
JOIN US International Women Artists’ Salon
Twitter: @womenartsalon Instagram: womenartsalon Blog: womenartsalon.blogspot.com
Facebook Fan Page: International Women Artists’ Salon
For more information about membership, collaborations, sponsorships: womenartsalon@gmail.com
Thank you to Dixon Place and staff, Maggie Cousins (logo), IWAS volunteers
Resources…
The NYC Icarus Project is a support network, advocacy organization and media project by and for people who experience the world in ways that are often diagnosed as mental illness. We hold an event on the first Wednesday of every month, at the Bluestockings Bookstore www.nycicarus.org
On June 10, you're invited to the launch of IDHA (Institute for the Development of Human Arts) a new training initiative that will focus on community-based, recovery-oriented and peer-driven alternatives, which are taking an increasingly prominent role in the new formal and informal care network. We would like you to be a part of this new community of transformative practice. (Rebecca Stabile will be speaking and performing!) www.idha-nyc.org/events
Fountain House, located in NYC, is dedicated to the recovery of men and women with mental illness by providing opportunities for our members to live, work, and learn, while contributing their talents through a community of mutual support. Their gallery Fountain House Gallery provides an environment for artists living and working with mental illness to pursue their creative visions and to challenge the stigma that surrounds mental illness. www.fountainhouse.org www.fountainhousegallery.org
Clubhouse International has succeeded in creating something that didn’t exist before: A worldwide community that is changing the world of mental health. Through over 320 local Clubhouses around the world, we offer people living with mental illness opportunities for friendship, employment, housing, education and access to medical and psychiatric services in a single caring and safe environment – so they can recover and fully participate as valued and respected members of society. www.clubhouse-intl.org
"Salon Lounge at Dixon Place"
a monthly showcase of performance/literature/film-video by women
an International Women Artists’ Salon series
Saturday, 20 May 2017
Host: Heidi Russell Curator: Simi Toledano
Tonight we honor how women artists are using their creative voices to open and expand the dialogue about mental health.
Historical Honoree – Carrie Fisher
Carrie Fisher spent decades advocating for mental health treatment and against stigma. Carrie has been celebrated for her artistic career. She’s also been recognized as a mental health advocate, and she often intertwined the two. Afflicted with bipolar disorder, she educated the public about the condition as if she were on a mission. Her books, notably the 1987 semiautobiographical Postcards From the Edge, interviews, and her 2009 one-woman show, Wishful Drinking, painted a realistic portrait of a woman who struggled mightily but endured. Thank you, Carrie!
Music- Rebecca Stabile
Crazy People; Borderline
Rebecca Stabile will be playing two of her songs about her experience living with madness and in the mental health system. The first, "Crazy People," speaks to her many experiences of being misunderstood and dismissed by psychiatrists. Second is her adaptation of Madonna's "Borderline," which reminds her of the pain that deep connections can cause.
Rebecca Stabile loves to create theater, music, and film. She is a physical actress and clown, writer, singer/song writer, and a mental health advocate. She has lived experience with madness and in the mental health system. She organizes with the NYC Icarus Project and leads mental health workshops.
Contact Becca at bec42584@gmail.com
Performance - Becca Bernard
The Fainting Room
The Fainting Room is an explosive release of physical comedy, music, and candid confession. This raucous show explores the ideas behind the historical phenomenon “female hysteria,” celebrating self love and vibrators and rejecting the idea that it is better to be unhappy with someone or something that doesn’t fit than to be alone.
Becca Bernard (Writer, Performer) is a Brooklyn, NY based performance artist who blends physical comedy, music and dance to communicate her ferociously optimistic perspective of the world. In addition to performing onstage as an actor, she is a resident clown for the Zany Umbrella Circus, the hospital organization Lev Leytzan and works with a troupe based out of the Celebration Barn Theatre. Becca studied Commedia Dell’ Arte, mask performance and clown at the Accademia Dell Arte in Arezzo, Italy and has an MFA in theatre pedagogy.
Contact Becca at bernardrn@gmail.com
Literature/Visual Art - Lucy Torres
The Taste of Broken
The Taste of Broken chronicles the harrowing journey into finding the name and cure for an unknown illness- and the loss and love found along the way.
Lucy Torres is a writer, poet, artist and activist based in NYC and has been an architect of literary worlds since the age of nine. She is the author of The Taste of Broken, an autobiographical poetry book chronicling the harrowing journey into finding the name and cure for an unknown illness - and the loss and love found along the way. In May of 2017, an experimental adaption of Taste of Broken was showcased at Lehman College, with a talks of a second adaption hitting the NYC art scene in late 2017. Lucy is also a LaGuardia Performing Arts Center (LPAC) LAB 101 Grantee, has featured at the Inspired Word Series and Queens Literary Festival and showcased her artwork at Local Project. Lucy is a women’s rights activist and feminist, and an advocate for gender/racial/class equality, fighter of self-love and body positivity. She spends her time working on her art and enjoying life with friends, family and partner.
www.lucytorres.co You can find her e-book The Taste of Broken on Amazon.
Curator – Simi Toledano
Simi Toledano is a Brooklyn-based performance and theater artist, writer, educator, activist and mystic. She is passionate about the alchemical power of storytelling and creative expression as tools for healing, unity, and connection. Though she is a trained actress, Simi's artistic eye has recently been focused on directing. Some credits include The Philadelphia by David Ives at the Producer's Club and Black Star by Kendra Augustin at The Secret Theater. She most recently directed Jacqueline Lynch's one-woman show Rosemarie at the Cinema, at Dixon Place lounge. Simi is a regular host on International Women's Artist Salon weekly radio show and can also be seen telling personal stories on stages across NYC. Gratitude to God/dess.
JOIN US International Women Artists’ Salon
Twitter: @womenartsalon Instagram: womenartsalon Blog: womenartsalon.blogspot.com
Facebook Fan Page: International Women Artists’ Salon
For more information about membership, collaborations, sponsorships: womenartsalon@gmail.com
Thank you to Dixon Place and staff, Maggie Cousins (logo), IWAS volunteers
Resources…
The NYC Icarus Project is a support network, advocacy organization and media project by and for people who experience the world in ways that are often diagnosed as mental illness. We hold an event on the first Wednesday of every month, at the Bluestockings Bookstore www.nycicarus.org
On June 10, you're invited to the launch of IDHA (Institute for the Development of Human Arts) a new training initiative that will focus on community-based, recovery-oriented and peer-driven alternatives, which are taking an increasingly prominent role in the new formal and informal care network. We would like you to be a part of this new community of transformative practice. (Rebecca Stabile will be speaking and performing!) www.idha-nyc.org/events
Fountain House, located in NYC, is dedicated to the recovery of men and women with mental illness by providing opportunities for our members to live, work, and learn, while contributing their talents through a community of mutual support. Their gallery Fountain House Gallery provides an environment for artists living and working with mental illness to pursue their creative visions and to challenge the stigma that surrounds mental illness. www.fountainhouse.org www.fountainhousegallery.org
Clubhouse International has succeeded in creating something that didn’t exist before: A worldwide community that is changing the world of mental health. Through over 320 local Clubhouses around the world, we offer people living with mental illness opportunities for friendship, employment, housing, education and access to medical and psychiatric services in a single caring and safe environment – so they can recover and fully participate as valued and respected members of society. www.clubhouse-intl.org
