Looking for Madlove in Berlin

Talk with Mad and Disability Pride Parade (Lena Grünberg & Michaela Maxi Schulz) & InklusionNetzwerk Neukölln (Simon Geils). Introduced and moderated by Johanna Zinecker
Saturday 11. November, 17:00 – 18:00

Against the backdrop of Madlove’s utopian stance and artistic and participatory design of care, the panel will discuss self-organised ‘mad’ activism in Berlin and introduce projects that develop alternative strategies of care and support in the Berlin context in practical terms, from the perspectives of those affected.

INN – InklusionNetzwerkNeukölln is a project associating welfare provider Unionhilfswerk with self-help organisations bipolaris and Netzwerk Stimmenhören as well as the local activity center Nachbarschaftsheim Neukölln and is being funded by Aktion Mensch. As a main resource, volunteers with experience of mental distress and psychiatry are providing support and expertise, offering alternative access to social participation.
unionhilfswerk.de/inn

mad and disability Pride Parade was formed as an initiative of the German working group “with and without disability” (ak moB). Today, the Pride Parade is an alliance of individual persons active in the areas of disability and anti-psychiatry politics. In 2013, 2014 and 2015 the alliance organized a series of public events as well as annual parades for the visibility of disabled and mad people, in which a great number of people participated. 2016 the alliance organised a stage show to celebrate disability and mad pride at Café Südblock, Berlin. The most recent parade was in 2017, mobilizing people from across Germany to participate.

Lena Grünberg currently works in the editorial team of the daily newspaper junge Welt. Since 2013 she has been an active member of the Berlin based mad and disability pride organizational team, working in the areas of moderation, press work and programme. She has also initiated and organized various readings and workshops. She frequently travelled to Chile, where she has worked on a number of different media projects.

Michaela Maxi Schulz has been working in the areas of theatre production and direction as well as acting in various stage production formats for over ten years. Since 2016 she is also working with the disability and mad Pride Parade, Berlin. She is member of the „theatre stage for human rights, “ with roles in „Asylum Dialogues“ as well as “NSU- Monologues”, staged at Heimathafen Neukölln, and as acting coach. In September 2017, she commenced on an intensive dance training course at Tanzfabrik Berlin.
www.michaelamaxischulz.de

Simon Geils studied communication science, philosophy and sociology and has been working for InklusionNetzwerkNeukölln (INN) since 2016. Simon supports people with (psycho-emotional) disabilities and distress experience who are interested in taking part in culture and leisure activities. He also advises organizations seeking to make their programme more accessible – or barrier-free. He has helped to form a group of peer supporters who have own experience of mental distress, to aid community inclusion. In December, Simon will start a course to become a certified consultant for “personal budget”.

Johanna Zinecker is a research associate for British Culture at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. She is interested in arts and processes of emancipatory knowledge production, art and activism and Cultural Disability Studies, among other topics. She is writing her doctorate (King’s College London and HU Berlin), which examines artistic and curatorial practice on Mental Health and Madness in the UK context.