- Shakespeare in the Arb
- Why I Fight
- Center for World Performance Studies
- Telling It
- East Quad Garden
- Freedom House Detroit
- Migrant Worker Outreach and Education Program
- PALMA
- Spanish Language Internship Program
- Semester in Detroit
- Prison Creative Arts Project
- The Community of Food, Society & Justice Conference, October 2019
Due to the University of Michigan campus response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Why I Fight performances, panels and related events are all postponed. Dates TBA.
Why I Fight, a theatrical adaptation of the 2019 Michigan Quarterly Review novelette by James Munro Leaf, dramatizes the perils of being defined by a mental illness and being caught in the psychiatric system. It probes the presumption of labels and the complex dynamics of power. Director and adapter Gillian Eaton leads a diverse cast and crew of faculty and students from U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance and U-M College of Literature, Science and the Arts, including actors Malcolm Tulip and Tommy Gomez, in this production at U-M Residential College Keene Theater. Dates TBA.
Based on collaboration with the U-M Heinz C. Prechter Bipolar Research Program and other University units, panels on mental illness and the arts follow each performance. Panelists will expand on themes in Why I Fight and invite conversation with audience members. Individuals and family members who live with mental illness; U-M faculty conducting psycho-social, public health, and biomedical research; and practitioners in the arts will explore the roles of creativity and the outdoors in healing. Dr. Melvin McInnis, Director of the Prechter Program, and other U-M mental health experts, will moderate the panels.
A catered reception and information tables for community resources in the arts and mental health follow each performance.
Check out this short video exploring mental health obstacles that U-M students face with the healing power of the arts, created by Sophia Liu and Kelly Zhu under the guidance of Liz Goodenough:
Why I Fight events are for those who want to
- ask questions about research and treatments for mental illness
- explore the relationship between mental illness and the impact of the arts in healing
- support family members, friends, and students with mental illness
- prevent suicide among young adults
- shift the legal system towards more humane interventions
Our partners are:
- Residential College
- School of Music, Theatre & Dance (SMTD)
- Heinz C. Prechter Bipolar Research Program
- Michigan Quarterly Review
Sponsors contributing $1,000 or more are (as of 3/6/20):
- Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT)
- College of Literature, Science and the Arts (LSA) Dean's Office
- Department of Psychology, LSA
- Division of Student Life
- Honors Program, LSA
- MCubed
- Michigan Medicine
- Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (ODEI)
- Office of the Associate Dean for Social Sciences, LSA
- Office of the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education, LSA
- Rackham Graduate School
- Sally and Ian Bund
- School of Social Work
- Stephanie Wenner Warburg
- U-M Office of Research (UMOR)
Sponsors contributing up to $1,000 are (as of 3/6/20):
- ArtsEngine
- David and Karen Ufer
- English Language Institute (ELI), LSA
- Global Scholars Program (GSP), LSA
- Health Sciences Scholars Program, LSA
- Institute for the Humanities
- Lloyd Scholars for Writing and the Arts, LSA
- Nathaniel G. Butler
- School of Nursing
- University Housing