ART AND MENTAL HEALTH INTERSECT THROUGH THE YOU AREN’T ALONE PROJECT
225 Magazine | September 3, 2021
By Maggie Heyn Richardson | Photography by Collin Richie
On July 26, 2019, a crowd of about 200 at Mid City Ballroom watched as performance artists depicted the challenges of living with mental health issues.
One was aerialist Jamie Ray.
Performing with her partner, Isaac Wells, Ray revealed through dance and acrobatics the whiplash of emotions caused by bipolar disorder. Her choreographed movements captured what it was like to feel the extreme highs and the violent, agitated lows associated with the condition, she says.
“I have been that person before in the relationship,” Ray says. “For me, it was therapeutic, and an important story to tell. Mental health is something that we should be able to talk about openly.”
Other artists told equally compelling stories through break dancing, lip-synching, vocal performance, monologues and other forms of live art. The event, created and curated by the local nonprofit You Aren’t Alone Project, gave artists a chance to express their personal experiences with mental health through original work. While COVID-19 has now canceled the live art event two years in a row, organizers hope to stage a return in the spring, with performers again translating their mental health journeys through art.