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Arts KC Inspiration Award
Winner 2009
Charlotte Street Foundation
Exhibiting Artist 2009, 2010
Creative Capital Professional Development Alumnus |
I was riding along one day doing my normal fall Saturday routine picking up apples at City Market. I was headed toward my friends to meet for the 3:00 bike ride and this dude asked me, “Do you know where the Heart of America Bridge is?” I said, “Yes, I’ll show you.” I thought he . . . → Read More: How I met my fiance Getting off psych meds follow up story: In my raingear. I rode 27 miles in rain to celebrate getting off psych meds and donate the last of the Geodon stockpile. At one point I felt like I’d gotten to a point where my psych meds were helpful and weren’t causing me any side effects. . . . → Read More: I donated my last Geodon yesterday Peer support is what’s missing in the mental health revolution J. Rock Johnson and Dr. Jean Campbell helped inspire this mental health revolution A 2002 report by the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors found that peer support was the most effective mental health intervention. Yet very few people can access it, . . . → Read More: The Details of the Mental Health Revolution The best collection of Kansas City street art is down here. I’ve been wanting to walk the secret concrete canyon for a long time. This is the home of the nine blue sheep, my very favorite piece of Kansas City street art. I mentioned it in my 816 poem. Pretty soon I’ll going to edit . . . → Read More: The Secret Concrete Canyon What winning the Olympic Trials Taught Me about Trauma-Informed Care (part 3 of 3) by Corinna West This is part 3 of 3 of an essay posted about the day I realized that my mental health diagnoses might have just come from my trauma experiences. This is about how I realized . . . → Read More: Creating trauma-informed employment (part 3 of trauma-informed care blog) This is the second part of the essay about the day I learned that my mental health labels might have all been coming from my trauma experiences. It’a about how all Kansas Certified Peer Specialists earn a pin that says, “I’m a walking miracle.” This is my miracle story and how I realized . . . → Read More: My “I’m a Walking Miracle” pin (part 2 of Trauma-informed care blog) How Winning Olympic Trials taught me about being a truama survivor and how to completely escape from a “mental illness” diagnoses (part 1 of 3) This is an essay I wrote about two years ago, about winning Olympic Trials. This was right before I became a self-employed person. It was about the . . . → Read More: What Winning Olympic Trials Taught me (Part 1 of trauma-informed care blog) Art is essential to build a social change movement. How do we grow and expand? Those of us who are artists, athletes, mental health civil rights activists, and people working for change need to use our strengths. We have our numbers, our honest information, our creativity, and our passionate art and stories. Here is a . . . → Read More: We need artists to build a social change movement My testimony and public spiritual declaration. I found this video and thought I would go ahead and make this claim publicly. Yes, I’m a Christian poet. No, I don’t believe your spiritual tradition is wrong. This statement has the potential to irk both my Christian friends and my non-Christian friends, but I’ll claim it. I . . . → Read More: Does anyone even know that I’m a Christian poet? Mixing advocacy approaches give me fresh insight. “I am young, involved and in control of my destiny. I am free, powerful, hopeful, and people like me…. there are many. Sixty pushups, a six mile run, or sixty miles to Lees Summit. I can get there with no gas – I’ll watch OPEC plummet. Setbacks I . . . → Read More: I like to fight – evolution of an advocate  2 comments  Artist's Life  art advocacy, bicycle touring, bicycle-pedestrian advocacy, Bike-Walk KC, combined advocacy work, mental health advocacy, mental health recovery, Missouri Bicycle and Pedestrian Federation, mixing advocacy approaches, Pat Deegan, personal medicine, Poetry for Persona Power, schizophrenia without medication, spoken word poetry |
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Copyright © 2012 Corinna West: Intensity - All Rights Reserved |
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