Series of events amplify new voices

Concord Monitor

Published: 5/5/2022 5:10:51 PM

Modified: 5/5/2022 5:09:20 PM

 

May is nationally recognized as Mental Health Awareness Month. Riverbend Mental Health hopes you’ll join them in celebrating Mental Health Awareness Month by attending one or all of the events being offered in May. There is so much to learn.

 

Magnify Voices: May 4, 5 to 7 p.m., Tupelo Music Hall, Derry

Riverbend is pleased to be partnering with the NH Children’s System of Care to present Magnify Voices – an expressive arts contest – to the Tupelo Music Hall on May 4. NH CSoC started Magnify Voices in 2019 during Children’s Mental Health Awareness Month in May to highlight the inadequacies in the system that serves youth and families in N.H. Magnify Voices is part of a larger, national effort to recognize the vital importance of positive mental health for a child’s healthy development. Youth in middle and high school (grades 5 – 12) are invited to submit creative pieces about their experiences with mental health in New Hampshire. Winners will be chosen by a panel of judges with varied expertise according to their grade (5-8th and 9-12th). All creative pieces will be showcased to help raise awareness, erase stigma and effectuate change. Free registration includes complimentary food and beverage.

Learn more at tinyurl.com/magnifyvoices2022.

Wellness in the workplace: May 11, noon to 1 p.m., virtual

Join the NH Community Behavioral Health Association and its’ ten community mental health centers along with their respective chambers of commerce, for a presentation by Kim LaMontagne, President and CEO of Kim LaMontagne, LLC, International Speaker, Corporate Trainer, and Author. The 4 Pillars is a corporate training that teaches leaders how to create a ‘culture of safety’ in the workplace. A culture of safety is one where everyone feels safe speaking openly about mental health without fear of judgment, retribution, or job loss.

Registration can be found at nhcbha.org/events.

Donald Antrim: May 17, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., Gibson’s Bookstore, Concord

Riverbend is excited to be partnering with Gibson’s Bookstore to bring Donald Antrim and his book, One Friday in April: A Story of Suicide and Survival, to Gibson’s in downtown Concord on May 17 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. The New York Times describes One Friday in April as an “engrossing, necessary book — part memoir, part philosophical treatise — he argues that suicide is ‘a disease process, not an act or a choice.’ Those who suffer from mental illness and die by (or “of”) suicide do not take their own lives, Antrim says, but have their lives taken from them.”

Donald Antrim is the author of three novels, including Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World, and a memoir, The Afterlife. A regular contributor to The New Yorker, he has also been the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Grant and fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center at the New York Public Library. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

This event is free to the public. Purchase One Friday in April at Gibsonsbookstore.com.

 

Pizza fundraiser: May 17, all day

Enjoy some delicious food at Constantly Pizza at their Concord or Penacook locations and help support our efforts at Riverbend Community Mental Health. Thanks to the generous folks at Constantly Pizza, 20% of all sales on this day will be donated to Riverbend!

 

This is My Brave: May 25, 7 to 9 p.m., Bank of New Hampshire Stage

Riverbend is bringing This Is My Brave (a national non-profit Mental Health and Addiction Recovery storytelling event) to New Hampshire for the fourth year in a row this year and are ecstatic to share that we will once again be live at the Bank of N.H. Stage in Downtown Concord.

This Is My Brave is a storytelling event about what it’s like to live with a mental illness and the possibilities for success, with a goal of leaving the audience inspired should they themselves be struggling or know somebody who is. Stories are shared via original essay, poetry, music, dance, or even comedy.

The mission of This Is My Brave is to empower individuals to put their names and faces on their true stories of recovery from mental illness and addiction. The vision of This Is My Brave is to one day live in a world where we don’t have to call it “brave” to talk openly about mental illness. We’ll simply call it talking.

Tickets can be purchased at ccanh.com.