Antonia Ruppert shares the profound power of art to strengthen communities

As I write this, it was announced this week that an emergency room doctor from New York took her own life due to the stress of working with the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, an EMT took his life as well due to the stress. This does not surprise us since statistics show that 1 in 5 people will grapple with their mental health at some point in their life. During a pandemic, we imagine that number to be higher.

"You can’t sit around waiting for someone else to say who you are—you need to write it and paint it and do it.

~Faith Ringgold, Artist. 

I agree with the quote by Ringgold and I've come to believe you don’t need anyone else to tell you who you are. As we reflect on Mental Health Awareness Month this May, my sister Letecia and I have decided to share our mental health journey's in a multimedia video project.  Yes, May is Mental Health Awareness Month and we are going to talk about it.

Both my sister and I have a story to share. 

We are not letting anyone else define us or tell us who we are. We are taking our own story of overcoming, defining it for ourselves and sharing it in the exact way we want even now - especially now  - as we live and work in self-quarantine.

Our project -  entitled: Streams in the Desert, Two African American Sisters Speak on Mental Health - is unique.  This multimedia project will include original music, art, spoken word sharing our very different journey's within the mental health arena. Growing up on Chicago's West Side, our struggles with anxiety, bipolar, depression and psychosis as well as our victory to thriving stability is the story we are sharing in this project.

Though we are sisters  - who have grappled with this same issue, we have very different perspectives. The way we obtained treatment is different. The way we overcame is different. The way we thrive today is also different. Yet, like the Bronte sisters, we support each other and are working together to share our story.

Faith Ringgold said, "You can't sit around waiting..." so my sister and I are working on producing content for the video project to premier in May. We would like to have a preview ready to share on all platforms by the week of May 11th.  

We want to share our mental health journey in order to uplift other people.  People need stories of hope and victory, especially now. We are focused because we don't want to lose anymore lives here. 

Every dream requires support

We are looking for support for our project. Sponsors and stakeholders can help us make it happen. 

Sponsors/Stakeholders can:

--share our content

--connect us to other professionals

--support the project monetarily

We have raised $900, of $2,700 for the production and promotion of phase 1 and 2 of the project. We are so grateful to our supporters.

Names of supporters would be on the credit page of the video and shared. All levels of support will be acknowledged. If this project is of interest to you or someone you know, please support us by donating what you can. Further,  we'd love to hear feedback from you. Feel free to comment below or email me at toni [@] toniruppert.com.

We are in an unprecedented time. This kind of season demands unprecedented creativity.