My second intervention is a continuation of the first intervention that talks about men and mental health. I am planning on making this a trilogy about this topic by just going a step further and better from what I did in the past interventions. For the first intervention, I made posters and posted them around common neighborhoods for people to look at and call the number if they needed some type of help regarding their mental health. To step my game up a little, I interviewed men specifically around the college campus and interviewed men specifically and asked them three questions that are not easy to answer and are only sometimes asked daily. Some people have kindly refused to be involved in my video but I am grateful for the ones who did help participate and also for the ones who didn't because I understand this is not an easy topic to speak about. Men and mental health is a very important topic that should be pushed more to make more people realize that men have feelings and go through most of the things women go through mentally as well and that they need the same comfort that we give women when they need it.
What gave me the inspiration to perform this video was the performance that Shaun Leonardo did. At the beginning of the video that showcased Shaun and his performances, he said something that automatically caught my attention, and what he said was, "I come from a background, in which I never experienced any male member of my family cry". This automatically caught my eye and gave me an idea of what to do because this is very true, you barely see male figures that are a part of your life shed a tear because they don't show it maybe they hide it and cry in private when they are by themselves. When I heard Shaun say this in the video I automatically told myself I was going to ask some of the men on campus and see what kind of answers I get or to see if no one wanted to answer the questions at all. In the video speaking about Shaun's performances that he had done, it seemed like all of his performances showed how men should show their feelings or react if they are feeling a certain type of way to people instead of hiding it behind doors and trying to make it seem like you are unbreakable in the real world when everyone is watching. What you can see by him doing these types of performances he is not afraid to show his feelings or when he's down and at his lowest because he is performing it in front of hundreds of people, and what he is trying to do is to persuade other males to be the same way and to let them known that its totally normal and not everyone is going to look at you as a weak guy but they see you as a stronger male because you're showing your true self.
The performance that I liked the most and feel like had the most power and impact on many people who were watching, was when Shaun was getting bearhugged by a sumo wrestler and the sumo wrestler began slamming his fists onto Shaun's back as hard as he can to knock him down to the floor. Shaun's reaction to this performance was very pure, he didn't hide any feelings he was yelling and moaning in pain. But it was all a part of his message at the end of the day, to again prove to us men that it is okay to be hurt and down at our lowest because we are human. It also draws attention to the women in the crowd as well to show them that when we are hurt and broken, we also need a shoulder to lean on, a hand to hold onto when we need to get up, and a person to talk to when we bottle up all of our feelings inside. "Being able to exist in your own body and understand that you do not need to be defined by an experience -arrest, and incarceration- allows you to move forward with a little more sense of joy," says the artists. What Shaun is basically trying to explain by stating this is, that when you can be your true self without being defined because of stereotypical attributes, it allows you to be more free and experience all the things that you want to without being judged for it. After watching the documentary about Shaun Leonardo and the impact he had on performance arts I would like to meet him in person and ask him what kind of feedback he gets from his performances that's positive and negative and I want to know what to do with that feedback to proceed in his career.
BONUS
1. Silent Scream
Sit down in a pitch black room
Wear noise cancelation headphones
And scream so you can’t hear yourself
2.Falling Flowers
Lay down in the grass with flowers
Spread your body like a snow angel
Close your eyes and let your body free
3.Blind Beauty
Sit down in front of a canvas holding a paint brush blindfolded
Dip your brush in the paint
Start painting whatever comes to your mind and use your imagination when trying to paint it onto the canvas
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