"How to Go Mad is animated by deep concern for black people, mad people, and other beleaguered beings. If this project brings attention to people who have been persecuted because of their blackness and/or/as madness; if it alerts rationalist readers to the grave repercussions of demeaning the mentally ill; if it teaches techniques for practicing ethical, radical, critical, and beautiful madness; if it instigates righteous rage in the interest of social transformation; if it broadens understanding of who and what comprises a black radical tradition; if it encourages black studies to more carefully address madness; if it prompts mad studies to think more rigorously through blackness; if it urges black studies and mad studies to join forces; if it testifies to the possibility of bearing fruit in a "fruitless expanse" and finding home "nowhere at all"; if it models radical compassion; if it urges us toward liberation; or if it simply contributes to someone's relief or healing, then, to my mind, this book succeeds.
For some, healing might mean banishing madness. For others, healing might mean harnessing madness and putting it to good use--a readiness to rally the voices inside one's head rather than silence them. "
-How To Go Mad Without Losing Your Mind: Madness and Black Radical Creativity, 2021. By La Marr Jurelle Bruce, pg 34.
