What are the opening hours?

Friday 11am - 6pm Saturday 11am - 6pm

The Center for Mad Culture, 410 S Michigan Avenue Suite 419, Chicago, IL (2026)

10/12/2026

Mad Book Club meets again this November! We will be reading In the Realms of the Unreal: Insane Writings Compilation by John G. H. Oates.

📅 Monday, November 5, 2026
⏰ 6:00–7:00 PM CST (USA)
💻 Virtual, free, and open to all
📝 Register for free: bit.ly/madbookclub OR click the link in bio
📘 We help all participants access the book.

What does it mean to be considered mad? Who gets to decide what is rational, what is acceptable, and whose experiences are dismissed as signs of mental illness? In the Realms of the Unreal: Insane Writings Compilation invites us to explore these questions through writing that engages with madness, lived experience, and the boundaries between what society considers real and unreal.

Throughout history, the words and experiences of people labeled mentally ill have often been dismissed, silenced, or interpreted exclusively through psychiatric frameworks. Their writing, however, can offer powerful ways to understand their inner worlds, challenge dominant narratives about mental illness, and make space for experiences that do not fit conventional ideas of reason, normalcy, or reality.

Come join us for a conversation about madness, writing, reality, and the power of telling our own stories!

10/06/2026

Big news: We’ve finally moved into our new space, and we’re kicking things off with an opening exhibition and open house!

On Friday, October 9th at the Fine Arts Building, we will host the opening reception of the exhibition, “if memory serves…” featuring artists Kelsie H. and Craig Schmidt. At the same time, we will also be hosting a Community Open House in our new space!

Visit us at 410 S. Michigan Ave. #421 from 5–9 PM! We’ll have light refreshments, pay-what-you-can live printmaking, and opportunities to meet the artists. Our space is wheelchair accessible and equipped with HEPA air purification. Masks will be provided.

The show “if memory serves…” draws inspiration from the inherent repetition found in the art of printmaking. Both memory and printmaking trace the passage of time. Echoes of experiences and flashes of color are often what remains, allowing the viewer to enter the work and develop their own narratives. Kelsie H. and Craig Schmidt's practices utilize the concept of memory in differing functions. But both artists are tracing familial history and how they relate to their landscapes.

This exhibition runs until Saturday, October 31st. We’d love to see you there!

09/27/2026

Save the Date!! October’s second Friday is coming quick and our next exhibition will feature artwork by Kelsie H and Craig Schmidt. The work plays with memory, time, generational trauma, and mixes between screen printing, drawing, and bookmaking.

October 9th - opening reception 5-9pm
Exhibtion runs until Oct 31st

08/31/2026

Mad Book Club meets again this October. We will be reading Committed: Remembering Native Kinship in and Beyond Institutions by Susan Burch.

📅 Monday, October 5, 2026�
⏰ 6:00 - 7:00 PM CST (USA)
💻 Virtual, free, and open to all
📝 Register for free: bit.ly/madbookclub OR click link in bio
📘We help all participants access the book.

The U.S. government kidnapped Indigenous people and sent them to asylums as a way to steal their land and break apart families, clans, tribes, and culture. The Canton Asylum for Insane Indians in Canton, South Dakota, was one of these places. Between 1902 and 1934, nearly 400 Indigenous people from more than 50 Native nations were confined there. Two of these people were O-Zoush-Quah (a traditional healer) of the Praririe Band Potawatomi Nation and Elizabeth Faribault (Dakota) of the Sisitunwan Wahpetunwan Lake Traverse Reservation.

Committed tells the stories of the Indigenous people who were trapped in the asylum, but also the stories of their families and communities. Indigenous families cared for their kin, advocated for them, and fought to bring their loved ones home. The book also follows their descendants across generations as they work to reconnect with their people, culture, families, and histories.

This book is about the violence that helped create what is now known as the United States - a settler-colonial society built and maintained through the dispossession of Indigenous peoples and the enslavement and exploitation of Black people.

This book is relevant to Mad culture because it explores racism, gender-based violence, psychiatric institutionalization, sanism, cultural genocide, ableism, and colonialism. It also shows how people cared for each other and resisted institutions that separated them from their families and communities. Committed reminds us that the history of madness is also a history of resistance, kinship, survival, and fighting for each other.

We encourage you to read before the discussion, but all are welcome whether you’ve finished, are still reading, or haven’t started yet.

08/27/2026

We’re excited to co-host “Understanding the Contemporary Mad Movements” with the Centre for Mad Culture UK!

📅 Saturday, September 5, 2026
⏰ 7:00–8:30 AM CST (US) / 1:00–2:30 PM BST (UK)
💻 Virtual, free, and open to all

The event will feature a talk with Matthew Jackman (they/them), a Mad activist-scholar from Sydney, Australia, whose PhD research at the University of Sydney’s Centre for Disability Research and Policy maps Mad movements globally. Matthew is also the founder of The Australian Centre for Lived Experience (TACFLE).

This will be followed by an International Mad Activist Panel featuring Silvestre Barragán (Colombia), Co-director of Abolición de Lógicas de Castigo y Encierro (ALCE) and a psychiatric survivor; Grace Gatera (Kigali, Rwanda), person of lived experience and an advisor for the Wellcome Trust Mental Health Priority Area and commissioner for the Lancet Commission on Gender-Based Violence and the Maltreatment of Children; and Parth Sharma (Bengaluru, India), an abolitionist, anti-colonial scholar, person with lived experience, and global mental health researcher.

The conversation will be co-hosted by Matt Bodett, Director of The Center for Mad Culture in Chicago, and Julia Macintosh, Director of Centre for Mad Culture UK in Edinburgh.

📝 Register for free: Click link in bio and select first link.

08/17/2026

The Mad Tea Podcast is home to some of the best conversations happening in and around mad culture!

For too long, mad voices have been silenced, dismissed, or medicalized. It’s time to change that. Mad Tea explores the histories, stories, and creative expressions of madness, amplifying its insights, resilience, and brilliance. We challenge stereotypes and reframe madness as a way of understanding culture, art, activism, and lived experience.

Curious about the history of the Cook County Dunning asylum and how people were treated there? We’ve got you covered. Wondering what it can look like to live with - or without - a DSM diagnosis? Hear from Ishaa Vinod Chopra and Matt Jackman. Interested in mad-like figures throughout history? Join us as we explore Milarepa from Tibet, Antonin Artaud from France, and more. And what about alternatives to the mental healthcare system? They sure are possible! Nze Okoronta joins us to talk about what those alternatives in practice.

Find The Mad Tea Podcast on your preferred streaming platform. Click the link in our bio to listen on Apple Podcasts, Patreon, and Spotify.

💬 Who should we interview next? Tell us in the comments! We want your recommendations. Who are the artists, activists, or mad folks you think we should be talking to?

08/12/2026

Our Mad Book Club meets again this September! We will be discussing the poetry of Kashmiri poet and mystic Lal Ded (c. 1320–1392) and exploring connections between spirituality, social norms, and cultural ways of knowing.

Lal Ded, also known as Lalla or Lalleshwari, was a 14th-century poet and mystic from Kashmir (now divided between India, Pakistan, and China) associated with Kashmir Shaivism, a tradition focused on Shiva worship. Born into a Kashmiri Brahmin family, she was married and later left her husband, becoming a renunciant devoted to spiritual practice. Her poetry, known as vakhs or vatsun (“speech”), was recited orally and became an important part of Kashmiri literary and cultural traditions. Her verses engage with spiritual practice, Brahminical social conventions, and the search for direct knowledge and experience.

Lal Ded’s poetry has been shared across multiple religious communities in Kashmir, including through Muslim Sufi traditions and writers. Kashmir today remains a politically contested and heavily militarized region, shaped by histories of British colonialism, caste oppression, liberation movements, genocide, and nationalism. Her work is part of Kashmir’s complex history.

While “madness” is rooted in European histories, Lal Ded offers a connection to mad thought through her unconventional life, spiritual practices, and challenges to established ways of knowing and being. Her poetry invites us to think about different forms of experience, spirituality, and knowledge, and what happens when ways of living outside dominant norms are understood as meaningful rather than pathological.

We will meet Monday, September 7, 2026, from 6:00–7:00 PM CST to discuss her poetry. To convert the time, please visit worldtimebuddy.com. If you don’t have access to her poetry, let us know on the registration page so we can help you access her writing.

To register, please visit bit.ly/madbookclub. This event is free, virtual, and open to all.

We encourage you to read before the discussion, but all are welcome whether you’ve finished, are still reading, or haven’t started yet.

08/11/2026

We’re excited to co-host “Understanding the Contemporary Mad Movements” in collaboration with the Centre for Mad Culture UK! This event will take place on Saturday, September 5th, 2026 from 7:00–8:30 AM CST (US) / 1:00–2:30 PM BST (UK). This event is virtual, free, and open to all.

This event will feature two parts. The first will be a talk with Mad activist-scholar Matthew Jackman (they/them) of Sydney, Australia, who will share insights from their PhD research at the University of Sydney’s Centre for Disability Research and Policy, mapping Mad movements globally. Matthew is also the founder of The Australian Centre for Lived Experience (TACFLE).

The second part of the event will be an International Mad Activist Panel. We’ll be joined by three Mad activists and scholars from around the world: Silvestre Barragán of Colombia is Co-director of Abolición de Lógicas de Castigo y Encierro (ALCE), or Abolition of Logics of Punishment and Confinement. He is a person with lived experience and a psychiatric survivor. Next is Nan Marci of France, a philosophy researcher, poet, and artist whose work focuses on anti-psychiatry, feminism, and Marxism. Lastly is Parth Sharma of Bengaluru, India, an abolitionist, anti-colonial scholar, person with lived experience, and global mental health researcher.

The conversation will be co-hosted by Matt Bodett, Director of The Center for Mad Culture in Chicago, USA, and Julia Macintosh, Director of Centre for Mad Culture UK in Edinburgh, Scotland.

This international conversation will bring together diverse perspectives on contemporary Mad movements, abolition, anti-colonialism, lived experience, and the struggle to transform systems of psychiatry and mental health.

📝 To register, click the link in our bio and select the first link, which will take you to the registration page. Registration is free and open to everyone.

⏰ To convert the event time to your local time zone, visit World Time Buddy at worldtimebuddy.com.

Questions? Email [email protected].

08/11/2026

We’re excited to co-host “Understanding the Contemporary Mad Movements” in collaboration with the Centre for Mad Culture UK! This event will take place on Saturday, September 5th, 2026 from 7:00–8:30 AM CST (US) / 1:00–2:30 PM BST (UK). This event is virtual, free, and open to all.

This event will feature two parts. The first will be a talk with Mad activist-scholar Matthew Jackman (they/them) of Sydney, Australia, who will share insights from their PhD research at the University of Sydney’s Centre for Disability Research and Policy, mapping Mad movements globally. Matthew is also the founder of The Australian Centre for Lived Experience (TACFLE).

The second part of the event will be an International Mad Activist Panel. We’ll be joined by three Mad activists and scholars from around the world: Silvestre Barragán of Colombia is Co-director of Abolición de Lógicas de Castigo y Encierro (ALCE), or Abolition of Logics of Punishment and Confinement. He is a person with lived experience and a psychiatric survivor. Next is Nan Marci of France, a philosophy researcher, poet, and artist whose work focuses on anti-psychiatry, feminism, and Marxism. Lastly is Parth Sharma of Bengaluru, India, an abolitionist, anti-colonial scholar, person with lived experience, and global mental health researcher.

The conversation will be co-hosted by Matt Bodett, Director of The Center for Mad Culture in Chicago, USA, and Julia Macintosh, Director of Centre for Mad Culture UK in Edinburgh, Scotland.

This international conversation will bring together diverse perspectives on contemporary Mad movements, abolition, anti-colonialism, lived experience, and the struggle to transform systems of psychiatry and mental health.

➡️ To register, click the link in our bio and select the first link, which will take you to the registration page. Registration is free and open to everyone.

To convert the event time to your local time zone, visit World Time Buddy at worldtimebuddy.com.

Questions? Email [email protected].

05/05/2026

This Saturday - May 9th!
From 2-4pm - Free Art making extravaganza!
Link to register is below

Join us for an afternoon of mad community and art making—no skills or experience required!
In this two hour workshop, we’ll work together to create a multimedia art installation titled in search of lost stims. Stims and other forms of mad movement are often pathologized. In contrast, in search of lost stims frames these mad movements as expressions of embodied wisdom.��To celebrate this wisdom, we’ll engage in a series of reflective art exercises, each designed to connect us the mad wisdom of our bodily movements. We’ll look at art created by mad people. We’ll try some gentle movement. We’ll play with printmaking. Each activity is consent-based; participants are welcome to take part in some or all of these exercises.��By the end of our time together, we will each leave with a small poetry collection and (hopefully) a deeper connection to the way our own bodily movements operate beyond pathology, offering us grounding, affirmation, regulation, pleasure, connection, and wisdom.��While not required, participants will also have the option to be featured in the final multimedia installation opening at the Center for Mad Culture on February 12, 2027.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1987844092191?aff=oddtdtcreator��Questions? Interested but unsure? Email director Alexis Riley at [email protected] to ask questions or schedule a virtual conversation (camera on or off). We’d love to hear from you!

The Center for Mad Culture

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