Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbAZeaI8iH8 Starts at: 00:46:43 (jump to 00:46:43)

Dr. Tyler Calabrese Welcome & Opening Remarks

[00:46:43] everybody on the interwebs. Thanks for coming out. This is Speak the Truth 2021, where our goal is to smash the stigma of mental health through words, through art. My name is Dr. Tyler Calabrese. I’m one of the co-creators of this. For those of you who don’t know the backstory, so I started this with David Idemudia, who is on the Board of Directors for National Alliance on Mental Illness for Anne Arundel County. [00:47:13] We were tasked with coming up with a fundraiser to spread the word about mental illness, raise money for what NAMI does. Fred’s going to come up afterwards and tell you a lot more about what NAMI does. [00:47:24] And we wanted to do something that was a little bit more engaging, that brought in the arts, that could really champion the stories of people that were struggling with mental illness. [00:47:34] And luckily, we made some good friends in Annapolis. A great friend here in Malcolm, we shared his story about how mental illness had affected people. [00:47:43] We were close to him, and he was all on board. And we’re going five years strong now. [00:47:53] So, when we first started this, we weren’t really sure how it was going to go. People were kind of confused, scratching their heads about, is this mental health an art thing? [00:48:03] And every year, we get people, new people wanting to be part of this thing, old people coming back. [00:48:10] And it’s just, it’s a great thing. [00:48:13] It’s a great feeling. [00:48:14] So, thanks everybody. [00:48:15] To all the speakers, the artists, everybody who made it out tonight. [00:48:22] You know, COVID threw a wrench in this thing last year, and we had to do it online this year. [00:48:28] We wanted to do it in person. [00:48:30] And the weather sort of foiled that. [00:48:32] So, we give it up to Darren and Allison from Art Balm for giving us this beautiful space. [00:48:38] I mean, this place is great. [00:48:40] So… [00:48:41] The… [00:48:43] And thanks to Abreema. [00:48:45] He probably can’t hear me, but he’s selling food up in the back there. [00:48:49] So, he’s got some comfort food for us. [00:48:52] I wish we might need some of that tonight. [00:48:55] So, for those of you who don’t know me, I’m a psychologist. [00:48:58] And this has been a really busy year for me. [00:49:01] Just so much pain that people are dealing with. [00:49:05] And outside the office, how much pain people are dealing with with COVID and everything else, you know, I’m talking about. [00:49:13] It’s hard on me sometimes as somebody empathetic to just, you know, take all that in. [00:49:20] It makes me want to do something with that. [00:49:22] Try to help out and change things a little bit. [00:49:24] And Speaker 2 has kind of been that way I’ve tried to make a change. [00:49:30] To try to get people to talk more openly, easily about mental illness so there’s not this stigma. [00:49:36] So people feel that they’re not alone in this fight. [00:49:40] And then NAMI. [00:49:41] You know, we see our first fans here. [00:49:42] And we say, you are not alone in this fight. [00:49:45] You’ll hear that a lot tonight. [00:49:47] And when we say fight, that’s in this battle with mental illness. [00:49:50] And for a lot of you who know, I mean, it’s a real battle. [00:49:54] I mean, it’s life and death sometimes. [00:49:56] And every year I’m putting pressure on myself. [00:49:59] Like, what am I going to say to really, you know, do this thing justice? [00:50:03] And make people see how important this is. [00:50:06] And stress now, like, what am I going to say? [00:50:09] What am I going to say? [00:50:10] I think I need to take a cue from Lincoln at Gettysburg. [00:50:13] I mean, that’s one of the best speeches known to man. [00:50:17] And what made it so good was he pretty much said nothing I can say here can really honor the struggle of the people who are in this fight. [00:50:26] Nothing I can do with my words is going to contemplate this. [00:50:30] So he summed that up in about two minutes. [00:50:33] Peaced out. [00:50:35] And it was a beautiful speech. [00:50:37] So with that said. [00:50:38] I’m going to hand things over to you. [00:50:39] Hand things over to people for the rest of the evening. [00:50:42] To really consecrate this thing properly. [00:50:46] Way more than I can with my words. [00:50:48] And hand it over to Fred first. [00:50:51] And then my illustrious MCs, David and Malcolm. [00:50:54] So, hey, let’s be a good audience. [00:50:56] It’s nerve-wracking being up here. [00:50:59] So let’s, like, clap, cheer. [00:51:03] People are crying. [00:51:04] People are nervous. [00:51:06] Especially when you’ve got to clap and cheer. [00:51:08] And give support. [00:51:09] So let’s have a good fucking night. [00:51:10] We’re cussing up here. [00:51:11] It’s all right. [00:51:12] We’re emotional.