Vanessa’s Team Pick:

If you hang out around these parts the name Andrea Gibson may ring a bell – she’s an accomplished spoken word poet and activist and she writes about topics that give us All The Feelings, including but not limited to sexuality, class, white privilege, gender, love, war, bullying, and mental health. Perhaps you haven’t heard of Kelsey Gibb, but she is just as awesome, and not just because she was Andrea’s tour manager in 2011 and still travels and works with her frequently. Kelsey is a Qualified Mental Health Professional and an activist focusing on feminism, LGBTQ rights, anti-white supremacy, animal rights, and pro-peace work. So why am I taking this opportunity right at this particular moment to wax poetic about these two wonderful humans? So glad you asked!

Yesterday, on May 28, 2013, Andrea Gibson and Kelsey Gibb launched a new project / website / support system called Stay Here With Me. It’s an idea they’ve been working on for over a year, and it has finally come into fruition. What’s it all about? Here’s a really cute introductory vlog from Andrea and Kelsey to answer that question.

This site is a judgment-free place where we’ll talk about trauma, suicide, and the art/beings/things that save us. It will be a reminder of the reasons we stay, and want to stay, here. We will be sharing different parts of our stories and listening as you share yours. We’ll update it (nearly) every day with content ranging from silly funny to heartbreaking to inspiring to enraging to joyous to…! Whatever our mood, we’ll share it along with the art that’s meeting us in our particular moment and mood. And if you want to, we’d love it if you did the same.

This is a place for everyone who has ever wanted to die. And for everyone who has wanted to live.

Andrea and Kelsey posted an introductory post yesterday, along with their own stories and a page of resources. The project is very new, but it sounds very promising, especially for the members of our community who are struggling and hurting and coping with depression or suicidal thoughts, but also for anyone who ever just feels even a little tiny bit sad or down or lost or invisible. It is always nice to hear someone say, “You are important and necessary and we want you here.” And hey guys, ya know what? That’s true! You are all those things, I promise, and don’t you dare forget it.

So let me echo Andrea and Kelsey when they say, “Stay here with me.” Please do.

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