A group of people gathered in a bright room for a meeting or workshop, with tables, chairs, and food on display, and a woman standing and speaking at the front of the room.
lavender page titled What Type of Other Life Did I want? Collage photograph below depicts two brown feet, left says I want, right says another life, below a shop door within which is another image of a smiling person against a park background.
A man with curly gray hair and glasses, wearing a black shirt and black pants, plays an electric guitar outdoors on a red and white blanket, with a black guitar case and a microphone stand nearby.
White page with photograph of a row of posters with a black fist in the air and the words "people power". Below is text that begins with "Snatch the coins from the greedy and give them back to the needy."
A group of people with posters and banners on a table at a meeting or event.

Community offerings

These offerings are part of Madhouse, a collaboration between Fractal House and Center for Mad Culture. A hub for mad engagement, activism, and empowerment, together we are creating spaces for community, creativity, and care.

You’re invited to join us—exactly as you are.

Workshops and events are free and accessible to all. Please register to help us prepare.

  • Join us for a weekly writing circle honoring the poetry in and of us all. Facilitated by artist, poet, and peer mentor, Matt Bodett, founder of The Center for Mad Culture, this workshop series is part poetry class, part writing circle, and all mad focused. Co-facilitated by Lauren Hersch, therapist, poet, and founder of Fractal House: a mad clinic, this workshop series invites us to show up for the unfamiliar within and without as we honor, shape and voice what is divergent in us all.  

    There will be two writing groups: in-person and hybrid (online & in person).

    Hybrid:

    • May 9-July 11

    • Saturdays, 11-1pm (CST)

    • Center for Mad Culture (410 S Michigan ave. #419)

    In Person:

    • June 4-Aug 6

    • Thursdays 6-8pm (CST)

    • Fractal House (2714 W Peterson)

    REGISTER HERE- MAD POETS

  • This is a relief block printing workshop which will use historic images of fools as a basis for exploring image making and reexamining how we tell our stories. 

    This is a four week workshop which will run on Saturdays, June 6th to June 27th

    In Person at Center for Mad Culture (410 S Michigan Ave, #419)

    Space is limited to 5 people, this is a first come first served workshop. 

    REGISTER HERE - MAD PRINTS

  • Book Club is live and ready for you to read and engage with madness! All readings will be made available via pdf. Intermittent participation welcome.

    2026:
    June 6th - The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
    July 4th  - The Man of Jasmine by Unica Zurn
    August 1st - Selections from Storming Bedlam by Sasha Warren
    September 5th - The poetry of Lal Ded
    October 3rd - Selections from Committed by Susan Burch
    November 7th - Selections from In the Realms of the Unreal by John G.H. Oaks
    December 5th - Van Gogh: The Man Suicided by Society by Antonin Artaud

    2027:
    January 2nd - Clairvoyant Journals by Hannah Weiner
    February 6th - Selections from Black Madness :: Mad Blackness by Theri Alyce Pickens
    March 6th - Selections from the Stories of Leonora Carrington
    April 3rd - Selections from Mad Pride by Ted Curtis, Robert Dellar, Esther Leslie, and Ben Watson
    May 1st - [Abjections] by Evan Reynolds

    REGISTRATION COMING SOON

  • Ease into the week with intention, creativity, and care. In this four-part series, we’ll come together to explore what it means to support ourselves through the “Sunday Scaries” and beyond. Participants will learn about coping kits—personal, sensory-based collections of items that soothe, ground, and reconnect us—and then create their own to take home, in addition to zine making and narrative engagement.

    This is a four week workshop which will run Sundays, biweekly from July 12-Aug 23, 12-2pm (CST) at Fractal House.

    REGISTRATION COMING SOON

Stylized barcode with the text 'Mad Pride' overlaid in blue, with the word 'Beyond Diagnosis' partially visible underneath.
Register for all events here
Register for all events here

  • This in-person event will incude artmaking, empowerment workshops, and community building! 

    when: 1-4pm (CST)

    where: In Person at the Center for Mad Culture: 410 S Michigan #419


  • Registrants will receive a zoom link to this mad panel discussion. Details are still being solidified and will be available shortly. 

    when: 2-3pm (CST)

    where: online

  • Back by popular demand!! Mad Pride online open mic is a chance to share your poems, your stories, your art, your music, your dance, your soul, your recipes, your games, your experiences, and more! Registrants will receive a zoom link.

    when: 2-4pm (CST)

    where: Online

  • We will be hosting a casual movie night at the Center for Mad Culture. Participants are free to bring along snacks! 

    when: 7-9pm (CST)

    where: Center for Mad Culture: 410 S Michigan ave #419

Join Us in celebratiNg Mad pride month

At the heart of Mad Pride is the belief that all ways of being, feeling, and making meaning are valuable—exactly as they are.

This May, we’re honoring that through a series of workshops and gatherings created in collaboration with The Center for Mad Culture.

Learn More about Mad Pride Here
Learn More about Mad Pride Here

The images above offer a glimpse into our community, featuring original artwork from our photography workshop, gatherings at the Madhouse Confluence, and music performed at last summer’s Mad Open Mic (more details and artist info forthcoming).