About
The Icarus Project envisions a new culture and language that resonates with our actual experiences of ’mental illness’ rather than trying to fit our lives into a conventional framework. We are a network of people living with and/or affected by experiences that are often diagnosed and labeled as psychiatric conditions. We believe these experiences are dangerous gifts needing cultivation and care, rather than diseases or disorders. By joining together as individuals and as a community, the intertwined threads of madness, creativity, and collaboration can inspire hope and transformation in an oppressive and damaged world. Participation in The Icarus Project helps us overcome alienation and tap into the true potential that lies between brilliance and madness.
What is The Icarus Project?
The Icarus Project envisions a new culture and language that resonate with our actual experiences of “mental illness,” rather than forcing our lives into conventional frameworks. We are a network of people living with and/or affected by experiences often diagnosed and labeled as psychiatric conditions. We believe these experiences are dangerous gifts needing cultivation and care, rather than diseases or disorders. By joining together as individuals and as a community, the intertwined threads of madness, creativity, and collaboration can inspire hope and transformation in an oppressive and damaged world. Participation in The Icarus Project helps us overcome alienation and tap into the true potential that lies between brilliance and madness.
From 2002-2020, The Icarus Project developed a network of peer support groups and a creative media outlet that provided a home for folks who experience mental health struggles and feel alienated by society. It normalized discussion of altered states, intense emotional distress, and suicidality while fostering solidarity among people whose experiences were often diagnosed as “serious mental illness.” Although it mostly stayed off the mainstream radar, at its height, The Icarus Project had tens of thousands of forum members, dozens of local support and mutual aid groups, and left a legacy of ideas and visions that remain compelling today. The Icarus Project’s original mission statement was a rallying cry to reimagine how we think about mental differences across society. It opened up space for personal and social change. The online discussion boards and in-person groups fostered a unique and beautiful community of visionary creatives, weirdos, and social justice activists.
What Happened to The Icarus Project?
While The Icarus Project officially existed until 2020, major changes beginning in 2015 shifted the organization’s priorities. As a project that grew out of radical leftist and anarchist counterculture, The Icarus Project faced criticism for its predominantly white, middle-class leadership. There were concerns that the mental health issues of the global majority—Black, Indigenous, and People of Color—were being overlooked due to racial and economic privilege. The original founders, Jacks and Sascha, envisioned Icarus evolving beyond its founding leadership to better center the most economically and socially marginalized voices. This led to what was called a “Decolonization” process, aiming to refocus the organization’s efforts. The new leadership prioritized content for the global majority and embraced the vision of Healing Justice, significantly altering the organization’s dynamics and priorities. In 2020, The Icarus Project leadership rebranded as the Fireweed Collective, distancing itself from the history of The Icarus Project. Today, Fireweed Collective continues to serve the QTBIPOC community, while the broader legacy of The Icarus Project has become less accessible.
What's This Website?
In 2015, during these organizational transitions, the original Icarus Project website was taken offline, and much of the content disappeared from the internet. Last year, former Icarus web developer Nick Bosman found an old hard drive with a version of the website from 2012. Then, David Nishizaki, an early Icarus Project member, discovered a copy on the old Mayfirst hosting site, along with an old copy of the beloved phpBB forums. Although much of the material was messy, with many dead links, it contained years of powerful writing and art, documenting an online and in-person community that touched many lives. We decided to curate some of our favorite content and make it more accessible. This website is the evolving product of that effort, and we hope it captures some of the excitement and joy we experienced while developing a grassroots radical mental health organization.
What's the Future of Icarus?
The future is unwritten! The original Icarus Project project branched off in many directions, from the Fireweed Collective, to the Institute for the Development of Human Arts (IDHA), to Madness Radio, to Transformative Mutual Aid Practices (T-MAPs.) to the So Many Wings Podcast. We created this archive of resurfaced material to inspire conversations about strategy, reconnect with some of the original community, and potentially lay the foundation for a new peer support network. In the meantime, we invite you to explore our archive and share your thoughts with us.
