Yashi Brown

I like to think of myself as mainly a poet who's in love with early morning shakes, my Amazon Audible app, giggling and inspirational stories that make me cry. Poetry became a safe space when I began experiencing severe emotional challenges and early signs of serious mental illness in my early twenties. Today, I'm grateful to be "writing and thriving" with bipolar disorder and am a passionate mental health advocate. I want the world to know recovery is real and should be the expectation. An individual has to want it bad enough, be willing to pursue some of the advice out there and BELIEVE they're no different than the millions of us who've found our voice and wellness "sweet spot". My work has been featured amongst TODAY Show, CNN, Huffington Post Rise, FOX, CBS, ABC, Ebony/Jet publications and TeenVogue.com. I've shared my story at Google Headquarters with their privacy team for "Privacy Week" and was invited by President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden’s office to participate in the National Dialogue on Mental Illness which features my video on the administration’s webpage, MentalHealth.gov. Recently, I was honored with the administration's SAMHSA Special Recognition Award at the 2016 Voice Awards. I especially love conducting poetry workshops for psychiatric forensic patients through my project, People of Poetry (POP). Living a fulfilled life would never have been a reality without my beautiful support team of family, friends, medical treatments, poetry, and above all, my strong spirituality.