Maps to the Other Side: Adventures of a Bipolar Cartographer

Sascha Altman DuBrul is an activist and the cofounder of the Bay Area Seed Interchange Library and the Icarus Project, a radical community support network and media project for those suffering from mental health illnesses. He lives in Berkeley, California.

Part mad manifesto, part revolutionary love letter, part freight train adventure story -- Maps to the Other Side is a self-reflective shattered mirror, a twist on the classic punk rock travel narrative that searches for authenticity and connection in the lives of strangers and the solidarity and limitations of underground community. Beginning at the edge of the internet age, a time when radical zine culture prefigured social networking sites, these timely writings paint an illuminated trail through a complex labyrinth of undocumented migrants, anarchist community organizers, brilliant visionary artists, revolutionary seed savers, punk rock historians, social justice farmers, radical mental health activists, and iconoclastic bridge builders. This book is a document of one person's odyssey to transform his experiences navigating the psychiatric system by building community in the face of adversity; a set of maps for how rebels and dreamers can survive and thrive in a crazy world.