*“Queen Sugar” star Kofi Siriboe has completed a personal project that explores the topic of mental health through the eyes of black millennials.
On June 4, the actor released his four-and-a-half minute documentary short, titled “What the F*ck is Mental Health?” It features seven young black people in the Bronx, who speak candidly about their own struggles with both mental health and the stigma that comes with it.
“Making ‘WTF Is Mental Health?’ has been a part of a healing process for me, one I’m still exploring,” Siriboe told The Huffington Post. “It’s the companion piece to ‘Jump,’ a short film I made after a mentor and big brother figure died by suicide, just before I got the call that I’d been cast in ‘Queen Sugar.’ I started working on this beautiful, emotional show and felt how liberating it was to channel my fears into art. As I began to mold ‘Jump,’ I realized the true conversation I was craving centered on young black people who are figuring out this mental health thing, too.”
Siriboe continued: “Everybody doesn’t have that language and doesn’t understand that there is a community or world out there, of people who are dealing with similar things, so I really want to explore what it is and what it means to us,” Siriboe added. “A lot of our project is just asking questions, and I think with the questions, they’re able to give us answers and able to define these definitions for ourself, rather than what we’re accustomed to being told.”
Watch Siriboe’s “WTF is Mental Health?” below:
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