Today we’d like to introduce you to Sam Slupski.
Hi Sam, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
In 2016, I began going to a poetry open mic event in my hometown, Kansas City. Prior to that, I had been writing poetry since I was a teen, but I had never considered performing on a stage. When I stepped on stage, I found a community I didn’t know existed that valued conversations about mental health.
Ever since then, community, vulnerability, and empathy have been deeply woven into everything I do. As I continued going to the open mic in KC, I took over as Executive Director of the organization. During my time there, I helped rebrand the organization, organized a team to travel to national and regional competitions, and sold-out events on a monthly basis.
While I am proud of those accomplishments, I am deeply grateful for that role teaching me about the importance of peer support and accountability.
As a performer myself, I went on two separate national tours and headlined a festival in Australia. I stepped down as Executive Director in July 2019 and moved to Austin, Texas to pursue new opportunities. During my time in Austin, I co-founded a community gathering event where we featured artists and gathered over a meal to discuss different topics that the artist chose.
When the pandemic hit, I had to pivot like many other artists and creatives. I was already feeling burnt out on performing and slam poetry, wanted to reorganize my goals and values, and found myself pursuing freelance writing and content creation full time.
Mental health advocacy and activism have always been a part of my story. It’s always been a part of my writing. I write poetry about my experience with anxiety and trauma. As a writer, I became more interested in how our environments shape our mental health experiences and how community plays a part in healing and belonging. I began sharing more on Instagram about my mental health experiences, advocating for therapy, and discussing the problems within the wellness industry.
As the pandemic continued on, I spoke more about my gender exploration, my chronic illness diagnoses, my relationship to cooking and nourishment, and have shared my love for fashion. All of these experiences have connected to bring me where I am now– a content writer and Wellness Editor for an online publication called Swift Wellness, as well as a content creator and writer sharing empathetic, educational, and relatable content based on storytelling with an amazing online community of people feeling big feelings, and writing for the St. Louis Queer+ Support Helpline with community outreach in mind.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
As someone with a mental illness and chronic illness, of course, it hasn’t been a “smooth” road, but they’ve all been things I’ve learned to navigate.
One of the biggest struggles along the way, which is something I’m sure we can all relate to, is the pivot that I was required to take when the pandemic hit. I had spent the last 5 years really invested in the community, going to events almost every night, and being a very social person.
A lot of my writing was inspired by being in a community and I was nourished by being in conversation with different writers and people. I also am someone who LOVES making food for people, it’s a big way I show my love.
So figuring out how to stay fulfilled and in the community virtually was a struggle, especially a someone with an auto-immune disease, but was something I figured out over time.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
For most of my poetry writing career, my focus was on combating the stigma surrounding mental health. Mental health advocacy is still at the heart of everything I do, but my work honors many multitudes.
Mental health impacts every part of our lives, and every part of our lives impacts our mental health, and it’s important to honor each one of those and become aware of how they are interconnected. I’d say, more than anything, I’m known for my vulnerability. I don’t shy away from big topics such as my OCD diagnosis, my chronic illness, gender exploration, my trauma history, and my experience with mentally ill parents.
Another thing that sets me aside from other writers is that I don’t shy away from the “less heavy” topics as well and can seamlessly weave them into my work about mental health and wellness. I am a goofy, silly person who loves to talk about cooking, fashion, and plants. I love home decor and being outside. Those things shine through my work, as well, and work in tandem with my mental health conversations.
As an artist and creator, I bring all sides of me to the table. Most recently, I am proud of my ongoing work of destigmatizing medication as a mental health treatment. While therapy and other mental health conversations are less stigmatized than they once were, there are still a lot of misunderstandings and fear that comes with seeking out medication.
I’ve made it a point to advocate for psychiatric medication as a valid, and often necessary, intervention while holding the nuance that there is a lot of privilege that comes with that, there are situations in which psychiatric medication has been weaponized in medical institutions, and there are other interventions that are also valid. I’m also proud of my workaround for destigmatizing therapy.
I did an entire series on my Instagram around things about therapy no one talks about and share resources about therapy and peer support.
Largely, I’m just proud of talking about mental health in a more nuanced and accessible way, which is not something I had access to growing up. I know I have a lot to learn and there are things I will never be able to fully understand due to my positionality in the world and I always aim to be empathetic in the community.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
Overwhelmingly, I think the biggest lesson I’ve learned is the absolute need for community care.
This culture of hyper-individualism and the need to be completely self-sufficient isn’t sustainable. We need each other to survive. We need to take care of one another and advocate for one another’s safety. We have to dispel this belief that we aren’t allowed to ask for help.
There is so much power in taking care of one another, prioritizing mutual aid, putting your mask on to protect your neighbor, or just literally the stranger standing next to you. It’s important for everyone to learn that without our communities, we are nothing.
Contact Info:
- Email: samslupski@gmail.com
- Website: www.samslupski.com
- Facebook: https://www.instagram.com/theyaresam/
Image Credits
Asia Raine Photography
