Coffee Hip Hop & Mental Health is a new organization founded in Chicago, IL by Hip Hop artist / mental health advocate Christopher LeMark. Chicago’s own Christopher LeMark has been a voice in his hometown of Chicago since 2000. Originally, he began his music journey as a CHH artist under the name Focus. He later evolved into a playwright, a live concert producer and a public speaker. This past ArtSoulSpotlight artist has been known to consistently make music that features dialogue and encourages men and women who deal with rejection, identity and abandonment issues. His approach is unique, fresh and relatable. From pain, transition and triumph, he has a sound that resonates with the culture.

Lemark has been very vocal about his experience suffering in silence from PTSD due to a traumatic childhood. After years of doing life without doing consistent deep checkins on his mental health, Christopher was encouraged by a friend to take a break and seek therapy.  After reaching major strides in therapy, LeMark was inspired to launch a new initiative called “Coffee, Hip-Hop & Mental Health”. His goal with CHHAMH is to encourage the community to unpack and rebuild their minds through clinical therapy.

Christopher recently shared the mission for his newest endeavor with us:

“Our mission is to bridge the gap between community and mental health practitioners. In our effort to help normalize therapy, we plan to use various forms of art (especially hip-hop) to communicate effectively and to meet people where they are. The arts can provide a diagnostic image of culture and of the individual while providing healing for both mental and physical health. Studies show that artistic endeavors may reduce stress, health complaints, improve immune function, provide both physical and psychological benefits, and even help people live longer. We are motivated by the lack of resources and assistance in the midst of a mental health crisis. It is our hope to aid all communities by creating safe spaces to provide immediate assistance.”

Coffee Hip Hop and Mental Health presents a series of events that focus on a variety of topics. Christopher is clear that his goal is not to provide one or two major large events and then move on. His goal is to carefully unpack each topic that his events touch on. This means that these events aren’t the type to come to once and expect to hear the speakers touch on everything at once. These events are designed to create an ongoing discussion one topic at a time. The first CHHMH event focused on raising awareness of the importance of clinical therapy among men – a topic that is rarely discussed. From there, he slowly started tackling other topics such as “The decoding of Her” which was created to raise awareness of therapy for women. Therapists are present at every event in case anyone would like to find immediate assistance.

Christopher’s most recent event “Church Hurts” which takes place on October 19th focuses on discussing the need for therapy in churches and how it can prevent and heal many of the hurts that can happen within the church culture. This discussion is not had often enough inside of church circles, so Lemark plans to slowly unpack this discussion over multiple events just as he does with other topics. On October 19th, he will begin tackling this particular topic by first focusing on church leadership, their therapy needs, how it effects their personal life, their staff and their churches as a whole. Similar to his previous events, they will discuss solutions and have therapists on hand for anyone in need of immediate assistance.

RSVP for the next event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/508412746384764/

DETAILS FOR NEXT EVENT:

(Presented by Coffee Hip Hop & Mental Health, ArtSoul Radio and FCAI International)

Location: 3451 W 175th
Date: 10.19.19
Time: 4pm-7pm

Featured Panelists:
Apostle Ron Wilson
Tiffany Everage
Michele Aikens
Pastor Phil Jackson

Catch A Preview of Past Event: