About
Take It Back is a project exploring how, where and why we communicate and share our experiences of mental health and madness.
Take It Back draws from DIY cultures to explore not just creating zines about madness, neurodivergence, mental illness and experiences in mental health services, but how these are then organised, curated and displayed in a zine library. It included a workbook zine, online resources, and in person/online workshops all documented on this site. It was commissioned and supported by Unlimited, celebrating the work of disabled artists, with funding from Creative Scotland.
The Core Team
Lilith Cooper
Lead Artist
they/them
Lilith (or Lea, as in sea) is an artist, zine maker, writer and PhD student. Their work, including zines, prints and writing, looks at their experiences of madness and in mental health services, and being in the world as a neurodiverse and queer person. In 2017 they co-founded the Edinburgh Zine Library. They developed “Take It Back” because they wanted to explore and share the ways that zine making is a space where they can be in control of the how, where and why they communicate experiences of madness and mental health. You can find more of their work at www.zinejam.com
Emily Winthrop
Project Producer
she/they
Emily first came to zines as something cool and fun to do with her friends, and soon found she enjoyed the act of distilling her life experiences as a mental working class northern woman(ish) into something suitably melodramatic and beautiful. Her work explores the threshold between sadness and mental illness, and the camaraderie amongst those afflicted. Emily joined Edinburgh Zine Library in 2018 looking for solace in zinemaking, and found friendship in zinesters. She lives with her cat Archie and partner Euan in Leith.
The Guest Artists
Producing the workbook zine has also involved working with three guest artists, all of whom explore and communicate their experiences in different, creative ways.
Natasha Natarajan
Guest Artist
she/her
Natasha Natarajan is a British-Indian creative running a freelance arts business under the name Chikaboo Designs. You can find her around London working on commissions, delivering children's art workshops, managing other artists and self-publishing zines. Since 2016 she has been writing an autobiographical comic strip 'FML Comics' exploring her most personal and political experiences. In February 2021 ‘FML Comics: Collected 2016-2020’ was published by Good Comics and during the summer 2021 her work is being exhibited at The Cartoon Museum. You can find Natasha’s work at www.chikaboo-designs.com.
Luna Tic
Guest Artist
she/her
Luna Tic is a London based mad artist and activist, drawing on her own experience of mental health disability to make candid, sometimes caustic, artwork that challenges how mental health is perceived and experienced. Luna’s had a distinguished 15 year career as a Service User in the NHS and currently helps to run user-led group Mad Covid, helping to support people with pre-existing mental health conditions through Covid-19 and to document their experiences.
Jacq
Guest Artist
they/them
Jacq is a Black, bisexual, nonbinary, disabled and fat creative. Jacq has been involved with activism for over thirty years, involved with projects for homeless people, LGBT+ Black people and Abuse Survivors. Many of these subjects turn up in Jacq’s zines - some of which are available via their Instagram bio page @soovertherainbow.