Bassey Ikpi in Conversation with Tarana Burke

From her early childhood in Nigeria through her adolescence in Oklahoma, Bassey Ikpi lived with a tumult of emotions, cycling between extreme euphoria and deep depression—sometimes within the course of a single day.

By the time she was in her early twenties, Bassey was a spoken word artist and traveling with HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, channeling her life into art. But beneath the façade of the confident performer, Bassey’s mental health was in a precipitous decline, culminating in a breakdown that resulted in hospitalization and a diagnosis of Bipolar II. Join her as she breaks open our understanding of mental health by giving us intimate access to her own showing just how mental health impacts every aspect of our lives, challenging our preconception about what it means to be “normal.”