July is Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, and Herbert Wright III—better known as rapper G Herbo—has a lot on his mind.
Herb is offering free 12-week therapy sessions to Black youth ages 18 through 25, partially funded by proceeds from a T-shirt collaboration with local designer Don C, owner of Chicago streetwear staple RSVP Gallery (applications will be accepted beginning in September at swervinthroughstress.com). Working with NAMI, Herb’s team has also created a hotline for anyone who needs to talk to a professional: right now it’s operating Monday through Friday from 9 AM till 5 PM CST at 844-457-PTSD (7873), and emergency help is available 24/7 by texting NAMI to 741741.
The fight to raise awareness about the effects of trauma on young Black people hits very close to home for Herb. Growing up in the South Shore neighborhood, in a disinvested area of the city commonly known as “Terror Town,” Herb was surrounded by drug addiction, violence, and the daily trauma of living in poverty. Herb says he witnessed his first murder when he was eight or nine years old, and even though his mother was there when it happened, he never really spoke with her about it—or with anyone else.
Herb believes that life all comes down to the decisions you make as an individual, and his trauma-led choices pushed him further into the streets.
His drug addiction took such a toll, in fact, that Herb eventually visited a Phoenix detox facility and participated in a 30-day retreat to get clean. After coming home from his first visit, he relapsed and had to complete a second stay.
He remembers his first session as especially cathartic, and frequently mentions that he cracked his ID in half from anxiously fidgeting with it while venting.
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