Antoine Craigwell

Trained as a journalist, Antoine wrote for several local and national publications. He graduated from Bernard Baruch College of the City University of New York, and in 2008 he earned awards from the New York Association of Black Journalists. In June 2023, he was presented with Mental Health America’s Clifford W. Beers Award and the NYC Gay City News Healthcare Advocate 2023 Impact Award. Antoine produced the documentary “You Are Not Alone” and facilitates discussion fora on depression in Black gay men. He presented a poster exhibition “Examining Depression and HIV in Black gay men” at the 2012 International AIDS Conference in Washington, DC, and in 2013 founded DBGM, Inc. a non-profit organization committed to raising awareness of the underlying factors contributing to depression and suicidal ideation in Black gay men. Antoine presented workshops on the convergence of HIV and mental health, and as a keynote speaker at several national and international conferences. He provided training in LGBT peoples of color cultural sensitivity, mental health and HIV, for the Washington DC Court System and since 2012 lectured on these subjects to medical students attending Touro College of Osteopathy, Harlem, NYC’s campus. He is a certified National Mental Health First Aid Instructor. In publication, he was featured in several magazines, including “Headcase - an Anthology of LGBTQ Writers and Artists on Mental Health and Wellness”, published by Oxford University Press, Feb 2019, and in the NY Governor’s Suicide Prevention Report “Considerations and Contexts for Treatment – the Whole Person”, April 2019. Together with DBGM, he hosted the first-ever LGBT Peoples of Color Mental Health Summit at Rutgers University, Newark Campus in 2014, and from 2015 to present, In My Mind – a Mental Health Conference for LGBTQ+ Peoples of Color, which in 2019 celebrated its fifth anniversary and was recognized with a Citation from NY State Governor Andrew Cuomo and a Proclamation from NYC Mayor Bill DeBlasio, who declared October 10, 2019 “In My Mind Day”. In 2022, Antoine launched the Ancestral Institute, which is intended to reconnect with ancestral/traditional healing practices and meld these with contemporary psychological methods to create a new form of mental health care for Black and peoples of color. He appeared on several radio (online and in studio) shows, television interviews – on ARISE TV, ABC Channel 7 “Here and Now, with Sandra Bookman”, “In Focus with Cheryl Wills” on NY1, BronxNet TV, and BRIC TV in Brooklyn. He was a guest panelist on BBC World News “Have Your Say” ra