Black Creative Healing

In this long awaited return to the podcast, a whole 2nd baby and two years since our last episode, Adenike & Natasha sat down to record one of the many conversations we've had over the last several months.

NOTE: this episode is being released as both audio AND video! Access the video of this episode here.

Our conversation touches on the following topics:

• The BCH book (more details on that soon!) an how it relates to the original episode 501 that we teased last year

• Ways for non-Black folks to pour into the Black Creative Healing community (spoiler alert, you can hire us even if you’re not Black!)

• We talk about accountability, how Adenike & Natasha like to hold accountability for themselves, and the complexity of how non-Black folks may need to hold care in accountability practices with Black folks involved.

• We also talk about the challenge/magic of translating ancestral knowledges to current contexts, and what we ultimately hope the impact of our work is, which is the continued and loved existence of Black people.

• Finally, we talk about the cyclical nature of our work, and how the level of posting and public engagement we’re currently revisiting, may not last long, so - as we say in a closing invitation, "get in the house" while you can!

  
  

  Resources shared during this episode:

  Centered Accountability by Daria (he/him)

  Deepa Iyer's Mapping Social Roles Framework

Natasha and Adenike take a crucial moment to pause together and reflect on the past Season of Black Creative Healing, which - thanks to our new, shorter episodes model - has now spanned 15 episodes!

We review the trajectory from the first few episodes of BCH Live through our early "HJ Bytes" discussions with Nsamu Moonga, which led to the phenomenal Healing Justice in Music Therapy Event that has taken up the last few episodes, and all the arts based reflections and events that have happened between and beyond the podcast space. We affirm each other and the importance of the time we're spending building community both through and beyond the podcast, particularly with our community spaces in Patreon & Discord, and re-commit to the work of tending to those spaces as we take a break from the podcast.

What comes next is anyone's guess, but we know it's gonna be amazing! Definitely stay tuned to our website (blackcreativehealing.com), Eventbrite and social media spaces for all the latest from us! Because as the podcast pauses, the events will be picking up all summer long! So definitely stay connected if you can! We continue to be grateful for the ongoing support of our community.

Access the interactive transcript for this episode by clicking here: https://share.descript.com/view/SrK86xN2Uzg

We are excited to share the conclusion of our healing justice in music therapy conversation that was held March 30th, 2023 between your hosts (Natasha & Adenike), Marisol Norris and Nsamu Moonga, Black music therapists. We deepen the exploration from previous excerpts of this conversation on healing happening in community to look specifically into the profession of music therapy. Marisol kicks us off by diving directly into this discussion of dissonance, and the profession of music therapy's difficulty with that construct. Listeners are invited to consider how you hold dissonance, how you hold conflict in your body, how you view it in your mind, and how it comes out in your actions and choices, whether or not you're part of the music therapy community!

If these questions move you towards exploring this topic deeper in community, consider joining us for the dissonance ritual that'll be happening in August! You can learn more via our Eventbrite, which will be getting loaded up with several more events (including some informal informational sessions!) over the summer in preparation for that ritual.

One more thing to be aware of: after this episode we're probably gonna have one or two more reflections from Natasha & Adenike, and then the podcast is going to take a little break for the summer. We're going to shift our focus to the events that we've been holding in our community spaces, as well as a few drop-in events that will be open to the public. So stay tuned for all of that, to our bio-links on social media, as well as our website: www.blackcreativehealing.com!

You can find the interactive transcript for this week's podcast episode here: https://share.descript.com/view/yfrxF5dcr3o

In this third excerpt of our March 30th conversation on Healing Justice in Music Therapy, we expand on the idea of Healing in the now, as mentioned in the last episode, and dive deeper into the idea of healing forward, and healing as something that is done in community. Nsamu and Marisol share critical questions for us to consider, including what we allow into our bodies, how we hold it, and for what purposes, in order to help us distinguish between numbing and intentional healing. This excerpt from our discussion on Music Therapy closes with an emphasis on the role of community in healing, and how everyday rituals can help ground us in our bodies and our sense of place and wellbeing.

People and concepts mentioned in this episode:

Victor Turner, on Liminality: https://voidnetwork.gr/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Liminality-and-Communitas-by-Victor-Turner.pdf

Malidoma Patrice Some, on Ritual: https://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/book-reviews/view/861/ritual

You can engage with the interactive transcript for this episode here: https://share.descript.com/view/pYS2uJKqQfv

And as always, for more things Black Creative Healing, visit our website! BlackCreativeHealing.com

Hello and welcome to the continuation of our Healing Justice in music therapy conversation featuring Nsamu Moonga and Marisol Norris! In this continuation of the conversation, we're gonna dive deeper into uncovering what some of the impact of White Supremacy is on our bodies, and why it matters to sit with those memories and sensations. CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains surface level discussion of white supremacist violence. You will hear a brief moment of us naming a particular type of violence, then inviting folks to sit with the realities of that naming for a moment of silence in our bodies. This section of the episode lasts no longer than 30 seconds.

Later in the episode, we hear Nsamu and Adenike in particular talk about the value of doing that kind of work and really just sitting with the complexities, then in future excerpts from this conversation we'll dive further into some of the dreaming and the sort of wonderful things that can come after you sit with those complexities.

A very special shoutout this episode to @prof_jas on Instagram, whose infographics on Self-Definition are mentioned in this conversation.

As discussed in previous episodes, the full entirety of this recorded conversation lives in our community spaces, in the Patreon, in the Discord, and those will continue to be the places to go if you wanna really go into some deep, deep work on these topics!

Visit our website (blackcreativehealing.com) to access links to all of our community spaces, as well as the link to subscribe to our Eventbrite page for the upcoming Dissonance Ritual (which we highly recommend!) so you can get up to the minute details on events and other opportunities for deep work from Black Creative Healing.

The interactive transcript for this episode can be accessed here: https://share.descript.com/view/cjVD9EAT8zM

We are excited to share the first excerpt from our Healing Justice in Music Therapy event, featuring music therapists Marisol Norris and Nsamu Moonga. In this excerpt, you'll hear Marisol, Adenike & Natasha spend some time discussing the role of fugitivity in the healing process. Stay tuned for future excerpts where we'll hear Nsamu and Marisol share insights on the pathologization of the Black Body, expand on the Wisdom of slowing down to feel things in our bodies, and more!

This event was hosted online March 30th of 2023. Members of our online community spaces we able to attend the event and retain access to the FULL recording, as well as opportunities for deeper dives into the many topics of discussion that were shared, only some of which will be made available for this podcast space! This episode also includes the announcement of our next major event, the Dissonance Ritual, which will build on the conversational spark ignited by the 3/30 Healing Justice event.

To access a transcript of this conversation, click here: https://share.descript.com/view/uVlEenjpm39

To learn more about the Dissonance Ritual, click here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/619303492417

Interested in diving deeper into the topic of Healing Justice with us, or getting discount codes to paid events? Join a community space by visiting blackcreativehealing.com/community-spaces

In this episode, Natasha reflects on the film Daughters of the Dust, by Julie Dash, relating it to recent conversations on Healing Justice in Music Therapy, and the importance of sitting with Dissonance and gathering as community/family for Ritual. The close of the episode features an original song that will be shared in our Community Spaces as an exclusive download!

Engage with the interactive transcript for this episode here: https://share.descript.com/view/MwYLuQrNgKD

Join one of our Community Spaces, and/or stay up to date on upcoming events and opportunities to gather and heal in community! You can learn more and access links/spaces via www.blackcreativehealing.com

We're excited to share with you the finale of our 4 part "HJ Bytes" series with Nsamu Moonga! Here, we conclude our conversation on the glorification of overwork and reliance on "mechanistic" ways of thinking about our fellow human beings, and the "tools" we use to serve them. We build on our previous discussions about imagination to center on the crucial nature of relationship building as an integral part of our work as therapists, and as community builders in general.

Access the Interactive Transcript here: https://share.descript.com/view/yoP3n6n4um2

Visit the website to learn more about upcoming events and community spaces! www.blackcreativehealing.com

In this episode, Adenike takes a moment to reflect on a favorite Soca piece, Up you Mighty People! by Freetown Collective. She shares a little bit of information about Soca, the uniqueness of this piece within the genre, and provides a prompt for listeners to consider in the context of our recent conversations on white supremacy, healing justice and collective power.

Enjoy the full lyric video of this song on Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTXM2Yut3gg

You can engage with the interactive transcript for this episode by clicking here: https://share.descript.com/view/GlkIrlLpPVd

Access more information on our Healing Justice framing, or join a BCH Community Space to practice HJ principles in community! blackcreativehealing.com

Welcome to Healing Justice Byte #3, where we continue our conversation with Nsamu Moonga about the construct of Healing Justice as it relates to the profession of Music Therapy. We continue building on our concerns about "grind culture" and the way it is impacting how we teach and learn, particularly as it shows up in music therapy students in training. We critique our often obsessive relationship with our tools, and the deep necessity of just "holding space" for therapeutic relationships to develop.

To access our continuing education course, Healing Justice in Music Therapy (open to Black and non-Black MT-BC's alike!) visit our community partner's website: www.blackmtnetwork.org

To follow (for FREE) or Subscribe to our Patreon (which will also get you access to upcoming exclusive events!) visit patreon.com/blackcreativehealing

For any and all other things BCH related, check out our Website! blackcreativehealing.com