BMTN's Black Creative Healing

Just in time for the end of Black History Month, our Newest Episode of #BlackCreativeHealing is NOW LIVE! #BCH201 Marisol Norris, Ph.D., is a board-certified music therapist, educator, consultant, and founder of the Black Music Therapy Network, Inc. In our collaboration for Black Creative Healing, Marisol, Adenike & Natasha explore concepts of Refusal and Solidarity. Our conversation and collective art making weaves through personal experiences with mindfulness of Consent & the potential for Harm.  Our episodes now include INTERACTIVE Transcripts, meaning you can click the transcript link in our show notes and just read it, or you can listen to the episode alongside the transcript with text automatically highlighted as the episode plays to follow along! We can’t wait for you all to enjoy all the new things to come this season

Welcome to Black Creative Healing - a Space for Radical Conversation, Mindful Collaboration, and Holistic Visioning, Centering Black Communities. Enjoy this little peek into our process, with all it's profundity and mischief :-) A visual version of this trailer is available via our Youtube page: https://youtu.be/Ce7hvz3y1mI Season 2 coming February of 2021!

We humbly present our season one finale! Recorded as part of a live event, this episode features returning collaborators from season one of the podcast, as well as some folks from our earlier video blog days. We were joined by Anika MacDonald, Hakeem Leonard, Zelda Lockhart, Nsamu Moonga, and Vilissa Thompson, but also by general members of the Black Creative community on the webinar “stage” with us, if you will, including (in no particular order) Jamilia Jacobs (who you’ll hear referred to as JJ during the broadcast), Kamica King, Shana Oshiro kei slaughter, Kerri Williams, LeAndrea Wallace, Chantise Hunt, and Keva Melvin. Other community members, including our non-Black allies, sat in the audience of the webinar, and we thank them for honoring the important role of bearing witness and holding space as we centered Black creativity and joy, played creative games and shared in conversation around topics of community and care, particularly in light of the US Presidential Election and the construct of survival. Now, as we air this episode in wake of personal losses and the American Music Therapy Association’s 2020 National Conference, where our own lived experiences at the intersections of Blackness, queerness, disability and more came once again to the forefront of conflict and harm, we recommit ourselves to honoring ALL Black lives, and the uniqueness of every intersection within our communities. We dedicate this episode to our families and loved ones, who have walked (and continue to walk!) beside us. A transcript of this episode can be found here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/142qi1umnqntmyg/BCH%20105%20%28Natasha%27s%20EDIT%29.docx?dl=0 After this closing episode we’ll be taking some time to rest and recalibrate, and we look forward to more conversations, more collaborations, and more learning and sharing in community as we head into Season two! Some links and handles shared during this episode: The stickers Vilissa mentioned: https://ohsopaper.com/collections/kamala-harris Isle of Tune (our first game): https://www.Isleoftune.com Plink (our second musical game): https://plink.in Funky Town Fridge (the community resource shared by Kamica during the episode): https://sites.google.com/affiantauto.com/funkytownfridge/home Keva Melvin’s TikTok handle: @disguy_datgirl_theirkids Survival (the BCH Multimedia Collaboration that premiered this episode): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMXR64hkFLI Finally, we are tremendously excited to be sharing a workbook of Black Creative Healing prompts inspired by this season’s collaborations. Everyone who attended this live should already have one in their inbox, but if you'd like a copy of this workbook for yourself, you can become a subscriber on Anchor in the dollar amount of $5 or more! If you do that, make sure you're also on our mailing list, so we can send you your gift. Or you can drop us a one-time donation of $10 or more on our new PayPal account via the following link: paypal.me/BCHpod. (all donations of $10 or more are automatically forwarded to the Black Music Therapy network). Thanks and stay tuned for Black Creative Healing Season 2, coming in 2021!

Episode Description: Our guest for this episode is Nsamu Moonga. You can read more about Nsamu via the bio below. In our collaboration for Black Creative Healing, Nsamu, Adenike & Natasha discuss colonialism's impact on African Diasporic Peoples, Indigenous perspectives on creativity, and share in an intimate exploration of affirming each other through music. Nsamu's definition of music is not to be missed! You can find a transcript of this month’s episode here: https://tinyurl.com/y3y9fhp2 You can find the companion Youtube video (featuring our song collaboration) here: https://youtu.be/xn1rSu_IIo8 Nsamu is a music therapist and psychotherapist born and raised in Zambia. Nsamu earned a BA in Psychological Counseling from the University of South Africa and MMus in Music Therapy from the University of Pretoria. A therapist grounded in holistic anti-oppressive practice, Nsamu works with people exploring health and lifestyle choices, medical complications, human sexualities and gender, spiritualities and religious experiences, psychosocial support, and learning enhancement. His music therapy experience span health, medical, and school settings, and centre human development programing, design and facilitation, community infrastructure and social development, cross-cultural living and working. Nsamu is a classically trained singer and enjoys dancing. His interests include lifelong development, learning, and critical theory-informed research. He enjoys long-distance running and writing mystical poetry. He is a foodie, enjoys mentoring youth, and loves being an uncle. Nsamu's affiliated with the Health Profession Council of South Africa, South African Music Therapy Association, South African National Art Therapy Association, and Institute for Creative Conversations. Nsamu has provided a Google doc with a thick description of the ritual clip shared in the center of this episode. You can view that narrative here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11MkM3uQJVXKx0AdITuZjRXsVcR2TLTGG/view?usp=sharing   Don’t forget you can also hit that “support” button to help us keep this podcast going! Every “like,” and share goes a long way too. We continue to be grateful for all those who’ve supported us this month and beyond! Stay tuned to @BlackCreativeHealing on Instagram (and now Facebook! Plus our new Twitter page @BlackCreativeHG) for ongoing details!

Our guest this episode is Jenni Graham, LCAT, ATR-BC, MPS. Jenni is a Nationally Registered & Board Certified Art Therapist & has been working in the mental health field since 2005. She is a graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University & Pratt Institute; where she earned her BA in Psychology & her MPS in Art Therapy & Creativity Development respectively. Jenni co-creates compassionate & empowering spaces of healing, liberation & connection by creating space for the full scope of human emotion through a lens of restorative mental & emotional wellness.  In our collaboration, Adenike, Natasha & Jenni discuss the generational and collective aspects of trauma, as well as the power of art to help bring to the surface and integrate aspects of the self that we may not realize have always been there. You can find the collaborative art we made together with Jenni (along with prompts for your own visioning process!) by visiting https://ijustwanna.carrd.co/ and clicking the folder titled "Find Freedom." A transcript of this episode can be found at https://tinyurl.com/y429ag52 We also HIGHLY recommend checking out Jenni’s Instagram and other pages for resources! Website: www.traumafreeuniversity.com Facebook Page to Follow: www.facebook.com/traumafreeu Facebook Private Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TFUbreakfreecommunity/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/traumafreeu And! And! Don't forget to hit that NEW "Support" button on our main anchor page - with as little as $1, you can help support this podcast, and the work of the Black Music Therapy Network!

This episode, we sit down with Diovanni LaBeija. Diovanni  is an Afro-Latinx dance artist and queer art historian. She is a member of the Royal House of LaBeija (NYC Chapter), has appeared as a featured performer on FX’s hit TV show "Pose", and has danced with Vogue troupes at the Apollo Theater and El Museo del Barrio. Her choreography and art focus on Afro-Latinx culture, spirituality and the Trans identity and experience. In our collaboration with Dio, Adenike & Natasha dive deep into the history of Ballroom as a part of broader Black History, as well as relating it to African Diasporic Spiritual practices and how those are connected to Black & Queer history as well. A transcript of the episode can be found by going to https://tinyurl.com/y72umh6s.  After listening to this episode, go to https://tellmeastory.carrd.co/ to hear the story collaboration Dio, Natasha and Adenike created. We encourage you to take in the story aurally, if you can. For those who need an alternate version for accessibility, a transcript of this recording can be found by going to https://tinyurl.com/yaf3wmn7.

Black Creative Healing is a platform dedicated to radical conversation, mindful collaboration, & holistic visioning centering Black Communities. Conversations and arts-based collaborations are facilitated by Music Therapists Natasha Thomas and Adenike Webb, and feature professionals from across the professional spectrum of the arts, humanities, and everyday life. We discuss and explore our own creative approaches to healing as a restorative and ongoing transformative act, informed by current events and guided by imagination and care for our communities. Episodes are hosted online by the Black Music Therapy Network, Inc. You can find links to past collaborations, as well as current episodes and details on each collaboration (including some downloadable resources!) by visiting www.blackmtnetwork.org/black-creative-healing. Our guest for this Episode is Vilissa Thompson LMSW - Vilissa is a macro-minded social worker from South Carolina.  Ramp Your Voice! is her organization where she discusses the issues that matter to her as a Black disabled woman, including intersectionality, racism, politics, and why she unapologetically makes good trouble. ​ In our Collaboration for Black Creative Healing, Vilissa, Natasha & Adenike discuss the necessity of self-care within the Black Community (particularly amongst Black Helpers, Disabled Women & Femmes), and play with the idea of creating safe and healing spaces. You can view and download a full transcript of this conversation here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/z0m065u3lbt9meo/BCH%20101%20Transcript.pdf?dl=0 You can learn more about Vilissa online at these locations: ​ Website:  http://rampyourvoice.com Patreon:  https://www.patreon.com/RampYourVoice Twitter:  @VilissaThompson, @RampYourVoice, & @WheelDealPod You can visit the “I Just Wanna” resource created by Adenike, Natasha & Vilissa in this collaboration by clicking here: ijustwanna.carrd.co