When The Music Stops ... Music for Mental Health, Mental Health Problems in the Industry, and More

A collection from the archives and an exploration of the early days of forming my questions around the ways in which art can both heal and harm us

Photo by Олег Мороз on Unsplash

Back in 2021, I went to an event called When The Music Stops, put on by the organization of the same name, which is “a nonprofit and community that supports emotional and mental health through music, connection, and love.” It was the first big event I went to after the pandemic lockdown, and attending it coincided exactly with so many things I was thinking about related to the power of art to heal. At the time, and in the months that followed, I shared lots of thoughts about that experience and about music as therapy, with my then-Patreon subscribers.

I have been going through those archives and I decided to pull out those original articles, edit them a little, and share them with you here today. A lot of the ideas that have now become second nature to me in my work exploring the connection between art and mental health were only emerging for me then.

You’ll also see in the beginning an explanation of why I had started a Patreon blog and it relates to why I’m here on Substack now, so I’ve decided to leave that in as originally written.

July 21, 2021 …

Dear beautiful, amazing, inspiring friends,

Today I'm going to share some thoughts with you about what I've learned about how the creative thing you love that heals you can also have its flip side. But first ...

Thank you for continuing to support me through Patreon (now here on Substack!!) as I keep figuring out my transition and place here. If you saw my last (public) post then you know that what I've decided to do here is create a Patreon-only blog. I am so lucky to have the opportunity to write for great places online but doing so for over 15 years has trained me to write a very specific way. Even as I write this, I'm automatically tempted to insert the proper amount of white space, headlines, transition words, keywords. The reason I'm making this a Patreon-only blog is because I want to find a way back to writing truly, purely, authentically from the heart. I want to earn money off of my writing but I also don't want to write for algorithms and ad income; I want to write for self-expression and connection with others. So I'll be posting to my Patreon followers about three times per week, sharing my thoughts about all kinds of things but mostly about stuff related to the intersection between art and mental health.

If you did see that previous post then you know that over the weekend I went to the When The Music Stops conference. This was an amazing all day conference of diverse voices in the music / performance business discussing all aspects of music and mental health. It was about music as healing ... which can be as simple as playing a song that uplifts you when you're down to the more in-depth life of creating as a musician. I learned so much there and remembered so much and was inspired by being within a community of people talking openly and honestly about mental health. And about the pure challenge of being human. I was there the whole day and I came home totally spent - I haven't done anything that intensive all day since grad school a few years back. Plus, I haven't done anything with groups that large since pre-pandemic. But it was a great kind of tired, a full tired, and now I'm digesting. So my next several posts will likely be things that I took away from that amazing experience.

But what I am moved to write about first is this dilemma of how the creative act that heals you can also harm you.

I've been exploring this concept for the past couple of years. My most recent book (which is completed but I haven't gotten word when the publisher is actually putting it out) is called The Artist’s Mind: The Creative Lives and Mental Health of Famous Artists. (Update: It’s out now and starts its virtual book tour here on Substack tomorrow!!) It's a set of short biographies of a number of visual artists (mostly painters) with known mental health issues. I tried throughout to ask and attempt to answer the question of "when does their art help them? When does it harm them? How do these two things intersect?"

I finished writing that book in November 2020. And writing a book is hard. So honestly I stopped thinking about the question for awhile after I was done writing. I needed a break and my mind just turned off those thoughts. But they were reignited again at the When The Music Stops event. I remembered that I am passionately curious about this question. And it came up in a couple of different ways at the event.

Alcohol in the music industry

The first way it came up was in a panel that discussed alcohol in the music industry. There was a diverse range of responses on the panel about how this related to their mental health. Some people struggled with sobriety and its impacts, others didn't as much, but all agreed that there's huge pressure in the industry to drink, drink often, be a fun drunk, etc. In particular, the DJs and promoters felt an expectation to consume substances. So it's a case of music may be their therapy but making music their business can lead to situations in which it harms them. Or maybe it's more nuanced than that. Because they also talked about social anxiety and performance anxiety and how easy it is to drink a few drinks to quell that ... and for some that's totally fine and for others that leads to troubled mental health. But it's not a one-direction street ... the mental health issue (anxiety) is already there which can lead to the drinking which can exacerbate mental health challenges. Etc.

Social media in the music industry

The other way it came up was in a panel on social media in the music industry. Musicians use social media as a tool to spread their work. But obviously social media comes with all kinds of challenges of its own as it relates to mental health. You can find yourself impacted by the comments, stressed by the pressure to create content, addicted to the scroll. One panelist said that there's an intersection with the substances issue because there's this pressure to appear a certain way that runs a fine line between fun party musician and yet still someone that companies trust to hire and complete a gig.

What is the mental health responsibility of the industry?

And actually something else just came to mind that's relevant to this topic. One of the psychologists moderating a panel asked the question about the role that record labels and managers have in responsibility for their artists' mental health as well as that of their listeners. Someone made a good point that you can only do so much as far as those who listens to the music because the same message might inspire one person and trigger another. But what about the artists? Music/art is often created out of pain. It's a form of therapy, a cathartic form of self-expression. But should it be the only form of treatment you're getting at that time? Do managers or labels have any responsibility to see the heavy topics that their artists are writing lyrics about and reach out to ask them about their wellbeing? Whether or not they have that responsibility, it points to the issue that creating as catharsis is amazing but may not be enough in terms of a person's mental health care.

When I wrote Crochet Saved My Life, I tried to make it clear (and have honed the message since then) that crochet alone did not help me heal. It was a tool in my toolbox, a critical one in fact. However, I also had therapy, medication, yoga, social support, etc. So at the very least, the thing that helps you might not harm you but it might not be enough at times on its own either.

Art heals but it’s not that simple

For the first several years that I wrote about crochet as healing, I only ever saw it as a positive thing. But over time and many interviews, I came to see that it could have its problems as well. For example, several people with OCD have shared with me the ways in which its both a good thing and a bad thing. Erika Reva shared:

"I wouldn’t say that crochet necessarily relieves my symptoms, but it does offer ways to help me with my different conditions. For example, I use crochet specifically as a form of exposure therapy for OCD. With Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), you expose yourself to something that triggers your obsessions, but then you actively work not to engage in the compulsions that would typically go with that trigger. The more that you’re able to do this, the better you cope with your OCD symptoms.

One of the things that triggers obsessions for me is even numbers. I cannot stand them in my brain. Even typing out the word “even” causes agitation for me. What I’ve found is that most crochet patterns require the use of even numbers. I use crochet patterns to expose myself to the even numbers, focusing on the work and separating myself from the pain and distress of my nemesis: “even”. It doesn’t always work. Even when I try my very best to follow the crochet patterns, I sometimes revert back to avoiding even numbers. However, I love to crochet, and I keep working on the exposure using crochet patterns."

So, she uses it to her benefit most of the time but notably has had years of therapy so she understands how to use it as an ERP tool in a way that not everyone may. The counting in crochet can be a minor setback for some people with OCD, or it can be a positive redirection of that energy that would otherwise go to self-harming compulsions, or it can be an obsessive problem. It can be any and all of these things. Similarly, people with OCD have told me that although crochet helps them get into a relaxed mental state, they sometimes struggle with perfectionism to the point that working on the craft isn't healing. They rip back their work again and again trying to get it right.

So, this is really the crux of what I've been exploring for the past couple of years and something I want to keep digging into. What is the intersection of art and mental health? How does creativity help people with mental health challenges, how does it harm them, and how can we maximize the former while minimizing the latter? Here's a related excerpt from the introduction to The Artist’s Mind:

"There are countless myths, anecdotes, studies, surveys, and theories that try to capture the complicated essence of this relationship. But the truth is that we have only begun to glimpse the cusp of how the strands of mental health and the tendrils of creativity intertwine with each other, cross paths, become parallel, and/or diverge.

One possibility is that both of these things exist on their own spectrums. It’s easy (and stigmatizing) to classify people as being in the category of “mentally ill” or “normal” but that’s not the reality. A majority of people live through some kind of mental health challenge at some point in their lives. Sure, at one end of the spectrum are the folks who have never had that experience. At the other end of the spectrum are people born with serious mental illness who have psychotic breakdowns and difficulty functioning in the world. But most people live somewhere in the middle. The woman with postpartum depression, the teen who struggles with an eating disorder, the successful businessperson who also has high functioning anxiety, the guy who is doing okay in life but has ups and downs related to bipolar depression, the individual who goes through a traumatic experience and needs a few years of therapy and/or medication to work through that challenge … these are just a few examples of the people that exist somewhere on the mental health spectrum. And of course even people within the same part of the spectrum - the people who have one bout of major depression in a lifetime, let’s say - each have their own unique experiences, symptoms, reactions, perspectives on their issue, and treatment resolutions.

Then there is the artistic spectrum. At one end you’ll find some rare people who don’t have any interest in art or creative expression at all. And then at the other end are people who seem born to be artists. They start drawing or painting or writing or singing almost before they can crawl. They may have some creative self-doubt but they never waver from the path of knowing that art has to be in their lives. They are compelled to create art. But most people exist somewhere in the middle. The working parent who loves to craft and create with their children, the person who makes art in their “spare time” while holding down a non-art career, the individual who dabbles in a variety of different artistic endeavors and is always learning something new, the friend you have who makes the most creative gifts but never calls herself an artist, the Etsy seller whose handcrafted items bring a modest side income to the household, the guy who loved to draw as a child but hasn’t done so in many years, the people who gladly devoured the buffet of the adult coloring books trend like they were starved for color and creativity in their lives … these are just a few of the people that exist somewhere on the artistic spectrum. And, as with mental health, even those people who seem to have similar stories will have their own unique experiences, beliefs, creative processes, and relationship with their artistic practice.

So each of us lies somewhere on the mental health spectrum and somewhere on the artistic spectrum. And when we overlay one spectrum onto the other, we get a unique journey between the two. They overlap somehow. They intertwine. They support one another but also combat one another. Let’s say that someone lives about midway on the artistic spectrum but to the far “less-functional” end of the mental health spectrum. How does their struggle with basic daily functioning affect their art? If someone has approximately the same mental health challenges as that individual but is on the “absolutely compelled to create art daily” end of the spectrum, how are things different? Does art have the ability to help one or the other of them more? Does their mental health affect their artistic output differently?"

This is the question I'm exploring lately. I think in particular I'm moved to explore how this all comes together in a particular way when you choose to make a living doing the creative thing that you love. I've been a writer since I was a child. I've been a paid professional writer since my early twenties. And I am very lucky to be able to make a living doing that. But my relationship with writing is constantly changing and it's definitely all tied up with me mental health and complicated by the fact that I often get paid to write certain things in a certain way. As I move towards trying to make a more meaningful connection with my writing voice again, I hope to stumble along more answers. And I hope that this is a conversation you're interested in having, that as I write more from the heart and share here in this private blog, you'll find some gems of inspiration, food for thought, or anything else that helps you in your own journey.

Thank you for being here. You have no idea how much the continued support means to me.

July 27, 2021

The Beauty and Fragility of Being a Spark for Others

Good morning beautiful friends,

I hope that you're able to take some time today to do something that makes you smile, to connect with yourself and at least one other creature, to breathe deeply regardless of what else is going on.

As you know, I recently went to the When The Music Stops event and I continue to metabolize all I heard there about the intersection of music and mental health. One of the panel speakers, Rob Knox, when asked why he felt it was important to be there that day, said that he was showing up because he had served himself for a long time and was now ready to serve others and although he didn't know how he would serve others by being there, he also knows that you simply never now what might spark a change for someone. So he was showing up to be a spark, even if he didn't know in what way or for who. And that's what I try to do in my writing - show up as my authentic self, make myself as vulnerable and honest as possible, and hope that something in that sparks something for someone else.

A number of speakers actually noted that they were there because they felt called to show up and see if they could be a conduit for something beautiful or meaningful or helpful for someone else. They didn't come there with a specific agenda. Instead, they came open to being their honest selves in the moment in the hopes that this would be enough. DJ Qbert phrased it as, "the Universe has called us here, and I hope something I say affects someone." Marcella "Ms. Lago" said that she felt it important to be in the room and share struggles and successes in order to be a vessel to help others.

Photo by Birmingham Museums Trust on Unsplash

Intent vs impact

We always impact others in ways we are often totally unaware. One of the first things I learned in psychology grad school was that there's a difference between "intent" and "impact." Frankly, your intent is all fine and good but if you have a harmful impact on others close to you then it doesn't matter much. What matters is having open communication where that person can say, "this was the negative impact" and you can say, "I'm so sorry about that, would you like to hear my intention?" and you can work together to meet in the middle where understanding lies. But in the bigger world, where we put work out (whether that's music or writing or simply text messages and social media updates) we are going to impact a large number of people in ways that we may never know. And in my mind, then, intent does matter a lot. You can't always change the impact, but you can enter each activity in the world with authenticity, openness, compassion, and an awareness that you might spark something in someone - good or bad.

In the day's final panel on social media, music, and mental health, there was obviously a lot of discussion about the content that you choose to put out, how people respond to it, and how you respond to the people who respond unkindly. There's a lot to unpack there, but I was struck by something that Brit Bronson said, that we ultimately can't control how others respond to us but we can control two things: what we create and what we consume. Moreover, we can be mindful of the responsibility of what we create.

Mindfulness in creative output

I mentioned last letter that Moody Jones discussed the role of the manager, producer, label, etc, in relation to helping artists with their mental health. He was asked if there's a responsibility to the consumer of the music as well. And he said that's a really fragile thing because the exact same lyric can spark one thing in the first person and the exact opposite of the second person. So perhaps the best we can do is be mindful of personally putting out thoughts and work that are authentic to who we are, attempting to be our best selves in what we create, and making space for others to let us know if there's been a negative impact that we can help repair in any way.

But to do this, we need to take a lot of time to be in touch with our core selves. This is something that nearly every artist on that stage said in one way or another. When asked in the first panel, "what does mental health mean to you?" Karl Watson said, "taking care of one's self, filing your cup in order to be able to give to others." Similarly, Malik Adunni said, "checking on yourself to help both yourself and others." Theo Ellington said taking the time for self-awareness and reflection and then acting with intentionality upon what you learn from that reflection. This same thing was reiterated again and again throughout the day. If we aren't taking care of ourselves and taking time to listen to ourselves without the input of all the external noise we subject ourselves to daily then we aren't coming from our best place of good mental health and this makes it hard to help others.

Titrating responses to your creative work

The event's keynote speaker was Jamie Tworkowski, founder of To Write Love on Her Arms, an organization I first learned about when researching suicide prevention resources for the Mandalas for Marinke blog project. He has recently resigned from his work there, leaving it in the hands of family and friends as he moves on to new work after well over a decade serving there. He shared the story of how TWLOHA began. He met a new friends who was denied entry into a treatment center and had five days until she could get into rehab. A group of people banded together around her for those five days, helping her to stay sober and to keep sane. Before this she had attempted suicide by carving "fuckup" on her arm, hence the eventual name of the organization to carve "love" there instead. Once the five days was over, Jamie wanted to share her story. It was 2006 and he created a MySpace Page to tell her story. The whole thing took off. Bands began wearing the TWLOHA t-shirts, spreading the word through MySpace, and the beginnings of an organization formed.

What Jamie said about this was that he really saw the best of the Internet at the time, people coming together to share important information for a cause that really mattered, all sparked by this one person's true story. But he mentioned as an aside that he began to get an overwhelm of inquiries about suicide prevention. He was 22 years old and he didn't have that information, so he did his best to gather it. And TWLOHA remains one of the best resources online for finding help for suicide issues anywhere in the country.

He didn't dwell on the overwhelm in his own talk, but it reminded me so much of when I wrote Crochet Saved My Life. People had already started to share their stories with me about depression and suicide and the role crafting played in healing because I'd been writing about this on my now-defunct blog, Crochet Concupiscence. But once the book came out and I started promoting it, the emails really took off. Daily I would get long, long emails from people sharing their heart-rending stories of loss and pain and mental health challenges. I loved it. And I was totally overwhelmed by it. I wanted to respond well to every single person. But I didn't know enough at the time about setting the boundaries I needed to stay a healthy person so that I could respond! I hadn't gone to psychology school yet. I was finding my way. And although mostly I was grateful for being able to connect with this community, sometimes I let it overwhelm me. I discussed this again recently in a podcast:

Several years later when I did the Mandalas for Marinke project, I was much better prepared. I knew that I wanted that project to be a spark in the world on behalf of Marinke. And I also knew that I needed to structure things on my end so that I was able to be my best self in that long-term project. Hundreds of contributions came in, each with their own stories. And I set things up so that I would only handle a couple at a time. I would post them on the blog and buffer them with research and resources. On days when I couldn't take in more, I paused, and I refilled my well of energy, before I dove back in. And later it became a book and two art gallery shows, and I hope that all of that sparked something wonderful for someone somewhere.

Burnout and resourcing

So I guess that's today's point: you're constantly available as a spark for others whether you know or not. If you actively seek to be a spark (you become a social worker, nurse, teacher, speaker, influencer, parent, etc.) then you run the risk of burnout. The same work and inspiration that fuels and motivates you can cause your own spark to wither. It's that same thing I discussed in the last letter - the thing you love can also have potential to harm you and so you have to be aware of how that thing intersects with your mental health.

One key is resourcing. At some point in grad school, we were asked to list all of our resources - things we could immediately turn to in order to refill our "feel good" well. I don't remember anything I put on that list except Lucy, the Golden Retriever I was borrowing regularly from a friend at the time. I obviously had known I enjoyed her but somehow that day I realized that I truly got joy refilled every time I saw her. Knowing that, I saw her more often. And I put my phone down and saw her more intentionally. And eventually that led to getting my own dogs. And to this day one of the quickest ways to brighten my day is to stop everything else and let my dog lead the way into play and adventure. That's one of my greatest resources.

Asked about their own resources, members of the When The Music Stops panels said: taking a regular digital detox, spending time with kids and pets, being around those people who lift us up, doing Morning Pages writing, dancing or otherwise getting moving, seeing some form of nature every day, putting bare feet on the ground, listening to music and singing karaoke, getting good sleep, watching the sunrise ... So those are some ideas.

Find what fills you up and fill your days with as much of it as possible. Whether or not you know it, you are a spark for others, so do what you need to do in order to keep your own flame bright.

August 2021

Music as a Moment for Mental Relaxation and Feeling Your Feelings

If you follow me on Instagram then you might have already seen that I went to this lovely outdoor string quartet concert of Disney music the other night. It was so delightful. I knew most of the songs, so there was a lot of nostalgia. But more than that just sitting outside (socially distanced yet still intimate) with a group of people listening to live music was therapeutic. And the strings were just beautiful. Personally, I can't be sad listening to Disney music. And honestly I can't be anything but in the moment. Music can do that for a lot of us.

In fact, the viola player stopped after one of the earliest songs and addressed the audience almost as if compelled to do so. He said, "I just realized that while I was playing, this playing required so much focus, that I couldn't do anything else. I was just totally in this moment." Then you could tell he felt a bit awkward about saying that and was like, "I was just thinking that." One of the violin players broke the awkwardness by joking, "well if you were thinking that then you were actually doing something besides being in the moment."

Music as meditation

It made me laugh because isn't that exactly how meditation is. I know whenever I've tried to meditate in the classic way it goes something like finally getting into what fees like a state of "zen" (or whatever word you want to use) only to immediately find myself thinking, "oh my, I think I'm there, I think I'm in the moment, I think I'm in meditating." Which means I'm no longer in the moment. But what I've learned is it's a process, right? We're never "in the now" for very long because the now keeps changing. It's an active, dynamic process. The viola player was very in the now and then he thought about it and he was in the next now and then presumably when he went back to playing he got back into his flow.

My favorite thing about the event, other than the whole experience, was Violin player #1 who was also the one who generally addressed the crowd. This guy had the best facial expressions. He was super into the music and you could see he totally felt it. But also he was a performer and you could see that as well. And his delight made me feel delight.

There were a couple of songs that fewer people in the audience were familiar with. The violinist mentioned that it's so interesting how you still experience the cinematic dramatics even without the lyrics. He said that music is so important to animation. And then added "it's important to a lot of things, including us."

I've been saying for a long time that my passion is writing at the intersection of psychology and creativity. How can art heal us and in what ways can our creative urges and our mental health challenges conflict with one another. But ever since I started this new version of Patreon where I'm trying to write direct-from-the-heart-to-you letters about this topic, I've been particularly focused on this link. So I notice it coming up everywhere right now. Those two comments ("being in the flow") and ("music is important to us") were just very short comments in a beautiful musical performance. But my attention is tuned to this and I am becoming so aware of how much this shows up - that art heals us and that so many people feel it even if we aren't noticing it and articulating it much. And hopefully by articulating it more, we'll notice it more and enhance its benefits.

I think music is one of the arts that really does this for the largest majority of people. The funny thing is I don't consider myself much of a "music" person in comparison to everyone I know. It's not one of my go-to resources (although I'm increasingly learning to make it one.) I don't have any musical talent myself and didn't actually get much joy out of trying to play an instrument as a kid. I like live music but I don't like it the way some people like it ... and I don't really like big concerts at all. So it's taken time for me to see this as the benefit it is to me. Writing and visual art are so much stronger healing tools for me.

But music is universal. I've heard it said many times that every culture from every era has music. I don't know if that's 100% accurate but it sounds true. And babies start cooing and making their own music so early. And I know that music affects a different part of the brain from other language so that when people with advanced age-related memory loss no longer remember almost anything they still remember and relate to music from their past. When I went to that When The Music Stops event recently, the founder said that music and mental health are the two things that all humans have in common, which is part of why he married the two in his work.

Music’s impact on mood

We've already talked about some of the ways music helps with mental health. And over the course of these letters I hope to explore this in more depth (along with continuing to cover the other arts as therapy, too.) But I want to say here is how simple it is to turn to music when you need just a moment to mentally relax. For the viola player, it was the act of playing the music in the group that got him into that total flow state. For myself in the audience, it was moments of music that were so nostalgic for me that they brought this flood of feelings and associations yet felt entirely grounded in the moment.

On the flip side, notice when music might heighten a negative mood that you're in. I remember a friend saying once that after a breakup his mom would always put on Patsy Cline songs. And my experience is that this can go both ways. Sometimes the healthiest thing you can do for yourself is to feel your feelings. And sad, emotional, meaningful music can be just the thing to help you access those feelings and feel them. If I need a good cry, there are songs that can instantly get me there. On the other hand, sometimes what you need is to move out of those hard feelings and move forward ... and in those times, you might simply need to change the music. So start noticing - what does this music make me feel? What do I want / need to feel right now? And do those things match? This is something I'm working on actively right now as a relatively new thing. And I'm curious to see how it develops.

Photo by 愚木混株 Yumu on Unsplash

August 2021

Summer of Soul Movie with Questlove Q&A

I got the chance to go see the "Summer of Soul" documentary this past week. There are a few ways it relates to the topic of music therapy and thus to the relationship between art and mental health.

First, let me just tell you how special it was to go see this film. It was part of the documentary film series at the historic Castro theater. I love documentaries. I love film festivals. And I absolutely love the Castro theater. It's old and the seats aren't comfy and there weren't concessions because of COVID but I was still so glad to get the chance to be back in there. It's got so much rich history for our city and so many good memories for me personally. I took my dad to the silent film festival there when he visited me. I saw the opening of Milk there with people who had lived in the Castro at the time of his assassination and cried during the movie. If you don't know the place, it's a two story historic theater with beautiful art and an organ player who rises up from under the stage to play before the movie instead of having previews.

Second, if you don't know about this film, I'll tell you about it briefly. In 1969, the same year as Woodstock, there was a series of six weekend music festivals called the Harlem Cultural Festival. Over 300,000 people, mostly people of color, mostly Black people, attended. It was an unprecedented event that brought Black musicians to the stage across so many genres of music - jazz, soul, blues, pop, gospel, African drumming and more. Have you ever heard of this festival? Most people haven't. The first five weeks of the event were filmed, but, long story short, the footage just sat in storage for the past five decades. There is a whole lot to be said about who tells history, and how that has led to the erasure of people's history. I should state clearly that I'm a white woman trying to address this all in a culturally-sensitive way. And the movie is a million times better than I at exploring all this. Just watch the movie. It's currently on Hulu.

But here's the part I feel competent to talk about to some degree ...

art in the form of music as it relates to mental health

This almost feels like it's coming full circle to when I first re-launched this new version of my Patreon because I wrote about the When The Music Stops conference I went to which is about suicide prevention through music. I don't know music well - not like I know writing, not even like I know fashion. But music is also universal. And I think to some degree or another we all understand it can have a healing impact.

Healing through gospel music

There's a section where it discusses gospel music, it's relationship to the African American historical experience, and its ability to move people through the darkest of traumas. It might be about religion, but the religion itself might not be the point at all times. It's the depth of soul stirring in the music, the wailing and emotion and movement and tone that all comes together to make this a healing music. It heals individuals and it heals communities. As someone who doesn't know a lot about gospel music, I learned a lot. But without knowing anything at all, I could see the healing happening. There's a scene where Mahalia Jackson and Mavis Staples are singing Martin Luther King Jr's favorite song (he'd been assassinated not long before) and some of the close-up shots of Mahalia's face are the strongest examples I've ever seen of both pain and healing happening at the same time. It's like the trauma was being worked out through the song, through the swell of the music, through the experience of sharing that with a crowd. I won't speak to what her experience was. But I will say I had chills watching it. And I'm not the only one. Although the film is on the small screen, I feel lucky to have had the chance to see some of these moments on the big screen.

During that gospel section, but perhaps applying to other music as well, Reverend Jesse Jackson speaks,

"Gospel was more than religious. Gospel was the therapy for the stress and pressure of being Black in America. We didn't go to a psychiatrist. We didn't go lay on a couch. We didn't know anything about a therapist. But we know Mahalia Jackson."

This speaks to a few key things that I want to highlight:

1. There is individual mental health and there is community mental health. We as a society need to address both. This includes the fact that individual and community trauma, including historical and intergenerational trauma, is linked together.

2. There are different ways of healing both at the individual and collective level. Art is one of those ways. Expressing yourself through art and music is individual catharsis. Sharing art and music in community with others can be community catharsis.

3. Having our art seen and validated is healing for our minds and spirits. Several people mentioned how unique it was to be in a community of so many Black people. The 5th Dimension had not previously been very accepted within the Black community because they were a pop band. They experienced the problem of being "not Black enough" so to go out on that stage at a Black event facing tens of thousands of Black faces was so healing for them. Of course, this is not just about the art ... there are many layers here. But the art is a part of it.

Continuing on off of that last point, director Questlove shared an interesting part of the film's back story. So no one was interested in the footage at the time of the event and although attempts were made at times to bring it to light, it was mostly forgotten. People barely, if at all, knew about this critical part of Black history. (It's also critical to music history. He particularly chose to show the songs artists were playing right at the transition between who they were in the earlier 1960s and who they were becoming in the early 1970s; Stevie Wonder's sets are great examples of that.) So the way that history was preserved and the lens it was told through effectively erased this key time. And it almost happened again today ...

There's this amazing part of the film where right at the same time as the event was going on, (white) man landed on the moon. And reporters came out and asked people what they thought. The nicest comments were basically, "that's amazing for science but this particular weekend is more important for me" to "why the heck are we wasting so much money sending a man to the moon when people right here in Harlem are poverty stricken?!" So first of all this is one of many comparisons that we can draw about what was happening then to what's happening now (Jeff Bezos). But also apparently that footage of those Black people saying that about the moon landing never aired. So when Questlove's team tried to get permission from CBS to air it, they tried to say that they have a precedent of only allowing what's already aired to be shown again. Unseen footage isn't released. Well there was a lot of back and forth but basically they had to explain to CBS that choosing not to share that footage was effectively continuing to erase the Black experience of that moment in history.

So art matters on just so many levels. It matters that they did this music festival. It matters that they filmed it. It matters that a team came together fifty years later to dig through those archives and show this footage to us today. History isn't exactly linear. We can heal the past by knowing about it, working through it, sharing it, understanding it, changing it. Art is a key part of that.

I hope you get some of what I'm trying to share here. I feel really inarticulate on this subject. I also only saw the film once and I'm still digesting it, and I think there's a lot more to be said. But one of my goals of this Patreon-Only blog is to share with you the writings that aren't ready to be shared with the rest of the world, yet. They're raw, unformed, still coming in to their own. They're my truths and thoughts the best I can convey them in the moment.

And you don't know how much I value that you continue to support me in this endeavor. It helps me financially to have a little bit of time to work on this labor of love. But more than that it helps me feel like I'm heading in the right direction with my work and that this work really matters. And I hope that me doing this encourages other people to do the same with the work that matters to them.

Hugest of hugs,

Kathryn

Art and Mental Health Takeaways:

In summary from the above article:

• The same creative work that heals you can have downsides, either from the art itself or from the business/industry of that art. That doesn’t mean that it’s bad. It means that it’s complicated.

• What we put out into the world - as artists and as humans - will impact others in ways we can’t know. We can control what we create. And we can ask ourselves tough questions about what other responsibility we might have as artists. But we can’t ever fully know what ripple effect, positive or negative or otherwise, putting our work out into the world might have. And for some of us, that’s a hard thing to reckon with.

• Related to that, we may have to practice self-care when it comes to taking in the responses to our work. Even wonderful responses (people resonating and reaching out to you as a result) can be mentally challenging for us. Resourcing becomes important as we navigate this challenge.

• There are many paths to mindfulness. Art can be one of them. Simply putting on a song that allows you to be fully present in the moment of that music might be one way for you.

• Creating art can be individually healing. Having our art seen and validated is healing for our minds and spirits. Sharing art can heal communities.

It was really great for me to look back upon this and see that the ideas that were in their embryonic stages two years ago are increasingly becoming clarified for me as I continue my work. I honestly hadn’t even remembered the whole conversation that happened at WTMS about the role of the industry in relation to mental health of artists but it relates directly to the stuff I’ve been thinking about in terms of working with art galleries, museums and institutions around mental health.

I am in the early stages of beginning this kind of consulting work, designing how I want to approach it. My dream job is to serve as the mental health expert for these places … addressing the mental health of the artists, visitors, and staff in ways that don’t dilute the potentially triggering aspects of the art because therein sometimes lies their power. Reflecting back on “intent vs impact” in relation to this and the responsibility of the industry as we all become increasingly aware of the prevalence of mental health challenges amongst us, I see that the questions I’m asking now about how to do this were formed in the seeds of sitting in that space.

I still have so much to learn and research and think about and explore and share. I really feel like this is my life’s work and I’m going to be doing it for years to come.

Art and Journal Prompts:

I offer you some creativity prompts that you can use for journaling, creative writing, as a start to an art project, or however you may see fit.

• Write a letter to someone who has been a creative spark for you. Then, write a letter to yourself as if you were someone for whom you yourself was a creative spark.

• What is a time when your intent and your impact didn’t match up? How did you handle it? How might you handle it differently today?

• Choose a piece of music that holds significant emotional meaning for you. Listen to it with full attention and reflect on the emotions it evokes. Create a visual representation of those emotions through art.

• Choose a specific aspect of your culture or community and create an art piece that represents the significance of music and art.

• Close your eyes and imagine a healing soundscape. What sounds, music, or nature elements would be a part of it? Create a mixed media art piece that represents this soundscape and how it would make you feel.

• Reflect on the idea of beauty and fragility coexisting in creative expression and mental health. Create an art piece that captures the beauty of vulnerability and the strength it can bring.

• Write a song!

Related Tips for Using Creativity to Improve Wellness:

In addition to the above prompts, you might want to try some of these creative activities to help improve mental health:

• Explore: in what ways has the art that helps you most also harmed you or been limited in how it can help you? How can you take that information and grow from it to use art in the most positive way possible? Create a visual or written response to this.

• Practice using art as a means to mindfulness. Mindfully listening to music might be a great place to start. Perhaps you want to create a mindful-listening playlist? Alternatively, choose a simple repetitive art technique (e.g., doodling, zentangle, or watercolor washes) and create an art piece while fully immersing yourself in the process.

• Unseen Footage: Imagine uncovering hidden or forgotten moments from your own past. Create an art piece that depicts a significant moment or experience that you feel has been overlooked or overshadowed.

• Explore the idea of using dance and movement as a form of healing and self-expression. Create a dance routine or movement sequence that reflects your emotions and current state of mind.

• Develop a personal art ritual that you can use as a form of self-care and healing. It could be a daily drawing practice, a weekly collage session, or any creative activity that brings you joy and relaxation.

• Listen to a genre of music that you never listen to. What can you gain from this?

Related Tips for Coping with Mental Health Symptoms That Impact Creativity:

Do you have symptoms that are impacting your ability to create? Here are some additional wellness tips:

• Explore the aspects of your creative industry that can be harmful to your mental health. For example, the way alcohol impacts some musicians. Find support for addressing those challenges when they affect you.

• Reflect on the role of music and art in driving social change and advocacy. How might you want to participate in this?

• Consider joining groups/events/communities that affirm your authentic self including the way that you share yourself creatively.

• Practice resourcing as a means of self-care and to prevent burnout.

Affirmations, Quotes, Meditations, Etc.:

Reading or writing affirmations / mantras can be very powerful. In relation to this article, play around with writing them down (I usually do ten times each for the one I’m working with) and then with simply thinking them or reciting them out loud and see what feels best for you.

Short mantras and affirmations:

• Through music, I feel connection and love.

• I am a spark for others.

• I accept that creativity may both help and harm.

• My creativity can create change.

• I am open to the beauty and fragility of creativity.

• Music and art are vehicles of healing.

• Embrace vulnerability, inspire others.

• Feel, express, heal.

• Be the spark.

• I take care of myself.

Longer thoughts:

• I give myself permission to feel my emotions fully through art and music, knowing that it is a healthy way to process and heal.

• I find moments of mindfulness in creative activities, allowing me to be fully present in the flow of the creative process.

• I embrace the imperfections in my creative work, recognizing that they are an integral part of the beauty of my unique expression.

• My creative spirit is a light that shines brightly, touching the hearts of those who come across my art and music.

• I am a vessel for positive change, and my creative endeavors have the potential to inspire and uplift those around me.

• I value the interplay between creativity and mental health, nurturing both aspects to foster a balanced and fulfilling life.

Additional Resources:

• Watch Summer of Soul. See more on Pitchfork, NPR, and National Geographic.

• When the Music Stops on Instagram

• Music-based mindfulness exercises

• The Four E’s of Resourcing

You Might Also Like to Read:

Counting Crows' Adam Duritz - Dissociation, Derealization, and Creative Drive

The Schubert Treatment: A Story of Music and Healing

Music as a Moment for Mental Relaxation and Feeling Your Feelings