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 spendi ..read more

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 ..read more

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, an ..read more

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 b ..read more

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 even ..read more

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 commun ..read more

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 u ..read more

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 Acc ..read more

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 ..read more

We're excited to be bringing you the continuation of our conversation with Nsamu Moonga, Zambian Music Therapist, exploring the concept of healing justice. This week we talk about the constructs of work and imagination, and how the two can intersect and impact each other. To access the interactive transcript for this episode, click here: https://share.descript.com/view/hqeS0pCKnzM To dive deeper into these concepts, check out our Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/blackcreativehealing If you're a music therapist interested in our continuing education course on this topic, visit our community par ..read more