Using Music to Heal Uganda’s HIV/AIDS Patients

Gregory Barz, an ethnomusicology professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, has been studying the role of music in combating HIV/AIDS in Africa since 1999. In the past decade, HIV infection rates have fallen from 30 percent to 5 percent in Uganda, and Barz argues that the music of Uganda, including storytelling, dancing and instrumental pieces, has contributed to this success.

This week, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings released Barz’s latest project, a CD called Singing for Life: Songs of Hope, Healing and HIV/AIDS in Uganda.

The Vanderbilt Register reported that when Barz traveled to Uganda in 1999 to record Ugandan drumming patterns, he witnessed children and adults singing about how AIDs was devastating their lives.

“First off, I was confronted with sick people, people who were confused … The more I listened to songs and observed dances, I began hearing that people were making meaning out of the disease and out of the virus through music and dramas and dancing,” Barz told the Vanderbilt Register. “They were singing about social problems caused by AIDS—children not having parents, a missing generation—about the sickness that was everywhere.”

When Barz returned to Vanderbilt, he helped create what’s known as medical ethnomusicology, a research field recognized by the Society of Ethnomusicology that seeks to combine the efforts of anthropologists, doctors and other health care workers, music specialists and public health policy makers.

Jim Wooten of ABC News wrote in the forward to Singing for Life that the Ugandan poetry, songs and drama documented in the book are “a collective shout being heard in their villages, in their towns, in their cities, in their schools and in their churches.”

“Together these voices form a choir which, in a way previously unexplored, is not only singing for life but saving lives, as well as educating thousands who would otherwise be unaware of the elementary facts of HIV/AIDs, of how it is transmitted, of its effects on the body and how it is prevented,” Wooten wrote.

Proceeds from Singing for Life: Songs of Hope, Healing and HIV/AIDS in Uganda will go to two agencies in Uganda: Meeting Point and the Integrated Development and AIDS Concern. The CD is available from Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.

Meeting Point, run by Noelina Numukisa, works in the slums of Uganda’s capital city of Kampala to assist orphans, provide home health care for HIV-positive women and their families and provide youth with vocational training. IDAAC supports a network of AIDS education and health care outreach to rural villages in Uganda.

Statistics from AVERT

Uganda is estimated to have a population of about 25-30 million. The extreme mortality of AIDS has had an effect on this figure, which would otherwise be higher. As another consequence of AIDS, healthy life expectancy in Uganda is only around 50 years.

During the early 1990s, HIV prevalence peaked at around 15% among all adults, and exceeded 30% among pregnant women in the cities. At the end of 2005, adult prevalence was estimated at 6.7%, and an estimated one million Ugandans were living with HIV/AIDS, according to UNAIDS/WHO.

AIDS in Uganda was initially known as 'slim' due to the physical wasting it caused. HIV was already spreading in Uganda on the shores of Lake Victoria in the late 1970s. It is from here that some theories suggest HIV spread to the rest of the world. The first AIDS case was diagnosed in Uganda in 1982.

Sweet Honey in the Rock

“There were no mirrors in my nana’s house.”

This is one of the first sentences our daughter has been able to read. I am pleased that her voyage into literature has started so gracefully.

"There were no mirrors in my nana's house, no mirrors in my nana's house ... And the beauty that I saw in everything
was in her eyes (like the rising of the sun)."

“No mirrors in my nana’s house,” is a song featured on the Still on the Journey CD by Sweet Honey in the Rock, an acappella ensemble of seven women. "No mirrors in my nana's house" also serves as the soundtrack for a 2004 animated short film with the same name that Nick, Jr. continues to run occasionally. The film features an adorable little girl who joyfully dances around her nana’s house.

Sweet Honey in the rock, formed by Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon in 1973, has been dripping with the nectar of the soothing hymns and spirituals of the black church to the soulful rumblings of jazz and blues since the group's inception.

Reagon, a longtime civil rights activist, was a charter member of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee Freedom Singers, and was suspended from Albany State College in Georgia because of her involvement in SNCC.

In the liner notes for the group’s 20th anniversary album, Still on the Journey, Reagon eloquently writes:

We are warriors. Our songs, sounds and lyrics give us stance—make clear the ground we hold. We name through our singing the territory of the expanding community we sound. When you see our songs, you see the tip of the mountain upon which we stand and it is solid ground.

After 30 years of leading and singing with the ensemble, Dr. Reagon retired from Sweet Honey in the Rock in February 2004, but these women continue to carry on the magic of the rich African American singing traditions. If Sweet Honey in the Rock happens to land in your town, don’t miss an opportunity to receive a rush of love, spirit, and lush sounds.

Click here to find out if Sweet Honey in the Rock is planning to spoon out some sweet songs in your town. Click here to read the lyrics to “No mirrors in my nana’s house.”

The members of Sweet Honey in the Rock, pictured above are: (Left to right) top row: Aisha Kahlil, Shirley Childress Saxton, Louise Robinson. Middle row: Carol Maillard, Arnaé, Nitanju Bolade Casel. Front: Ysaye Maria Barnwell (author of “No Mirrors in My Nana’s House”).

Danny Glover Supports Vanderbilt Workers’ Living Wage Campaign

Danny Glover is not only a skillful actor and ambitious director, he also continues to work passionately for social justice causes. He has the perfect mix of arts and activism in his blood.

The prolific actor will come to Nashville next week to support workers at Vanderbilt University who are fighting to earn a Living Wage at the wealthy, prestigious school. The President of the Laborers’ International Union of North America, Terry O'Sullivan, will join Glover in a Town Hall meeting with Vanderbilt University workers, students, and community leaders.

The Town Hall discussion will take place on Tuesday, February 20, at the Scarritt Bennett Center, Wightman Chapel, 1008 19th Ave. South at 4 p.m. Contact Megan Macaraeg at 615-495-6902 (cell), or meganmacaraeg@aol.com for more information.

Some background:

Vanderbilt workers, many of them members of Laborers’ Local Union 386, have been struggling since last year to achieve a living wage, which in Nashville is $10.18 per hour. Currently, Vanderbilt’s lowest paid workers earn about $7.55 an hour, well below the poverty level. Yet Vanderbilt, whose chancellor is paid $1.2 million a year, continues to refuse to grant a living wage for employees.

Danny Glover Directs Toussaint L’ouverture’s Story

Danny Glover makes his directorial debut with Toussaint, a film about the life of Haitian revolutionary leader Toussaint L’ouverture. Filming for the epic story is scheduled to start in late April or early May with a sizzling cast including Don Cheadle as Toussaint, Mos Def, Angela Bassett, Chiwetel Ejiofor and others. This film is scheduled to be released sometime in 2009.

Written by Vijay Balakrishnan and Glover’s producing partner, Joslyn Barnes, Toussaint will be shot in Mozambique and South Africa. The movie tells the story of the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804) and the life of L’ouverture, who established Haiti as the first independent black Republic by leading a successful slave uprising against the French, Spanish and British imperial armies. Although L’ouverture was eventually captured and imprisoned by the French, his name is still uttered with pride by many Haitians and other Africans in the diaspora.

In her play, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, Ntozake Shange puts these words in the mouth of Lady in Brown, a young girl who raves about her newfound hero, Toussaint L’ouverture.

(excerpt from For Colored Girls…)

Lady in Brown

i knew I wasn’t sposedta
but I ran inta the ADULT READING ROOM
& came across
TOUSSAINT ...

TOUSSAINT waz a blk man a Negro like mama say
who refused to be a slave
& he spoke French
& didn’t low no white man to tell him nothing
not napolean
not maximillien
not robespierre

TOUSSAINT L’OUVERTURE
waz the beginning uv reality for me
in the summer contest for
who colored child can read
15 books in three weeks
i won & raved abt TOUSSAINT L’OUVERTURE
at the afternoon ceremony

waz disqualified
cuz Toussaint
belonged in the ADULT READING ROOM
& I cried
& carried dead Toussaint home in the book
he was dead & livin to me
cuz TOUSSAINT & them
they held the citadel gainst the French
wid the spirits of ol dead Africans from outta the ground

Young Detroit Performers Beat the Odds; See them in Nashville

In a city where less than half of its public school students graduate high school and a third of its students opt out of that traditional system to attend charter or suburban programs, at least one man continues to have high expectations for young people.

Rick Sperling, the founder and CEO of the Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit, expects great things from his students--including those who come from some of the worst blighted and neglected neighborhoods in the city. Sperling's staff at Mosaic trains young people from the ages of 12 and 18 in performance arts, vocal music and stagecraft.

When Sperling’s play, Now That I Can Dance—Motown, 1962, debuted two years ago, the entire production was run by Mosaic students, including directing, backstage tech, and marketing. “We can be there to train them, to give them the expertise they need, but from there they can do it themselves,” Sperling told NPR reporter Celeste Headlee.

Mosaic has experienced remarkable success with its theatre and singing group, The Mosaic Singers. The teens have toured Europe, Asia and Africa. They have performed in the Super Bowl XL Festivities and the 2007 Detroit Mayoral Inauguration. They’ve opened for notable performers such as The Temptations and Maya Angelou. More than 95 percent of Mosaic trainees attend college and many have gone on to prestigious universities such as Julliard, New York University and CalArts.

Creative Artists of Tennessee will sponsor a performance by the phenomenal Mosaic Singers in Nashville on Saturday, February 17, at St. Luke CME Church, 2008 28th Avenue North in Nashville, 4:00 p.m. For tickets, call 248-935-6639 or send an e-mail to Quintellacats@aol.com. Don’t sleep on this event!

The focus of Creative Artists of Tennessee (CATS), a non-profit orgazination, is to educate the public and create an awareness and appreciation of Africa and the African American experience through drama, visual art, spoken word, textiles, and music. The ultimate goal is to foster an environment of cultural enrichment for all segments of the population, regardless of race, social, or econmic status, sexual orientation, age, gender, or religion.

Give All Children a Fruitful Head Start

The Tennessean published an editorial today by Sister Sandra Smithson, co-founder of the Smithson-Craighead Academy, Nashville's first charter school, that lays out the benefits of pre-kindergarten education better than many articles that I’ve read.

It’s hard to believe that some people have rallied against Gov. Phil Bredesen’s efforts to make pre-K a universal resource for children in the state. Those who are against the governor’s plan to educate the very young say there’s a lack of evidence that pre-K programs show significant academic achievement.

Smithson points to benefits in children’s behavior, expression and knowledge after enrolling in pre-K classes. It’s a wonder that she would even have to do this. She says pre-K teaches children:

To listen, wait their turn, obey an adult, speak quietly, ask permission, work on projects, make minor sacrifices and trust others.

To ask questions before they take inappropriate action and to negotiate instead of hitting others. Children learn to speak so others will understand them, which prevents frustration and sometimes violence.

To value books and the words they contain that unlock worlds of experience unavailable to the children any other way. Children get a whole year of words, stories, numbers and experiences while their brains are in the highest phase of their ability to receive and retain knowledge.

She also points out that many of the popular PRIVATE schools in Nashville offer pre-K classes. No kidding. Don’t those who have the financial resources to give their children private education want their children to learn as much as they can, as soon as possible?

What makes people think that others who have less money want less for their children? You would think that a pre-K program in the state would be a no brainer. After all, as Project Reflect reports, 51 percent of third graders in Tennessee read below grade level, and some states use fourth grade failure rates to estimate and plan for future prison bed needs (a fact we’ve been hearing for decades now.) Of course we need pre-K classes for young people--this is painfully obvious.

"Pre-K enables unattended-to and under-educated children to overcome deficient backgrounds and enter kindergarten ready for kindergarten," Smithson wrote in the Tennessean editorial. “If our rationale for dropping public pre-K is because some programs are not effective, then there goes the nation’s entire [public] school system,” she wrote.

Why then are so many people against educating ALL OF OUR CHILDREN early in their lives when Tennessee’s dropout rate is more than 40 percent? Does the answer point to what Sidney Poitier said in this month’s Vanity Fair magazine?

Reporter Gasper Tringale: “ What is it that you most dislike?”
Poitier: The callousness with which poor people are deceived, ignored and dismissed.

Read Smithson’s entire editorial here.

Read the Vanity Fair article featuring Sidney Poitier here.

Thandiwe Shiphrah and Daniel Arite Bring Art and Soul to Nashville

Thandiwe Shiphrah and her man Daniel Arite came to Nashville several years ago from New Mexico and have been spreading their brand of poetry, music, and art in the Music City ever since. The two will be throwin’ down some inspiring and energetic poetry and music at Art and Soul, 2305 12th Ave South in Nashville on Saturday, February 15 at 8 p.m.

Thandiwe, known for her uplifting and spirit-filled spoken word performances, and Dan, an awesome musician and visual artist, are sure to please the crowd. Don’t miss this one-of-a-kind event.

I’m anxiously waiting for Thandiwe to hold one of her life changing women’s gatherings soon. She doesn’t know this, but I started writing a poem during the last gathering that has turned out to be one of my most profound pieces, called “Lost in America.” Please plan another gathering soon, Thandiwe!

For more information about Dan’s music career click here. Read more about Thandiwe's work here. You can also listen to samples from their CD at www.cdbaby.com/bosch.

Here’s the flyer for the event. Click on the flyer to read the information about the show.

Donate Homeless Survival Kits

In Nashville today we’ll experience a high of 31 degrees and a low of 18. We got our first taste of snow last weekend, which made me think of ways to help the homeless stay warm.

The City News station in Toronto reports that a group called Hockey for the Homeless raises money to help the homeless stay warm and helps raise awareness about the homeless. The group has also packed more than 1,000 homeless survival kits that they’ll donate to people who find themselves without shelter during this frigid season. (The high for Toronto today will be 14 °F and -10 °C).

If you live in Nashville and want to follow Toronto’s lead in the cause, consider creating some homeless survival kits with the following items included: mittens, socks, scarves, a sleeping bag and some personal hygiene products (combs, nail clippers, tissue paper, toothbrush and toothpaste, non-alcoholic mouthwash, deodorant, feminine hygiene products, razors, soap, hand lotion, chapstick, cotton swabs, aspirin or Tylenol). Kevin at The Homeless Guy helped me with the list of items. He also suggested including bus passes, phone cards, prepaid fast food/restaurant cards, can opener, water bottle, and a swiss-army knife.Take your homeless survival kits to the following locations that serve the homeless:

· Room in the Inn, 532 8th Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37202, 615-251-9791
· Nashville Homeless Power Project, 65 The Arc (in The Arcade downtown), Nashville, TN 37219, 615-733-0633
· Nashville Rescue Mission, 639 Lafayette Street, Nashville, TN, 37203, 615-312-1532

Here’s a post at A Homeless Man Speaks about the wonders of The Foot Warm-Ups. On the same blog, Tony also talks about how two women selflessly used their own bodies to keep him warm one night when he was asleep and they saw that his feet were blue.

Joseph Biden: My Homie from Delaware

Since Senator Joseph Biden, the Democrat from Delaware, has officially launched his presidential campaign this week, I feel compelled to say just a little about my homie from the Blue Hen state.

One image that sticks in my mind about the senator is some television footage that must have been shot in the late 80s when South Africa was still openly practicing its evil apartheid system. Biden spoke on the Senate floor supporting sanctions against South Africa for its apartheid practices and passionately banged on the podium and called for chastisement of the South African evil “racist apartheid regime.” He seemed to be genuinely outraged. But that was a long time ago.

Other than that, I know the good Senator has a long and strong record as the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senate Judiciary Committee, and Chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs. I honestly think he’s qualified for the job of President of the United States.

But then we come to this career politician’s latest goof up. By now, we’ve all heard the unfortunate comments that Biden made about Barack Obama, another Democratic hopeful candidate.

“I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” he said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”

I mean, you need to learn when to hush, Biden. Even Bobby Benjamin (my dad), an active Delaware Democrat and Biden supporter, says that the senator doesn’t quite know when to stop talking. “Overcoming the need to say more than is necessary will be his greatest obstacle,” Dad said. “Our senator has a need to let people know how smart he is, not realizing this turns the voter off. If he rids himself of this, he will be on his way.”

Well Dad, after the senator’s comments about Obama, I don’t think he stands a chance. People around the world seem to think that the senator has some explaining to do, so he clarified what he meant. “My mother has an expression: 'Clean as a whistle and sharp as a tack,’ Biden said in a statement today. Alright then homie, I guess that explains it.

How would I rate Biden’s chances of winning the Democratic nomination? On a scale from Zero to 10, I’ll give him a 1.

Check the Rhyme at the NAACP Image Awards

I’ve always wondered what the NAACP Image Award categories were, other than the film and TV honors. Often I’ve wished that the organization would give equal time to other areas such as education, literature, and social service. It turns out that they do have a category for literature; I just don’t remember this part of the ceremony. (Perhaps they don’t televise this portion of the show?)

After a quick visit to the NAACP Image Awards Web site, I found out that the competition includes 36 categories in the fields of motion picture, television, music and literature. Honor awards include the Chairman’s Award, The President’s Award, and The Image Awards Hall of Fame.

I was pleasantly surprised today when I read in the African American Literature Book Club newsletter that Check the Rhyme: An Anthology of Female Poets & Emcees has been nominated for an NAACP Image Award in the literature category with the likes of Maya Angelou, Walter Dean Myers, and Pearl Cleage. I’m so excited about this because I have two poems in the book!

The NAACP Image Award nominees and winners will be announced at the live ceremony, March 2 at 8 p.m. Eastern Time on Fox.

I hope these people and projects will win: Maya Rudolph, Lisa Jones Johnson (for her debut novel, A Dead Man Speaks), Antonio Fargas, Vanessa L. Williams, CCH Pounder, Khandi Alexander, Andre Braugher, “Black. White.” (the reality show), “2006 Black Movie Awards,” “The Backyardigans,” Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Barack Obama, Wangari Maathai, Check the Rhyme: An Anthology of Female Poets & Emcees, COMMON, Forest Whitaker, and Jennifer Hudson. Good luck everybody!

Check the Rhyme: An Anthology of Female Poets & Emcees can be purchased on Amazon.com.

Here’s one of my poems featured in the book:

Nuyorican Dreams
by Alicia Benjamin

I stand here in New York City,
Una mujer negra with Puerto Rican Dreams.
My grandmother and grandfather are in heaven.
Her head is on his chest,
listening to his heart beat out a content
so real,
I feel it here on earth.

Although I offer them blankets, warmth, gifts, love, kisses —
They need nothing where they are now.

As I reach into my bag and pull out a quilt,
my grandmother tells me, “Honey, we got plenty.
“But thank you anyway.
She takes it and smiles.
She knows the gift is not for her,
but for me.

My grandfather just smiles his simple smile.
He laughs joyfully at my gesture.

They have it all.

I am the one who takes from them.
I weave their compassion and magic
into this chilly place —
this now world.

I search for mi abuelita y abuelito
to supply me
with my everyday gold.

The illustrious list of Check the Rhyme contributors are: Grisel Acosta, Naa Norley Adom, Lisa Ann Bailey, Crystal D. Baker, Tiffany Woods Bennett, Veronica Precious Bohanan (Moon), Sharon Bridgforth, Rachelle Arlin Credo, Teri Ellen Cross, Aya de Leon, LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs, Betty Dobson, Patty Dukes, Cheryl Durgans, Zetta Elliot, Ph.D., Natasha Ria El-Scari, Letitia Davis Ford, Amani Francis, DuEwa M. Frazier, Hadiyah Nicole Green, Nivedita Gunturi, Shamarra Garmon, Silvia Gonzalez S., Deborah “Collage” Grison, Ellen Hagan, Bobbi Dykema Katsanis, Maria D. Laso, Tamara Madison, Keisha J. Moore, Kimberly S. Morris, Thalian Nguyen, Solimar Otero, Ph.D., Pat McLean-RaShine, Karen Gibson Roc, Alicia Benjamin-Samuels, Queen Sheba (Bethsheba A. Rem) , Mikaylah Simone, Mocha Sista (Pam Osbey), Aimee Suzara, Leah Suzensky, Stacey Tolbert, Ella Turenne, Lorene Delany-Ullman, Jamila Z. Wade, Jamie Walker, Ph.D., Donna Weaver, Niama Leslie Williams, Ph.D., Treasure Williams, Kimmika L.H. Williams-Witherspoon, Ph.D., and Debra Powell-Wright.