Ode to Black Mental Health
Using words and music to help heal...
pictosmith/Adobestock
POETRY FOR INCLUSION
I decided to write this poem as a finale of a project that is currently in its infancy. Composer and violist Nicole Neely and I are ecstatic about our collaboration to create a Ode to Black Mental Health based on 4 poems/prose I have written: The Repining Tree, Chocolate Flavored PTSD, Ataraxia, and Black Catharsis.
This collaboration will also feature solos by the talented tenor Johnnie Felder and double bassist virtuoso Lauren Pierce.
Black mental health needs a space to be recognized, destigmatized, and amplified. The concert hall is one of those venues for catharsis to flourish. This project will require support from various stakeholders who are dedicated to the mission to help improve the health outcomes of communities of color.
I hope you will join me in this important endeavor.
Black Catharsis
By Frank Clark
Black boy Black prince
Your therapeutic chair summons
Brokenness
Toxic masculinity
Self stigma
Can you see it?
Black girl Black princess
Your therapeutic chair deliquesces
Colorism
Bullying
Hair discrimination
Can you taste it?
Black man Black king
Your therapeutic chair manifests
Excellence
Innovation
Discovery
Can you hear it ?
Black woman Black queen
Your therapeutic chair conquers
Superwoman schema
Repressed trauma
Racial gaslighting
Can you feel it?
Black brothers and sisters
Your therapeutic chair pines
Longevity
Liberty
Happiness
Can you smell it?
For more information, including how to get involved and support this project, please email Dr Frank in care of Psychiatric TimesTM at PTEditor@mmhgroup.com.
Dr Clark is an outpatient psychiatrist at Prisma Health-Upstate and clinical associate professor at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Greenville. He served on the American Psychiatric Association’s Task Force to Address Structural Racism Throughout Psychiatry, and he currently serves as the Diversity and Inclusion section editor and advisory board member for Psychiatric TimesTM.
