 Hi everyone. Welcome to the live stream tonight to the Zamtima-Sizaueka live stream. My name is Lekwadi Makomo and I'm with Annette, also known as Nandi. Hi. So we are going to be your hosts for tonight, taking you through all of the discussion and art that we have for today. We have a lot of performances up for tonight and what we want to try to do is to explore the issues of mental health through the arts. And our artists, our guest artists that are here tonight will be able to explore this through the pieces that they will share with us today. Along with us for the discussion, we have Timinau. She is a practitioner of mental health here in Malawi and she'll also be part of the discussion giving us more the technical side of mental health in Malawi in terms. So to get us started, we have quite a number of artists to set up. Do you want to introduce them Annette? Okay, so we have four artists coming up and we have Wati Paso Nungu who goes by Wati and he has an EP out called Lost Roots if you want to check that out. And he likes to write from his experiences and surroundings so I can't wait to hear what he's going to do. And then we have Malika who is from Toronto and she's a theater maker and she directs an accent plays which is also amazing so I can't wait to see what she has to present. Then we have Tigris who is from Malawi. She's not only a singer but a producer, a TV and radio presenter as well. So she does a lot and I think she's going to sing for us tonight which is going to be amazing. And then finally for the first group we have Menes who is from Congo and has become known pretty much nationwide because he started quite a while back in 1998 with the ADKS crew. So I can't wait to see what he's going to do as well. Yeah. So let's get started. Our DJ for tonight Malika if you can start with the first performances. As men, as men, we were told not to cry before we could even walk on our own two feet. Now we can walk but we feed heavy bearing wounds the tongue never speaks of. You are a man. Do not express your pain. Do not complain. Do not cry. So act like a girl. Do not know the woman like a tough man. So hold it together and be a man. But I've learned that sometimes it is exactly the calm ocean that drowns a man and spoken feelings and expressed emotion. So when the storm rises within us we find ourselves struggling to sail those waters drowning and screaming for a rescue that might never come. Smile but breathe. Smile. Love. Cry. Sleep. I smile and laugh a lot so they say that I'm definitely not the type to know depression. See there are too many cracks in my soul like I'm a drag. Especially in the night when I'm alone far from everyone and everything that makes me forget it. At this moment everything is real and raw. Those walls do not allow me to hide and pretend anymore. The slump in my throat holds my breath so I take deep sighs and try to breathe. Smile. Love. Cry. Sleep. I struggle to sleep. That requires peace. So instead depression, stress, anxiety, or to turn to piercing wounds that I'm trying to cover up. The morning does not interest me but death is more appetizing to a soul that is hungry for peace and freedom. My mind is being seduced by this rope. Should I take it? Should I not? Should I take it? Should I not? I know that they will mark me if I take this rope. They will not care about the trigger. And men we want to talk about everything except their pain because we have been made to believe that depression has a type. But it has taken way too many of us. Breathe. Smile. Love. Cry. Sleep. Breathe. Smile. Love. Cry. Sleep. Breathe. Smile. Love. Cry. Sleep. This is Tigris and I'll be doing the cover for Mad World, September is Suicide Prevention Month, and someone in Timas is awake. I just make sure that if you're going through something, share it. There's always someone out there who will listen and love you. I find it hard to tell. Thank you very much for watching and always- Hey, hey, hey, welcome to my TED Talk. I'm joking, Mira here. My counselor told me that I should do this project for seven days where I like record myself verbally processed. So, this is kind of like Dear Diary. So, here we go. Dear Diary, Dear Myself, I don't know. I am feeling good today. I am feeling strong. I'm feeling healthy. I'm feeling grounded. I just started my new project that I got commissioned for by the Arts Council. So, it's been really exciting. I've been staying fit. I haven't been snacking on unhealthy food. I have not messaged my ex. I'd say it's been a pretty successful day. Yeah. I'm going to spend the rest of the night on a little walk and come back on journal and go to bed. So, I guess that's my update for today. See you tomorrow. Hey, day two. I'm going to keep this super short. I have kind of been up working for the past like 24 hours. I got super inspired midnight last night for the project that I was telling you about yesterday. And it's going super well. And I have come up with like two or three drafts. And I'm just finishing up the fourth. And I'm going to pitch it tomorrow. So, wish me luck for my Zoom meeting. Good luck, Mira. Day three. And someone said to me in the chat, Hey girl, it looks like you've put on the pounds. Well, fuck you. I'm spiraling, as you can tell. And I'm trying really hard not to spiral right now, but here I am. Hello, hello. How are you? No, I'm good. Thanks. Day three. Day four. Day four. I'm doing great. Me and my friends of scotch are having a nice little popcorn night after a very long day at work. Obviously, the commission got approved. The drafts got approved. I'm just chilling and Netflixing and drowning my sorrows in popcorn. I'm just joking. I'm fine. I'm perfectly fine. I'll talk to you tomorrow. Bye. I should have got my eyebrows done. If I lose weight, this double chin would be gone too. Shut up, Mira. Okay, stop it. Stop looking at me. Stop, stop. Mira, go away. I don't want to keep looking at you all the time, Mira. Your tear drops could be bottled. Every swimming pool's full of models. Told a tight dress is what makes you a whore. If I love you, was a promise. Would you break it? If you're honest, tell the mirror. She's hurt before I don't. Yes. Hello. My name is Menace Laplume. I'm presenting you a poem, which is actually in French. And I would love just to say what it's all about. So this poem is a story about someone who has been very strong and keeping a smile and hiding their weaknesses while so much was happening in their hearts and they had so much pain and so much bleeding inside and they kept it as a secret because they couldn't take it anymore and they got broken while keeping a big silence. Thank you. The voice of him was beautiful and clear and strong. He couldn't detect the tears from his blood that overflowed his inner self. He was surrounded by friends while in reality he was alone on a deserted island and unknown to all of us. Let's avoid being a weak victim of sympathy. He kept his beautiful carcass intact while his engine of oil was founded until he was in a great silence. Until he was in a great silence. So, welcome back everyone. So, I have with me Till and Now as I introduced before. Till and Now is a mental health practitioner in Malawi. Hi Till and Now. Can you say a little bit about your background? Sure. As you've heard, my name is Till and Now. I'm a counseling psychologist. So, my specialty is in providing psychotherapy. And it could be one-on-one or in a group setting. And it usually has an approach that's more psychoeducational. So, I believe in providing counseling and then also educating people on the basics of mental health so that they can understand their own experience better. Thank you very much. Thank you. So, we have four artists that just performed with us. Tigris, Menace, Wati, and we also had a performance from Malika. So, what we're going to do is we're going to open the floor to a discussion. Remember, for those of you who are tuning in on our Facebook or on HowlRound, you can go to our Facebook and in the comments of the video, please put in any questions or anything you'd like to ask the artists as we go along. But to begin our discussion, we just like each one of you. We can start with you, Menace. Could you just give us like a really quick one minute, what inspired you to talk about this piece and how it connects to the mental health issue from your side? Thank you very much for the question. First of all, as an artist, I think a lot of artists we go through mental health issues because we live in this crazy world, most of the time aspiring for bigger things that delay to come. And also, while struggling actually to make it because it's not easy to make it as an artist. So, we always try to push much and things don't work. We are frustrated. So, yeah, I've experienced mental health issues in my life. For so many years as well and frustrated. And then the other thing for the 12 past years, so I had to leave my country, the DRC, where I am from originally. And then I came to Malawi living as a refugee. And so my first years in Malawi were very painful actually. So, I really struggled since sleepless nights, sometimes weeks of no sleep because my brain was just thinking. And most of the time, as men, I didn't even have the courage to cry for myself because everyone around us tells us, oh man, you're a man, you need to be strong, you need to be courageous, as what he said it in his poem. And I was that guy for a long time and naturally I'm very strong, but we need also to admit that even the strongest person, they have their times of weakness, which we need to admit that I'm weak now and I can cry or I can complain. Yes, I lived for many years without complaining to anyone or without crying and always being smiling. People that know me know that I always smile and I'm always happy, but it's not always the same thing that is going on in my heart. Some days are more so sad, you know. And also people around me actually expect me to always be happy because they know that I'm happy. When people are sad, they come to me because they know that I'm there. I will laugh with them, I will tell jokes and I will light them up. And so it has been very difficult. Sometimes when people don't know, actually they know the body of the person, but they don't know what is going on inside and no one actually wants to spend that time to know because that's why I tried to explain that, to tell a story of someone who is strong and everyone actually thinks they know, but they don't know. And as artists, yes, I think I can speak on behalf of artists or don't know it aloud. I know that we are entertainers, we are there to please other people. And people don't expect you to be sad when you have to please them, so they're there. And then, yeah, so it's a bit, and most of the time people don't even know us. And it's very tough. You have groupies, you have fans who don't know anything about you. And when they see you, they want that big hug and they want that friendship, which sometimes it's even fake because they don't even know you ruined them, actually, and maybe you don't remember theirs. So, yeah, it's what I'm talking about. Everyone thinks they know, but they don't know because the person is going through so much, which they don't tell anyone. So, yeah, I just summarized whatever. That's what's bad with me. So, it's my own experience, actually. No, thank you so much. It is quite a beautiful piece. For those of us who are non-French speakers, we still got the sense of what you were trying to convey in that message. Maybe I'll pass it on now to Wati because your piece also was someone leaning towards that. Could you talk a bit about your piece as well, as briefly as you can as well? All right, okay. What actually inspired me to write that piece was a personal experience. I wrote that piece when I was in a really dark place. I was struggling with depression, and I think at that point it had gotten to a peak where I was actually considering suicide. I think the only thing that saved me from going that far is someone allowed me to talk about it. And the presence, which is something I feel like is quite rare for men. From the moment they were young, we were told to be strong. You see a mother telling a boy who's like three, don't cry, you're a man. I'm like, what? And I think that we get to grow up with that, and it really messes up with the emotion and the health. Being in that dark place brought me to a place where I was like, you know what? I know that I'm not the only one who's going through that experience. It's the best way that I know how to express myself. So yeah, I wrote that piece. Thank you. It is a very beautiful piece. Maybe do you want to weigh in? Maybe in the Malawi context, especially when we talk about mental health and how it comes out. I would say there's a very huge stigma about mental health in Malawi because the understanding about mental health in Malawi is just very bipolar. And by that, I just mean it's two extremes. Either somebody is supposed to be perfectly healthy or they are clinically insane and there's nothing in between. So when people think about somebody going through mental health challenges, the assumption is they're on that extreme and people don't know how to handle or help that person. They don't know how to be around that person and it can get very difficult and isolating for the person who's actually experiencing it. I really think the whole thing that both Wati and Minnes has talked about, about the patriarchy and that cultural belief or that cultural framework that so many men are going through where nobody expects you to express any emotions. If you are expressing an emotion, it has to be either positive or something that demonstrates strength which is anger, violence. That's it. Don't show anything that would make you seem weak in quotes. So a lot of men then end up having so many problems inside that they're holding on to and it could get to a point where somebody reaches a break. We had in the media just news about how many men have committed suicide in this year in Malawi. It was 85% of the statistic of all the suicides that have been committed in Malawi this year were men. I think that's very telling. Yeah, no, that's very true. In fact, just growing up, there's a lot of pressure around just trying to be the perfect individual not really expressing yourselves and talking about it. It can be hard to have that weight and we can see from Minnes's performance in Wati's they're trying to put it from that angle. Let's switch over to Tigris. Tigris, your piece was a cover actually. It's actually a really good song, one of my favorite songs. Could you talk a bit about it? What inspired you to do it? What was the story behind that one? Okay, so basically I originally wanted to do a song that I wrote a long time ago called You're Not Alone. But I couldn't do that because my guitarist wasn't feeling well. But I decided to go with Mad World because when I listened to it, I get emotional and I relate. And also, like, the thing is, like with the whole with all the culture, you know, in most parts of Africa, like mental health issues are not taken seriously. You know, you'd be like, oh, I'm feeling this way, I'm feeling that way. You'll literally be calling out for help in different ways. You know, things like that, you know, you get things like, for example, if you try to talk to someone about how you're feeling, say you're feeling suicidal and everything, and they'll be like, so who's gonna take care of your kids if you die? Hey, do it, let's see what happens. You know, things like that. And then people forget that when you talk about these issues, all you want is a fine. You know, just that one word, you know, like, you're looking like for a shoulder to lean on. So in this song, there's one line that really gets to me. It says, the dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've had, because literally there are things that people go through, and I'm one of them. And then you get to a point sometimes where you're like, all right, I think I've had enough of this, you know, and you picture yourself dead and you feel at peace, like that kind of thing. I mean, like the song that I originally wanted to write, you're not alone. I wrote it because I'm a single mother. And then there are like moments where, sorry. Thank you, time. I think let's give her a minute, Malika, would you like to talk a bit about your piece and the connection you have to that one? Sure. I think that like we were just talking about the idea of being a perfect human. And I think that is for both men and women, and women are expected to look a certain way. Okay, sorry. Okay, go ahead. Yeah, so yeah, anyway, my point is the things that everybody is looking for is just love and positivity, you know, encouraging words that everything will be fine. You know, so yeah. I'm sorry, I can't, yeah. It's okay. It's okay. Don't apologize. That's extremely fine. Thank you for expressing and it's a beautiful song and you did a beautiful cover and we all really can connect with that feeling that you're feeling right now. It's all in us. Thank you so much for opening up. Malika, would you like to talk a bit about your piece so that we then introduce the next artist? Sure. I think we all are craving love, right? And love for who we are authentically in our whole selves rather than just parts of ourselves. So I think that's what the piece is about. The piece was about a girl who was struggling with loving herself and being loved by others. So much so that she couldn't even look at herself at some points in time. So I think it was just how someone can be high functioning and be working on all of these amazing things but still be suffering and dealing with mental illness. So that's my connection to the piece. Now, thank you so much. Also, a lot of love coming from us all on Facebook. For those of you joining live on Facebook or on HowlRound, we thank you so much for the support for your comments. Because of time, we're going to move on to the next set of artists and we're going to try to get as many of your questions in at the end. I'm just seeing those now. So what I'll do is we're going to just quickly switch over to the next few artists and maybe my partner will introduce you. So we have Amanda Sheik. Yes. Yeah. So I think she's going to introduce herself, but she's from Boston. And she's done quite a lot of poetry. So yeah, I'm not going to say too much. We also have Kathy. She is a poet and an activist and a singer. And she also has her own organization called Bilar Trippi. We are going to have Kindu, who is allowing feminists also and a poet. She has an album called Bodies Are Not Homes, which is also really amazing. And we also have Chim, who's a poet. He's also done some music. He has a podcast called Better Mondays. You should check that out. It's really cool. And he also has a YouTube channel. I hope not forgetting anybody. Not at the moment. We might have a sneaking guest artist come in. We might have a speaking guest artist. We might have a surprise guest. Okay. So for now, let's start with the ones that you just introduced. And Malika, I hand it over to you. Sit the ball rolling. Hey, y'all. Hey, it's your girl Amanda Sheik. I'm honored to be here. I want to thank Art Glow for inviting me to present this poem that I'm about to do for y'all called Resilience. I want to thank Mary and Taylor Brown from Arts Connect International here in Boston, Mass, where we're at. Gang, gang. Hey, y'all. Hey, it's your girl Amanda Sheik. I'm honored to be here. I want to thank Art Glow for inviting me to present this poem that I'm about to do for y'all called Resilience. I want to thank Mary and Taylor Brown from Arts Connect International here in Boston, Mass, where we're at. Gang, gang. Hey, y'all. Hey, it's your girl Amanda Sheik. I just want to thank them for inviting me up to the platform and being my true authentic self. Mental health is so important and mental health awareness is even more important. I feel as though black and brown women overcome so many obstacles and mental health is definitely one of those and definitely one of those categories. For me, I have grown up with a mother who has bipolar level two. Sheik, gang. Sheik, gang. Sheik, gang. And I watched them struggle with it, but they make sure that they take their meds and they make sure that they do what they need to do to keep themselves centered. It is a really tough battle and at any moment in time, we can be triggered by such. So I wanted to share this piece called Resilience to talk about that, but also just to talk about our strengths as black and brown women. So I wanted to share this piece called Resilience to talk about our weaknesses and this is my poem resilient. The saying goes when the tough get going, the going get tough. Must not have met my mother. The scars she bears are invisible. Only those with a third eye could see you see her body is strong. Agile, but weakened by her experiences. Black women are to only be strong. They are intact. Heavy the head who wears the crown, but I see it slipping. Weight on her shoulder. She carries worlds around. We simply orbit in her universe. Even when she's lost in her own space. Who? Who will carry her burdens? I mean, her anxiety, her depression, her bipolar, her wallet. She doesn't need no man, but society's price tags tells her different stories. Fairy tales unbeknownst to her. For she's a dollar in a dream mentality. Don't worry, I got this swag. I can do bad all by myself. No two cents to rub together, but rubbed out meal. Who will nourish her soul? It's tired. Been beaten. But not by life by family who cast her away, didn't want to help her rewrite her wrongs running away from generational trauma. She's out of breath. Panic attacks her nervous system. Like a baby she birthed. She sells shoes. Resilient. Black women overcome so many obstacles. Black and brown women overcome so many obstacles. And when asked, how are they? They reply. My mother replies. I reply. I'm fine. Thank you all so much. That's my poem resilience. Thank you once again, Art Glow for having me. I'm so honored to be here and I'm even more blessed to be performing virtually for Africa. Thank you so much. Hopefully when COVID-19 is over, we can see each other face to face and connect in person. But for now, I just want to thank all of y'all for joining me tonight and I hope you enjoyed the piece. You can find me at Amanda Shay all day. Or you can find me at Amanda Shay on Facebook, Instagram, or you can email me at bookingamandashay.com. Peace, everyone. There is power in the spoken word. There is speech, power in simply opening one's mouth to speak. There is a humble magic that comes to life when letters roll around your tongue and sparks fly when you let them out. There is a reason for the spells spoken out loud and the gentle but steady rising of your voice when you pray. There is healing in the spoken words, so please speak to me. Tell me your secrets with your eyes closed and allow me to guard them with the cage around my heart. Tell me about the man who touched you where the flowers grew and let me help you burn the weeds that followed in his wake. Tell me of the nights you spent trying to father yourself into a better man. Unclench your fist, let me hold your hand. Tell me of the holes in your dreams and allow me to patch them together with my own. Just please speak. There is a difference in the spoken word. One sentence could change that orphan boy's life the way those four words changed yours. You could be burying someone's blessing on the tip of your tongue or have the answers to my prayers caught in your throat. You could have that power, so please speak. Speak up, speak volume. Speak things into existence. Speak with audacity to believe that you are actually saying something. Be that voice. Be brave. Break the silence. Just please speak. There is strength in the spoken word. Talk yourself off that ledge one noose after the other. Tell yourself a bedtime story in which you do the saving and are not the damsel. Raise your voice at the voices in your head telling you that you are not good enough, that you are not worth it. Then whisper gently at the parts of you that still need loving. Just please speak. There is power in the spoken word. There is freedom and liberation for souls long caged. In the spoken word is the song of a bird cage, the secret of a heart note and love letters waiting to be read. There is power in the spoken word. So please speak. Speak to me. Speak to someone. Reach out. Just please speak. I would like to say that I miss you, but I don't think I knew you enough to actually miss you. You're never really around to teach me what it means to be a man. See, Mom tried, but she could never really teach me what it means to be a man. I grew up broken alone and desperately trying to find my identity. The problem is the people I met, TV and music shaped the man in me. See, I was mad. I was mad at you for years because I really wanted you to be around, but it felt like you never loved me enough to want to be around. I didn't see you even long before you died. Thinking, will I ever know what it means to hide under my father's wing? Will I ever go to bed knowing that my father's in the next room ready to jump into my room at the first sign of trouble? I still don't know. I've just been down for a while, but people don't notice it. My smile is kind of crooked, but people don't see it. I think it's called depression, but I don't want to admit it. It's pretty mild, so I think I can live with it. I told someone about it and they told me that I'd be fine. They said, just pray more. Stay positive and you'll be fine. It's crazy. People want to treat such things with a bandage, but my pain runs deep. It's insecurities. It's anxiety. It's depression. It's so many other things. It's more than just a heartbreak. But they say, I'm fine. They say, I'll be fine. Maybe it's because the thought of dealing with such things makes them uncomfortable. When I told them that I felt like committing suicide, they say, you should come for prayers because that's deliverable. And then after prayers, they let me go back to my situation alone instead of helping me walk through it. But then in the darkest times, the Son of God shone his light through my window and told me that he would be there to walk me through it. So now I'm starting to learn more and more that if I fade from fun and laughter or I'm taken by disease and hunger, if life is as cold as winter or I'm chilling like it's summer, if I never afford a meal or I'm always on the come-up, if I stay or leave, die or live, it's cool. I know you have because you're in control. Sovereign over everything, got the world wrapped around your finger like a wedding ring. It's interesting. We see you as president instead of king, hilarious, how much you trump authority as human beings. But despite the gap, you're still keeping on your promises. Blessings upon blessings and turning messes into messages. Loving and not destroying men. You cannot deny yourself. See, angels long to look at this now. Look at me. A broken, shattered, tired, depressed, angry, passive aggressive sinner mumbling over everything. But I'm trying. I'm trying to learn what it means to rest in the hands of the sovereign king. Thank you. Everyone, my name is Kas. I'm from Malawi and welcome to our show. Where you going, little child? Don't we know? And the waves crash on the shore. No, little child. The expression as many as there are grains of sand. That's what people call themselves, isn't it? Well, you see, I prayed to the winds to take I could feel every single this unanimous force. What we know as almost nothing is made up of these individual, unique, white and golden little gems. You are a grain of sand. I am proud to be a grain of sand, golden and gleaming in the sunlight, soaking up the water, dancing in the wind and in the breeze, being a part of something that is bigger than myself. Knowing that whenever someone tries to walk on me, no matter how little they think I am or how big they think they are, they will always feel me under their toes. Indestructible, individual, part of something bigger than myself. I am a grain of sand and maybe just maybe I know where I belong. Hello everybody. My name is Shekwa Medise, aka that guy. I am speaking to you from Malawi and I hope you enjoy the show. I know that you were something. I know you get stressed by society's assumptions. Placed on your head every single time you function. Make you feel alone like there's no one you can trust in. But trust in the Lord and your own understanding. People who attack you are just lonely and abandoned. Taking out their anger cause they don't know how to manage. They used to feel special now there's nothing on this planet. I would disagree and tell them that they still are. Shining like a star you can see from afar. Never let them pull you in like the sun does to Mars. When you break, we break like the tires in a car. Stick to your motion like a wave in the ocean. Search for your place in the puzzle that is broken. Live how you like there is nothing that you owe them. One never kind then this time that you showed them. My friends gave me weed I should have stayed awake. Now walking never sleep unless I burn a jet. Maybe I'm in too deep. Maybe I need to pray. I don't like what they preach. They don't like what I say. As long as I got peace I would never be afraid. I was mated off the lean. Now I'm leaning on my faith. Getting on my knees cause I gotta give praise. Yeah, I'm getting on my knees cause I gotta give thanks. I'm not saying that I'm clean. I'm just saying I'm awake. Picture in my dreams. Picture in the frame on my mind and it seems that our kind is the same. No I, no you. Only we in the frame of freedom and pain. But you're free to refrain. Free to remain to the feel of your lane. For your sake get to know what is real, what is fake. Never let anyone take control of your game. Yeah. Yeah. I got hope for my nation. Hope we got time to rewind the design before the revelation. Hope we can make it. Save it. What they call nyasa is greatness. Awaken my lawi. I know we have been shaking but it is our future. We decide how we shape it. Circle of life. Circle around to the same shit. Lame dick niggas want to claim to the game quick. Say you with a youth hop. Please don't be basic. Kids in the streets with degrees that don't need what you feed any payment. The generation is full of vision. The generation is full of vision. The generation is full of vision that I can picture and even frame it. Listen to their statements. Their hate and debate them and have a conversation. It really breaks my heart how much potential is wasted to faking. Is it really worth what you're taking straight from a citizen's savings? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. My lawi as I see it has a beautiful place. Everybody in it has a beautiful face. The conversation is great. Denominations of faith. Living co-existent, lifting up the ego and hate. I relate to the fakes who deceive what we see. Who deceive what we see. Too late that they're snakes. Moving low in the grass. They do know I got the plate. My pen is my sword. Battleground is the page. What more can I say that the streets ain't said? I am not the head. I am just a soldier with a step. Black of my fist. Revolution of my breath. Yes. This is for the children and the next born to this warm heart. You are forever blessed. We fight for you. Whenever shall we rest. No, never shall we let up. No matter where we end up. Every time a lawi is fall. We always get up. We always get up. We always get up. No matter where we end up. Every time a lawi is fall. We always get up. We always get up. We always get up. No matter where we end up. Every time a lawi is fall. We always get up. We always get up. Thank you so much. That was a great set of performances. I feel like speechless. And we have all those artists here with us. As I did say, we did say we'd have a little guest artist as well. So how about we open the floor now for the discussion for the artist. But before that, we had a question in the comments. Thank you to Shaz. You had the question. So the question was, we know that mental health is taken for granted in my lawi. And people seek therapy. And I think that's a good idea. I think that's a good idea. I think that's a good idea. I think that's a good idea. I think that's a good idea. I think that's a good idea. I think that's a good idea. I believe that is what I'm trying to say. I know that's an important point. And people seek therapy. Seeking therapy. Usually made fun of and are called. Is there a way to normalize people to seek mental health support from therapists without being ridiculed. We need to remove the stigma around mental health. Maybe you could say. One of the things is to get to a point where we can normalize the whole discussion about mental health. Nobody is ever shamed for going to a doctor if they're feeling physically ill. That's because everybody has a basic understanding of what health is and if you're feeling sick it just seems to be the automatic thing to do. So that comes from having more and more discussions about a specific subject. So in the same way, the more we talk about mental health, the more we have discourses like this, discussions even in schools or with young people, just people within the communities. There's a project actually that's coming up with Art Glow where we're trying to target young people within the local communities and just have them talk about mental health, what they think it is, what stigma there is surrounding it. So the more those kinds of conversations come up and it becomes a normalized concept in people's minds, the more likely it is that this kind of stigma would reduce and then people will be more open to talking about it. Yes, thank you very much. And yes, the project will talk about that a bit more after we finish our discussion. But now I'd like to open it up to the actual artists themselves. I'll start with Amanda. Amanda, thank you for your performance, your piece, very relevant to the current social climate and political climate that we have at the moment. Could you just briefly tell us your inspiration, tell us the story around it. Thank you. First of all, can I just say that this is absolutely incredible. Like I feel so full from just all of the talented artists that are here. This afternoon, well it's afternoon here for me I know it's nighttime over there for you all but this is just absolutely beautiful thank you so much for having me I would say resilience. And for me that word means strength, and that no matter what you're going through you're going to persevere, regardless. The piece initially came out of an event that was to empower women and here in Boston, and I just started thinking about my mother, and my mom is bipolar level two. She was diagnosed about 16 years ago. Growing up with her was really, really difficult, because at the time she was not diagnosed properly. And she also used drugs to be completely honest so she was an addict, who also suffered from a mental disorder. When you do drugs such as cocaine it basically counteracts the same type of emotions that you would have when you're in a manic episode. So, learning those things and having her get diagnosed properly and take meds. It was really tough on my childhood, because I would get screamed at I would get yelled at I would get hit. I would be punished it was like walking on eggshells in my own home. It allowed me to. It forced me to be very conscientious about when I spoke, how I spoke, and what my actions would do to potentially get me in trouble or receive some type of punishment. So when I was writing resilience I thought about all of those things but at the same time I thought to myself, well it's not her fault that she has this mental health disorder. It is not on her that she wasn't able to cope correctly with it, because she wasn't diagnosed properly. So it made me kind of sympathize with her as me being her daughter. She sympathized with her just on a more human personable level, understanding that she is a woman in her own right in her background her childhood was really really difficult, and because of those things it amplified her mental health. For me I wanted to write a piece that basically talked about that when I say her anger her her depression her anxiety her bipolar her wallet, who will carry her burdens. Mental health is not a burden but it can be to some people when they don't receive the correct treatment, or they are unaware or unknown, or it's unbeknownst to them that they even have this. It's a type of mental health disorder. And I need to stop saying disorder because I don't believe in in claiming that it is a disorder because when you say that something is a disorder then that means that it may or may not be able to be fixed right, or may or may not be able to be corrected, or, or regulated I should really say. So for me, the peace resilience was really about capturing my mom's struggles from a human perspective a woman perspective, but as her daughter from my family and also capturing what other women go through one of my other best friends is a mental health advocate who also suffers from bipolar disorder bipolar level one. And I watch her deal with it and understand that it is something that we need to be more cognizant of that we need to destigmatize. And also from anxiety myself, I didn't realize I had anxiety until my 30s. I also didn't understand that I had social anxiety as well so even performing sometimes I can have an episode, which could mean a multitude of things I can shut down I can start shaking my body will feel as though I have no control and it's a very scary situation for me. I'm still trying to figure out ways to cope with that. Yeah, that's where the piece had came from and I just wanted to let people know that not only our black and brown women are resilient, but they're also our mental health issues that lie within just from a social aspect, a cultural aspect, and a societal aspect, as we know black and brown women are always demeaned for just existing. We are told that we're too loud that we're too sassy that we have too much attitude that we are not afforded the same rights to education, sometimes we are decriminalized for even existing our hair, the way that our skin tone is the way that our voice dictation and how we speak. So I just wanted to create a piece that basically embodied all of those things, and the best way that I possibly could. So yeah, that's where it came from. Thank you so much we understand that perspective and we can really feel that in your performance and we hear that emulated. I think it's really quite a beautiful piece. Yeah, do you have any more to add. No, I think it was beautiful and I would just like to say thank you to everybody else I was moved by all of your pieces and also excited. It really excites me when people are honest because I don't see it a lot so thank you so much for just pouring your hearts out through your music and through your poetry. And so my question is for cast, who I'm blessed to know personally as somebody who's always open and honest. What inspired you to write the piece that you wrote and why did you choose to perform it tonight, or this afternoon for some. Hello. Did I perform tonight. Can you hear me. Yes, we can hear you. Fantastic. Okay, so the piece that I performed tonight was called a grain of sand. And it's really, it basically talks about how we often feel occasion I say we talk about myself how I often feel insignificant in the world, how I feel like as many there are grains of sand as there are as many problems in the world, there are as many people in the world, and no one needs to deal with me no one needs to listen to me. I'm not special. I don't stand out I'm literally just a grain of sand, unnoticeable. And I had, I had the privilege recently of being able to move to the beach for a bit and I, I needed to get away because I have major depressive disorder. Okay. For the sake of the sake of this discussion, let me use the word major depressive disorder. So MDD is basically clinical depression. You get diagnosed from the hospital by a doctor. And I go to therapy and I say I'm going to therapy all the time I go to therapy I try to go at least once a week. If you, I don't think I'm bougie. I don't think I'm bougie. But yeah, I go to therapy and therapy is very important. It really helps just be able to talk to someone. But yes, we can talk about the importance of therapy later let's talk about the poem a grain of sand. So, when I got to the beach. I like to walk on the beach a lot and it's one of my favorite things is to feel the sand under my feet. And it never feels like mud it's always these individual grains of sand that you can feel under your feet and in between your toes and it taught me something that no matter how small I think I am or no matter how insignificant I think I am to the world or even when I think I don't contribute anything. If a grain of sand can make an impact under someone's foot, then I definitely make an impact in this world and every single grain of sand shines it sparkles and gleams. I have that light inside me everyone has that light inside me we all sparkle. We all gleam. We're all a part of something that's bigger than ourselves and we don't have to conform to stand out or to be a part of something. We dare to be different there to be yourself don't be afraid to be yourself, because we're all different we're supposed to connect in our differences you know. So that's why I wrote this poem because I, a lot of the time I feel like I'm not enough I feel like I'm so insignificant, but I'm a grain of sand, and I might be a little but I make such a big difference to the world, you know. Yeah. So, yes, that's it. Thank you for your question. Okay, good. Thank you so much cast. I just working with you we've worked together on a few occasions as well. It's always a pleasure to see how you put your hearts and your own struggles into the work that you do and really love the piece as well. I think, next, let's see, pin while you're on the line we'd like to also hear from you to talk a bit about your piece as well. What made you talk about it and what where did the inspiration come from. Hi everyone. Well, my new work is terrible and so I needed to sit on the side of the story. Okay, this is better. Um, so when I speak, I, I was going. Um, so I couldn't write, of course, myself to sit down and you'll write something. And in order to do that, I reminded myself why I started writing in the first place. And that is because I needed someone to speak to me. And so I wrote the poem for myself just to remind myself that I need to, I need to speak, I need to need to just basically speak. And so that poem got me through, got me through that spell of sadness, because I was able to speak to someone in the mirror and just say, dude, this is what's going on. Because I realized it's really easy to say you'll reach out to someone and speak to someone tell someone what you're going through. But I personally haven't always been able to speak to other people. I think we are breaking up. No, I went to the entire moment. Sorry. Um, can you try again maybe just the last part there, kind of breaking up a bit sorry. Um, alright. I was saying, can you hear me now. Yeah, yeah, that's better. Okay, for saying that as easy as it is to tell people to reach out to someone and to reach out to a friend or find a therapist and talk to them about their problems. I have found that it's not always that simple, that sometimes what works for me is standing in front of the mirror and talking to myself or just lying in bed and saying out loud things that are bothering me or what I'm going through at that moment. And that has been a form of self healing as well, just being able to acknowledge that I have a voice and I can hear myself, even when I don't feel like other people will that I can talk to anyone else. I can just, you know, speak. Okay, I think we're sorry, I think we're having technical difficulties on your end. I think it's just the networking side. So to speak and such the whole wide world. Sorry, Hindu, Hindu, but we've got the gist of what you were talking about. It's, we're sorry that you couldn't finish the comment. Sorry, the my network sometimes goes off and on and it has not been client kind to us the past few days. But we appreciate it and yes, we get the sense of your voice in that. I want to ask him about his piece and I really love the fact that he incorporated his spiritual journey and what it means for him and connected it with mental health because I don't see a lot of people talking about those two things together. So, I loved it and yeah what inspired you to write it and why did you want to share it with us this evening. I think it was just like the inspiration was just the fact that I grew up without a father and like you, you go through life thinking everything is okay until you realize that certain things are missing. So, yeah, I think it was just getting to that place of realizing man, this is missing from my life. I don't know how to handle certain issues and realizing that a lot of the things that I felt were liking in my life with stemming from, you know, not having a father in my life as I was growing up. So, I think that really affected me. And it, it tends to put you in a place where I think I only started to realize it when I started to have people around me who became like father figures to me, people who teach me things people who would walk with me. And then I realized, oh snap I messed out on a lot like there's so much that I don't know the so much that I that I haven't experienced. And I feel like not having those things put me in a place where I started to like you know you start you get to a place where you start to doubt yourself you get to a place where you don't have an identity because like no one told you how to be anything no one taught you how how to walk like this how to be this or what to do. So therefore all you end up doing is just doing whatever feels right and I think this is that just led to me spiraling down a path of defining myself with the wrong things and being the wrong thing in general. I think that put me in positions where I wasn't alright. And, or, and that just let more and more things going. So yeah. Yeah, yeah no it's it's really true I think the spiral that happens once you start going down that path is, and then the community around does not make it any better, because it just pushes you and pushes you more in the same direction. Like, like Annette was saying about the aspect of faith, I think I saw a comment also on Facebook. Maybe I can just, I just want to read it out. There was a question here that said, how can we integrate faith houses, a mental institution in so that we can be on the same page. I asked this because sometimes the local priest comes across such a situation but it's illiquid to handle it. What do you think can be done and this is a comment by things. Oh, actually, your husband. Yeah. Okay. Well, this is a coincidence. So, Jim, your perspective is quite interesting. Maybe you can weigh in a bit on that. Yeah. Actually it's very interesting that this question comes up because I remember a couple of years ago, one of the students at the university where I work was majoring in psychology, did a whole dissertation about this, specifically how faith leaders and how faith leaders have an understanding about issues to do with mental health and how they can help. And that was patience. Hey patients, if you're watching, but what what what it came to was that the kind of training that faith leaders go through needs to incorporate aspects of mental health, because in many cases people who are religious leaders are usually at a point of contact for so many people who are facing different types of stress and pressure, and they're going through life problems. And if it's at a point where they need counseling. And this particular religious leader is not really trained in how to provide counseling, or even how to direct that person to a place where they can get psychotherapy. And the person is likely to suffer. And I think another thing that could be a problem is the understanding that issues to do with mental health and issues to do with the person's faith always have to be at longer heads with each other. So I think that's a problem that a lot of people who have a faith that they ascribe to tend to feel guilty when they start having some kind of mental challenge because they think well, something must be wrong with me I must be a significant type of sinner. You know, if if I'm having these problems because if I go to say church, or I go to the mosque and I say, you know, I'm feeling depressed, they tell me well there's no such thing if you were really a devout Christian Muslim, you wouldn't be feeling this way. So I think it's very important to have that kind of training just an understanding of how counseling or psychotherapy can help, even at the level of faith leaders so that the two can go hand in hand. Yeah. No, thank you very much. And thank you, Tim. Also your piece. It was very unlike me. We do have one more, our special guest who came in last minute into it. That guy. That guy. If you're on the line we'd like to your inspiration behind your piece as well. Just a little bit more about that. Sorry, you're muted. You need to unmute yourself. Right, sorry, sorry, sorry. Yeah, so the three pieces I did were excerpts from an album I'm making right now, an upcoming album. And it centered around the concept of mental health awareness among young people, because I feel like we're or Malawi rather here. We are on the age of an enlightenment period where a lot of people are becoming aware of the fact that something is not right. And that there's a conversation or dialogue that must be had. But we are not going that extra step, you know, I think. I think that's a really dangerous thing to do because there are a lot of young people and as the fellow artists have said there are a lot of young people in schools that you know they feel like going to a therapist are going to be left. A lot of my friends see therapists but they would never tell anyone else that you know, and I feel that it's only when you open up to other people about how you feel that we can start becoming comfortable with normalizing conversation because we all want to. We all want to help each other and we all want to be helped. But I feel like it's just scary. And letting yourself out there for the people so these pieces were based around that around the concept of that affecting in a political way you know and how it's affecting the current generation and current generation the current youth. The other one was about the self and how you know mental health avoiding mental health can really weigh on you in a way. Align that a lot of people. Yeah, a line that a lot of people just to wrap up here pretty much wraps up my whole point is that a line that a lot of people come to me and tell me that there's this line that says, I was faded off the lean on leaning on my fate. Right. And to me that's when I when I came up with it it was kind of off the fly but it came from a really deep place, because me being a musician, me being a rap, a guy and wrap a rat man. There are a lot of young people right now doing trap, and a lot of people don't really take it seriously, you know it's it's sort of become a joke. But when you're like me and you're growing up shoulder to shoulder with these people, you really get to see that it's sort of a cry for help, you know, there's some real things that a lot of young people are going through that they don't feel comfortable to talk about you know maybe they make a song about it, put a catchy beat on their catchy chorus you know, all you hear is that, and we dismiss it all the time. But I feel like in places like that it's really important to look into what what the incoming generate. Sorry, what the incoming generations perspective of mental health and you know, having that conversation what they think should be done. And I think we can really have a middle ground, you know, people from all ages, we can really start to normalize and have that conversation. So yeah, that was my inspiration. Okay. No, thank you so much. It was a really beautiful piece. And yeah, it really we all just felt as well. Yeah. Yeah. So on that note, we are just about wrapping up here. For those of you who are joining us over how around. Thank you very much for making the time. And then for those of you who are able to log in through Facebook live and actually watch this live. Thank you also for joining us. The comments are very positive, very community building, and we encourage you to continue these conversations moving forward. As was said a little bit before we are starting a project on mental health and talking about mental health stigma in the community around us specifically here in Zumba Malawi, you can continue to follow this page and see progress of this project. I'd like to thank McGinnity Foundation for helping us to get this off the ground and also sponsoring the launch of this how around who is our streaming partner here and for just streaming and also being very supportive and helping on the technical side. Malika, who beyond performing has also been our host because our internet here has been buzzing past few days. So she's done a great job also of just co hosting, big up to her, and then all the artists of Tigris, Amanda, Shekwa, I hope I'm pronouncing that way. Wati, Meniz, Hindu, Malika herself, Cass, I think that's her, and Chim, I don't want to forget you Chim, it's been a blast. And honestly, thank you so much. I think as we start this new project, called ZAMTIMASIZAWIKA, we really want this to be the thing that emulates going forward. So we really want to engage with the youth in the community, talk about stigma, engage with the local authorities and see how to really end this stigma that's happening in our communities. So, I think what I will do as well. Thank you so much for being with us here. It was nice to have the psychological side. It's been great. I enjoyed it. Also, thank you for co hosting with me Annette. Sorry, before we go, we just like to thank all of our viewers, and all of our individual donors on our global giving page. We had a huge global giving campaign trying to just fundraise for some of the aspects of this project that usually get underfunded, and we had really good response. And for those of you who are still looking to donate, please, the floor is still open. We're hoping to continue this sort of conversation and these sort of projects moving forward. So please go to global giving. We'll put a link in the comments down below. So thank you all for tuning in. My name is luckily my goal. This is a net and dealing now. Thank you so much. You all have a great evening and continue be positive continue to spread positivity out into the world.