HI AJ and all,
I think this is a very under examined niche.
Back in 2021 through PR PASS Workshop, a nonprofit research organization, I convened a professor/practitioners of music therapy, nonprofit sector leaders working in shelters, and a sociologist from a local university to collaborate on a research proposal that sought to rescue perishable data on the use of music in the shelters (in the aftermath of the 2020 swarm of earthquakes) and apply their findings through their design of a culturally responsive music therapy intervention to reduce the impact of COVID-19 distancing measures on youth who live in shelters.
Our goal was to report of lessons learned and guidelines for using music in disaster response and recovery initiatives. Work in this area has the potential to mitigate trauma and advance culturally responsive decentralized care during and after an natural hazard event.
Our project was positioned in the intersection of emergency sheltering and culturally responsive healthcare. However, looking at the body of research it is also interesting to look at efforts aimed at whole community recovery.
Because I have this on hand, I will share with you few segments of our literature review and bibiographic references in hopes that it might help you counsel your student and to invite anyone in the TIG who might want to get this work done in PR and knows of a funding opportunity to let me know!
About Puerto Rico, healthcare system and disaster research on mental health
"Due to the fragmented medical system (WHO 2015, Mulligan 2014) and outmigration of medical health professionals providing mental health support services is logistical challenge. Emergency shelters and group homes all act with relative autonomy serving vulnerable populations in Puerto Rico after a natural hazard event. Data is scattered and anecdotal. No one field or person has a complete
picture of what worked across the board."
"A recent report on the mental health of school age children three months after Hurricane María (2017) reported over 80% of the children experienced first hand the devastation left behind (Orengo-Aguayo et al,2019). Yet, in the face of widespread exposure to stressors only 7.2% were identified as exhibiting conditions that could lead to a likely diagnosis of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD. This is a rate lower than expected Stateside where typical reports estimate 13-30% rates of likely PTSD. This measure stood in stark contrast to post-disaster trends in the US where the rate of PTSD is usually between 13-30% (Orengo-Aguayo et al,2019). The authors of the survey verified their low rate against earlier studies and found that after Hurricane Georges the rate for PTSD was also smaller than average, only 0.8%. In their discussion potential protective factors the Orengo-Aguayo (2019) research suggests family networks. Ironically, the
Orengo-Aguayo (2019) survey provided a grim update on that as well, stating that 58% of participants had relatives leave the Island after Hurricane María. In the face of evidence that family network’s protective effect has been strained, the proposed research sets out to investigate other potential protective effects and trauma mitigation strategies that were used."
If you open up the scope of research to efforts in culturally responsive care and creative art therapies that do include music there is more literature to look through (outside of PR):
"Morris and Kadetz (2018) examined the role of music in New Orleans post-Katrina and have argued that music and musicians as a group of people have unique protective"
"Culturally responsive design of therapy has been addressed in music therapy. Research that addresses the intersection of natural disasters, culture and music in Japan (Marutani et al, 2019; Kaneko, 2017; Miller, 2012) China (Gao et al, 2013), New Orleans (Cohen et al, 2010) and Haiti (Brolles 2015; McAlister 2012) have underscored the importance of providing culturally informed sensory experiences that include music as part of post-disaster care. Studies looking at rebuilding communities with resilience tend to narrow the focus on creative or sensory experiences where participants take part in the production or creative expression (Steele, 2016; Brolles, 2015; Bolger,
2015) . Though participant music creation is not new in music therapy, both recent studies referred to Community Music Therapy (Stige & Aarø 2011, Stige, 2015)."
In my research I also came across:
There is also some literature on "soundscapes". As with AI... it all depends on the terms and prompts you use :) There is literature but it is scant and scattered.
As a work group we knew music therapies were being used in a systematic fashion in disaster response and emergency care but the gap remains in documenting and sharing more widely what is being done.
I find this is one of the great challenges of living and working as an engaged practitioner (outside of academia). When disaster strikes, we are navigating the disruption and crisis at the same time we are struggling to write it up and pay bills. As most of you know and Mark Schuller as eloquently stated many times, disaster narratives are also more likely to talk up the defects and problems of what ends up being a co-constructed extended disaster. I continue to look for opportunities to document and share knowledge that is co-generated locally. If anybody knows of a funding opportunity for us... let me know!
AJ, I wish your student much success. I look forward to learning and reading more on the subject matter when they do their research.
Best regards,
Laura
PS.
On a personal note, AJ, I can relate. I have a BFA and fell in love with Anthro along the way. I am not a musician, but musician adjacent :) as a mother of 4 musicians and artists. I am actually on my way to see my son's second graduation recital from Carnegie Mellon, this next Sunday and graduation (in guitar and composition) on Mother's Day. My daughter Olaia O'Malley Gorbea is a music therapist who is active with the Latino Music Therapy Association, la Red de Musicoterapia de Puerto Rico and practitioners in the Northeast and Northern region. If your student wants to reach out to music therapy practitioners that have been active in disaster, let me know.
Laura M. Gorbea, PhD Altamente www.altamente.com la...@altamente.com t. 787-523-6774 x102 c. 787-638-5380
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They was talkin’ bout a storm on the islands
Run, come see Jerusalem
— Blind Blake, Bahamian calypso about the Great Andros Island hurricane of 1929, apocalypse and renewal
Please always remember
the message and instruction
Smong is your bath
Earthquakes is your swing bed
thunderstorm is your music
thunderlight is your lamp
— Smong song, SimeulueSutton, Stephen A., et al. “Nandong Smong and Tsunami Lullabies: Song and Music as an Effective Communication Tool in Disaster Risk Reduction.” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, vol. 65, Nov. 2021, p. 102527. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102527.
There's white caps on the ocean
And I'm watching for water spouts
It's time to close the shutters
It's time to go inside
— Jimmy Buffet, Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season
singer Hijo de Boriken says:
Para saber de verdad lo que es sentirse antillano
Tú tienes que sudar aquí...
La tierra caliente, agua fértil pa los volcanes
Donde los tiburones le temen a los caimanes
Aquí el suelo se estremece y se pasean los temporales
Y se protesta en la calle aunque parezcan festivales
To know the truth of what it means to feel Antillean
You have to sweat here…
The hot ground, water fertile enough for volcanoes
Where the sharks are afraid of caymans
Here the ground shakes and storms pass through
And we protest in the streets, even though it may seem like a party
I worked on the levee, mama, both night and day
I ain't got nobody to keep the water away
Mean old levee taught me to weep and moan
Told me leave my baby and my happy home
—Kansas Joe McCoy, When The Levee Breaks
Led Zeppelin’s 1971 recording of the song is more popular, but several degrees removed from actual commemoration. Google’s first search result for When the Levee Breaks is, decisively, Led Zeppelin’s. Bob Dylan recorded a cover as well in 2006, to some acclaim.
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Hi A.J., and colleagues.
I’m not sure if this is exactly aligned with your students’ interests but I’ve found this Temp project fascinating: https://drlucyjonescenter.org/tempo/
Kind regards,
Lori
Lori Peek, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Sociology
Director, Natural Hazards Center and CONVERGE
Principal Investigator, Social Science Extreme Events Research (SSEER) Network and Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Extreme Events Research (ISEEER) Network
University of Colorado Boulder
From: disasters-and-app...@googlegroups.com <disasters-and-app...@googlegroups.com>
On Behalf Of AJ Faas
Sent: Wednesday, May 1, 2024 4:53 PM
To: Risk and Disaster TIG <disasters-and-app...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Music in and of disaster?
[External email - use caution]
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Hi all,
As many of you likely know, there’s a rich history of coal, labor, and disaster songs in the Appalachian South, including songs by Hazel Dickens, Sara Ogan Gunning, and many others. But here are some more recent examples:
Jay Clark and Maggie Longmire (Knoxville, TN) made a musical documentary about the 2008 Tennessee Valley Authority coal ash disaster. They recorded it live at the Laurel Theater. (This disaster was also the focus of my doctoral work).
Here is another recording of Maggie Longmire’s song “Kingston 2008," which is about the cleanup workers following the TVA disaster.
And these examples from wider-known artists from the region come to mind:
Tim O’Brian’s “I Brush My Teeth with Coca Cola” was written after the Elk River chemical spill in 2014.
Steve Earl’s 2020 album Ghosts of West Virginia was written for a play (Coal Country) about the Upper Big Branch 2010 mine explosion.
Best,
Erin
Erin R. Eldridge, Ph.D | Assistant Teaching Professor
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A.J.,
Don't forget the shipwreck songs. I found many using a simple Google search
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=shipwreck+songs
I had thought of this category remembering "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" desribed as "a 1976 hit song written, composed and performed by the Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot to memorialize the sinking of the bulk carrier SS Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior on November 10, 1975. Lightfoot considered this song to be his finest work. Wikipedia."
The quick Google search above picked up many others. These songs often concern ships that sink during storms at sea or other natural disasters. Would that be of interest to your student?
For example, Leadbelly sang "The Titanic" about the sinking of the Titanic. Then there is the Irish song "The Irish Rover" about the sinking of the Irish Rover in 1806 and songs about fictional sinking ships. Some of the songs may exagerate the ships or modify the events and musicologists or others may not even get to what "really" happened (e.g., compare https://americansongwriter.com/the-ill-fated-voyage-behind-the-pogues-and-the-dubliners-the-irish-rover/ to the song lyrics...). Folklore (which includes ballads) can be like that
Also of interest might be hymns for safety at sea sung in churches. Those might not be for specific disasters but were especially important for general expression of concern or healing during the era of sailing ships when captains and crews would be away from their home ports for months at a time.
Best Regards
Steve
Stephen C. Maack, Ph.D. (Retired applied anthropologist, singer)
(310) 384-9717 (cell)
-----Original Message-----
From: AJ Faas <ajf...@gmail.com>
Sent: May 1, 2024 6:53 PM
To: Risk and Disaster TIG <disasters-and-app...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Music in and of disaster?
I like Daniel Starosts's approach and comments, as well as Laura Gorbea's. I think A.J.'s student is more likely to find academic articles and examples in the ethnomusicology or folklore literature or possibly in relatively rare studies of the anthropology of music than in anthropological journals.
As the discussion on the list has shown there is no shortage of examples of music and songs about disasters, real, imagined or even mythical (e,g,m hero stories like the Odyssey may include various feats of surviving natural disasters). As is often the case with a thesis. A.J.'s student will likely need to narrow down his focus. Starosis' list of categories might be helpful, perhaps along with looking at particular types of disasters, geographic or cultural areas, and/or time periods or some combination of these.
Dear Friends and Colleagues,I have a student who is interested in studying how people use music in disasters and I'm very taken with the idea of such a project, but sadly unfamiliar with any work or case studies on this. I can think of Melinda Gonzalez's excellent work with Puerto Rican poet activists storying disaster experiences, mobilizing informal response, and doing the work of emotional healing. There's also the great Ay Maria! street theater work featured in Bonilla and LeBron's Aftershocks of Disaster. Those are the sort of cases we're interested in collecting and studying. That is, how have people used music for healing, expression, and mobilization in disasters? Anyone have studies or cases to share? I will be happy to share back out to the list and to reciprocate with sharers in any way I can.Sincerely,a.j.p.s. - as a former musician who came into anthropology to pursue ethnomusicology, I'm personally embarrassed that I don't know more about this beyond old folk songs about disasters.A.J. Faas, Ph.D.Professor & Graduate CoordinatorDepartment of AnthropologySan José State UniversityPresident-Elect | Society for Applied Anthropology--
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Disaster, Cultural Production, and the Caribbean
Averill, Gage. "Anraje to Angaje: Carnival politics and music in Haiti." Ethnomusicology 38, no. 2: 217, 1994.
Bergan, Renée and Mark Schuller. 2010. Post Earthquake Update on Poto Mitan. Watertown, MA: Documentary Educational Resources. Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pw2-ifXfK-0&feature=youtu.be
Boisseau, T. J., Kathryn Feltey, Karen Flynn, Laura Gelfand, and Mary Triece. "New Orleans: A Special Issue on the Gender Politics of Place and Displacement." NWSA Journal 20, no. 3 (2008): vii-xvii.
Braziel, Jana Evans. Artists, Performers, and Black Masculinity in the Haitian Diaspora. Blacks in the Diaspora. Bloomington : Indiana University Press, c2008., 2008.
Bruenlin, R., Ronald W. Lewis and Helen Regis. 2009. The House of Dance and Feathers: A Museum by Ronald Lewis. UNO Press/Neighborhood Story Project.
Camp, Jordan T. ""We Know This Place": Neoliberal Racial Regimes and the Katrina Circumstance." American Quarterly 61, no. 3 (2009): 693-717.
Chamlee-Wright, Emily, and Virgil Henry Storr. "“There’s No Place Like New Orleans”: Sense of Place and Community Recovery in the Ninth Ward after Hurricane Katrina." Journal of Urban Affairs 31, no. 5 (2016): 615-34.
Clitandre, Nad, xe, and T. ge. "Silence and False Starts in Times of Disaster." Afro-Hispanic Review 32, no. 2 (2013): 99-110.
Clyde, Woods. "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?: Katrina, Trap Economics, and the Rebirth of the Blues." American Quarterly, no. 4 (2005): 1005.
Coming Out the Door for the Ninth Ward, Nine Times Social and Pleasure Club. New Orleans: Neighborhood Story Project, 2006
Cornelli Sanderson, Rebecca, Steven Gross, Jean Sanon, and Rolland Janairo. "Building Resilience in Children and Their Communities Following Disaster in a Developing Country: Responding to the 2010 Earthquake in Haiti." Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma 9, no. 1 (2016): 31-41.
Fleurant, Gerdès. 2006. "Vodun, music, and society in Haiti: affirmation and identity." In Haitian vodou: spirit, myth, and reality, 46-57. n.p.: 2006.
Fouchard, Jean. 1973. La méringue: Danse nationale d'Haiti. Ottawa: Lemeac, 1973.
Gery, John. "Katrina and Her Poets." Callaloo 29, no. 4 (2006): 1541-42.
Guitele, J. Rahill, N. Emel Ganapati, Joshi Manisha, Bristol Brittany, Molé Amanda, Jean-Pierre Arielle, Dionne Ariele, and Benavides Michele. "In Their Own Words: Resilience among Haitian Survivors of the 2010 Earthquake." no. 2 (2016): 580.
Helen, Taylor. "After the Deluge: The Post-Katrina Cultural Revival of New Orleans." Journal of American Studies, no. 3 (2010): 483.
Heryford, Ryan W. "Preservation and the Production of Bare Life: Cultural Expressions of Us Genocide from 1864--1948." ProQuest Information & Learning, 2014.
Kivland, Chelsey Louise. "'We Make the State': Performance, Politics, and Respect in Urban Haiti." ProQuest Information & Learning, 2013.
Largey, Michael. "Ethnographic Transcription and Music Ideology in Haiti: The Music of Werner A. Jaegerhuber." Latin American Music Review / Revista De Música Latinoamericana no. 1 (2004): 1.
Le Menestrel, Sara, and Jacques Henry. "“Sing Us Back Home”: Music, Place, and the Production of Locality in Post-Katrina New Orleans." Popular Music & Society 33, no. 2 (2010): 179-202.
McAlister, E. "Soundscapes of Disaster and Humanitarianism: Survival Singing, Relief Telethons, and the Haiti Earthquake." Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism 16, no. 3 39 (2012): 22-38.
McAlister, Elizabeth A. Rara!: Vodou, Power, and Performance in Haiti and Its Diaspora. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.
Munro, Martin. "Disaster Studies and Cultures of Disaster in Haiti." French Studies 69, no. 4 (2015): 509-18.
Martin, Munro. 2008. "Music, Vodou, and Rhythm in Nineteenth-Century Haiti." Journal Of Haitian Studies no. 2: 52.
Rachel, Breunlin, and A. Regis Helen. "Putting the Ninth Ward on the Map: Race, Place, and Transformation in Desire, New Orleans." American Anthropologist, no. 4 (2006): 744.
Régine Michelle, Jean-Charles. "The Sway of Stigma: The Politics and Poetics of Aids Representation in Le Président a-T-Il Le Sida? And Spirit of Haiti." no. 3 (2012): 62.
Ribo, John D. "Decolonizing the Caribbean Borderlands: The Haitian Revolution in Contemporary Latina/O Cultural Production." ProQuest Information & Learning, 2016.
Schininà, Guglielmo, Justin Voltaire, Amal Ataya, and Marie-Adele Salem. "‘Dye Mon, Gen Mon’ (‘Beyond the Mountains, More Mountains’). Social Theatre, Community Mobilisation and Participation after Disasters: The International Organization for Migration Experience in Haiti, after January 2010's Earthquake." Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance 16, no. 1 (2011): 47-54.
Taylor, Helen. "After the Deluge: The Post-Katrina Cultural Revival of New Orleans." Journal of American Studies 44, no. 03 (2010): 483-501.
Thomas, Lynnell L. ""People Want to See What Happened": Treme, Televisual Tourism, and the Racial Remapping of Post-Katrina New Orleans." TELEVISION & NEW MEDIA 13, no. 3 (2012): 213-24.
Tinsley, Omise'eke Natasha. "Songs for Ezili: Vodou Epistemologies of (Trans)Gender." Feminist Studies 37, no. 2 (Summer2011 2011): 417-36.
Toni, Pressley-Sanon. Groundings: Tidalectics, Marasa, and Istwa. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2017.
Turgeon, Laurier, and Michelet Divers. "Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Rebuilding of Jacmel and Haiti Jakmèl Kenbe La, Se Fòs Peyi A!1." Museum International 62, no. 4 (2010): 106-15.
Woods, Clyde. "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?: Katrina, Trap Economics, and the Rebirth of the Blues." American Quarterly 57, no. 4 (2005): 1005-18.
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Good Morning All,
What a wonderful email to read on this Friday morning. I am always so inspired by the far-reaching work of Anthropologists.
Thank you for all the case studies and journal articles published, I will dive in and read when time permits outside of full-time work. I am realizing now that I don't have access to some of these journals post graduation.
But as a poet, I encountered a lot of wonderful Humans doing this work, during my digital nomad travels.
AJ, as mental health and recovery is my area of focus for my applied public anthro work, I would like to offer a few scholar/practitioners that are doing this work in real time. I compiled an excel list for my sFAA session in Santa Fe and continue to add it.
New Mexico:
Adrienne Smith, the sound bath practitioner from my session. Adrienne works with a lot of first responders and veterans who participate in her workshops
Dr. Ninoska M'bewe Escobar, Ph.D. (while not able to attend my session in Santa Fe) their work is a constant inspiration to me. Dr. Escobar is a formal Alvin Ailey Dancer and now teaches courses from a Black Feminist Critical Framework on dance in the Diaspora.
From <https://www.ninoskamescobar.com/about>
Former Alvin Ailey Principal dancer now with
Research — Ninoska M'bewe Escobar (ninoskamescobar.com)
Published in the Journal of American Culture here: Dancing grounds, bloody grounds: Pearl Primus and Michael Row the Boat Ashore (1979) - M’bewe Escobar - 2023 - The Journal of American Culture - Wiley Online Library
Washington, D.C.
Nina C. Brewton, Director of Culture Eaton House D.C.
Performance Artist | Nina C. Brewton (webethelight.com)
-Heather
Respectfully,
Dr. Heather Smith-Kirkland, PhD
Owner, MUMA_P.A.W.S. LLC
Applied Cultural Anthropologist/Oral Historian/Photojournalist /Digital Nomad/Poet
Alumni, Bill Anderson Fund Fellowship

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Dr Nimesh Dhungana
Lecturer in Disasters and Global Health
Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute (HCRI)
The University of Manchester
Ellen Wilkinson Building, C1.11
Visiting Fellow, International Inequality Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
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On Fri, May 3, 2024 at 10:04 AM, 'Anne Garland' via Disasters and Applied Anthropology
Hi AJ,With all the awesome examples, you really asked a significant query. It is so humbling to learn of all the music to cope with response and recovery for short and long term commemoration.
As you know, storytelling (music, poetry, legends, plays, creative dance, arts, crafts, games, etc) is valuable for risk preparedness and mitigation not only response or recovery. ARIES studies in Arctic DRR and public education use all these types of storytelling to "Be Ready" among all ages. Our PERCIAS workshops (Perceptions of Risk in Communication, Interpretation, and Action in SES) use scripted disaster and risk legends or stories in North Slope Borough, Svalbard, and CA Arctic. Workshop participants volunteer to script read the disaster stories.
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Rebecca,
Thanks for your interesting contributions!! I don't think that this is simply a current trend. What you have told us about may be modern variations of a long musical tradition.
I'm writing the following off the top of my head. About 60 years ago I did a paper in high school on folk music, ballads in particular, that came from Enbland/Wales/Ireland/Scotland to Appalachia in the United States and I've had an interest in folk music since the 1960s. Okay, not very academic and maybe not relevant but part of my "lived experience." Try out these thoughts (a few hypotheses for an undergraduate or Masters thesis or even a doctoral dissertation to explore?).
In England and I think elsewhere in Europe centuries ago ballads were a way to communicate, tell about, important events in the society or culture. Most people didn't travel very far from their homes but some (many?) were interested in hearig news from elsewhere brought by people who did travel -- merchants, sailors, soldieers, strangers in town, etc. Disaters, whether recent or not so recent but people had heard tidbits about them, would be something that people might be interested in learning more about, just as they are now in our internet/media connected world. So travelling ministrels would include ballads in their repertoires of songs. The telling would of course be stylized according to the musical styles of the culture and like all oral history might not be the exact truth -- perhaps with some exaggeration of modification here and there for effect or to make the ballad story sound better. Now explore from that start how the ballads fit in with the cutlurally/sociallly constructed views of and responses to disasters, considering the social/cultural status of those hearing and responding to the ballads and of those about whom the ballads were/are sung.
That could be explored for a particular group, culture, or era, or cross-culturally. It might include consideration of migration of people to other parts of the world (e.g. to Appalachia in America) whether or not they were themselves involved in the disasters about which the songs were sung and stories told. For those who migrated, singing or hearing someone else sing about lived experiences during a disaster would be a way of keeping history and memory of that event and people's responses to it alive, both shortly after and perhaps long after its occurence in time and place. A ballad might also be a way to help recovery from the trauma of the event or to try to garner support for those who experienced the disaster firsthand, or the place where the disaster occured.
Best Regards,
Steve
Stephen C. Maack
(310) 384-9717 (cell)
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