Call & response: African-American songs of loss, grief and healing

"You got to go to the lonesome valley, You got to go there by yourself, Nobody else
 can go for you, You got to there by yourself."
                          Lonesome Valley, The Fairfield Four (2000).

This traditional African-American Spiritual plainly and evocatively reminds us that we will all be called by death and bereavement. The song cycle presented in this project is the musical response of African-Americans to their collective experience of loss, grief and healing starting with the slave trade in the US in 1619, through Emancipation after 1865, the Civil Rights era of the 1960s to the present. The songs are works of art with archetypal power to elicit emotional responses in listeners of widely differing backgrounds.

Some express hopelessness, grief, loneliness and disintegration, but many tell stories of facing these painful challenges with personal strength. Often they express a deep faith in accompaniment by God; and in peace, healing and joy to come. Some songs convey spiritual issues without reference to God. Continuing bonds between the living and the dead are commonly acknowledged. There are songs to illustrate almost any model or theory of grief and bereavement. The transcendent is powerfully present, and the human ability to make meaning and beauty in horrendous circumstances is brilliantly demonstrated.

Compiling the song cycle is an example of reflective practice. These popular songs have been used to teach about grief and bereavement, to encourage discussion and awareness of spirituality and to illustrate meaning making and transcendence for professionals and volunteers in palliative care. 

"...in gratitude, I humbly asked to be given the means and privilege to make others
 happy through music," 
                            A Love Supreme, John Coltrane (1965).