Let it breathe : social media musicking practices among Black women coping with mental health struggles during transboundary crisis

Abstract

Wrought with one crisis after another -- the COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide civil unrest in response to police murders of Black people in the U.S., and a highly volatile election season, the year 2020 arose to the level of what Boin (2019) calls a transboundary crisis -- an event that exceeds "geographical, policy, cultural, public- private, and legal boundaries." This crisis brought with it signs and symptoms of mental health challenges like anxiety and depression for millions of people across the globe who were forced into shelter-in-place orders to keep them safe, but also kept them isolated and longing for interaction with other people outside their homes. In early March, performers and entertainers deployed their talents in a myriad of Cathartic Social Media Experiences (CSMEs), creating brief pockets of joy for themselves and others. In the U.S., this transboundary had the greatest effect on Black people -- especially women -- as they accounted for the most deaths and complications from COVID-19, bore the burden of being essential employees, educating their children in addition to being one of the most untreated group of people for depression (Nelson, et al.) and being more susceptible to anxiety disorders (Williams, Kanter, & Ching, 2018; Williams, Beckmann-Mendez, & Turkheimer, 2013). Using grounded theory analysis of data obtained via twenty-six in-depth interviews, autoethnography, and analysis of the candidates own social media channels, this cultural study will examine the ways in which Black women, aged 35-45, utilized online musicking practices to cope with symptoms of anxiety and depression during the transboundary crisis of 2020. The findings from this research utilizes the respondents own narratives to describe the state of their mental health prior to and during the transboundary crisis as well as their experiences while participating in CSMEs and offer practical recommendations for use of CSMEs to leverage the tools and strategies that resonate with Black women to maximize the impact of mental health-center communication across new media platforms post transboundary crisis.