Una Mirada al horizonte / A horizontal look
Acompanado de un oracion / Accompanied by a prayer
Para cada uno de los inmigrantes / For each of the immigrants
Que vienen en el camino / Who makes the journey
Buscando justicia, buscando solucion. / Looking for justice, looking for an answer.
CHICAGO — Elvira Arellano recites the poem she just wrote in a strong, unwavering voice with the bustling sounds of a church service behind her. Her piece was written at a spontaneous poetry workshop at Lincoln Methodist Church in the Lower West Side Chicago neighborhood of Pilsen. It was one of two poetry workshops for undocumented immigrant communities in Chicago.
Kathryn Halpern, a student at Northwestern University and an ethics intern at Rush University Medical Hospital, organized the event. As a poetry major with a particular interest in bioethics, Halpern has worked at Rush since January and was interested in learning about the barriers uninsured patients face in the health care system. She wanted to learn more about the issue while also giving patients a creative outlet to share their stories.
“Poetry can sort of act in two ways,” Halpern said, “one as a therapeutic tool in the writing of it, and then the second element of it as a way to translate what’s happening into something that people can hear and really experience the emotions.”
Workshop participants experimented with different forms of poetry like haikus and acrostics, or just drew pictures if they did not want to write. Jorge Marsical, who received an organ transplant last December after seven years on dialysis, says he respects poetry.
“Poetry, especially when it deals with activism in general – I think it’s beautiful,” he said.
Father Jose Landaverde, a pastor and activist at Our Lady of Guadalupe Anglican Catholic Church, the location of the second poetry workshop, has written his own poetry in the past that discusses activism. Passionate about fighting for the rights of the people in his community, he sees value in individuals telling their stories.
“When the patients talk about their stories, at least they feel that their dignity is being listened [to], is being respected, and they will educate others to prevent this in the future,” he said.
Expressive therapy can be anything from using art to using music or drama for psychotherapy or counseling. According to a study in 2005 by Karen A. Baikie and Kay Wilhelm, expressive writing has long-term health and social outcomes, including decreased stress, improved mood, reduced blood pressure and feelings of greater psychological well-being. Being on the receiving end of story telling can be just as significant, said Reverend Clayton L. Thomason, Chairman in the Department of Religion, Health & Human Values at Rush.
“We can recognize truths in stories that we might not be able to make cogent theoretical arguments for quite as clearly,” he said. “Each person’s story contributes to the mosaic of the larger social story that we’re trying to address… the macro situation of the human condition.”
Personal narrative has long been used in research by providing valuable insight into cognitive development. It allows for researchers to capture the complexity of an individual’s unique experience, and then look at the larger picture of a group’s experience.
For Halpern, listening to the participants at the workshop reinforced her views on health in the United States.
“It reinforced my belief that there is not one right answer to the question of healthcare in this country,” she said, “but that much more discussion needs to happen and a baseline idea that healthcare is a human right.”
Halpern hopes to continue blending narrative medicine and bioethics through advocacy in the future.
On a larger scale, personal expression and narrative can be used globally for the human rights campaigns that have yet to be fought. By sharing stories around the world, one can understand how others live and what needs to change about the globe for its people.
Creative expression is used widely in non-profit organizations around the world. In Mumbai’s largest slum, Dharavi, The Bombay Underground Art Room offers classes and resources for drawing, painting and photography for students ages 5 to 22. Kids are encouraged to reveal first-hand perspectives on their lives to those outside Dharavi who might not understand the complexities of life within the slum.
Art studio network Room 13 International hosts student-run studios in schools and community settings worldwide from South Africa to Nepal. Students are encouraged to be creative leaders that think for themselves, and the organization emphasizes the importance of creative expression. One of the main aims from their website is “to offer, through participation, communication, education and training, a support network and outlet for children who are forced to live within difficult environmental and social circumstances.”
Across the world, this is a common theme among non-profit organizations who work with the world’s disadvantaged, especially with children.
Sources: Advances in Psychiatric Treatment
Interviews: Kathryn Halpern, Father Jose Landaverde, Rev. Clayton Thomason
Photo: Huffington Post