Teens seek common ground through culture, conversation

Barbadian and American teenagers came together on Friday to explore the emotional challenges they share despite growing up in different countries in a teen mental health and cultural wellness workshop aimed at strengthening resilience through the arts.

Held at Skymall under the theme Finding My Voice, Embracing My Culture, Strengthening My Mind, the initiative of the Pinelands Creative Workshop (PCW) and the US-based Taratibu Youth Association (TYA) brought together 37 participants between the ages of 14 and 18 for a day of discussion, cultural exchange and creative expression designed to help young people navigate anxiety, family challenges, identity and other emotional struggles.

Chief executive officer of PCW, Sophia Greaves, said the programme formed part of the organisation’s ongoing commitment to using creative arts to help young people better understand themselves and build healthier futures.

CEO of Pinelands Creative Workshop Sophia Greaves. (Photo Credit: Lauryn Escamilla/Barbados TODAY)

“Today is Pinelands’ continuous journey in terms of collaboration,” she said. “We are here today with the Taratibu Youth Organisation from the US… using the creative methodologies in terms of helping young persons to navigate various complexities, whether it’s anxieties, the fears, internal family issues, their internal challenges of becoming, growing from a teen going into a youth.”

Creative expression allows young people to communicate emotions in ways traditional settings often cannot, Greaves said. 

“It allows for that emotional expression, that freedom of expression in a very non-sterile way,” she explained. “Whether it’s dance, whether it is singing, whether it is drawing… our psychologists on board can really get a true picture of what we need to deal with and start to give them strategies.”

While the visiting group enjoyed a cultural exchange the previous day, Friday’s focus shifted to mental wellness:

“In light of the current situation where young people are feeling lost and confused… this programme starts to look at the root cause, try to get them to heal themselves… in a way that they feel supported and safe.”

The workshop complements the PCW’s Career Life Management Programme, said Greaves, who expressed hope similar initiatives could become part of schools and communities to help reduce violence among young people.

Representing the TYA, mental health specialist and certified trauma specialist Dr Yanique Edmond said the performing arts and emotional wellness are inseparable, particularly for young creatives:

Representative of Taratibu Youth Association Dr Yanique Edmond. (Photo Credit: Lauryn Escamilla/Barbados TODAY)

“You need to have a solid kind of mental health foundation in order for it not to implode and cause some trauma in you. When you carry other people’s emotion and pain and it shows in your art, it might overwhelm you.”

The workshop was intended to help teenagers recognise emotions before learning healthy ways to channel those feelings:

“Be able to channel that into your art so that it becomes hope… and becomes resilience,” she said. “It doesn’t happen by accident. You need adults with the knowledge to help you journey as a teenager to wellness.”

The programme was part of TYA’s broader international effort to connect young people through culture while promoting a more holistic understanding of mental health, Dr Edmond said. 

“We’ve done it in Ghana, Togo, Benin, Tanzania, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe… As well as St. Croix. And we tend to go from different countries to actually show the African connection and African wellness, which is holistic. We’re not just cognitive, but we have a spirit and a soul, and that’s part of being kind of mental health… Our ancestors knew it, and so we’re carrying it forward.”

Participants later transformed what they had learned into original improvised performances through dance, music, poetry and spoken word, using the day’s discussions as inspiration for creative pieces reflecting resilience, identity and hope.

Georgetown University clinical child psychologist Dr Dominique Charlot-Swilley, who also represented TYA,  said the workshop built on more than 20 years of international cultural exchanges but with an added focus on emotional wellbeing.

Representative of Taratibu Youth Association Dr Dominique Charlot-Swilley. (Photo Credit: Lauryn Escamilla/Barbados TODAY)

“There are so many similarities among us and yet we are all in a world that tries to give us the impression that [we are] different, and it is not,” she said.

The exchange allows young people from different countries to recognise the common experiences they share while learning from each other’s cultures and perspectives:

“Our children all over are navigating trauma… We have more access to human beings through social media, but yet so many of our children feel isolated and alone.”

Creating safe spaces where teenagers can openly discuss their emotions, embrace their cultural identities and connect with peers across borders is becoming increasingly important as young people face mounting social and emotional pressures, Dr Charlot-Swilley said.

(LE)