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Movement is the Medicine and Dance is the Healing – Critical Reframing for Black Mental Health

Published

8 years ago

January 30, 2018

By Daktari Shari Renée Hicks, Psy.D.

It is seldom directly recognized that rhythmic harmonious movement is the natural state of being. Evidence of this fact is demonstrated at birth. While the outcome is filled with joy and fulfillment, “birthing” is a moment of stress, strain, difficulty and imbalance. To address this condition, it has become common practice to place the newly born infant directly onto the mother’s chest. In so doing, a rhythmic harmonious movement connects heart-to-heart and breath-to-breath. In fact, rhythmic balance is an indicator of wellbeing. The mother-child movement is the first divine dance.

In recognizing the significance of movement (dance) and sound (drumming), several members of the Association of Black Psychologists (ABPsi) have identified dance and drumming as a critical healing framework for African American wellness. Dance is a conceptual natural language with intrinsic and extrinsic meanings, a system of physical movements, and interrelated rules guiding performance in social, religious, and healing situations. Curative properties of African dance include cathartic release, connectivity, wholeness, communion, empathy, tranquility, problem-resolution, sublimation, bliss, altered states of consciousness, emotional expression, and enhanced sense of self/community. Dance may be utilized as a more effectual mode of communication than talk therapy.

The healing capacity of dance should in fact be un-coded for application in the therapeutic relationship. Dance does arouse and invoke multi-layered and multi-dimensional healing at the spiritual, psychological, emotional, behavioral, and physiological levels. As a member of the Bay Area Chapter of ABPsi, a lifetime dancer, founder and artistic director of the Daktari Dance Medicine Collective, and as a licensed clinical and forensic psychologist, I recognize the link between healing and dance. African dance has served as a form of medicine for Africans and their descendants for thousands of years and has created optimal conditions for healing by integrating the mind, body, and spirit. Through the medium of expressivity, African dance allows for transition, transcendence, transformation, and integration. Dance does and can play an essential role in reviving and treating symptoms of psychological distress.

The geometry of dance can actually translate movement into specific formulas that direct life’s energy to address specific tasks, i.e., love, war, healing, etc. For instance, Afro-Haitian dances and rhythms calling to Papa Legba activates the opening of the gate between the living and the mysteries found in the invisible realm. The BaKongo Nganga, Ya Fu-Kiau taught that as spirit beings, we vibrate and radiate (move) in seven directions as we traverse the four moments of the sun (cf. Fu-Kiau, 2003). The seven directions (upward, downward, rightward, leftward, backward, frontward, and inward) are coordinated and synchronized as a harmonious rhythmic impulse in dance. Each of the seven directions of the BaKongo has meaning and intention inscribed in dance movements.

In discussing the seven directions, Dr. Nobles (2017) has elaborated on Fu-Kiau’s teaching by noting that each of the seven directions or movements activate or has the intentionality to activate particular energies. For instance, “leftward” motions or direction activates the contact with or intention to continue to become and counter the negative (enemies). The “rightward” motions or direction activates the contact with or intention to belong as family, and love. The “upward” motions or direction activates the contact with or intention to go beyond and have access to the cosmic sea, dreams and creativity. The “downward” motions or direction activates the contact with or intention to be and see what energy is found in the earth (futu). The “forward” motions or direction activates the contact with or intention to behold and prepare our future for our children. The “backward” motions or direction activates the contact with or intention to begin by discovering our collectively accumulated wealth by uncovering our past and ancestral veneration as grounding for new beginnings. Finally, the “inward” motions or direction activates the contact with or intention of being and self-healing.

As I have in other venues, I will be sharing the connection of dance to mental health at the ABPsi’s 50th Annual International Convention (Go to http://www.abpsi.org/convention/index.html) June 27^th-July 1^st, 2018, at The Marriott Oakland City Center, in Oakland, California. This will be a further opportunity to share the healing power of movement (dance) and sound (drumming). Please join the ABPsi gathering of psychologists, university professors, healthcare professionals, educators, researchers, students, and everyday folks.

It is my opinion that movement is the medicine and dance is the healing. Ashe…Ashe…Ashe.

References

Fu-Kiau, K.K.B. 2003. Self-Healing Power and Therapy: Old Teachings from Africa. New York: African

Tree Press. Nobles, W.W. 2017. Personal Communication/Teaching, July 20, 2012. N=718

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Poll Shows Support for Policies That Help Families Afford Child Care

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

Published

1 week ago

March 2, 2026

Oakland Post

By First Five Years Fund

New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

The national survey was conducted by UpOne Insight on behalf of the First Five Years Fund from January 13–18, 2026.

Key findings include:

• Parents need help: 80% of voters say the ability of working parents to find and afford child care is either in a state of crisis or a major problem.

• This is an affordability issue: 82% believe federal child care funding will help lower costs for working families — including 69% of Republicans, 84% of Independents, and 94% of Democrats.

• And there continues to be strong support (62%) for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a federal program that makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of families to afford safe, quality care for their children while parents work or go to school, including a majority of Republicans, 63% of Independents and 72% of Democrats.

• Support for funding child care programs remains strong: 75% believe child care funding should be increased or kept at current levels — including 75% of Republicans, 85% of Independents, and 97% of Democrats.

• 74% say funding for child care is an important and good use of tax dollars, including a majority of Republicans, three-quarters of Independents, and nine in ten Democrats.

FFYF Executive Director Sarah Rittling said, “Voters across the country are sending a clear message: federal child care and early learning programs work. These investments help parents stay in the workforce, strengthen families, and support healthy child development. They have also long had strong bipartisan support in Congress. At a time when affordability is top of mind for families, continued federal funding is essential to ensure child care remains accessible and within reach.”

First Five Years Fund works to protect, prioritize, and build bipartisan support for quality child care and early learning programs at the federal level. Reliable, affordable, and high-quality early learning and child care can be transformative, not only enhancing a child’s prospects for a brighter future but also bolstering working parents and fostering economic stability nationwide.

We work with Congress and the Administration to identify federal solutions that work for families with young children, as well as states and communities. We work with policymakers to identify ways to increase access to affordable, high-quality child care and early learning programs for children. And we collaborate with advocacy groups to help align best practices with the best possible policies. http://www.ffyf.org

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Oakland Post: Week of February 25 – March 3, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 25 – March 3, 2026

Published

1 week ago

March 1, 2026

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Trump’s MAGA Allies are Creating Executive Order Plan to Steal the 2026 Midterms

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

Published

2 weeks ago

February 27, 2026

Oakland Post

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

A group of MAGA pro-Trump activists, who say they are working in coordination with the White House, are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that would claim without evidence that China interfered with the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential to President Joe Biden by over 7 million votes. Since Trump lost to Biden in 2020, he has repeatedly claimed that the election was “stolen” without evidence. The report of a group of “Trump allies” preparing an executive order to give Trump power over elections was first reported by The Washington Post.

The lies around the right-wing campaign that pushed falsehoods that the 2020 election was stolen was trafficked through right-wing media, particularly Fox News. Fox News was then sued for defamation for the claims by Dominion Voting Systems. Fox lost the case and had to settle for the largest defamation amount on record of $787.5 million in April 2023.

The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

The story in The Washington Post arrives as Trump increasingly signals that he may take actions that would alter the result of the 2026 midterms. The Republicans are widely expected to lose as their approval ratings plummet as a result of a failing economy under Trump. Over 50 members of Congress have announced they will retire this year and not return in 2027.

The Trump Department of Justice, which now has a large image of Trump on the side of it, “sued five new states Thursday [Feb. 26, 2026] demanding access to their unredacted voter rolls — escalating a campaign that has been rejected by multiple federal courts and faces resistance from Republican-led states as well,” according to Democracy Docket, a group that works to protect voting rights.

Trump claimed back in late 2020, the last year of his first term, that he had the authority to issue an executive order related to mail-in voting for the 2020 elections — which he would then lose. But the Constitution states that control of elections lies with the states. As the GOP works to place hurdles in front of voting, Democrats worked to make voting easier.

In March 2021, President Biden signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to expand voting access as part of the Biden Administration’s effort “to promote and defend the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections.”

Trump’s focus is clearly on altering the November 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s polling numbers and the elections and special elections that have taken place around the U.S. over the last year clearly indicate that Republicans are about to be hit by a blue wave of Democratic victories.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent investigative journalist and the founder of Black Virginia News. She is a political analyst who appears on #RolandMartinUnfiltered and hosts the show LAUREN LIVE on YouTube @LaurenVictoriaBurke. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke