'The message that we want to bring with Black History Month is: welcome, everybody'
KYLE — “Fanga Alafia, Ashé Ashé,” meaning “good health and peace to you” — a traditional West African call and response — echoed throughout Legend Oaks Rehabilitation and Healthcare in Kyle. During the month of February, drums could be heard in the halls as residents made their way to the dining hall, while some moved in their bed.
Traditional African music was featured every Tuesday. Another week, residents learned about famous Black Americans, while also being exposed to soul and Cajun food — all in honor of Black History Month, the first event of its kind to be held at the facility to benefit residents and employees alike.
“In my seven years of working here, this is the first time we’ve ever come together [to celebrate Black History Month],” said Christina Johnson, physical therapist assistant at Legend Oaks. “It was a collaborative effort. Because of these guys [other therapists], we’ve got a whole bunch of new staff that have great energy, great ideas and enthusiasm for the people and introducing everything to our residents.”
The music helped benefit residents and employees alike in a myriad of ways, said speech therapist Rachel Obstfeld.
“A lot of our residents here have problems with their memory and a lot of them have dementia and other neuro-degenerative disorders like Parkinson’s. Some people have had a stroke and a lot of the time, that limits their abilities to communicate and engage with the world around them the same way we do,” Obstfeld said. “Music has a really special way to access parts of the brain that aren’t otherwise active … so we really like to incorporate songs outside of the events that we had [in February].”
The events were a cultural aspect Legend Oaks hoped to incorporate to get residents familiar with other cultures.
“It mainly just helps with our interaction with our patients,” said Nadia Ruiz, occupational therapist. “I mean, when you think about it, we have complete strangers coming in here, we’re meeting them for the first time ever and they’re strangers to us. Just the simple use of establishing a relationship early on, understanding helps translate into how we do our therapy … Everybody comes from different walks of life, so incorporating different cultures and really learning about where we come from and why we do things, ultimately, just makes us care better overall. The patients actually enjoy it; they get excited about it … If you treat your patient like your friend or someone that you’re actually going to care for, you get better results.”
The music itself has healing components, Johnson reiterated.
“The dancing is so connected to the African drumming in our culture. A lot of hip hop dancing originated from African cultural dancing, so I like to say, ‘Let the drum speak,’ because the drum will bring medicinal feeling, it brings spiritual healing; it brings a connection of celebrations,” she said. “The traditional call and response lyrics are, ‘I welcome you with my mouth, I welcome you with my thoughts, I welcome you with my heart.’ So that’s basically what we’re saying with the music and that’s just the message that we want to bring with Black History Month is: welcome, everybody. We welcome everybody’s culture, interests, talents, level of mobility and peace. You know, you have peace in your life and peace in your days.”
Legend Oaks invites anybody from the community — musicians, entertainers, magicians, poets, performers, teachers, readers, etc. — to come and interact with the residents.
For more information about Legend Oaks Rehabilitation and Healthcare, visit www.legendkyle.com. To contact the facility, call (512) 286-1003 or email [email protected].
