Rachel Mack

I greatly enjoyed the National Great Blacks in Wax museum, although it would be remiss of me not to share how emotionally difficult it was to hear and see some of the more tragic stories. With many of the first exhibits displaying forced feeding, forms of torture (such as the iron bar and the iron mask), the slave ship and the conditions many enslaved Africans were forced to endure during the middle passage, to say the least, it was a lot very early on in the tour. As we continued, it became more and more difficult for me to contain this rage and sorrow I carried for these individuals that experienced so much pain and trauma, but one of my favorite parts about the museum were the constant quotes reminding me not to be angry, but to remember the hardships and sacrifices my ancestors went through and to do right by them. My favorite quote was, “As you leave this monument to human tragedy and triumph, remember us – but not in anger or sorrow…We did not struggle to keep our minds from being shackled, only to have you turn away from learning and the wise ways of the elders…” (Dr. Elmer P. Martin). Another quote that I really liked was, “If we endured all this, surely we can solve the difficulties of the moment and we can in unity move more confidently into the future” (Rev. Dr. King).

Additionally, one thing that stuck out to me was the role of Black women in the struggle against racial injustice. While we heard of many stories of Black men escaping and leaving their family and children behind so that they can marry a white woman, we heard many more stories of Black women doing everything in their power to support and protect their husbands and families. As a Black woman, it was a little disheartening to see how so many Black women were mistreated, taken for granted, and forgotten, but I felt incredible pride and felt empowered after hearing stories about women such as Harriet Tubman and Winnie Mandela. The Harriet Tubman performance was especially impactful because the way Ms. Greene performed with such passion and strength reminded me of the strength that I also carry as a Black woman in America.

I would describe the Black World as being vast and diverse; with many different people, cultures, and ideas tied together by the way we are perceived and treated in the world. Because of this, I believe that it is important that we think about public health in the Black World because oftentimes the world views the Black experience as being singular, which causes the public health field to not acknowledge the diversity in the Black World; this is harmful because not everyone in the Black World needs the same things. Through this course, I have been pushed to view public health in the Black World differently because I realized that a unique experience such as the Black experience may need unique public health approaches to ensure that everyone is receiving the care they deserve.

Returning to the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum helped me to determine exactly what I would like to focus on for my project. While walking through the museum again, I grew more interested in the individuals whose faith gave them strength and guidance, and I subsequently started to think about the intersection between faith and mental health. During my first trip to the museum, I was automatically drawn to Bilal ibn Rabah; his story of refusing to renounce his faith despite his enslavers placing heavy stones on him was inspiring to me. Furthermore, during my second visit to the museum, I was more acutely aware of how faith connected with people’s mental and emotional health. For instance, I learned about the “invisible churches” that would be created by slaves and other persecuted individuals in order for them to practice their faith and find solace despite their oppression. Additionally, I learned more about how those who were enslaved and abducted from their homes would often seek death because they found peace in being reunited with their ancestors and gods, however, their faith was so strong that their enslavers would often behead their bodies to prevent more people from choosing death over enslavement because it was believed that the head was needed to reach the ancestors and gods.

As a woman of faith (Roman Catholic) and as someone hoping to pursue psychiatry and a PhD in clinical psychology, the connection between faith and mental health is very important to me. I truly believe that by examining how faith can be beneficial to mental health, we can improve the mental wellness of our communities, in particular, that Black community which suffers from their own unique mental health challenges.

Lastly, I greatly enjoyed Dr. Martin’s discussion on the Black family. As a Black woman, I have always found strength in my family members which extend past just my parents and sister, but also includes my grandparents, my aunts and uncles, my cousins, and family friends. While the Black family might be different compared to other groups in the United States, I resonated with Dr. Martin saying that the Black family is like a village where everyone looks after one another, whether blood related or not.

Today in class we participated in a theatrical activity which required us to impersonate the great historical figure we selected from the Great Blacks in Wax Museum and conduct interviews with one another in character. I impersonated my selected figure, Bilal Ibn Rabah, and paired up with a fellow student who was impersonating Billie Holiday. I will admit, it was a much more difficult task than I thought it would be. Upon hearing the directions for the activity, I thought it would be simple enough to embody a person with faith, due to being a person of faith myself, however, this delusion was quickly abated. When it was my turn to be interviewed in character, I realized that many decisions and thoughts go into better understanding a person, and therefore being able to embody them.

I had to ask myself many questions about who I thought Bilal Ibn Rabah was, which was difficult. At the time of the activity, I struggled to find many resources describing Bilal’s life due to him being from a much older time period (so much older, that Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) was still alive). Additionally, due to him being born and raised in captivity, not much was documented about personal details including date of birth, information about his parents and family, etc. Therefore, going into the activity all I knew was that he was enslaved, converted to Islam of his own volition, and was tortured with stones in an attempt to have him renounce his newfound faith. It was not until after this activity that I discovered more about his life, such as how he was emancipated after being tortured and that Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) had heard of Bilal’s faith, leading Bilal to ultimately become the first mu'ezzin (reciter of the adhan, call to prayer).

Initially, not having an abundant amount of material on Bilal’s life was stressful because I held this belief that I needed to know everything about him in order to embody him. However, I soon realized the artistic freedom that came with this. I was able to think about how I wanted to portray him based on the information I did know, and I decided to portray a man of quiet intelligence, someone sure in himself and his faith, someone who has no need to resort to violence or yelling to get his point across, a man of strength and determination who speaks up for what he believes in. After determining that this was how I wanted to portray him for this activity, it took me a bit to fully get into character, but ultimately, I feel that I grew more comfortable in my portrayal of him.

This activity definitely pushed me outside of my comfort zone and spurred me to do deeper digging into Bilal’s history.

In class, we were given some time to brainstorm and continue working on our final projects. While I had already written a script draft, I wanted to use this time to try my hand at conveying my message on mental health and religion and sharing the story of Bilal Ibn Rabah in a different medium. I had the phrase “to cry out” in mind and decided I would attempt a spoken word poem. The phrase “to cry out” stood out to me because it can be interpreted in many different ways. When I see the phrase, I imagine a person physically crying with tears streaming down their face, I imagine a person calling/shouting out in pain or agony, and as a person of faith I imagine someone calling/shouting out to God (whether that be in sorrow, remorse, anger, joy, etc.) I thought this phrase fit perfectly with the concept of mental health and religion because too often those suffering with poor mental health fail to “cry out” for help (to family, friends, professionals, religious leaders, etc.) and they suffer in silence. Additionally, the phrase reminded me of Bilal’s story and how he would cry out “Ahad – He is One” when he was being tortured.

Writing any type of poem takes time, patience, and a lot of revising, however, due to the time constraints I simply started with this phrase and wrote whatever came to mind upon hearing it.

After completing the poem, each one of us performed a snippet of what we had been working on. This was another great opportunity to practice presenting on stage and required me to act differently than how I would if I were going onstage as a character instead of just myself. While spoken word poetry isn’t acting as a character/someone else per se, it still required me to be expressive, vocal, and to incorporate appropriate hand and body gestures to truly solidify the meaning behind the poem.

To conclude, it was a great exercise because it granted me another chance to practice stage presence and because by looking at my topic in a different way, I was inspired to make additional edits to my script.

Today we finally presented our final projects! It was a bittersweet moment because it also signified that our course was coming to an end, but it was also really exciting to finally see the finished products of everyone’s semester long hard work. I decided to present my script in front of Bilal Ibn Rabah’s wax figure in order to feel closer to this person I had slowly gotten to know throughout the semester.

I will admit, however, that presenting the final project also pushed me outside of my comfort zone. From the beginning of the semester, it was unclear how exactly this moment would come to be, therefore many of the ideas that I had originally intended to be in the final project were either adjusted or cut altogether to fit this new version of presenting. While change is not necessarily a bad thing, it was uncomfortable at first to have to become more flexible, but in the theater (as in life) not everything goes exactly as you may have planned it, so all in all it was a good lesson to learn.

In terms of my final presentation and the changes I had to make, due to the camera and spacing in the museum I had to cut out scenes such as replicating Bilal having the stones placed on his chest. Additionally, because I was the first to present, I was also the one to endure technical difficulties with the audio to my performance being muffled and muted (which was a little disappointing), however, I pivoted by making sure that my SharePoint Video has subtitles/transcript, therefore also making my final product more accessible.

If I were to review how my final presentation went, I would say that I did my best with the circumstances, but going forward I would implement a few changes now that I know what my performance is like. For instance, if in the future there is the opportunity to present live, without a camera recording, I would be able to interact more with the audience and re-incorporate scenes that were adjusted and/or removed due to camera limitations. Additionally, I originally had the idea of an interactive project where audience members would each receive their own stone/rock where they can write something that they carry with them in their day to day lives (while in my final project these things tend to be negative with emotions such as anxiety, I intended for the audience to write something positive such as feeling love or gratitude).

While there are areas for improvement, I believe this was a great experience and I enjoyed being able to share a story that I personally feel is important to get out.