New mother Shai McGowan and musician Jackie Gage soothe their two-month-old baby with a lullaby they co-wrote for the Lullaby Project at Eastmont Wellness Center in Oakland on September 12. He played an original song.
“When I fall asleep, I know it’s true. Sweet pea, baby, I love you.”
The Lullaby Project, a new initiative by Alameda Health System at Carnegie Hall, partners expectant mothers with Noe Music musicians to create personal, unique songs for children. Ms McGowan was one of 10 mothers who performed at the Lullaby Project’s grand finale on September 12.
“You sent me a snippet and I couldn’t stop playing it,” McGowan told Gage while introducing the song “Sweet Pea.” “If I stop playing, she (her baby) will literally start kicking me.”
This performance marks the second completion of the Lullaby Project program and the Beloved Birth Black Centering Program, a pregnancy care program for Black mothers that provides Black health care professionals and services to address racial disparities in health care. was the first completion.
Black mothers face particular challenges in the United States, with pregnancy-related death rates more than three times higher than white women, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, an independent health research nonprofit.
According to the Alameda Health System, Centering programs have been shown to reduce racially based disparities in maternal health outcomes such as preterm birth and low birth weight.
Musician Jackie Gage (left) performs a lullaby she co-wrote at Alameda Health System at Eastmont Center in Oakland on Sept. 12. (Jane Tiska/Bay Area News Group)
The Lullaby Project finale revealed how BBBCP mothers found a nurturing community of mothers who bonded through pregnancy, leading to song and the birth of a healthy baby.
BBBCP director Jesha Wren said she saw a variety of genres and styles during the performance, with the mothers moving between more traditional 3:4 lullabies, synth-laden R&B, spoken word poetry and gospel. He said he was proud to be able to do so.
“I knew it was going to happen. Black music is so diverse,” Len said. “Before this group was founded, the Lullaby Project was only done with Spanish Centering groups, which was also great. But when our team played the Spanish tapes, they all , I was like, ‘This is great, but can we deliver our music?’
Sharonda Jones, who just gave birth to her fifth daughter, talked about how the same lullaby has been passed down from generation to generation in the black community. The Lullaby Project was an opportunity for her to write her own songs, pass them on, and add them to her family’s culture.
“Music has been a very powerful form of healing for the black community in the United States,” Wren said. “The gospel is a type of healing. If you go to a black church, there’s a lot of healing and medicine in the music.”
Jones’ gospel songs featured mothers singing along to the one-word chorus: “Love, love, love.” The drab hospital conference room resembled a Sunday church service, as mothers rocked their babies on their laps. Boxes of tissues were quickly passed around the room.
Musician Jackie Gage (center) performs a lullaby she co-wrote at Alameda Health System at Eastmont Center in Oakland on September 12. (Jane Tiska/Bay Area News Group)
Gage, who worked with Jones and McGowan, was initially concerned whether the songs he had created with the mothers would live up to their expectations. A self-proclaimed perfectionist, Gage felt pressured to write a lullaby that reflected the hard work and joy of having a child.
“We wanted to make sure we captured the importance of the message they wanted to send to newborns,” Gage said. “Making these songs was a mixture of a lot of joy and excitement.”
She quieted her perfectionist thoughts with advice from her mentor and co-director of Noe Music, Meena Bhasin. “What we think is not perfect can be beautiful to other people.”
Bridget Price, another mother in the program, felt an immediate kinship with Gage when they met to discuss the themes and ideas he wanted for a lullaby: stories about comfort, trust, and family. That’s what it means.
“She got hit in the head,” Price said. “She was also able to make some suggestions because she was inspired by this song. I remember her saying that she felt this song was connected to nature. He said he also liked the sound.
The song was first performed to the class on September 12th and began with the sounds of a rainforest stream. Then a dreamlike recording of Price reading a letter to his son was played. “Dear Ezra. Mr. Helper.” Price previously said Ezra always calmed down when he heard those words. Ezra was fast asleep on his mother’s lap, wearing a yellow jumpsuit, as if he were waiting in line.
“It’s like he always understood the message I wanted to convey through the lullaby,” Price said.
