Music, Mental Health, and the Power of Community: The Waleed Kush Afro-Jazz Ensemble
Source photo: Waleed Kush Afro-Jazz
The lead singer and songwriter of Waleed Kush Afro-Jazz band is Waleed Abdulahamed. Beyond being a musician, he’s a storyteller, an educator, and a community advocate and activist. With roots from Sudan, Abdulahamed arrived in Canada in the 1990s where he settled in Parkdale in Toronto before moving to Mississauga. The music of Waleed Kush Afro-Jazz is a blend of ancient African rhythms with American jazz improvisations. The band's "Songs for Humanity" series was born during the pandemic, and addresses isolation and loneliness, a growing concern in Western countries like Canada.
This interview was inspired because Waleed talked about how young people who feel lonely and isolated increasingly stay quiet and don't talk to anyone. In 2023, the Toronto Foundation published its annual Vital Signs Report. We reported their findings that 37% of Torontonians (925,000) say they feel lonely at least three or four days in the last week. Loneliness in high school students has doubled, with 44% feeling frequently lonely. Almost 1 in 4 adults (575,000) in Toronto report symptoms of a major depressive disorder, and almost 1 in 5 report symptoms of moderate anxiety.
Spinning Forward spoke to Waleed Abdulahamed about mental health and young people as well as other topics like the power of community and in-person human connections, how music can be a healing force, and the importance of advocacy, and activism today.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Toronto is one of the loneliest cities in Canada 😔🍁
The Toronto Foundation released their 2023 Toronto Vital Signs Report in November. It found that Toronto residents are struggling with social isolation and belonging despite the pandemic being behind us.
Sharon Avery, President and CEO of Toronto Foundation, writes:
"We are increasingly concerned about the social fabric of the city: advancing inequality, persistent post-COVID social isolation, growing class divides between white-collar workers and others, poor mental health, deterioration of the public realm, apparent indifference even to the suffering of others. Some people are choosing to leave; too many young people don’t feel they have a future here."
On loneliness & mental health:
On Cost of Living and The Affordability Crisis:
