Stroke Odysseys – An Ongoing Adventure

As a company of musicians and facilitators we are happy to connect with other like minded people who have great ideas and want to add our skills to theirs to make a project happen. Often these come about through chance encounters or a passing recommendation from someone who has found our work inspiring.

Bringing Stroke Odysseys to Northern Ireland

The telephone call from Rosetta Life in 2011 to explore the possibility of us working together on bringing Stroke Odysseys to Northern Ireland came completely out of the blue. Working with people living with a significant change in their abilities as a result of a life changing event such as Stroke was also something that, at the time, we had no great experience of.

The resulting relationship with Rosetta Life and Stroke Odysseys, which has lasted to this day, encompasses major community engagement projects, performances, films, thought leadership, creative practice development and conferences. It has been a great source of inspiration to us as practitioners and to people living with Stroke. None of this would have been possible without the leadership of Rosetta Life and it shows the value of making a contribution to a project – playing your part in a wider initiative – as well as the potential of meaningful collaboration.

A Stroke Odysseys Question and Answer

What we have learned from our engagement with Stroke Odysseys is perhaps best articulated by a Q&A session about the first Stroke Odysseys project in Derry/Londonderry given by our Artistic Director, Sarah Murphy at a special seminar, Celebrating Optimism and Hope: Post Stroke Music and Neural Plasticity, hosted by the Sonic Arts Lab, Queen’s University Belfast as part of the Belfast International Arts Festival.

Q: Sarah tell me about your personal involvement in Stroke Odysseys when it first came to Derry in Northern Ireland

A: Stroke Odyssey’s gave me the privilege of listening to people’s stories and experiences, people living with the after effects of having had a stroke and the people caring for them in hospital, in the community and at home.

I worked with Chris Rawlence from Rosetta Life and composer Orlando Gough visiting people in their homes, listening to their stories and sharing music. From these visits Chris and Orlando developed personal stories that people were comfortable sharing with a wider audience and using this material they composed songs and created films.

I then organised musicians to perform these songs and gathered together a new community choir made up of people living with stroke, their carers and families and people from the wider community who had a connection with stroke. We called this the “Stroke Choir” and it was hosted and promoted by the Derry/ Londonderry branch of The Chest Heart and Stroke Association. I also hosted collaborative songwriting workshops for Chest Heart and Stroke staff; for the nursing staff working on ward 40 at Altnagelvin Hospital and in the community for the families and carers.

Over a period of months we worked together towards a wonderful and emotive performance which was a big leap of faith for everyone. It was so moving and I know transformative for the people on the stage and in the audience.

Q: So what did the project mean to you and what do you think it meant to others?

A: I found the whole journey of the project both moving and uplifting in equal measures. At first I was nervous that people living with stroke might not want to share their stories in public. What I found was somewhat different. People on the project expressed how they had retreated into themselves on recovery from stroke and often disguised their symptoms when in public. All had experienced depression and fear as a result of having experienced a stroke and kept their fears hidden except from the family closest to them. The family carers of the participants living with stroke also lived with great sadness and anxiety at the huge changes they had experienced and their future.

The Stroke Odysseys project gave participants a new voice and a different reason to express their experiences. It reminded me of the meaning the work I do can bring to people, creating a space where they feel they have permission to share their truth and express the full range of emotions of their story. People who took part felt validated in expressing their life before and life after stroke . They were satisfied and sometimes excited at having songs written in an honest voice that reflected their truths with all the sadness and fear – as well as some joyous moments of positive reflection.

Q: Is there any learning you would like to share as a result of your involvement?

A: I learned a lot. One striking thing was how stroke is not ageist. The youngest member of the choir was 15 and her father had experienced a stroke some years before. One of the songs was written about a mother who had experienced a powerful stroke days after giving birth to her 3rd child. Also people I know in the community appeared at the “carers” songwriting workshops and I had no idea that they were connected to stroke. It was quickly obvious that this was a hidden or disguised story and that people living with Stroke really valued the opportunity to be heard and to be understood.

Stroke Odysseys continues to grow across the UK and is an adventure that we are very glad to be a part of. We have collated a range of films from our colleagues at Rosetta Life to inspire and inform you. If you are working in this area on the island of Ireland get in touch as we would love to connect. Contact Kevin on kevin@wall2wallmusic.org