In Tune: As a musician, vibrational sound therapist and doula, Jennifer Simone’s work harmonizes the mind, body and spirit

Seeing Jennifer Simone perform live is a cosmic, communal and meditative experience. Aromatic incense cleanses the air to welcome high vibrations and healing crystals purify her space where she becomes the center of her sonic universe. Fluidly, Simone unites binaural rhythms with woodwinds, indigenous instruments such as the kalimba; her voice, and the technology of loop pedals. She describes her style as “always improvisational,” but intentionally draws from her background as a classically trained Jazz saxophonist, along with Middle Eastern and African spirituality practices, and World music.  In many ways, she’s slightly reminiscent of Alice Coltrane, Sun Ra and other artists of the ‘60s and ‘70s Spiritual Jazz era.

Besides being an explorative, autodidactic musician, women’s health and wellness always motivated Simone. Wanting to become an obstetrician, she remembers being in fifth grade reading her mom’s nursing books, and continuously reading the chapters about childbirth.  Her favorite toy then was a Black OB/GYN Barbie, whose patient’s belly was removable and had a baby inside.

“As I got older, I never forgot about wanting to do birth work,” Simone says. “(But) I’d been on my spiritual journey for some time and done a lot of learning as far as spirituality and homeopathic healing, so being an OB/GYN was not the route of childbirth that I wanted to take.”

She decided she wanted to learn to be a doula, a woman who provides support and guidance to a mother during her pregnancy and postpartum. Studying under Mama Mawusi Ashshakir, midwife and founder of the Body Temple Institute, she became a certified holistic doula.

“It’s kind of like a sister/friend,” explains Simone. “Somebody that you would call and trust to be with you in childbirth, someone that is going to help you manage your pain—maybe if you need somebody to talk to during your pregnancy, you can call up your doula and just have girl talk, like, ‘I’m scared about this,’ and your doula will talk with you.”

Doulas also serve an important role as advocates for expectant mothers. In April 2018, Black Mamas Matter Alliance founded Black Maternal Health Week to raise awareness around the burden of maternal mortality and morbidity in the Black community. Historically, Black women have been more likely than White women to suffer poor maternal outcomes, largely due to having their needs and concerns dismissed by health workers.

“Advocacy is a huge part of what I do,” says Simone. “Advocacy is a huge part of interventions between things going wrong in births. It’s as simple as somebody speaking up. Even if you’re not a doula, even if you’re just the husband or a sister, if you’re in the hospital and you see mistreatment or something that shouldn’t be happening, you being there and being able to call it out can make a huge difference in how things play out in the birth.”

The second annual Black Maternal Week is April 11-17.

Why Black women’s voices are important:

Their voices are important because I believe that if you tune into the most marginalized communities or the most overlooked people within a community, you can solve problems. You can’t really get it by passing those people or silencing them. You can’t get down to what needs to be changed without looking at those people, catering to them, serving them in some way, and without really hearing them.

Come out and see Jennifer Simone at the In Her Voice Concert on May 16, hosted by Queens Village and Underworld Jazz Festival at the Woodward Theater. Featured performers include Tank and the Bangas, Lauren Eylise, Jennifer Simone, MC Jori An Cotton and DJ Apryl Reign along with the premiere of Because We Love Her: Love Letters to Black Women video & poetry by the In Her Voice North College Hill Poetry Crew.

Get your tickets at https://inhervoiceconcert.eventbrite.com/

Use the code becauseweloveher to get 30% off ticket price!

Article by Mildred Fallen