IMPACT
16 Years Later, TWLOHA’s Music-Based Recovery Tools Are Stronger Than Ever
In 2006, Renee Yohe swiped a razor blade from a friend’s kitchen table, entered the bathroom, and carved “FUCK UP” in the flesh of her arm. She was high on cocaine and the listless love of cheap liquor, but she knew exactly what she was doing. She was a 19-year-old addict with physical and emotional trauma filling her veins to capacity. The release was almost required. It was then that she knew there were only two ways out: expiration or exaltation. With the help of a group of friends, some of which were addicts themselves, Yohe decided to enter rehab. Unfortunately (and incongruously), the drugs in her system and the fresh self-harm wounds rendered her unfit for immediate treatment. The center sent her home to detox on her own. For the next 120 hours, that same group of friends surrounded...
Bloom Vol 2: The Songs that Support Us
Some say that singing to your flowers can help them grow. When I’m scared in the shadows, withering at the bottom of a valley of my own making, music has been the only thing that sparks a sense of confidence within me. Why? A cruel example of how music empowered people throughout periods of hardship lies within the history of slavery. Work songs grew during slavery when African Americans sought resilience and strength to endure injustice and cruelty. When interviewed by NPR about his novel “Work Songs,” Musician Ted Gioia said of work songs that: “[They] are more than a musical genre; they’re a transformational tool. It made the work less arduous; it made the hours roll by…It allowed them to have some sort of mastery over their work conditions which were often very demeaning ones.” Observi...
Red Hot Chili Peppers, Eagles, Radiohead and More Donate Items for Charity Auction
Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Eagles, Radiohead and more have donated items to a charity auction through eBay. Eagles fans can bid on an acoustic guitar from 1999’s The Millennium Concert at Los Angeles’ Staples Center, signed by the whole band; Radiohead fans can get their hands on an In Rainbows vinyl/CD box set, signed by all the members; and Red Hot Chili Peppers fans can not only score a signed electric blue Stratocaster, but also the most interesting item in the bunch: Flea’s signature bass, which has been covered in hand drawn doodles including the phrases “I Am Flea And I Love You” and “stay off the pipe.” All net proceeds will benefit Watts Community Core — a non-profit that exists to support the youth and families of the Nickerson Gardens Housing Project and surrounding neighbo...
Rapper Lil Mussie Uses His Bread Foundation to Help Children Through Supercars
Mustafa Sheikh can still remember the damp smell of his middle-school classroom on rainy days. It wasn’t the typical scent of wet weather – that kind of earthy, metallic odor one would expect. Instead, it was the smell of soggy t-shirts and moist pants, sweat and skin. The classroom air was humid and hard to breathe. That smell never left the New Zealand native’s mind, and neither did the memories of his impoverished classmates who couldn’t afford raincoats or umbrellas, lunches or laundry detergent. As Sheikh grew older, his desire to affect change grew stronger. Years after those middle-school days, he graduated from Auckland University with a degree in honors chemistry – a subject so complex, even Google sometimes didn’t have the answers he sought. Luckily, science merely served as a ca...
Bloom: Vol 1
Bloom is a weekly column exploring mental health through the eyes of recording artist and mental health advocate, Alex Wagner. To me, well-being is like a garden. The seed was planted when I was young, seeing my mother outside gardening for hours on end. When I’d come outside onto the backdoor steps, she’d turn to me with a smile that touched the edges of her face. It was a joy that resonated within me like a ray of light through a Victorian pane window. She left this Earth a little under five years ago, but everyone that knew her understood that the garden was her place of solace. As my own story progressed past childhood and eventually into a period of madness, I would come to realize the salvation she discovered amongst the flora. “Bloom” is rooted in my own experience. So, that is wher...
SPIN and Machine Gun Kelly Address Mental Health Outreach at Charity Art Show
Enjoy where you are right now. That’s the aphorism rendered on a tall wall at the 27 Club, located in Cleveland’s Flats district. And while the more cynical folks descending upon the city for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies might snort and roll their eyes at the sentiment, it fits the vibe of the weekend perfectly. In the spirit of that great notion, SPIN teamed up with Machine Gun Kelly (who also owns the 27 Club), recovery specialist teams Stand Together and The Phoenix for a night of rock history, mental health awareness, and some glorious beat-powered camaraderie. (Credit: Jeff Klaum) The evening was a tacit acknowledgment that mental health is a genuine concern for both artists and fans seeking vicarious refuge through the art. To that end, a specially curated panel di...
JAMB boss lists major challenges
Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) said malpractice and indiscipline are some of the board’s major challenges yet to be fully addressed. The Registrar made this known when members of the Senate Committee on Basic and Secondary Education visited the board’s headquarters in Bwari, Abuja on Monday. Oloyede said that the challenges, unfortunately, were mostly with regards to parents trying to bend the system by all means and get their wards or children into schools, irrespective of their performance. “Our challenge remains examination malpractice, especially with regards to parents who keep calling me to favour their wards or children whether they meet the requirements of the system or not. “There’s also indiscipline from the tertiary institutions...
Lithuania begins building barrier on border with Belarus to block migrants
Lithuania began building a barrier along its border with Belarus on Friday after accusing Belarusian authorities of flying in migrants from abroad to send illegally into the European Union. The first stretch of barrier will run 500 metres (1,640 feet) in length, measure 1.8 metres (six feet) in height and consist of concertina and razor wire, the army defence chief’s spokeswoman Ruta Montvile told Reuters. Belarus in May decided to allow migrants to enter EU member Lithuania in retaliation for sanctions imposed by the bloc after Minsk forced a Ryanair flight to land on its soil and arrested a dissident blogger who was on board. “If someone thinks we will close our border with Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Ukraine and will become a holding site for those running from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq...
NCDC: Confirmed case of Delta variant of coronavirus detected in Nigeria
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), on Thursday, said it had detected a confirmed case with the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant, also known as lineage B.1.617.2. The variant was detected in a traveller to Nigeria following the routine travel test required of all international travelers and genomic sequencing at the NCDC National Reference Laboratory, Abuja. The Delta variant is recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a variant of concern, given its increased transmissibility. Facts indicated that the variant has been detected in over 90 countries and is expected to spread to more countries. The variant has also been linked to a surge in cases in countries where it is the dominant strain in circulation. According to NCDC, “there are ongoing studies to understand the impact ...
Nigerian lawmakers approve $2.4 bn funds for security, coronavirus vaccines
Nigerian lawmakers on Wednesday approved some 982.7 billion naira ($2.4 billon) additional budget funds to help the government buy COVID-19 vaccines, and equipment for its security forces. Africa’s top oil producer, Nigeria is struggling with the economic impact of the pandemic and a slump in crude prices as well as surging violence from criminal gangs and its grinding jihadist insurgency. The approved amount is $216.8 million higher than President Muhammadu Buhari’s request made to the lawmakers in June and is expected to be sourced through international and local borrowing. Most of the funds – around 722 billion naira ($1.8 billion) would go towards the procurement of additional equipment for security forces, Senator Barau Jibrin, chair of the senate appropriation committee, said. Around...
Deputy governor unveils new coach for Edo Queens
The Deputy Governor of Edo State, Philip Shaibu, has announced Wemimo Matthew as the new head coach for Edo Queens Football Club with a charge to return the team to its glory days. Shaibu who supervised the unveiling ceremony at the New Festival Hall, Government House, on Friday, charged the new coach to use her wealth of experience to transform the team. He said, “What we’ve done with Edo Queens is to make it a model for the girl child to look up to. So, we decided to unveil a new head coach because of our poor performance in the just concluded Super Six tournament. “Coach Wemimo Matthew is well-educated, highly disciplined and she has the knack for unearthing and grooming young talents. We have already felt her impact since she joined the team. “She will help us develop young talent and ...
Governor Sule: Nasarawa won’t borrow to pay minimum wage
The Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule, yesterday told striking workers in the state that the state government would not borrow to pay them the N30,000 minimum wage in order not to burden the state economy. The Organised Labour in the state on June 15, 2021 began an indefinite strike over partial implementation of N30, 000 minimum wage and other welfare-related issues. But the state government during a press conference at the end of an emergency expanded executive council meeting in the Government House, Lafia, maintained that government shall on no account borrow to pay salaries. These were resolutions taken at the Emergency State Executive Council meeting as read by Chairman of the Nasarawa State Civil Service Commission, Alhaji Musa Dangana. Dangana said: “In view of its negative i...
