Socialization of our memories is our Collaborative Doing activity aiming for positive community health impacts (perhaps by reducing loneliness or cultivating new friendships or helping achieving both goals and much more at the same time?)

Our Singing-Memories (see also Healing through Musicality in Parks: Singing Nooks as Social Innovation in Urban Planning) programs were featured in the Humanities Iowa January 2023 Voices from the Prairie Newsletter and at the October 2022 Aspirations Gathering. Simple questions (e.g., What does Music mean to you? What’s your favorite song?) guided our program development whereby we shared songs in different languages and styles and around different objects to cultivate new patterns of conversations across strangers and friends alike. The CARTHA/Iowa Corridor Sangeet community collaborative (founded by Dr. Nitin Karandikar) has hosted over 25 free Bollywood concerts since the first one held on October 31, 2017. In large part, CARTHA’s timely discussions with city managers led to the inclusion of musical elements and a Singing Nook at the Willow Creek Park in Iowa City as it opened in 2020-2021 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

CARTHA is a program partner to the Annual Harvest Festival organized by IAICA.

Our Food-Memories program was piloted in June 2024, with two CARTHA Fellows. Simple questions (e.g., What is a childhood memory of food that you’d like to share? What is a favorite food or ingredient?) guided our one-hour interviews of 20 collaborators and 10-minute filming of Carthans in Iowa City. These films were then posted on social media and in-person gatherings were held.

CARTHA’s programming series around Musically-Infused, Caregiver-Centric Approaches to Understanding Pain, Palliative Care, Grief, and Coping Skills have evolved since 2016. With palliative care physicians and grief counselors as our advisors, we collaboratively design community dialogues, Glocalizers and Fellowships that are complementary to whatever formal medical and public health infrastructure can (and cannot) do in these realms.

You can read about our Goals for Caregivers, Coping Skills and Intergenerational Resilience Dialogue Series. We post a few examples of our programs below:

September 18, 2018 “Dying-Well Dialogue with Dr. M.R. Rajagopal of Pallium India

May 31, 2025 “Caregivers & Coping Skills” Dialogue: What is Pain? with Dr. Rahul Rastogi

In 2026, CARTHA launched the Nimma Resilience Fellows program based on discussions with grief therapists and counselors to build intergenerational resilience with a renewed focus on self-care, coping skill sets, and collaborative caregiving approaches.

April 25, 2026 Intergenerational Dialogue Agenda Flyer: Healthy Coping Skills/ Grieving

(Scheduled) September 19, 2026 “Caregiver Narratives” & Annual Aspirations Gathering