Party guests danced and gave speeches, but they weren’t celebrating a wedding, birthday or retirement — they came to get down because it might be good for the guest of honor’s brain.
More than 60 people gathered in San Francisco on Saturday, from baby-in-arms to nonagenarian. Everyone packed into the Mission District gallery Ruth’s Table, a simple rectangular space with sliding glass doors that lead to sloping backyard. Organizers hung red foil balloons spelling “PARTY ON!” along with a small neon sign reading “FOR YOU.”
This was the fourth and final party held by a group of Bay Area artists to honor seniors in the community. They were celebrating Janey Bell Norman, a 91-year-old San Franciscan whose career moved through public service as a social worker to the SF Recreation and Parks Department.
One of the party organizers, a former fellow at University of California, San Francisco’s Global Brain Health Institute, had a theory. In addition to spreading merriment, events like these could be beneficial for staving off dementia.
Half of future cases of dementia could be prevented, compared to today’s instances, according to Dr. Victor Valcour, a professor of medicine at UCSF’s Memory and Aging Center. He leads the Global Brain Health Institute, or GBHI, which pairs scientists with cultural workers like artists to explore solutions for aging minds.
“When you’re in a social situation, you’re constantly on,” said Valcour about the therapeutic effect of partying. “You’re using more varied parts of your brain than when you’re doing one isolated, solo thing.”
Norman, serene and poised at the place of honor, wore rounded sunglasses and a blue-and-white motif of circles on her tunic-like top that her necklace and bracelets echoed. She scolded and encouraged guests in turn to enjoy themselves. Her well-practiced index finger pointed out a delightful detail about a nearby loved one with an elegantly rounded arch.
Rahsan Brown, now a father of four, brought his children to hug her. The 39-year-old said Norman filled the empty role of grandmother in his life. She still sends him a collection of highlighted book passages and clippings if he tells her he has a runny nose, he said.
Guests tenderly told stories of Norman, saying she helped raise them. They spoke of her grace and curiosity. One revealed that she calls her own daughter “Janey,” after Norman.
Brown added that they speak on the phone several times a week — or even per day. He said of Norman’s potential isolation, “It can be really hard. I think it’s just different from being younger, when you have so many people around.”
“I’m so happy she gets to be celebrated,” he said. “She’s lived a life worthy of it… I mean, that’s my lady, man. That’s my lady.”
A brain boost
Inside the gallery, Norman said, “It’s been the most beautiful day, to see a gathering of people around, people that I don’t see as frequently, because being 91 and not driving.”
Valcour said that depression can suppress the same complex, simultaneous skills one uses to organize or enjoy a party — managing a guest list, timing the food and having conversations. Hosting can exercise them, also called executive functions.
“When your brain is pushed to do things that are different, it does more, in terms of building resilience, than when you do the same thing over and over again,” he said. “You’re building up networks across your brain.”
Founded in 2015, GBHI made headlines a few years later. One of their multidisciplinary research fellows revealed the mental and emotional benefits of walking in the woods. Fast forward to 2019, and another fellow, 54-year-old movement artist Rowena Richie, thought parties could be next.
Richie had already begun a series of immersive, individualized performance-heavy events with two fellow creators, Erika Chong Shuch and Ryan Tacata, who asked themselves, “Which people are left out at parties?”
They had initially focused on people marginalized due to their gender, gender expression or other reasons. That work began For You, highly curated artistic fetes to make the honoree feel cherished.
Through her work with the GBHI, Richie realized these celebrations could also help aging community members.
When you’re in a social situation, you’re constantly on. … You’re using more varied parts of your brain than when you’re doing one isolated, solo thing.
Dr. Victor Valcour, a professor of medicine at UCSF’s Memory and Aging Center.
During the pandemic, the group shifted its focus to the elderly. Richie said they were suddenly able to empathize better “because we were suddenly all isolated.” They started having conversations with seniors.
“The pandemic didn’t really feel different than their life before it, because they were already having a remote existence,” she said.
Richie said their group works to calibrate what would be a valuable experience or perhaps too overwhelming for their guests of honor.
“The hope would be that there would be this stream of memories and just basking, that you can store the joy that you got from this community,” said Richie. “I hope that has ripple effects in one’s life.”
At Saturday’s party, Norman laughed as Richie and her co-creators told everyone about how she enjoys barefoot runs on the beach. Dancers led the room in an imaginary jaunt, moving in their chairs with arms mimicking wave crashes. Norman lit up as more and more people took the microphone to talk about the impact she had on them when they were young, teaching them as they walked through parks with her.
She remembered her work before Recreation and Parks, providing social services to San Francisco’s children. She recalled teaching arts and crafts to young people after former governor Ronald Reagan closed mental health care facilities.
“That’s really where I knew what unconditional love was all about,” Norman said, “It’s what was shown to me and what I showed them.”
Norman also loves jazz. At a conference, Richie met a current GBHI fellow. Elijah Rock performs the Great American Songbook of standards, jazz and blues songs. They decided to collaborate for the “Janey Party.”
Awareness through research and music
Rock said he feels called to organize a tour around dementia prevention and awareness around disparities in brain research for Black Americans, like him and Norman.
“A researcher can only get in front of a few people at a time,” he said. “We can bring in thousands of people at a time under music and arts. So we have scientists finally realizing how integral we are to the process.”
Rock sang in a black dinner jacket while Janey snapped, danced and had hushed conversations with her sister at her side.
The music swelled and the entire room boogeyed for Bobby Troupe’s “(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66.” When Rock began Tony Bennett’s “I Left My Heart In San Francisco,” pairs swayed together and a large group joined in the center of the room. Crooning along with the band, they knew the chorus by heart.
Parties may not appear on a doctor’s prescription pad any time soon, any more than dancing or hugging an honorary great-grandchild. While researchers amass scientific proof of the value of love or music, Norman provided one data point that day.
During her speech, she prodded the musicians. Hadn’t they played with Margie at the Hyatt, a show she’d seen years before? The band members couldn’t remember, but Norman did.
