Pfluger Pedestrian Bridge bustled with runners, bikers and musicians this past Sunday. Fifteen minutes past seven, a large group formed along the bridge’s railing, facing the watery abyss of the Colorado River. After a beat, they screamed in unison.
The screaming session marked Austin’s Scream Club’s third meeting, inviting people to gather at the bridge for communal de-stressing. Starting in Chicago this past summer, the club expanded to multiple cities, including Atlanta, Phoenix and Seattle. The Austin chapter is open to everyone and meets every Sunday at 7 p.m.
Health and society freshman Lily Bonner participated as one of the screamers on Sunday.
“It felt like such a good sense of community, so it wasn’t embarrassing or anything,” Bonner said.
Krystal Morris started Austin’s branch of the club. She said she wanted an outlet after facing personal struggles.
“This last summer, I’d been through a lot of things in life that you have no control over,” Morris said. “It’s not the end of the world, but it just keeps piling on. I had been talking about that for a while, of starting some sort of vent club to just get that frustration out.”
Manny Hernandez and Elena Soboleva co-founded the original Chicago Scream Club this past June. Hernandez said he moved from Los Angeles to live with Soboleva in Chicago, with the idea emerging as the couple walked past Lake Michigan.
“When I moved to Chicago, it was hard for me at first, the new city, new life, trying to figure out who I am now,” Hernandez said. “There was financial stuff that we were stressed out about and also work stuff. I just turned to her and said, ‘Hey, do you want to go and scream into the lake?’”
Inviting people around them to join, a small group screamed over the bridge, some even crying. Hernandez said while he can’t speak on the scientific data behind screaming as a health tool, people share stories with him about the club’s beneficial effect.
“After the scream sessions, (people) come up to us with tears in their eyes and say, ‘You don’t know how badly I needed that, and this is the first time I was able to ever release the things that have been bothering me,’” Hernandez said.
Morris said the weekly screaming sessions create a cathartic release that some participants didn’t know they needed.
“There’s a lot of raw emotion that comes out, which we’re just, especially in this day and age, so used to hiding,” Morris said.
Some participants never considered the idea of group screaming before hearing about the club.
“It’s not often that we get the ability to scream free,” Bonner said. “It’s something I’ve never done before. It was something that I’ve never even thought about, but I think that it’s a really good idea.”
