Letting Go, Holding Space, and Moving Through

We concluded WPA’s 2024 Open Call series, Where should we start? with an event organized by DC-based artists Leigh Davis and Adrienne Gaither. Their response to this prompt was: We start by addressing our shared grief.

Letting Go, Holding Space, & Moving Through was a 3-part participatory grief ceremony to come together and meet this moment of genocide(s), oppression, and personal loss that we are collectively experiencing. So much is happening daily—this was an offering to move through the insurmountable level of grief with communal support. The ceremony included a eulogy, a guided moment of silence, prompts to provide reflective space(s) for grief, and a restorative tea blend. Leigh and Adrienne invite participants to bring an object, image, keepsake, or anything you would like to offer to this ceremony.

The event was shaped in collaboration with Marissa Glonek, LMSW, iele paloumpis, a death doula, and Brianna Hernández, an artist. Additionally, attendees experienced, and contributed to, a floral work by Genevieve Villamora, a tea blend by DeCarla Martin, and T. Wise supported as a facilitator.