For much of human history, and across cultures, grief was tended in community. People gathered in time-honored ways to weep, sing, move, pray, witness, and remember together. Grieving was not just something to survive. It was an essential part of how communities stayed connected to one another, to the ancestors, to the land, and to the sacred.

This retreat is an invitation to remember and practice something of that communal way of grieving together. Over two days, we’ll honor our grief and gratitude through talking circles, song, poetry, movement, sacred listening, time in nature, shared food, and ceremony. At the heart of our time together will be a communal grief ritual inspired by teachings shared in the West by Dagara elders Malidoma Patrice Somé and Sobonfu Somé.