In-Visibility: Honoring Our Memorials
Saturday September 26, 2015
“Bridging the Gap from Pain to Liberation”
On (Saturday) September 26th, Downtown TAY will be hosting a Memorial Celebration at the 81st Avenue Library from 11am – 3pm.
This free Memorial event will be a celebration of healing and liberation from the systemic trauma and violence that continues to plague our community. Many are numbed/shut down and emotionally disconnected resulting in slow death due to violence and PTSD. Without personal, familial and community mourning, our collective pain is invalidated and made invisible.
Street violence is typically commemorated by impromptu street memorials/shrines, drugs and alcohol abuse. This event allows mourning loss, celebrating life and mindfulness in dealing with grief in a positive and structured way. Instead of numbing/coping we go through the stages of grief and begin healing.
We will be collecting stories into a paper quilt and online videos to capture the the expression and emotion as tangible and real in a safe and positive space. We will also have counselors on-site to help any participants that feel overwhelmed.
We will be building a living altar (feel free to bring pictures and/or memorbilia of loved ones lost). There will be wellness practitioners, poets, artists, musicians, healers, free lunch (for the first 100 in attendance) from “A Taste of Africa” and a number of other creative and holistic tools and resources to help heal and celebrate life and loss.
Come Celebrate with us!!! Please spread the word about the event to your network and community.
If you are interested in tabling/vending/performing/speaking at this event, please contact Gail McGuire – gail.mcguire@gmail.com or myself directly.
The weekend before – September 19th and 20th, we will be hosting a two day workshop entitled “Bridging the Gap from Pain to Liberation”. Doors are open to the first (20) Youth ages 16-24, who want to participate in this weekend of healing and liberation. Workshops will be hosted (FREE OF CHARGE) at the Youth Impact Hub in Oakland and be running from 10:30am – 3pm on Saturday and Sunday. Food and other wellness tools will be provided. Youth should be prepared for creativity workshops, traditional healing/altar building, and other wellness tools for healing from loss/grief.
We will be providing our youth with Wellness Kits, which will contain tools such as essential oils, candles, soaps, incense …. If you have gifts you would like to donate to the kits, please contact Douglas by email or phone.
We will also be creating a Soul/Cook Book for our youth to have a “take home” tool to recovery, healing and wellness. The book will include art, poetry, affirmations and other ways and guides to heal the soul. If interested in contributing to this soul-book, please email myself with your thoughts.
A lot of healing to be done but we will get there!!
Blessings,
Douglas Stewart and Downtown TAY
