The late African spiritual teacher Sobonfu Somé, who came from the Dagara people of Dano village in Burkino Faso, said: “Communal grieving offers something that we cannot get when we grieve by ourselves. Through validation, acknowledgement and witnessing, communal grieving allows us to experience a level of healing that is deeply and profoundly freeing.”

Join Salt Trails, a Philadelphia collective that has been holding community grief rituals since 2021, for its 5h annual community processional, Carrying Our Grief Together.

This is an invitation to reach across our cultural divide of individualism and privatization, to acknowledge the heartaches we carry, to stand on common ground, human to human, moving together with our grief. Together, we’ll create a pageantry of grieving as a collective protest, refusing to rise above and get over our experience. We will instead claim our grief as natural, as sacred, as a common, unifying mystery that softens and transforms how we relate to ourselves and each other.

We invite you to join us on Saturday, October 11, from 1-3 pm. in Vernon Park, 5800 Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia. We will be joined by the Philadelphia Threshold Singers. Together we will walk through the park, using music, ritual and movement to express our grief.

You are encouraged to “wear your grief,” as you feel inspired. This event is free to attend but donations are appreciated.

The rain date is Sunday, October 12, from 1 – 3 p.m.