Trying to find spaces in Seattle to grieve collectively is not as easy as one might think. When we consider venues or spaces, we are thinking where can we scream and rage and wail without the cops getting called? Or where is a space where we can at least inform the neighbors what is going on ahead of time?

​

Also, the cost of renting venues is quite pricey in the one of the most expensive cities in the United States. 

​

We don't believe people should have access barriers to their healing. And keeping venue costs low keeps other costs lower.

​

Communal grief ritual can be abolitionist in the face of the prison industrial complex, where we are imprisoning and traumatizing already traumatized people - and that is if they actual did the thing they are being accused of. We need more spaces to process what society deems as "too big" and "scary" or pathologizes and medicates to numb out instead of work with as an ally. We don't need prisons, we need more trauma-informed, politicized healing spaces.

 

This place called Heartwood is a place for atonement and reparations, for remembering what was meant to be forgotten and for leaving time capsules for the generations to come. 

​

It is a collective space, a grief sanctuary, an artist space, a dance and movement studio, a somatic workshop. 

It houses ritual for African heritage/Indigenous/PotGM folks by African heritage/Indigenous/PotGM folks, Grieving White Supremacy rituals, transformative justice circles, racial healing collectives and just about anything that has to do with grief, song, spells, embodiment and ritual.

 

If you are interested in funding a project like this or steward land that could host a heart like this, please email me.