Tending to Loss: A Community Grief Offering + Ritual

Manifesting M.E. Wellness presents, Tend to Loss, a two-part community workshop for BIPOC folks who are tending to loss. Holistic therapists Katrina Long and Akua Agyen will be holding space using a holistic approach that is spirit-led, body-centered, and trauma-informed. The facilitators will weave Black ancestral traditions with Western therapy modalities to support folks as they navigate their grief.

Rooted in Black and African ancestral, somatic, and spiritual practices, we will be co-creating a space for connecting to loss. This is an offering for those mourning people, relationships, selves, dreams, and/or worlds. Through discussion, ritual, meditation, and ancestral wisdom, this is an opportunity to connect with your loss and how it shapes you. We welcome participation in one or both offerings.

Tending to Loss Part I: A 1-hour virtual offering during which we name our grief and loss, share our care practices in times of loss, and receive energy healing. Happening June 17, 2024, 5:30p-6:30p pst via Zoom.

Tending to Loss Part II: A 90-minute in-person ritual in Inglewood, CA at The Salt Eaters Bookshop, during which we will come together to connect to each other and our losses, share our grief journeys, build an altar, and make medicine. Happening June 23, 2024, 12p-2p pst.

About the facilitators: Katrina Long, LCSW (she/her) is the founder and director of Inglewood’s Manifesting M.E. Wellness. Her healing practice is shaped by her experiences as a healing arts therapist, Reiki practitioner, and trauma-informed yoga teacher, as well as her ancestral connections to Black Creole traditions.

Akua Agyen, ASW (she/they) is an associate therapist at Manifesting M.E. Wellness. Akua’s healing practice is shaped by their experiences as a birth doula and rape crisis advocate, as well as her ancestral connections to the Asante people of Ghana.

The space: Led by Asha Grant, The Salt Eaters Bookshop is an independent bookstore in Inglewood, CA prioritizing books, comics, and zines by and about Black women, girls, femmes, and gender-expansive people. ​Inspired by The Salt Eaters by Toni Cade Bambara, the shop is working to create a resting ground for us all, a place to come home.