Between the Sea & ME

A Grief & Gratitude Ritual
for the Coastal Community

Saturday, September 28th 2024

This event, and the sliding scale ticket pricing to make it accessible to our community (tickets start at $10), is made possible by a generous grant from the Onion Foundation as well as our partner and host site, the beautiful Wells Reserve at Laudholm.

Hogfish is deeply honored to hold an empathetic, safe, and nurturing space for grief, gratitude, and community centered around climate grief, but open to all.

Living near the coast, many of us are lucky enough to have a personal deep connection to the natural world, and so also must carry a personal deep connection to the evolving climate crisis. This gathering provides a communal space to process those deep connections that are often held privately.

Grief and gratitude for the natural world are not meant to be solitary, though today many of us grieve and give thanks alone; communal ritual offers the opportunity to witness one another’s pain and joy, share our stories of heartbreak and heart-made, and to hold each other as we journey into the depth of our collective sorrow so that we may more fully experience the gratitude for what we have lost and what still is.

This event will include:

• the chance for you to share a place that is important to you through a photo or story

• poetry and song

• an invocation to the unseen world through spoken word and drumming

• time to grieve and have that grieving witnessed and held

• grounding somatic movement practices to help us find deep support as we unwind and soften the bracing in our bodies

• the creation of a beautiful shrine

• micro-rituals of guided writing practices that include an opportunity to share and witness in small groups

• culminating in a powerful community grief ritual on the beach by the ocean

• a potluck of dishes that connect you to a favorite experience with the natural world

• dancing together to let our feelings move through us and back into the world

Robin Wall Kimmerer writes, “If grief can be a doorway to love, then let us all weep for the world we are breaking apart so we can love it back to wholeness again.’”

ABOUT HOGFISH

The climate is changing. Temperatures and tensions are rising in our environment, our communities, and ourselves. Industrialization and the digital world have lifted billions out of poverty, and yet, with the rise of wealth has also come the rise of inequality, toxic carbon levels, fraught public discourse, and sedentary lifestyles. Hogfish is inspired by heroes, sung and unsung, working to restore wellness to global, social, and personal realms.

Hogfish believes that applying the principles of regenerative agriculture to the arts provides a unique opportunity to holistically restore every layer of the human experience. We are on a quest to build an artistic sanctuary and body of work to restore a healthier dynamic balance between our planet, the stories we tell, and the way we live.

ABOUT THE VENUE

The Wells Reserve at Laudholm is dedicated to understanding, protecting, and restoring coastal ecosystems through research, stewardship, environmental learning, and community outreach. As a public-private partnership between the federally-supported Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve and the Maine nonprofit Laudholm Trust, together, we promote science, education, and conservation around the Gulf of Maine, maintain restored historic buildings, and steward protected wildlife habitats. The reserve is open every day from 7amto sunset for outdoor recreation, with seven miles of trails and many public programs. Learn more at wellsreserve.org.

ABOUT THE ONION FOUNDATION

Support organizations that empower people in their communities to live healthy and vibrant lives by…

• Protecting the environment through education and research

• Removing barriers and creating access to outdoor recreational experiences

• Providing resources to adapt to a changing climate

• Cultivating and educating future environmental stewards and leaders 

• Promoting access to local music, theater, dance, and visual arts

• Preserving the many strong art and music programs that exist today

• Establishing new art and music programs for the future

• Advancing music and the arts education

• Creating community-focused participatory arts experiences