Grief Circle: A Sacred Healing Experience for Black and Brown Women and Femmes

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Weaving together the sound healing and soul retrieval rituals of grief doula gina breedlove, griefkeeping practices of artist Angela Hennessy, and the ancestral foodways from Chef-in-Residence Jocelyn Jackson, we will co-create a space that honors expressions of grief. The evening in the MoAD salon will include a facilitated circle of grounding, grief letting, and blessed and nourishing foods. This experience is curated specifically for Black and brown women and femmes. Space is limited to 30 souls.

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We ask that each of you is prepared and ready with what you need to enter this ritual space. Please dress comfortably, bring a journal, writing tool, and a water bottle.

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If you have any questions or accessibility needs please email us at programs@moadsf.org and your message will be sent to the organizers for a response.

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About the Participants

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Angela Hennessy (@thehouseofhennessy) is an Oakland based artist and survivor of gun violence. She constructs sculptures and installations with everyday domestic labor—washing, wrapping, stitching, knotting, brushing, and braiding. Her work has been featured in exhibitions at McEvoy Foundation for the Arts, Museum of the African Diaspora, Oakland Museum of California, and Pt. 2 Gallery, and is in the collections of the de Young Museum and the Crocker Art Museum. Her audio guides, meditations, and poems have been featured at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, de Young Museum, and SOMArts Gallery.

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Hennessy holds an MFA from California College of the Arts where she teaches courses on contemporary narratives of death. For many years she served as a hospice volunteer and death doula working with families on home funerals, death vigils, and grief rituals.

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She has received awards from San Francisco Artadia, Svane Family Foundation, Joan Mitchell Foundation, and the Fleishhacker Foundation. Hennessy is on the advisory board of Recompose Seattle and lectures nationally on aesthetic and social practices that mediate the boundary between the living and the dead.

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Grief doula gina Breedlove (she/they/grace) (@ginabreedlove) is a sound healer, vocalist, composer, author & oracle for Grace. She began her walk with spirit and sound when she was 5 years old, toning and humming into her being to release grief from her body, and create a safe home for her spirit. gina's book, The Vibration of Grace, Sound Healing Rituals for Liberation, released November 2023, has been receiving rave reviews: Yoga Journal listed it as "one of the 10 books they could not put down," The Library Journal: "This is a lovely, lovely book that treats trauma as part of a person's identity, deserving of care." As a performing artist, some of gina's credits include creating the role of "Sarabi" for the Broadway production of The Lion King, 2 Spike Lee joints as actor and sound healer on set & 2 original cds, "Open Heart" & "Language of Light." Currently, gina travels the world with her music, sound healing & grief letting rituals, bringing the medicine of Grace to every city she visits. Born & raised in the People's Republic of Brooklyn, gina's lineage hails from brackish water, red dirt, moss covered trees, and women who lay sound and hands to bring healing to what ails us. ginaBreedlove.com

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Jocelyn Jackson (@justuskitchen) is an award-winning chef, artist, teacher, and activist who was raised on the Kansas plains by a Tuskegee Airman and the first Black woman to run for mayor in Wichita. Jocelyn has been a professional cook for over 12 years. She spoke on the principles of community nourishment at Court Bouillon in Southern France, and was part of the team that presented the inaugural Diaspora Dinner at MoAD. She is the founder of JUSTUS Kitchen and the co-founder of People’s Kitchen Collective (PKC). Both organizations serve to center the lived experience and liberation of Black and brown peoples using food, art, and social justice as vehicles for change.

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This program is presented in conjunction with the current exhibition Liberatory Living: Protective Interiors & Radical Black Joy on view October 2, 2024 - March 2, 2025.

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