Altars We Carry: a creative space for ESEA grief

Altars We Carry: a creative space for ESEA grief

Grief takes many forms. It can be acute, slow, silent, inherited, displaced, or unspoken, crossing borders and generations. Sometimes, it can even be joyful. For many East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) communities, grief lives in our bodies, our family systems and our cultural histories, becoming more complex through time and as diaspora move about the globe.

Altars We Carry is a 2 hour, online creative session for ESEA-identifying people to explore grief through gentle reflection, creative expression and shared space. The session will involve short, reflective readings on grief, non-speaking sections in which we will respond to prompts through creative expression, and optional sharing for anybody who would like to speak. Attendees are invited to choose whatever kind of creative expression speaks to them: short prose, poetry, drawing, painting, doodling, collaging, and so on.

The session takes inspiration from the idea that grief has a critical role in shaping community organising and solidarity movements, both historically and in the present day. The activist Evie Muir insists that grief is a “necessary ingredient of a revolutionary imagination” and that “forging spaces for collective grief feels like a pressing responsibility - to ourselves and to each other.”

This session attempts to make space for and acknowledge the complexities of different forms of ESEA grief that may be shaped by colonialism, displacement, loss of language, intergenerational trauma, cultural tradition and silence, to name a few examples.

Attendees may be grieving a person, place, language, group or even a version of themselves. However, it is likely that stories and experiences of bereavement will feature strongly; attendees may step away or take breaks if they need to.

Please note that this is not a session designed to offer any kind of professional grief counselling. It is simply a space for individuals to come together and express themselves creatively around the topic of grief.

In this space, we will:

• Reflect on how grief lives in our bodies and cultures
• Make space for our grief through writing, drawing or simply quiet reflection
• Share (if you wish) and witness others in community
• Practise presence, not performance

To prepare for the session, you will need:

• Writing or drawing materials
• A quiet space where you’re not likely to be interrupted
• A photo or object that symbolises your grief, to look at while you reflect (optional)
• A candle, cup of tea, or anything to help create a calming or grounding space (optional)

This space is for anyone who identifies as ESEA (East and/or Southeast Asian) who:

• Is grieving, whether recent or distant, named or ambiguous
• Is seeking softness, community and creative ways to make space for grief

You do not need to have a creative practice to join!

Access Notes:

• This event will take place online and will be live captioned (link to be shared by email before the session)
• Cameras are optional
• Please reach out if you have accessibility needs

Community agreement:

By signing up for this session, attendees agree to help co-create a space of care, openness and cultural sensitivity. In understanding that grief shows up differently for everyone, we will commit to making space for others with gentleness and mutual respect.

About the facilitator:

Mai-Anh Vũ Peterson is a British Vietnamese, Edinburgh-based writer, strategist, facilitator and community organiser, and co-founder of the group Britain's East and South East Asian Network (besea.n). She writes about identity, activism and community building, and is an experienced speaker and facilitator of active bystander training, empowering communities to handle experiences of identity-based harm.