National Grief Awareness Week: Grief Gatherings
ONLINE
Wednesday 2 - Tuesday 8 December 2020
As part of our project This Grief Thing, we’re we’re partnering with The Good Grief Trust to help the address the silence around grief and grieving.
Look out for our printed poster campaign designed to help start conversations about grief, share something on our Permission to Grieve Instagram, join the conversation using the hashtag #NGAW20 on social media, watch out for arts venues such as the National Theatre, The Lowry and The Albany being lit up in yellow on 8 December, and join us for one of our free online Grief Gatherings.
Grief Gatherings are small, free group conversations about grief our Co Artistic Directors Sam Butler and David Harradine have been hosting all over the country since 2015.
We believe there are many ways to grieve and to talk about grief, so we’ve decided to invite special guests to host their own Grief Gatherings in any way they choose.
Guest Hosts for National Grief Awareness Week:
Rayvenn Shaleigha D’Clark
A South-London based digital sculpture, curator and writer.
Exploring the theory of the ‘Body Politić’ as well as her own experiences of growing-up and studying in London, she uses these ‘moments’ as a catalyst to provide further visual context to the often collective perspective and self-referential questioning of black people and their communities. Rayvenn will be hosting a session on Wednesday 2 December, 6.30-8pm.
Deepa Shastri
Deepa Shastri is a deaf presenter, interviewer, actress, creative producer, BSL consultant. Deepa is keen to provide a safe space for people who are comfortable in communicating in BSL to share their experiences and thoughts about grief. This event will have both BSL interpretation and live subtitles and is for D/deaf participants. Deepa’s session will take place on Sunday 6 December, 3-4.30pm.
BrumYodo
We’ll be co-hosting a session with BrumYODO, a community collective which creates opportunities for the people of Birmingham to have more open and honest conversations about death and dying.
BrumYODO is part of a national and international social movement which believes that everyone is entitled to a good death. This session will take place on Monday 7 December, 6.30-8pm.
We’re really keen to hear from all sorts of people about how easy or difficult they find it to talk about their own or other people’s grief. There is no obligation to talk, you’re welcome to just sit and watch or listen.
All Grief Gatherings will last approximately 1 ½ hours, take place on Zoom, and they're free to attend but booking is essential.
If you have any questions, please contact: griefgatherings@feveredsleep.co.uk
This Grief Thing by Fevered Sleep, Image by Adam Lewis 2019
This Grief Thing by Fevered Sleep
Supported by
Arts Council England
Paul Hamlyn Foundation
Wellcome
The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
We acknowledge the assistance of the 2018 Banff Playwrights Lab – a partnership between the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and the Canada Council for the Arts - in the development of This Grief Thing.
This Grief Thing Manchester 2019 photo by Richard Tymon
“It was incredibly useful for me to hear others share how they feel. Even just being able to identify my feelings in others made me feel soothed and brought me a feeling of relief. ”
Grief Gathering Participant
“It was so beautiful. Something about it meant we could just talk gently, and openly, and follow the shared lines of enquiry together, in the last light of the day. It felt like a piece of art in itself. ”
Grief Gathering Participant