On Tending Grief
Public Programs

On Tending Grief

A Conversation With Camille Sapara Barton

  • Online Conversation 
  • Register to Access the Livestream and One Week of Ad-Free Replay Access 
  • Books are available to add to your order at check-out for pick-up from Marcus Books in Oakland, California or delivery within the United States 

Majority cultural norms in the United States suppress our ability to truly feel our grief—deeply, safely, and on our own terms. But each person’s experience with grief is as unique as the grief itself. Writer, somatic practitioner, and artist Camille Sapara Barton’s take on grief speaks directly to the ways that BIPOC and queer readers disproportionately experience unique constellations of loss. 

In their work, Camille honors every experience: The loss of displacement from homelands, severed lineages and ancestral ways of knowing. The grief of colonization and theft. The deep heaviness that burrows into our bodies when society tells us our bodies are wrong. Drawing upon their new book Tending Grief, written specifically to center and hold the grief of BIPOC communities, Camille shares how to reconnect to what’s been lost, to find community in grief, and to tend to our own suffering for our individual and collective well-being. Camille shows how we can tend to our grief both alone and in community through sharing circles, nature-based rituals, dancing your grief, and offers tools for peer support and integration. 

Join Camille for a unique and gentle conversation exploring how BIPOC communities—and all of us—can tend to our grief. Camille invites you to feel your grief, honor what comes up, and move forward in healing.
 

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Camille Sapara Barton color portrait. Camille is a brown skinned non-binary person with their head shaved along the sides and curly brown hair create bangs over their forehead. They are smiling, wears silver earrings, and posed in front of a wall of bamboo.

Camille Sapara Barton is a writer, artist and somatic practitioner, dedicated to creating networks of care and liveable futures. Rooted in Black feminism, ecology, and harm reduction, Camille uses creativity, alongside embodied practices, to create culture change in fields ranging from psychedelic-assisted therapy to arts education. Their debut book Tending Grief: Embodied Rituals for Holding Our Sorrow and Growing Cultures of Care in Community, was published in April 2024 by North Atlantic Books. 

Based in Amsterdam, Camille designed and directed Ecologies of Transformation (2021–2023), a master's program exploring socially engaged art making with a focus on creating change through the body into the world. They curate events and offer consultancy combining trauma-informed practice, experiential learning and their studies in political science.  

We are grateful to our Bookstore Partner

Marcus Books is the nation’s oldest Black-owned independent bookstore celebrating its 60th year. Marcus Books’ mission is to provide opportunities for Black folks and their allies to celebrate and learn about Black people everywhere. Learn more about Marcus Books.

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Accessibility

If you need to request accessibility accommodations, please email publicprograms@ciis.edu at least one week prior to the event. For more information, explore our Accessibility web page.

Important Event Information

Access to the livestream event is limited to registered guests. Registered ticket holders will receive the link to watch the livestream, will have access to chat and Q&A, and will have an ad-free watching experience.

Recording Policy

Ticket holders will have access to an ad-free replay of the event for one week after the live event. A replay with ads will be released on our YouTube channel one week after the livestream. Portions of the audio will also be released on our podcast. Only registered ticket holders who choose to watch live can participate in the chat and Q&A.

Refunding Policy

All tickets and donations for this event are nonrefundable.

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