On Saturday, October 17, Salt Trails Collective will gather at Race Street Pier for the sixth annual Grief Processional, a shared practice of remembrance, witness, and care.

From 1–3 p.m., we will move together along the Delaware River waterfront, carrying the grief that is often held privately and making room for the many ways people mourn, remember, and continue. The processional is an invitation to honor personal and collective loss while building relationships rooted in mutual care.

Grief does not look the same for everyone. It may be expressed through silence, song, movement, tears, conversation, prayer, art, memory, or simply the choice to show up. This gathering welcomes the full range of those experiences. We invite people of all ages, racial and cultural identities, genders, sexualities, faiths, abilities, and relationships to loss. We welcome you wherever you are in your grief, whether it is silent and still, or loud and moving.

We will gather at Race Street Pier, in the shadow of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, and walk together at a pace that makes room for different bodies, needs, and ways of participating. Participants are welcome to walk, sit, pause, accompany others, or remain near the gathering point. No particular story of grief or form of participation is required.

The event will include music and singing, shared ritual, opportunities for remembrance, and time for connection. We ask everyone to help create a space where grief is treated with dignity and where people can participate without pressure to explain, perform, or disclose more than they wish.

Event details

Sixth Annual Grief Processional
Saturday, October 17, 2026, 1–3 p.m.
Race Street Pier, Race Street and North Columbus Boulevard, Philadelphia, PA 19106
Rain date: Sunday, October 18, 2026, from 1–3 p.m.
Please check Salt Trails Philly and our social media before traveling for any weather-related update.

Accessibility

Race Street Pier is an outdoor waterfront site with two levels, paved areas, lawns, and a connection to the Delaware River Trail. The Delaware River Waterfront describes its parks, including Race Street Pier, as ADA-compliant.

The processional will include opportunities to participate without walking the entire route. Seating and places to pause are available throughout the pier, and participants are encouraged to move at a pace that feels sustainable. If you use a wheelchair, walker, cane, or other mobility aid—or if standing and walking for extended periods is difficult—you are welcome to remain in one area or join for only part of the procession.

Please plan for:

• An outdoor setting with sun, wind, and changing temperatures

• Paved surfaces as well as grassy areas

• Uneven or potentially wet ground depending on weather

• Limited shade

• Comfortable shoes and clothing appropriate for the forecast

• Water, medication, mobility aids, and other personal supports you may need

Service animals are welcome. If you have an access need or question that would help you participate, please contact the organizers before the event so we can plan with you.

Restrooms

The closest confirmed public restrooms are at Cherry Street Pier, which provides restrooms year-round during its operating hours. Cherry Street Pier is north of Race Street Pier along the Delaware River waterfront.

Race Street Pier itself does not have a permanent public restroom facility. Restroom access at Cherry Street Pier may require walking along the waterfront, so please plan additional time and let an organizer know if you need assistance locating the facilities. We will share any event-specific restroom or portable-toilet information as soon as it is confirmed.

Parking and getting there

Parking at the Delaware River Waterfront is limited, so public transportation, walking, biking, and rideshare are encouraged whenever possible. There is no dedicated on-site parking lot at Race Street Pier. Nearby paid options include garages and lots in Old City and around Columbus Boulevard; availability and rates vary, especially on weekends. One nearby option listed for Race Street Pier is at 140 North Christopher Columbus Boulevard.

If you drive:

• Leave extra time to find a space and walk to the pier.

• Check posted signs and restrictions when parking.

• Consider reserving a nearby garage space in advance.

• Use accessible parking where available and display the appropriate placard or plate.

• Rideshare drop-off at Race Street and Columbus Boulevard may be easier than parking, depending on traffic.

Race Street Pier is located near Old City and the Delaware River Trail. The pier’s address is Race Street and North Columbus Boulevard, Philadelphia, PA 19106.

Come as you are

You do not need to bring a particular object, story, or practice. You may bring a photograph, flower, written remembrance, small offering, or simply yourself. Please do not bring anything irreplaceable or anything you would not want to leave unattended.

You are also welcome to “wear” your grief—whatever that means to you. In past years, participants have worn patches with words, symbolic clothing, or items that belonged to someone they love. You might adorn yourself with color, fabric, jewelry, or another meaningful object. There is no single right way to express grief.

Bring what your grief calls for, while remaining mindful and respectful of cultures, traditions, and forms of mourning that are not your own. We invite curiosity, care, and humility: draw from your own experiences and relationships rather than reproducing another community’s sacred symbols or practices.

This is a community gathering, and we ask participants to practice consent and care: ask before touching someone or their memorial object, respect requests not to be photographed, and allow people to participate privately if that is what they need.

We hope you will join us as we remember, witness, and carry our grief together.

After attending Singing Our Grief, one of the folks who’d joined us for the first time asked if we could do it all over again the next day.

Sometimes we don’t realize how much we need to be held until we feel that soft warm embrace wrapping itself around us … in song, in breathing in reverence and gratitude with the land, in being witnessed in our sorrows, in remembering our belonging to a wider community of tender broken open hearts.

🎶 An Evening of Singing Our Grief
⏰ 7-8:30pm
🌳 Chestnut HIll United, 8812 Germantown Avenue
📍Philadelphia, PA

Suggested donation: $10-$30 in person or via Naila-Francis at Venmo. No one turned away for lack of funds.

A monthly drop-in grief space for those who don’t quite fit the mold. Sliding scale $10-$20 to attend. Please Venmo me when you fill out the registration form and make sure it's clear who you are! Registration will close 48 hours prior to the start of the event.

Grief doesn’t always look the way people expect it to. It can be messy, nonlinear, contradictory, or hard to name. The Grief Flock is a space for the grief that feels out of place—too much, not enough, mixed with relief, anger, numbness, humor, or confusion.

This event is for: non-monogamous grievers, queer and trans folks, estranged families, complicated losses, pet loss, ambiguous loss, “regular” loss experienced by outside-the-norm people, etc. all belong without over-defining the space.

Come as you are. No fixing, no performing, no “right” way to grieve.

We will meet via Google Meet with CC turned on.

A monthly drop-in grief space for those who don’t quite fit the mold. Sliding scale $10-$20 to attend. Please Venmo me when you fill out the registration form and make sure it's clear who you are!

Grief doesn’t always look the way people expect it to. It can be messy, nonlinear, contradictory, or hard to name. The Grief Flock is a space for the grief that feels out of place—too much, not enough, mixed with relief, anger, numbness, humor, or confusion.

This event is for: non-monogamous grievers, queer and trans folks, estranged families, complicated losses, pet loss, ambiguous loss, “regular” loss experienced by outside-the-norm people, etc. all belong without over-defining the space.

Come as you are. No fixing, no performing, no “right” way to grieve.

We will meet via Google Meet with CC turned on.

A monthly drop-in grief space for those who don’t quite fit the mold but wanna flock together. Sliding scale $10-$20 to attend.

Grief doesn’t always look the way people expect it to. It can be messy, nonlinear, contradictory, or hard to name. The Grief Flock is a space for the grief that feels out of place—too much, not enough, mixed with relief, anger, numbness, humor, or confusion.

This flock is for: non-monogamous grievers, queer and trans folks, estranged families, complicated losses, pet loss, ambiguous loss, “regular” loss experienced by outside-the-norm people, etc. all belong without over-defining the space.

Come as you are. No fixing, no performing, no “right” way to grieve.

Registration link in the place where you find such things!

#griefsupportgroup #griefgroup #thegriefflock #grieftherapy #phillygrief

https://forms.gle/j4kxGmfost7qhEC77

We’re thrilled to bring you Singing Our Grief next month from @cherrystreetpier as part of the incredible immersive art and performance experience @roomforgriefphl.

Join us at 7 pm on Friday, June 19th (Juneteenth) to move our sorrows through song, as we gather to weave the sounds of our broken hearts together.

Communal singing through grief invites us to meet the tender, raw, lost and lonely parts of ourselves and each other with compassion and empathy. Giving our grief sound collectively creates space for us to shed the shame, the judgment, the fear we may feel around expressing our grief out loud, as we honor this natural human experience of responding to loss. As our hearts soften and open upon the waves that carry our voices.

We can’t wait to join you on the water (a generous ally in helping us metabolize our grief) as part of this beautiful event.

“Room for Grief: Living with Loss in America” explores the many facets of loss and grief that impact us both personally and collectively through art, film, performance and multidisciplinary works, inviting us to envision a world where grief isn’t stigmatized and isolating but connective and liberating.

We invite you to explore the entire range of events being offered, including Singing Our Grief from 7-8:30 pm June 19th.

📍 Cherry Street Pier Gallery
🪷 Opening Reception: June 5th from 4-10 pm
🪷 Events all throughout the month
🪷 Closing Ritual: June 28 from 7-8 pm

Deep gratitude to @chelsea_does_it for inviting us to be part of this communal container.

#roomforgrief #grievingtogether #creativegrief #griefart #normalizinggrief

A monthly drop-in grief space for those who don’t quite fit the mold. Sliding scale $10-$20 to attend.

Grief doesn’t always look the way people expect it to. It can be messy, nonlinear, contradictory, or hard to name. The Grief Flock is a space for the grief that feels out of place—too much, not enough, mixed with relief, anger, numbness, humor, or confusion.

This event is for: non-monogamous grievers, queer and trans folks, estranged families, complicated losses, pet loss, ambiguous loss, “regular” loss experienced by outside-the-norm people, etc. all belong without over-defining the space.

Come as you are. No fixing, no performing, no “right” way to grieve.

Register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSduCqbf8SaP6GJ7X-Zj7z0k-ThDu7LfiLBikqLesarwdnTeIw/viewform?usp=dialog

After last month’s Singing Our Grief, someone who attended for the first time asked if we could do it all over again the next day.

Sometimes we don’t realize how much we need to be held until we feel that soft warm embrace wrapping itself around us … in song, in breathing in reverence and gratitude with the land, in being witnessed in our sorrows, in remembering our belonging to a wider community of tender broken open hearts.

Join us this month on the Spring Equinox.

🎶 An Evening of Singing Our Grief
🗓 Friday, April 17th
⏰ 7-8:30pm
🌳 Chestnut HIll United, 8812 Germantown Avenue
📍Philadelphia, PA

Suggested donation: $10-$30 in person or via Naila-Francis at Venmo. No one turned away for lack of funds.

As we journey through this Long Dark, we know the horrors will keep coming.

And so we gather to raise our voices in songs of grief and praise — for what we love and what we are losing. We gather because community and ritual are among the more potent medicines for navigating this passage of upheaval and uncertainty.

Join us.

Suggested donation: $10-$30 in person or via Naila-Francis at Venmo. No one turned away for lack of funds.

There is a small parking lot behind the church, as well as street parking. Parking is also available at the Women’s Center at Chestnut Hill Hospital across the street. The church is about a 7-minute walk from the Chestnut Hill East rail line.

All that breaks your heart is always welcome here.

Registration and details available here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/glue-sticks-and-feelings-an-anti-valentines-day-grief-crafting-circle-tickets-1981526540223?aff=oddtdtcreator

This December, we’ll be reading The Grief Cure by Cody Delistraty — a memoir and cultural critique that traces the medicalization of grief, from Freud’s early theories to the rise of pharmaceutical solutions like Prozac. Delistraty explores how grief became pathologized and the costs of living in a culture obsessed with quick fixes and moving on too fast.

If you’ve ever felt pressure to “get over it” or fix your sadness, this book may name something sacred in your experience — the parts of grief that refuse to be rushed or erased.

Theme: Medicalization of Grief, Pharmaceutical Culture, and the Search for a Quick Fix

Mini Practice: Grief and Control Journaling
Before or during the circle, consider these questions:

• What parts of my grief have felt unacceptable to others?

• What am I tired of hiding?

• What do I want to keep close, no matter what the world says?

Register for the event here: https://forms.gle/i9136BbCRtZA8DPN8

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/polyam-holiday-blessings-blues-a-discussion-on-enm-and-grief-tickets-1966803052876

The holidays can bring joy and ache for non-monogamous people (and grievers of all stripes—maybe you’re both). Family gatherings may highlight who is welcome and who is excluded. Some partners may be openly celebrated while others remain hidden. Breakups can ripple out through entire networks, resurfacing grief during a season that emphasizes togetherness. Traditions may be lost or reshaped as relationships shift, while old wounds can re-open around belonging, secrecy, and identity.

And yet, the season can also hold blessings—chosen family dinners, new rituals, unexpected moments of intimacy and connection, and the reminder that love does not fit into a single mold.

This gathering creates a space to name both the blessings and the blues, holding the fullness of what holidays can mean in polyam communities. Join us for PolyAm Holiday Blessings & Blues, a drop-in virtual gathering with grounding ritual, education, and open sharing space. Together we’ll honor both the light and the heaviness of the season.

December 5th | 7–8:30 pm ET | $10–$20 sliding scale (no one turned away)

Facilitated by Lori of @MoonvineGrief, Catherine of @DeathProjectManager, and Rowan of @UncommonThreadsTherapy.

Bring your grief, your blessings, and your whole self. We’ll meet you there.

#Polyamory #NonMonogamy #GriefWork #ChosenFamily #HolidayGrief #MoonvineGrief #DeathEducation #QueerCommunity #BlessingsAndBlues #PolyamCommunity #Polyamorous #EthicalNonMonogamy #ENM #PolyamSupport #QueerHealing #GriefSupport #CollectiveCare #QueerPolyamory #PolyamLife #HealingTogether #SeasonalGrief #RadicalLove #GriefRitual #QueerGrief #GriefCommunity #RitualAndHealing #TransformingGrief #GriefAndLove #EndOfYearReflections

Register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe103cSTCVp5DL9Jett7oFESPGiuAN5ao-WS8Wjs1AagnfGSw/viewform

In an interview with director Ryan White following the screening of “Come See Me in the Good Light” at Independent Film Festival Boston, Andrea Gibson talked about how they used to hope they would die alongside everyone they loved at the same time. They’d since come to realize, however, the magic of “taking turns.”

“It’s one thing that we all share, and I don’t want to shy away from the raw truth of it and how it sort of just pummels you into the heart of love…

“Right when they told me I had ovarian cancer, I remember just, like, my jaw dropping at this world, and I suddenly knew I was going to die and I could not believe I had spent my life not knowing I was going to die, and I suddenly could look at everyone in my life and see that they were going to die. There’s something about this that’s magic as painful as it is. It’s the magic of life. It’s the brevity of it.”

Come honor Andrea’s too-brief yet brave, generous and magnificently human life with us as we screen “Come See Me in the Good Light” the day it premieres.

We’re excited to offer this opportunity to experience the light they were and to gather around the many gifts they left us, including permission to make space for our big feelings.

The film journeys with Andrea and their partner Megan Falley as they face Andrea’s incurable cancer in what might be their final year together.

We look forward to being with you on Friday, November 14, at 7:30 p.m. at Harmonie Hall, 4372 Fleming St., Philadelphia.

🎟️Donations welcome. Register to attend at bio link.

Thank you @harmoniehall_1891 for offering the space.

I’m thrilled to be hosting a full table at Philly Zine Fest, showcasing a collection of zines and creative works that explore grief, death, and the ways we navigate loss. Whether you’re curious, seeking connection, or looking for creative ways to hold and process grief, there’s something here for everyone.

On the table, you’ll find:

• Howl & Hold – my own zine, our own zine, a companion for those walking the tender terrain of grief.

• Mortality Workbook by Death Project Manager – a reflective guide to engaging with our own mortality.

• Works by Cindy Milstein on anti-fascist grief and grief as activism – exploring how grief intersects with collective care and social justice.

• Seasons by Christine Blystone – navigating miscarriage and the grief of what’s lost.

• Herbal Deathcare Vol 1 by Chthonic Apothecary – an offering of botanical care for those engaging with death and dying.

• Mourning Pug’s Pet Grievers Club – honoring the deep bond and grief we carry for our companion animals.

• Two cool offerings by Tending Becomings — 53 Things to do for a Griever and Death Prep 101. Zine duo guides you through preparing for your own death AND offering practical ways to support the grievers in your life, creating a roadmap for both giving and receiving care in times of loss.

• Two comics by Christina Tran – Aging and It’s Ok That It’s Not Ok, reflecting on life transitions, grief, and acceptance.

• Decades of Confusion by Justin Duerr – a visionary Philly artist explores the story of the Cromwell twins.

• Grief at the Table — curated by BACII is a compilation of short stories, poems, prose, recipes, and artwork from voices of color, created by members of the inaugural PAUSE Starlight Development Residency Program.

• Maybe more? We’ll see who else I can rope into my scheme.

I hope you’ll stop by to browse, hold, and read — and maybe even find a new zine to take home as a companion on your grief journey.

The Smell of Rain on Dust by Martín Prechtel

Theme: Grief as Ceremony, Grief as Praise
📅 Circle Date: October 16

In October, we’ll gather around a mythic and devotional text: The Smell of Rain on Dust by Martín Prechtel. This book is part prayer, part plea — a call to let grief flow freely as an act of beauty, of praise, of love. Prechtel reminds us that grief is a communal language that modern life has forgotten, and it’s time to remember.

If you’ve been longing for a way to make your grief sacred again, this book may feel like a door creaking open.

🌀 Mini Practice: Make an offering to your grief. Place something on your altar or outside — a flower, a leaf, a handwritten note. Say to yourself: “This is for what I’ve lost. This is for what shaped me.”

Join us for a circle full of ritual, story, and reverence: https://forms.gle/hxyjkEQwgAg2Anz67

On October 11, 1–3 pm in Vernon Park (Germantown, Philadelphia), we’ll gather for the 5th annual Grief Processional — a community ritual of walking together in remembrance, solidarity, and care.

The grief keeps on coming. Wars, losses, extinctions, ruptures, heartbreaks both public and private. We were never meant to carry it alone.

Through movement, music, and the presence of one another, this processional creates space to honor what feels too heavy to hold by ourselves. This year, we’re joined by the Philadelphia Threshold Choir, whose voices will help weave song and care into our shared path.

All are welcome. You don’t need prior experience with ritual or group grief work — just a willingness to show up as you are. Feel free to “wear your grief” in whatever way feels meaningful.

📍 Vernon Park, Germantown PA
📅 Friday, October 11 | 1–3 pm
🎶 Supported by Threshold Choir & The Thread

Details here: https://www.salttrailsphilly.com/

We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate for having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein do we err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with the extension of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings: they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.

— Henry Beston, “The Outermost House”

💜

We’re thrilled to partner this month with @opbarks for Singing Our Grief.

The loss of our animal companions is like no other loss. The grief we feel when they’re no longer a part of our everyday is one that’s often misunderstood and minimized by those who haven’t loved and been loved in this way.

Join us on Friday, September 19, as we make space to honor these family members who have died or are ailing.

Whether you’re grieving the loss of a pet or not, all are welcome, as are all griefs.

🎶 Singing Our Grief
🗓️7 to 8:30 pm Friday, Sept. 19
📍Opportunity Barks, 3510 Scotts Lane, Suite 3112, Philadelphia
💲Donation: $10-$30 (no one turned away for lack of funds)

🌾 September – Black Grief/White Grievance: The Politics of Loss by Juliet Hooker

Theme: Political Grief, Racial Justice, and Whose Loss Gets Mourned

📖 A searing analysis of how grief operates differently across race and power structures in America. Hooker challenges narratives of national unity and explores how Black grief is pathologized while white grievance is weaponized. A vital read for collective care work and political mourning.

🌀 Mini-Practice: Grief and Power journaling prompt.

Ask yourself: Whose grief do I see honored? Whose pain gets dismissed? What does my grief demand of the systems I live within?

📅 Event: September 18

Register here: https://forms.gle/g2MJXdb3H2KcstwZ8

The heart wants what the heart wants. So does grief. Both are messy, primal, and difficult to reason with.

Join psychotherapist and death educator Lori Zaspel of Moonvine Grief and Catherine of Death Project Manager for Gone But Still in My Google Calendar: a discussion on polyamory / ENM and grief.

All griefs welcome - whether from death, or living losses like breakups, change, the heartaches that come from being alive. 

Lori is a psychotherapist, grief activist, death educator, and content creator who was a founding member of the Philly Death Doula Collective, is a current member of Salt Trails Philly (an art collective working to honor grief as a vital and sacred part of the human experience).

Catherine is the creator of the Mortality Workbook, a toolkit to collect what your loved ones should know before you go, so that you can rest in peace. She has hosted death education events around the globe in multiple languages.

Saturday, September 13, 7PM EST / 4PM PST; 90 minutes over GoogleMeet.

$10-$20 sliding scale suggested donation; no one turned away for lack of funds.

We'll open with a grounding exercise, share information on relational grief, then create space for your thoughts on non-monogamy, grief, breakups within breakups, changes, endings, new beginnings.

Bring all your feelings, even the ones you’re embarrassed to feel. We’ll meet them, and you, on the internet.

Theme: Grief, Ritual, and Embodied Justice
📅 Circle Date: August 14

In August, we’re slowing down with Tending Grief — a soul-nourishing offering from Camille Sapara Barton that blends grief work, social justice, and somatic practice. This book feels like a balm: it doesn’t rush you. It offers gentle, grounded tools for making space for loss in the body, the collective, and the ancestral line.

If you’re seeking a more embodied relationship to your grief — one that doesn’t pathologize or fix, but tends and honors — this one’s for you.

🌀 Mini Practice: Create a grounding altar.
Gather a few meaningful, natural items — a stone, a feather, a leaf. Spend a minute each day connecting with one through your senses. Ask your grief: what do you need right now?

Register here: https://forms.gle/iMjzu1Uuec9LNg8C6

Singing Our Grief is a communal gathering of music, ritual, and shared remembrance — an invitation to honor our losses through the healing power of voice and presence. Whether you're grieving a person, a relationship, a season of life, or the state of the world, come as you are. No singing experience needed — just a willingness to show up with your tender heart.

💛 Suggested donation: $15-25
🎶 Venmo: @Naila-Francis

All are welcome.

Bound By Loss is a thoughtfully facilitated book circle for those navigating loss who feel ready to engage with their grief through reading, reflection, and discussion. This circle will provide a supportive, non-pathologizing space to explore grief-related literature — offering insight, validation, and connection outside the structure of formal therapy and with a return to community in mind.

📖 Second Meeting: June 12th, 6–8 PM
📚 Our Book: Renegade Grief by Carla Fernandez

This group will meet via Google Meet. Auto-generated captions will be available, and I am open to discussing alternative accessibility options as needed. While cameras on is preferred (because we wanna see your beautiful face), no one will be required to do so. Please note that listening to audio books is reading in this group. Braille is reading in this group.

Participation is offered on a sliding scale of $10, $15, or $20 per session, payable via Venmo.

Register to attend here.