Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th of August 2024
09:30 – 17:30
Tickets: £150
Location: Natural Endings, Former Mail Sorting Depot,
Rise Lane, Todmorden, OL14 7AA
Lament is an ancient art form and healing act of catharsis, transformation and a potent practice of prayer, protest and for peace. Unexpressed emotion, stuck words of frustration, stagnant rage, pools of sadness…often drain life energy, stifle creative expression, poison relationships and keep us small. Never more has the world needed to hear authentic voices for peace! This workshop has been specifically designed for those committed to peace-building whether internally, in families or communities or in the world; the aim is to transmute feelings of overwhelm, powerlessness and despair with the fire of free expression.
Alexandra Derwen is a keener and lament leader, a poet, a death and grief doula (and trainer of doulas), author of the Lost Rites trilogy of books 1 ceremony and ritual for death and dying 2 community of grief and 3 ancestral landscape… psychopomp, celebrant, ceremonialist, inspirational speaker. In Feb 2024 Alexandra made a tour of UK and Ireland with the Rituals of Lament, gathering folks to lament the wellsprings of shared grief and the taproots of shared trauma that are both cause and effect of colonisation within the British Isles and Ireland the tour is part of a long arc of ceremony of rituals of ancestral atonement for the legacy of Empire, work that has seen Alexandra invited to travel and work internationally.
The workshop blends organic soundscape with poetry and catharsis, including skills and techniques for channelling lament for healing of self and the collective. The second day takes these techniques and explores how to inspire a group or crowd to lament together; a deep expression of defiance and of unity.
This work is strong but gentle, potent but accessible. You can expect to find companionship, community and a sense of connection alongside authentic expression, healing catharsis and an inner peace.
The venue, Natural Endings, Todmorden is a gorgeous ceremonial hall created by Rosie Grant a funeral director and all-round creative genius from what was once the local post sorting office. It is the perfect venue for this workshop.
The cost is £150 for the two days please email agderwen@gmail.com to register (payment in full most welcome (and needed!) but payment in parts also possible so long as balance is paid before the event).
Click here to see the event on Facebook.
