Our Reflection Spaces are living installations where festival attendees can reflect, process, and connect with supportive resources between and during performances and workshops at the festival.
● TAKE SPACE to draw, sit, read, and write at our reflection walls, altar spaces, and group mandala. Or to lie down, to remember, to dream, to move in response to how the space nurtures and/or inspires you.
● TAKE TIME to connect with other audience members, get support from rotating death workers, or be alone and away from the performance area.
We know that festival-going is a big physical and mental commitment and hope you can use these spaces to be with yourself, with others, and with the beyond, in silence, in song, in celebration.
Reflection Spaces
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A “grief couch” where rotating professionals working in varying fields across death work will provide space and support for festival attendees. Death workers may also facilitate a specific group activity. Death workers include Rebecca Maury, Naila Francis, Lauren Silver, Eva Johnson, Nefertiti Moor, Mel Srolovitz, Mieke Duffly, Kim Schmucki, Narinder Bazen, ShaEureka Davis.
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A reflective space. Sit and write letters to loved ones and add them to hanging string installation. Altar was created by Rebecca Maury in conversation with Saharra Dixon of the Collective for Radical Death Studies.
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Located at both Laurel Hill East and Laurel Hill East are tables to get connected with resources, services, information, and literature related to the workshops and practices explored throughout the festival.
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A sunny spot to sit, rest and reflect in 360°. Attendees are encouraged to draw, write and interact with our reflection questions using personal or communal writing materials.
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Dirt in a kiddie pool. A playful and tactile installation where attendees are invited to touch the dirt and feel into your reflections. A table and chairs with shallow buckets of dirt will also be available for those who cannot bend down to touch the dirt. There will be buckets of water and rags to help attendees clean themselves if they choose to touch the dirt.
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The Thread is a rotating public art installation in Philadelphia where any and all grievers can use a disconnected rotary phone to speak to someone who is unreachable to them. IG: @TheThreadPhilly https://www.thethreadphilly.org/
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Comfy areas with seating. Cards with printed questions are there for you to reflect and expand on throughout your visit either personally or by adding to a collaborative writing installation.
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Landscape is a participatory installation that invites visitors to "observe themselves observing" within the complex landscapes of Laurel Hill East. Landscape offers nine objects and five koan-like instructions for two people to engage in a simple activity of silence, stillness, and placement, revealing an unseen world both ordinary and luminous. The experimental, exploratory nature of Landscape suggests a practice of open curiosity and awareness that visitors may take with them, and rewards repeat encounters over the course of the festival.
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Accessibility Resource Tents: are the white pop-up tents located in the back parking lot at Laurel Hill West and the receiving vault at Laurel Hill East. Go to these tents to get connected with our access volunteers and free access materials like:
Adaptive writing devices
Earplugs/noise-cancelling headphones
Folding chairs, extra-wide seating, and cushions
KN-9 masks and rapid Covid-19 tests
Large print programs with audio description recording
Magnifying glasses and clip lights for transcripts
Mobility or sighted guides (when available!)
Printed transcripts for events (when possible)
Request shuttle services or accessible van
Mobility aids walkers, wheelchairs, and canes (when available)
Stim toys
Sunscreen, bug spray, and plastic ponchos
Water
Ongoing Installations:
Scheduled Activities:
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5/29 from 6:30-8:30pm
6/1, 4-6:30pm
Create a group mandala in the grass. Facilitated by death workers Lauren Silver and Rebecca Maury. Grabbers, seats and tables will be available to support those with limited mobility.
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5/30 from 5:30pm-6:00pm
This activity may invite attendees to walk among the tombstones on uneven grass.
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Friends of Green Burial PA is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization centered around green burial education and advocacy. We are a group of people who are joining forces in the state of Pennsylvania to educate the public about the green burial option and to create more access to it for after-death care. Our mission is to educate and advocate for natural burial, to create conversation and dialogue around restoring the connections between the living and the dead, and to secure dedicated open space for natural burial and its practices. Come by our table to learn more about what green burial is and where it is offered, pick up educational materials and resources, and ask us any questions you might have!
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5/30 from 5:00pm-6:00pm
This activity may take place under the willow trees at Laurel Hill East. An accessible shuttle is available - inquire at the gatehouse and accessibility/registration tents.
Come join us and experience Kindness Made Audible. Philadelphia Threshold Singers offer Song Baths to provide our neighbors a moment to rest and to receive songs offering comfort, peace, and love. Please join us, and allow our voices to wash over you. Everyone is welcome.
Come join us and experience Kindness Made Audible. Philadelphia Threshold Singers offer Song Baths to provide our neighbors a moment to rest and to receive songs offering comfort, peace, and love. Please join us, and allow our voices to wash over you. Everyone is welcome.
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5/30 from 3:30pm-7:00pm → Laurel Hill West
5/31 from 2:00pm-7:30pm → Laurel Hill East
Sit with folks from TalkDeath in generative conversations around death and dying.
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“Ask a Hospice Nurse”
5/31 from 2:00pm -7:30pm → Laurel Hill East receiving vault
Sit with hospice nurses Lisa Castner and Melissa Faris from Compassus to discuss end of life support.