#HandsUpOnlyLove - join me at Dia de los Muertos
diadelosmuertos
It's said that the dead wait all year for this one day, to come back and dance with the living. The Festival of Altars is a celebration of this one day - Dia de los Muertos - when the veil between worlds is thin and we can spend time with our departed loved ones.HANDS UP! ONLY LOVE!As I am devastated by the epidemic of young men of color losing their lives. I'm putting my hands up and offering all I have: love. In hopes of remembering, in hopes of healing, in hopes of creating new ways to hold space for one another, we'll jointly create an altar of love. In honor of the transformation that is happening in San Francisco's neighborhoods traditionally home to families of color, I offer an altar where we can write notes of sorrow, notes of longing, notes of love and notes of healing. This altar is for Micheal Brown, Allen Calloway, Rashawn Williams, Alejandro Nieto, and the many, many men of color whose names I do not know and whom I will never meet. This altar will rise up and take space acknowledging the irreplaceable gap that grows in our communities, the fabric of our society with each life lost. I invite the mamas and papas, the community outreach workers, the teachers and coaches, the friends and lovers, the neighborhoods broken open by this epidemic to join me in creating a sacred place of holding love as the mirror and the answer to these growing losses. Home is the place where we belong, where we find connection, rejuvenation and where we can be ourselves. We'll create an ephemeral home, including the direction South and element of Fire to honor youth.Please find me during the Dia de Los Muertos Festival of Altars November 2nd. I'll be at the corner of Harrison & 25th. Along the chain link fence, will be altars inspired in the traditional Dia de Los Muertos and including the modern elements of home and family. In between these altars will be sheets of wood where altar visitors can inscribe the names of young men of color whose lives have been cut short. On a table in front of the fence, love note templates in English, Spanish, Mandarin and French from LoveYou2.org will be available, along with pens and clothespins so altar visitors can write notes and add these to the fence installation.I welcome volunteers to help with installation, witnessing/assisting with love note writing, and clean up. Also, you may send in names to be inscribed or love notes to be written if you are unable to attend. Please email me: Shannon Weber LoveYou2.org@gmail.com See photos from last year's LoveYou2.org altar here.