Communal Crisis and Lament
As you read the following words, I invite you to reflect on your own experiences of communal lament, whether they be in the form of memorials or funerals, protests and justice work, social media tributes, or something else entirely.
In her book, Crisis Contemplation, Dr. Barbara Holmes writes:
Communal lament is important for several reasons.
It wakes us up and, in doing so, makes us mindful of the pain of our neighbors, who no longer can go about business as usual when the women begin to wail. Their keening rattles both marrow and bone. Who can remain in a stupor with all of that yelling?!
But lament is important for another reason:
The collective wail reminds us that we are not alone. The sheer power and resonance of a grief-stricken chorus reminds us that we are beings of quantum potential. We still have agency in every cell of our being, enough to survive—even this!
[It] is risky business.
[It is risky] because it challenges power structures, it calls for justice, and it makes demands on our relationships with the “powers that be,” one another, and God. Once lament is released, it cannot be recalled. Lament is risky because we never know until the act is done whether or not we have gone too far.
Lament allows the pain to escape and stitches us to our neighbors.
📝 Questions:
What stories do you hold of communal lament? How have these experiences supported you through a crisis or even invited you (or challenged you) to enter into relationship with a broader community?
What is your posture toward communal lament? In times of crisis, both personal and communal, do you lean toward others or away from them? Do you give yourself to community or tend to isolate? Where did you learn this posture?
🧰 Resources:
Emergent Strategies for Collective Organizing with adrienne maree brown (video)
Crisis Contemplation by Barbara Holmes (book)
Race and the Cosmos by Barbara Holmes (book)
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