Search

Home > Desert Oracle Radio > Hi-Desert Grief Lending Library project aims to revive the communal catharsis of loss
Podcast: Desert Oracle Radio
Episode:

Hi-Desert Grief Lending Library project aims to revive the communal catharsis of loss
Category: Society & Culture
Duration: 00:00:00
Publish Date: 2025-08-03 16:05:42
Description:

The Hi-Desert Grief Lending Library is a new pop-up installation at the Beatnik Lounge with a focus on community grief therapy through reading, songwriting, and visual art, organized and curated by Yucca Valley’s Meg Madison.

Madison says her inspiration for the Hi-Desert Grief Lending Library came from the passing of her partner of 41-years in 2023 and the shock that followed, pushing her to read everything she could regarding the grieving process:

“I especially read lots and lots of (grief) memoirs and I was comforted by the idea that other people had lived through this and that I could too. So earlier this year I began thinking I’d like to make a lending library as a way to discuss grief with people, because I think grief is something that is looked at as something private you do home alone in your house. But actually, once you’ve identified that there’s something that has happened to you—somebody died, you lost a job, you mourn your life pre-pandemic—you then have compassion for yourself around it, and then the step after having compassion for yourself would be to say it out loud to people that you trust. So I was looking to create a space where people could talk about grief in a safe way.”

Madison says the lending library is composed of books she’s personally read, citing Francis Weller’s “The Wild Edge of Sorrow” as among her favorites, while the rest she’s supplemented through online purchases and local thrift shopping.

“I have over 100 books in my collection, lots of books of poetry and cultural stories of different people or spiritual stories of people finding a way to go on with their life despite some huge obstacle, which is kind of what grief is, you know? You’ve lost the life you once had and you’ve got to make a new life because you’re alive and you have to go on living.”

Madison emphasizes the communal catharsis of the grieving process, a bygone instinct of taking pause to pull our community closer when we experience loss of a loved one. 

“For centuries, humankind has had rituals that were public rituals and today they’ve kind of disappeared so there’s no mourning where you get to hang out with people and tell stories about your dead person for like a week after they die and then on a certain anniversary. It’s just all private, inside you and your head.”

The Hi-Desert Grief Lending Library will be open every Tuesday from July 29 to October, culminating in a group art exhibition on Saturday, October 11. Every Tuesday will feature different speakers and facilitators, including Adriene Jenik’s talk on her “Artist’s Grief Deck” on August 5th, and “Songwriting Through Grief” with Teddy Quinn on September 9.
Total Play: 0