Barbican Centre: At the Heart of Grief is Love

A short film using archival footage of Whitfield’s father’s funeral in Japan with a sound bath, guided meditation, and poem reflecting on diaspora and multigenerational grief. A part of “Visions from the Wake” programmed by Cici Peng.

In all the depths
And shadows of grief
For what we’ve lost
For what we’re losing
For what we’ve yet to lose

And maybe even for what could have been
And what may never come to be

Remember
At the heart of grief is love

Grief is a privilege for the living
And yet in the timeless light of love
We are here and we are not
We are all
Already dead
And have never been born

Unlearn the separation
Between life and death
Between self and other
Between us and them

Honour your grief
Through the fire of rage
Through the shivering rain of sadness
Allow yourself to feel it all
And perhaps we can
In the ways we most urgently need
Unlearn the separation between
Our light and our shadow

Integrate not only our hurt
But our capacity to hurt
And most importantly
Our capacity to care

For it is only together
Imperfect, enmeshed, entangled
We can learn to grow larger than our grief

Allow yourself to feel it all
And remember the only way out is through

Stay rooted
Stay tender
And in the moments we feel buried
Look up
We are only planted

From fruit to flower
Our route to power
One day in bloom
In the timeless light of love