Calabash Grief & Legacy: Online POC Grief Support Circle

Calabash Grief & Legacy: A 4-Hour Grief Circle for POC/Global Majority
Held by Aama Sade & Bilal
Coming together in our calabash, a space where all are welcome.

This is a space for the Global Majority & Global Village; meaning People of Colour, Melanin Rich and however you name yourself. This is a space for you to be seen, heard and witnessed in community. We make room for grief in all its forms.  Including personal loss and bereavement, and the grief we carry through racism, prejudice, colonialism, ancestral loss and cultural erasure.  In balance, alongside loss we also honour the love, our culture and heritage we carry.  With a focus on self-care, respect and listening with heart, we connect with ourselves, with each other, and with those who came before us.

A 4-Hour Journey
This 4-hour online gathering steps away from the busyness of daily life to sit together in council and ceremony. We move through a series of guided exercises that build gradually towards a central Grief Circle, followed by time to integrate. Tending grief together in community (village) alongside others is part of the medicine.  Because we meet online, you can be comfortable in your own space and take care of your needs wherever you’re joining from.

Is this for you?
This gathering is for you if you long for a space where all of you is welcome, culturally as well as personally. You might be grieving a loss or bereavement. You might be carrying the weight of racism or bias in work or daily life, or feeling cut off from your roots, language or ancestors. You might be doing this kind of work in isolation without much support. Every grief is valid and unique. Feelings may include sadness, rage, anxiety, numbness, emptiness and relief, among many others, and people may bring challenging themes and strong expressions of emotion.

This gathering may not be suitable for anyone in a severe mental health crisis or feeling particularly unsupported right now. If you’re unsure whether it’s right for you, please email Aama Sade (aama@treecircleceremonies.co.uk) or Bilal (bilal.nasim@myceliumgroup.co) and we’ll talk it through together.

To get a feel for what happens in a grief tending circle, there’s a series of short animations HERE.

Your Facilitators

Aama Sade and Bilal are the co-founders of Calabash Grief & Legacy.

Aama Sade is a Sangoma celebrant, grief and ceremony facilitator, storyteller and creative alchemist whose work brings together sacred space, community and healing. Through Tree Circle Ceremonies Calabash has been rooting and growing events since 2021. Through incorporating Grief Honouring practice she creates welcoming spaces where people can connect authentically with themselves and others. Participants consistently describe her facilitation as warm, sensitive and deeply supportive, helping them feel seen, heard and held while navigating grief, transition and personal growth.  Drawing from teachers of ancestral wisdom, spiritual practice and cultural holistic traditions, Aama Sade offers ceremonies, workshops, retreats and community experiences that foster connection, resilience and transformation. Calabash Grief & Legacy, a joint initiative between Tree Circle Ceremonies and Embracing Grief, is a developing community initiative for global majority people of colour.  Calabash is focused on remembrance, grief tending and collective wellbeing.

Bilal is a co-founder of Embracing Grief (griefsupport.org.uk), and since 2019 they have facilitated 100+ grief-tending events and workshops with 2,000+ participants. His work explores what it means to be alive, and how we relate to loss, change, and what we carry. Alongside open spaces, Bilal has also created and delivered workshops specifically for people of colour and for those identifying as men. In the past Bilal has run programmes on confronting death and trained as a Death Doula with Red Tent End of Life Doulas. Outside of Embracing Grief, Bilal is the Managing Director at Mycelium (myceliumgroup.co), where he leads award-winning programmes in nervous system resilience, inclusive leadership, and healthy workplace culture.

Aama Sade and Bilal are supported by others who have walked the Apprenticing to Grief journey. 

Event Details
Date: Thursday 3 December 2026
Time: 16:00–20:00 UK (4 hours)
Where: Online via Zoom (link sent upon booking completion. This event requires a free zoom account which you can set up here: https://zoom.us)
Price: £ 20 / 35 / 50

When you book, we’ll ask you a few questions to help you prepare for the gathering and to help us support your needs. Once your booking is complete, you’ll receive the Zoom link and joining instructions straight away.

There are a maximum of 12 places, including the holding team.

We start on time, so please arrive a few minutes early. The Zoom room opens 10 minutes before the start, and there’s no entry after 15 minutes past the start. If you’re new to Zoom, join early to check your connection.

Access: This space is held specifically for People of Colour / Global Majority, aged 18+. Within that, everyone is welcome regardless of gender, sexual orientation, disability, religious belief or otherwise. If you have any access needs, please email us at aama@treecircleceremonies.co.uk or bilal.nasim@myceliumgroup.co and we’ll do our best to make it work for you.

If you can’t make it: Please let us know as soon as you can so we can offer your place to someone on the waiting list.

Cancellation policy

As a not-for-profit soon-to-be CIC, we rely on confirmed bookings to pay our facilitators fairly, cover the administration involved in holding these events, and keep this work accessible. Late cancellations and refunds add significantly to that admin load, which is why we ask people to book with care. All bookings are non-refundable, but if you can't attend, there are two ways your place can still be used:

• Pass it on: you're welcome to transfer your place to someone else up to 48 hours before the event. Please let us know their name, and they'll need to complete the pre-event form that all participants fill in.
• Waiting list: if the event has a waiting list and we're able to fill your place from it, we'll transfer your ticket.

We ask that you only book if you're confident you can be there and you feel resourced enough to be in a group.