Let’s Take Action: Surviving a Sibling
This is a digital event. You should receive information in your ticket or from the host about how to join online.
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Join authors and educators David Martinez and Nico Slate for the final session of the Surviving a Sibling series. They will share insights from their memoirs about the enduring bond between brothers and how experiences like racism, addiction, and trauma can complicate grief.
The event culminates in peer-led breakout sessions, offering a space for shared reflection and practical support through the following guided prompts:
- Your grief has a wisdom of its own. It seeks to be expressed and witnessed. What does it want to say today?
- What is one thing you’ve been avoiding since your loss and what is one small, sweet step you can take to gently approach it?
- Think of an aspect of your grief that feels particularly heavy. What’s one tiny act of self-compassion you can offer yourself around that?
- Grief often shifts our priorities. Is there something new you’ve been curious about exploring or learning? What’s one small way you can start?
David Martinez
David Martinez’s debut memoir, Bones Worth Breaking (MCD, 2024) is a portrait of the unbreakable bond between brothers who were robbed of the chance to grow old together, and a reckoning with the brutal global forces that let so many poor young men of color fall perilously through the cracks. It is listed as one of the best memoirs of 2024 by Esquire. Library Journal’s starred review calls it “a powerfully honest memoir…visceral and emotionally aware…” and Publisher’s Weekly termed Martinez “a writer to watch.” He earned his MFA from UC Riverside Palm Desert and teaches English, Mythology, and Creative Writing at Paradise Valley Community College. He is a dual citizen of the United States and Brazil and has lived all over both countries as well as in Puerto Rico. He lives in Glendale, Arizona.
https://www.davidmmartinez.com/
Nico Slate
Nico Slate is Professor in the Department of History at Carnegie Mellon University. He is the author of six books, including Brothers: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Race (Temple University Press, 2023), a book about the life and death of his older brother, a mixed-race hip-hop artist who was the victim of a racially-charged assault in Santa Monica, California in 1994. Nico is also the co-founder of LEAP, a program for low-income high school students interested in the arts, humanities, and social sciences.
Brothers: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Race
About the Series “Surviving a Sibling”
The "Surviving a Sibling" series, presented by Reimagine in February 2025, offers a vital space for understanding and supporting the often-overlooked grief of bereaved brothers and sisters. Known as "forgotten mourners," siblings often find their grief minimized after a family loss, as attention naturally focuses on parents and other close relatives. This three-part series aims to change that, providing a platform for connection, healing, and education. Each session will explore different facets of sibling loss, from the lifelong impact across various ages and relationship dynamics to the unique challenges of sudden or stigmatized deaths. Through storytelling, expert guidance, movement, and facilitated discussions, the series will offer practical tools for navigating grief, maintaining connection with deceased siblings, and fostering growth and transformation.
About Reimagine
Reimagine is a nonprofit organization catalyzing a uniquely powerful community–people of different backgrounds, ages, races, and faiths (and no faith) coming together to create a more compassionate world. We support each other in facing adversity, loss, and mortality and channeling life's biggest challenges into meaningful action and growth.
