Mother’s Day: Leaning Into Joy, Holding Space for Grief
Gather in community with thought leaders Marisa Renee Lee, Michelle Hord, Stephanie Foo, Lisa Keefauver, and Amanda Kloots to prepare for Mother’s Day. We’ll learn following:
- how grief shows up even (and especially) during times of joy
- tactics and strategies for engaging with grief around holidays
- reframing the narrative around Mother’s Day to honor loss and experience joy in creating new rituals and memories
Marisa Renee Lee is a called upon expert in coping with grief. In 2008, after a courageous battle, she lost her mother to cancer. This loss transformed her life and led her to question what grief really is and what healing truly requires. She is now a rabble-rouser of social healing: a former appointee in the Obama White House; managing director of My Brother's Keeper Alliance; co-founder of the digital platform Supportal; and founder of The Pink Agenda; a national organization dedicated to raising money for breast cancer care, research, and awareness. She is a regular contributor to Elle, Vogue, MSNBC, and CNN. She is a graduate of Harvard. She lives with her husband Matt, son Bennett, and dog Sadie in New York.
https://www.marisareneelee.com/
Michelle Hord is a media consultant, executive coach, published author and speaker. She has spent more than three decades in media and has worked with all of the major networks including shows like Good Morning America, The Talk, 48 Hours and The Oprah Winfrey Show. Michelle’s award winning memoir, The Other Side of Yet, was published in 2022. Her book tells of her grief journey of resilience in the face of tremendous personal loss. She lost her mother and maternal grandmother within months of each other in 1994. Her seven year old daughter, Gabrielle, was tragically murdered in 2017. She has been featured in O Magazine, The Tamron Hall Show, The Talk, GMA, Essence Magazine, MSNBC and others. Michelle founded a nonprofit, Gabrielle’s Wings, to honor the memory of her daughter. Gabrielle’s Wings serves a global community of elementary aged children through educational, recreational, and cultural engagement with partners on three continents.
Stephanie Foo is the NYT Bestselling author of What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma. She has written for Vox, The New York Times and The Atlantic. She worked as a radio producer for This American Life and Snap Judgment, and her stories aired on Reply All, 99% Invisible, Radiolab. A noted speaker and instructor, she has taught at Columbia University and has spoken at venues from Sundance Film Festival to the Missouri Department of Mental Health. She is a Complex PTSD survivor who lost two mothers: an abusive biological parent and a loving mother-in-law who died from a neurodegenerative disease.
Lisa Keefauver is an in-demand grief activist, speaker and author. She began her career as a social worker and narrative therapist, then expanded her activism in a variety of roles: clinical director & supervisor, non-profit co-founder, facilitator of personal and professional growth and healing. Lisa's wisdom and insights on grief are also embodied from her personal losses. She is a mother of an adopted child, who became an only parent when she lost her husband Eric to brain cancer in 2011. Lisa's grief advocacy inspired her to found Reimagining Grief, with a mission to illuminate and dismantle the limited and misleading collective story of grief that causes so much unnecessary suffering. Best known for her interview skills as host of the top-rated podcast, Grief is a Sneaky Bitch, she has spent much of her time sharing her warmth, wisdom, humor and compassion facilitating conversations as a speaker and moderator on stages, as an organizational consultant to facilitate grief-smart companies, and leading workshops and retreats. Lisa’s unique approach to shifting our grief culture led to an invitation to teach the Loss and Grief course at the University of Texas at Austin. Watch her viral TEDx Talk, Why Knowing More About Grief Can Make it Suck Less or pre-order her first book, Grief is a Sneaky Bitch: An Uncensored Guide to Navigating Loss dropping June 4, 2024.
Amanda Kloots (moderator) is a television host, bestselling author, actress and an award-winning fitness entrepreneur. A former Broadway dancer and Radio City Rockette, Amanda has performed on a variety of stage, film and TV productions for over 20 years. Amanda can currently be seen as a co-host of The Talk, CBS’ Daytime Emmy Award-winning talk show highlighting current events, pop culture, family, celebrity and trending topics of the day. In 2021, Amanda released her memoir, the NY Times bestseller “Live Your Life: My Story of Loving and Losing Nick Cordero” that was co-authored with her sister Anna Kloots. Following the book, Amanda produced, wrote and starred in Fit for Christmas that premiered on CBS in December of 2022. Her first children's book "Tell Me Your Dreams", a heartwarming new bedtime children’s book about the things we can do when we dare to dream, was published in April 2023. Prior to her current creative endeavors, Amanda’s love of dance and fitness led her to work and lead classes at one of New York’s premiere fitness studios and the launch of her AK! Fitness brand. In 2020, AK! Fitness launched the AK! Jump Rope along with the AK! Fitness app. In 2021, Amanda partnered with Equinox to launch the AK! Rope class at multiple locations across the US. Additionally, Amanda’s active lifestyle and enthusiasm landed her long term partnerships with Skechers and Wynn Resorts as an ambassador for the brands. Amanda is currently based in Los Angeles with her son, Elvis.
About Reimagine
Reimagine's mission is to help all people face adversity, loss, and mortality, and channel the hard parts of life into meaningful action and growth. www.letsreimagine.org
Reimagine continues to offer gatherings on holidays, often times of extreme vulnerability and grief. In particular, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Thanksgiving, and winter celebrations in December can be difficult because of their traditional associations with family members and reunions. However, even in seasons of sorrow, reasons for gratitude and joy can be found. It’s time to reimagine holidays and discover what matters most about these annual events.
