Reimagine Vigil with Rebecca Soffer, Leslie Gray Streeter & Emily Wells
Reimagine has been hosting candlelight vigils throughout the pandemic in order to break down taboos and hold space for all that we've lost. Authors Rebecca Soffer and Leslie Gray Streeter will share stories of growth that resulted from unique experiences of adversity and loss. For Rebecca, this includes the writing of her new book The Modern Loss Handbook, a guide for anyone who has lost their “person” or wants to give something meaningful and effective to someone who has. Leslie Gray Streeter is a journalist, author of the memoir Black Widow, and a contributing editor for Modern Loss, a space cofounded by Rebecca Soffer for candid conversations about grief. The musical guest is composer, producer, and video artist Emily Wells.
Rebecca Soffer is cofounder of Modern Loss, a global movement offering creative, meaningful, and practical content and community addressing the long arc of grief. She is author of The Modern Loss Handbook: An Interactive Guide to Moving Through Grief and Building Your Resilience (Running Press, 2022) and coauthor of Modern Loss: Candid Conversation about Grief. Beginners Welcome (Harper Wave, 2018) and an internationally recognized speaker on loss and resilience. She writes regularly across media, including the New York Times, Glamour, NBC, and CNN. Rebecca is a Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumna and a Peabody Award–winning former producer for The Colbert Report. Rebecca and her husband and sons split their time between New York City and The Berkshires.
Leslie Gray Streeter is an author, veteran journalist and speaker. whose memoir Black Widow, was published in March 2020 by Little, Brown and Company. She is the lifestyle columnist for the Baltimore Banner, and was the longtime entertainment and lifestyle columnist and writer for the Palm Beach Post. A native of Baltimore, MD and a University of Maryland graduate, she and her work have been featured in The Miami Herald, the Washington Post, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Atlantic, the Today show, SiriusXM, O, The Oprah Magazine and more. She lives with her son Brooks and her mother Tina in her hometown of Baltimore. She’s a slow runner, an amateur vegan cook and a true crime and “Law and Order” enthusiast. www.lesliegraystreeter.com
Forging a bridge between pop and chamber music, composer, producer, and video artist Emily Wells builds songs from deliberate strata of vocals, synths, drums, piano, string, and wind instruments. Her evocative music (described as “visionary” by NPR) and performances (called “quietly transfixing” by the New York Times) impel listeners to be attuned. Wells’s latest release, the ten-song album Regards to the End, explores the AIDS crisis, climate change, and her lived experience watching the world burn. A work of radical empathy, Regards to the End foregrounds the power of art, critique, and care to connect and perhaps redeem us. www.emilywellsmusic.com
About Reimagine
Reimagine hosts community-driven experiences that bring creativity, connection, and essential conversation to face adversity, loss, and mortality, and channel the hard parts of life into meaningful action and growth. Reimagine envisions a world where we can embrace life fully—from this moment through the end—and collectively contribute to a more just and compassionate society. Reimagine experiences encompass arts + entertainment, healthcare + social services, spirituality + religion, and Innovation + design.
