This Year in Grief, Next Year in Hope
Featuring a diverse roster of luminaries in grief, spirituality, the arts, creativity, personal development, this gathering provides a space to reflect on what we've been grieving this year – personally and/or collectively – and to name what we’re yearning and dreaming about for 2026. The 90-minute program consists of music, the building of an altar and a moment to invite the public to acknowledge losses. That includes individuals who have died, places and environments ravaged by war and the climate crisis, and the erosion of institutions and belief systems that we hold dear. We will also hold space for the flickers of hope and renewal in 2026. Special guests include storyteller and author Daria Burke; author, bereaved parent, and cancer survivor Kelly Cervantes; family caregiver and advocate Jessica C. Guthrie; singer-songwriter and multimedia artist Joshua Hill; writer, artist, and educator Jennifer Pastiloff; artist, contemplative care practitioner, and death doula Mangda Sengvanhpheng; and poet, educator, and bereaved parent Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer.
Daria Burke is a bestselling author, speaker and award-winning business executive. A storyteller and sense-maker, she explores how we choose who we become through personal experience and the science of healing. Her debut memoir, OF MY OWN MAKING, is a soulful and scientific exploration of overcoming adversity, healing from childhood trauma, and rewriting one's own story. As a former Chief Marketing Officer and 2020 AdAge Woman to Watch, Daria’s work has been recognized by Forbes, Vogue, and Women’s Wear Daily. She has written for Fast Company and The Huffington Post and has appeared on NPR and MSNBC. A distinguished alumna of NYU Stern School of Business (MBA) and the University of Michigan (BA), Daria was born in Detroit and now calls East Hampton home.
Kelly Cervantes is an award-winning writer, speaker, and advocate best known for her blog Inchstones and USA Today bestselling book, Normal Broken: The Grief Companion for When It’s Time to Heal But You’re Not Sure You Want To. Her new memoir is The Luckiest. She has been published in the Chicago Tribune, Cosmopolitan, and Fortune as well as featured by MSNBC, New York Times, and CNN. She sits on the boards of CURE Epilepsy and The Undiagnosed Diseases Network Foundation and hosts CURE Epilepsy’s podcast, Seizing Life. Born and raised in the Midwest, Kelly resides in Maplewood, NJ, with her family.
https://www.kellycervantes.com/
Jessica C. Guthrie is a nationally recognized thought leader transforming how organizations support family caregivers navigating dementia. As founder of Jessica C. Guthrie Caregiving Consultancy, she bridges the gap between lived caregiving experience and institutional support systems.
Currently caring for her mother with Alzheimer's Disease for over a decade, Jessica brings authentic insights to her work as a strategic consultant, keynote speaker, and policy advocate. Her platform "When Career & Caregiving Collide™" and proprietary CARE Connection Framework help companies and healthcare institutions develop evidence-based solutions that transform caregiver relationships from adversarial to collaborative.
https://www.jessicacguthrie.com/
Joshua Hill is an award-winning songwriter, violinist, and dementia caregiver crafting multimedia stories at the intersection of arts and health in the forms of stage, screen and song. He received a Canadian Screen Award for co-writing the song “The Crown Sleeps” in the Academy Award nominated film THE BREADWINNER. Funded by an Arizona Commission on the Arts grant, Joshua apprenticed The Wooster Group in NYC to study their theatrical devising process. As a composer, Joshua has scored two feature films, and worked with Michael Krassner (Boxhead Ensemble) and Tim Rutili (Califone) on films that have premiered at Sundance and SXSW. In 2020, Joshua became a dementia caregiver for his father and created SONG CYCLE, a multimedia performance piece which explores the powerful connection between music and dementia, and its personal impact on his family. Joshua performed SONG CYCLE at REDCAT, The Amargosa Opera House, and The Tank Center For Sonic Arts.
https://www.thehillinmind.com/
Jennifer Pastiloff trots the globe as a public speaker and to host her retreats to Italy, as well as her one-of-a-kind workshops, which she has taught to thousands of people all over the world. The author of the popular Substack Proof of Life, she teaches writing and creativity classes called Allow, and workshops called Shame Loss, when she isn’t painting and selling her art. She has been featured on Good Morning America, and Katie Couric, and in New York magazine, People, Shape, Health magazine, and other media outlets for her authenticity and unique voice. She is deaf, reads lips, and mishears almost everything, but what she hears is usually funnier (at least she thinks so). The author of the national bestseller On Being Human and the new book Proof of Life: Let Go, Let Love, and Stop Looking for Permission to Live Your Life, Pastiloff lives in Southern California with her son, Charlie Mel.
https://jenniferpastiloff.com/
Mangda Sengvanhpheng is an artist, contemplative care practitioner, a Reimagine collaborator, and the Founder of BACII. She is devoted to creating a deeper culture of care, transcending our circumstances, and expanding our experiences through the wisdom of impermanence. Mangda offers supportive services, regenerative programming, and intentional products for individuals, communities, and organizations alike. Her life and death work is guided by her Laotian last name, which means “the light of the full moon.” BACII is inspired by all of her experiences with loss and life, and specifically the loss of her mother. Driven by these experiences, Mangda became a certified death doula through Going with Grace and an end-of-life volunteer. She then launched BACII as a platform to integrate death into our lives so that we can better support ourselves and those we love.
Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer is a poet, teacher, speaker, and writing facilitator who co-hosts the Emerging Form podcast on the creative process. Her daily audio series, The Poetic Path, is on the Ritual app. Her poems have appeared on A Prairie Home Companion, PBS NewsHour, O Magazine, American Life in Poetry, and Carnegie Hall stage. Her most recent poetry collections are All the Honey (Samara Press, 2023) and The Unfolding (Wildhouse Publishing). In January 2024, she became the first poet laureate for Evermore, helping others explore grief, bereavement, wonder, and love through poetry. One-word mantra: Adjust.
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 in the hopes of healing ourselves and the world. We specifically support each other in facing adversity, loss, and mortality and – at our own pace – actively channeling life's biggest challenges into meaningful action and growth.
