Weston’s community join together to experience ‘Grief as Grace: A Black Women’s Audio Archive’

20 August 2025

Grief is something that affects all of us. And so in 2023, with the support of the Good Grief programme, Good Grief Weston was launched – a place-based festival that offers a space in which to explore grief creatively and collectively.  Good Grief Weston Festivals have run in 2023 and 2024, reaching over 5000 people through a varied programme of events, activities and workshops.

As part of an ongoing commitment to supporting creative conversations around grief beyond the parameters of the Good Grief Weston Festival, a number of pilot projects have been running throughout 2025 in different communities. Shining bright amongst these is Grief as Grace, an intimate listening event that centres the voices of Black women, as they reflect on grief in all its forms. 

The sold out event was kindly hosted by The Other Place in Weston’s Meadow Street on Friday 15 August 2025. People gathered together over delicious West African food of yams, jelloff, asaro, pepper stew, and plantain, lovingly prepared by the coming together of local food providers “Afri-Spice” and “Ade-Ife Food Store.”  The evening invited connection and deep listening, as members of the community explored recordings in the first phase of an evolving audio archive. The stories heard there were tender, raw, and bold and all recorded as reflections and conversations with curator Louise Hill-Davis. Furthermore, everyone was given the opportunity to connect with each other in a relaxed and friendly environment, whether meeting for the first time or simply strengthening existing relationships.

Louise Hill-Davis said, “Weston came together as a community to create space for voices too often silenced. What we found was unity — people of many cultures listening, holding, and supporting one another. In the midst of grief, we discovered joy, laughter, and connection. That is what Grief as Grace is about.”

This pilot event was rooted in Weston-super-Mare and made possible through the support of Super Culture, The Other Place, LHD Facilitations, the University of Bristol, Race Equality North Somerset, Coastal Community and Creative Health, and the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Grief as Grace also importantly underpins the town’s Many Cultures One Community campaign, giving space to the shared experiences of our one community.

Lead photo by Paul Blakemore