The Weight We Carry: A Poetry Gathering on Memory, Inheritance, and What Remains

🌟 The Weight We Carry is a gathering dedicated to exploring memory, inheritance, and the invisible connections that link our lives to those who came before us. Together, we will delve into the burdens and gifts passed through generations, touching on themes such as family histories, ancestral voices, migration, belonging, language, love, grief, resilience, and the subtle ways the past continues to influence the present.

📜 We carry many things without recalling when we first picked them up:

• A phrase spoken by a parent.
• A song from our childhood.
• A gesture repeated across generations.
• A silence that remains unnamed.

Some inheritances are tangible, like a photograph, a recipe, or a piece of jewelry, while others reside quietly within us, such as:

• A language we understand but no longer speak.
• A fear whose origin is lost to time.
• A tenderness learned from someone who is no longer here.
• A survival mechanism that once protected us but may no longer serve us.

📝 Across traditions, poets have revisited these questions:

• Seamus Heaney unearthed generations beneath the soil.
• Mahmoud Darwish carried his homeland through language.
• Li-Young Lee discovered family histories in everyday gestures.
• Ocean Vuong reflects on inheritance as both a wound and a gift.
• Jane Hirshfield reminds us that what endures is often passed silently from one heart to another.

🤔 This gathering invites reflection on:

• How do we carry the past without being overwhelmed by it?
• How do we honor those who came before us without being trapped by their unfinished lives?
• What remains within us as names, places, languages, and people fade away?
• What might we intentionally or unintentionally pass onward?

📍 Location: 1250 Addison St Suite 111, Berkeley, CA 94702
💰 Admission: Free