We are honored to welcome Alé Salinas to Sana Healing Collective to host one of his wonderful and FREE Death Cafés!
Date: Sunday, October 25th
Time: 11:00 am - 2:00 pm
Location: In Person at Sana Healing Collective, 3324 W North Ave.
Sana community may remember Alé as one of our Sounds of Sana artists! Aside from being an incredibly talented musician, massage therapist, and yoga instructor, he's also the co-founder of the Chicago Death Doula Collective.
Here is a recent article in Chicago Reader about their work, featuring some quotes from Alé.
“Salinas says there’s a need for gathering spaces to grieve and share wisdom around death. People in the U.S. have systemically become “disenfranchised from our grief in order to better serve capitalism; there’s no time. There’s no space,” Salinas says. “Grief isn’t conducive to being a productive worker.’”
A Death Café is a group-directed discussion around death and grief over light snacks. The objective is to practice the art of talking openly about our own mortality and grief so as to make the most of our finite lives and find comfort and wisdom in community. Anyone of any age, background, spiritual belief (or lack thereof!), is welcome to attend. Let's break the taboo together.
“Salinas says the ‘attitude of a death cafe isn’t, ‘Hey, y’all, we’re gonna die.’ I mean, it kind of is. But it’s open. It’s exploratory.’ He helps people come to terms with it. Salinas says death isn’t just for the elderly. It’s universal, arriving through miscarriage, the loss of a child, violence, illness, and disease, or suddenly and without warning. He also created Coffin Cards to guide these conversations and reflections. “If things aren’t in place, that’s an extra layer of stress and an extra layer of grief that comes with navigating all of that.’”
About Alé:
Alejandro Salinas is a co-founder of the Chicago Death Doula Collective, a Clinical Massage Therapist, Yoga Teacher, Grief Advocate, and fronts the goth rock post punk outfit, Grave Love. He has been hosting Death Café's since 2021 and has been featured in the Chicago Reader, Chicago Block Club, and Evanston Roundtable, and several podcasts for his work.