This Sunday August 13th, is the Closing Activation of the Altar installation We Lost People: Diaspora Departure by Berlynn Beam and Chase Keetley. Which has been kept and cared for by the Wa Na Wari, in order to facilitate an experiment in creating a space for Black folks to gather and honor their ancestors. The Altar will now be moving onto Oakland California, where it will reside at the artist’s residence. Until they find another space for the Alter to reside. We ask for the surrounding community to see the altar off. To come pray to the altar one last time. To bring offerings to honor and feed your ancestors. To come as you are, and join us in a moment of quiet reflection and celebration of this beautiful gathering place. Like seeing a relative or a close friend move on, because that is what this is. A moving on or departing from what once was. This departure should symbolize why our permanence is so

fragile. As Black people, we are always moving and changing in ways according to the circumstance we find ourselves in. We are used to being uprooted and being transplanted into foreign soil. In other words we are used to dealing with uncomfortable situations all the time, it is in our nature to adapt to any and every situation we see ourselves in. We are nomadic by nature, and so must have cohabitants in ourselves in knowing that change is our only constant, our permanence. We are here to celebrate that, and how even such a thing as an altar is never

permanent until it finds its way home.