A Night with January’s Artist In Residence: Leah Leitch
Join us for a multi-dimensional, immersive experience connecting emotion, oral traditions, music, and dance.
“Peony In Me: Holding Grief” - a night of live exploration and emotional engagement.
Sacred Ally is honored to offer this celebration of the transformational power of art as a healing tool amid life’s most challenging losses. Local illustrator Leah Leitch will read the words of her brother, Alex Snyder as written in the book, “Peony In Me: Holding Grief” to provide a connection with our oral ancestry.
The book, “Peony In Me”, was created as a way for Leah and Alex to process the largest losses of their lives, including the sudden death of their brother and the loss of Leah’s infant daughter. This story was born from their own path of grief, but the strength we can find in love is universal.
”Peony In Me” is about holding grief. For grief is not something you get through. There is no end, but a transformation of how you hold it. Peony In Me is not about telling you how to feel, but to give you a space to feel. To find solace and validation within its pages.
Live Music & Dance:
Local cellist Bethany Joyce and dancer Faith Morrison will perform their interpretations of the book while Leah reads the story aloud. Both Bethany and Faith will lend their creative expertise and life’s experiences with grief, love, and the power of art to integrate sorrow into our hearts and leave our souls with a greater sense of empathy and joy.
Sacred Ally welcomes anyone who is interested to participate in a guided journal experience to reflect on how grief has impacted your life and the positive avenues you’ve used to hold it.
Please Bring:
A yoga mat or floor chair, (blankets and bolsters for sitting available for use)
Journal and pen/pencil
Tissues recommended
“Peony In Me: Holding Grief” will be available for purchase at Sacred Ally for the month of January in recognition of Leah’s incredible use of art to integrate grief into a holdable part of her soul.
✨ Anyone who purchases a copy of the book during this event is welcome to receive a signature from Leah Leitch, the illustrator of the book, at the end of the event. ✨
Meet Leah
Along with being a labor and delivery nurse, Leah is a photographer and book illustrator. She enjoys many forms of art including photography, graphite, charcoal and watercolor. “Peony In Me” is the second book she has illustrated. The first book is called, “Bits & Pieces”, a children's book published in 2016.
Leah and her brother, Alex, are currently working on a third book and hope to have it published in the spring of 2025. Like “Peony In Me”, the third book will be about love and grief.
Registration for this event is $35
Your pre-registration is appreciated to help us keep the event on the calendar.
To ensure Sacred Ally remains accessible to our diverse community, we offer the option of a socioeconomic discount. We ask that people reserve the use of these discounts for those who need it most.
Annual Income $0-30k = 20% discount —> Code: Socioeconomic20
Annual Income $30-40k = 15% discount —> Code: Socioeconomic15
Annual Income $40-50k = 10% discount —> Code: Socioeconomic10
Annual Income $50k(+) = We ask that you pay full price