“MY BROTHER WAS killed in 2007, and I watched my mom avoid that area for years. When there’s a space where someone has been murdered, you can feel the toxic energy in that space. And I realized there are these toxic holes being left around Baltimore, and it shouldn’t be that way. When people are murdered, the space should be sacred ground—where they lost their lives to violence. Just like the Bible talks about the blood crying out from the ground when Cain killed Abel, when blood cries out we should show up to answer with love and with light, honoring that person.
We ask people facilitating rituals to show up with love in their body. Grief is okay, some sadness is okay, but mostly a feeling of joy at how much this person meant to the world, love for the neighborhood, and compassion for their family and loved ones.
When we get to the neighborhood, we burn sage along the entire block where the murder happened. We talk to people who live there, let them know what we plan to do, and ask if they can show us exactly the spot where the person was killed. At the spot, sometimes people play music, sing songs, hold hands, and say a lot of positive things.
I get down on the ground with my palms on the concrete and I speak to the soul of the person, apologizing to them for our part in helping to create a world that’s this violent. I tell them that they still matter to us, that we’re going to take them with us on every step of our journey. I ask them to fight for us on the other side.”
Erricka Bridgeford spoke with Sojourners associate editor Betsy Shirley about the sacred rituals Ceasefire holds at the site of every murder in Baltimore.
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