Every September for the last nineteen years, a local artist named Mavis has led my community in an interactive art experience, a night designed for remembrance and unburdening.
To celebrate summer’s goodbye, a giant basket is erected on the beach from natural materials that have reached their season’s end, such as alders and fireweed and peonies. On the night of the event, people gather at the basket and pin notes to the structure’s walls, memorializing loved ones and things lost in the last year. At sunset, the basket is set ablaze to the sounds of cheers and claps and drums and whistles.
Last night, I got to attend my first Burning Basket Project. It was just as beautiful as I anticipated.
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