A Community Ceremony   
 Engagement Project: Emile Norman Arts Foundation Artist Residency        Big Sur, CA 2023

Ceremony site under the redwoods, beside the Big Sur River

The cups waiting to be used in ceremony

Peery Sloan (center) and Sofia Hex, Spanish translator, (right) guiding participants

Tea being served to a young community member's cup

Prior to the 3rd round of tea, participants were asked to put their outreached palms on their neighbor

A moment of acknowledgement for one another

Gathering of the tea cups

The tea cups gathered and ready to be returned to the land

Returning teacups to the land where the clay was dug

Returning cups to Hurricane Point, where the black clay was harvested

The cups' final resting place: the place where they originated in raw clay form

Bringing together local people, the bilingual, ceremony highlighted the original stewards of the land and the process of change as mirrored by the ceramic process.