Healing Through Our Traditions: Art and Community Altar for the Eaton Fire

On Sunday, June 8, ACTA gathered with artists, neighbors, and culture bearers at Akwaaba Food Forest in Pasadena for Healing Through Our Traditions, a powerful afternoon of collective healing and creative ritual, centering community members impacted by the devastating Eaton Fire in the Altadena and Pasadena area. The day that we gathered was also affected by the emotional weight of the onset of violent ICE raids on immigrant communities throughout Los Angeles County, and the militarized response against protestors.

The event was shaped as part of our Traditional Arts Roundtable Series (TARS)—a statewide program designed to support cultural practitioners through dialogue, exchange, and shared space. The gathering offered a moment to pause and root in practice—amidst grief, amidst uncertainty, amidst the ongoing work of acknowledging loss, and working to rebuild.

We were welcomed into Akwaaba Food Forest, a living, breathing example of regenerative practice and land stewardship, straddling the line between Altadena and Pasadena communities. The food forest blends groundcover, shrubs, vines, and fruit trees into a thriving ecosystem that feeds not only people, but also insects, animals, and spirit. Located behind the home of Nigerian musician Baba Onochie and his son, Emeka Chukwurah, Akwaaba is a collaboration with his organization, Rhythms of the Village African Cultural Center—a beloved Altadena music shop and cultural space that was lost in the fire.

A celebrated elder and spiritual leader, Baba Onochie opened the event with grounding words that invited us into presence. “Culture is something we cannot afford to eradicate,” he reminded us. “Because culture is who you are—not who the other guy says you ought to be.” His invocation echoed the purpose of our gathering: to reconnect with who we are through the practices that carry us.

Sound artist and cultural healing practitioner Yancy Comins, co-founder of Hands in the Soil, followed with a few words to ground us in the space and moment, followed by meditative sound offering—layering the flute with other elemental textures, and deep breath. Hands in the Soil is a family-founded nonprofit dedicated to emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being, with a deep commitment to ecological harmony. In response to the Eaton wildfires and other climate disasters across L.A. County, the organization has mobilized a Community Care Coalition, offering free pop-up wellness spaces for impacted communities, including trauma-informed yoga, men’s healing circles, and nature-based gatherings.

While Yancy created a musical soundscape, accompanied by ACTA’s Federico Zúñiga, Jr., master altaristas from East L.A., Ofelia Esparza, and her daughters Rosanna Esparza Ahrens and Elena Esparza, led the group in a healing ARRIVAL process, burning copal and offering a spiritual cleansing to each guest with fresh herbs. 

“We’ve held a growing in our hearts for each other and our community.” — Alma Cielo

From this grounded and intentional start, the group moved into an open creative ritual led by Altadena ceramicist and musician Alma Cielo. Alma guided participants in shaping small vessels from clay—transforming trauma into an offering. “We’ve held so much—pain, confusion, some hope. We’ve held a growing in our hearts for each other and our community,” she shared. “So I suggest we make a receptacle—something that represents us.” As people shaped clay into small pinch pots and etched them with words, house numbers, or symbols of home, Alma reminded us:

“Everything that has been overflowing, that has been grieving you, please think of that as you create this pot. Put your tears into it, put your emotions into it, put your hope into it. These are ephemeral pots. They are offerings to the spirit […] they’re not for us to take home, they’re for us to create right now, in this sacred space, and to put on the altar.”

Those vessels—formed with care and intention—became part of a community altar honoring lives and lands impacted by the Eaton Fire and beyond. The altar was created under the guidance of the Esparzas, with the addition of paper flowers, herb bundles, handwritten notes, and other special offerings they led guests in preparing. At the end of the event, our participating artists shared closing reflections, while Ofelia invited us to place our clay offerings alongside flowers, photographs, and other remembrances in a collective act of resilience and hope—for the land, the people, and the traditions that sustain us.

“If you have, I have. If I have, you have.” — Baba Onochie

We are deeply grateful to Akwaaba Food Forest for hosting, to Hands in the Soil for partner with us, and to all our artist collaborators for holding space with such intention, and to every person who brought their full selves to this moment. In the face of compounded grief, the roundtable offered a space to gather, grieve, and remember who we are. “In practicing our culture, our traditions, we learn to live harmoniously, humanely, and together,” Baba Onochie reminded us: “If you have, I have. If I have, you have.”

🪵 Learn more about ACTA’s Traditional Arts Roundtable Series and upcoming gatherings here.