Loyalty is excited to host Marisa Renee Lee and Jess Lee for Grief is Love: Living with Loss. This event will be held digitally via Crowdcast. Click here to register for the event with a donation of any amount of your choice. You can also order the book on our website to be added to the event's registration list. Donations will go to Equality Florida. There will also be an option to snag the book during the event.

A trusted grief expert shares what Kirkus Reviews praises as “calm, lucid prose… [a] humanizing exploration of coping with the life-changing tides of loss.”

In Grief is Love, author Marisa Renee Lee reveals that healing does not mean moving on after losing a loved one—healing means learning to acknowledge and create space for your grief. It is about learning to love the one you lost with the same depth, passion, joy, and commitment you did when they were alive, perhaps even more. She guides you through the pain of grief—whether you’ve lost the person recently or long ago—and shows you what it looks like to honor your loss on your unique terms, and debunks the idea of a grief stages or timelines.  Grief is Love is about making space for the transformation that a significant loss requires.

In beautiful, compassionate prose, Lee elegantly offers wisdom about what it means to authentically and defiantly claim space for grief’s complicated feelings and emotions. And Lee is no stranger to grief herself, she shares her journey after losing her mother, a pregnancy, and, most recently, a cousin to the COVID-19 pandemic. These losses transformed her life and led her to question what grief really is and what healing actually looks like. In this book, she also explores the unique impact of grief on Black people and reveals the key factors that proper healing requires: permission, care, feeling, grace and more.

The transformation we each undergo after loss is the indelible imprint of the people we love on our lives, which is the true definition of legacy. At its core, Grief is Love explores what comes after death, and shows us that if we are able to own and honor what we’ve lost, we can experience a beautiful and joyful life in the midst of grief.

Marisa Renee Lee is a called upon grief advocate, entrepreneur, and author of the upcoming book “Grief is Love.” Deemed “the friend we all wish we had in times of need” by Elaine Welteroth, Marisa is able to utilize research-based advice and wisdom to help others navigate the complicated and challenging emotions we face when experiencing loss, offering unique insights for women and Black communities. She is no stranger to grief herself. In 2008, after a lengthy battle, she lost her mother to cancer. Shortly after, she lost her fertility, a pregnancy, and most recently, a cousin to the COVID-19 pandemic. These losses transformed her life and led her to question what healing truly requires outside the limited roadmap often handed to us by societal expectations. In the end, Marisa found that if we can own and honor what we've lost, we can have a beautiful and joyful life amid grief. In addition to her work in the grief space, Lee is a former appointee in the Obama White House and CEO of Beacon Advisors, a mission-driven consulting firm primarily focused on racial equity. She is a rabble-rouser of social healing: former managing director of My Brother's Keeper Alliance; co-founder of the digital platform Supportal; and founder of The Pink Agenda, a national organization dedicated to raising money for breast cancer care, research, and awareness. Lee also regularly contributes to Glamour, Vogue, MSNBC, and CNN and serves as an expert for Ritual's wellbeing app. She is a Harvard graduate and an avid home cook. Marisa lives in Washington DC area with her husband Matt, their newborn son Bennett, and their dog, Sadie.

Jess Lee, MBA, is dedicated to providing inclusive spaces for learning, challenging, and growth. She is passionate about leading anti-racism work with an ultimate goal of liberation and justice for those most marginalized. She has experience leading DEI and anti-racism work at various local and national non-profits focusing on educational equity, the role service plays in effecting change, and ensuring that people feel respected and heard in their workplace. An avid reader, Jess uses her instagram, @literaryintersections, to share and amplify works primarily featuring authors and characters from non-dominant identities, with a goal to dismantle white supremacy and racism in personal and professional spaces. To decompress from the burden of being a Black woman leading equity work, Jess is a certified yoga teacher who enjoys spending time outdoors with her family.

Please note Loyalty has a zero tolerance policy for harassment or intimidation of any kind during this virtual event.

Marisa Renee Lee and Jess Lee for GRIEF IS LOVE