Tending To The Roots Of Ritual With Joél Simone, The Grave Woman

In this episode of Grief Out Loud, we talk with death & grief care professional, educator, and cultural advocate Joél Simone, also known as The Grave Woman.

Joél shares the story behind a childhood drawing that declared her future as "the grave woman," and how that early curiosity about death grew into a lifelong vocation in funeral service, grief education, and cultural competency. Drawing from decades of experience, Joél reflects on the spiritual, cultural, and embodied dimensions of grief, including what she's learned by listening closely to families, children, and traditions that are too often overlooked.

Joél also talks about her work as founder of the Multicultural Death & Grief Care Academy, including immersive learning experiences that center history, ritual, land, and lineage. Throughout the conversation, she invites us to rethink what ritual looks like and how tending to culture can provide grounding and support for grief.

We discuss:

• How rituals - inherited and improvised - can be a form of medicine
• What the funeral industry still needs to understand about serving Black and African American families
• The importance of cultural humility, proactive learning, and not treating communities as monoliths
• How children experience death and mourning from their literal, physical perspective and what adults often miss
• The role of land, ancestry, and cultural preservation in grief, particularly within Gullah Geechee communities
• Why culture itself can be a powerful container for grief and remembrance

Connect with Joél Simone:

Website: www.thegravewoman.com
The Multicultural Death & Grief Care Academy Workshops & Classes
The Death & Grief Talk Podcast

IG: https://www.instagram.com/thegravewoman
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thegravewoman/