S2 Trailer New Beginnings

On the second season of Shame Piñata, we explore rites of passage for real-life transitions such as reaching a certain age, facing a significant loss, receiving a diagnosis, or choosing to reveal our true selves to the people we love.

Music by Terry Hughes.

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Be sure to catch up on Season 1 as well!

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Join us for a Ceremony

Full Transcript

Four of my closest friends watched from their computer screens as I put on a small pile of t-shirts, each one on top of the other. Before putting on each shirt, I read aloud the words I had painstakingly written on the fabric with a ballpoint pen. Words of grief. Words of loss. Words of shame.

[MUSIC]

The thing about shame is that it thrives on secrecy. So I'd created this ceremony to share it in a safe space, to expose the shame and take some of its power away. Putting all those t-shirts on felt awful. But it was an important beginning of the ceremony that ultimately freed me.

I’m Colleen Thomas. I'm a ritual artist and I help people make sense of life through ceremony. This is Shame Piñata.

It can be difficult to keep going through the hard times, but the good news is that as human beings, we are so amazingly creative. We can reframe major life changes as initiations and we can do it on our own terms.

Lent: The experience of transition into womanhood was something that everyone present took very seriously. It just felt, like, an honor to be celebrated and cherished.

Venegoni: A ritual passage ceremony I wish I could have had would be something along the lines of a coming out ceremony. You know, I think that for so many queer people that not only is it not honored, but it's something to be ashamed of or to hide.

Taylor: I didn't die. I survived. And I really do... from the ancestral work that I've done in my life... time is not linear in that world. Like, time is a spiral. It's past. It's present. It's future all at once. And so the healing that I did on that day and continue to do ripples back to my Ancestors.

On Season 2 of Shame Piñata, join me to explore how to honor each change as a new beginning. Episode 1 launches on February 5. Be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Radio Public or go to shamepiñata.com to learn more.