What if grief wasn’t something to “get over,” but something to understand — even welcome? This talk reimagines grief as a companion rather than an enemy, exploring how loss can become a mirror reflecting the depth of our love. Through poetic language and reflection, it reveals how giving grief words can transform silence into healing. It invites us to see grief as kaleidoscopic — layered, shapeshifting, and profoundly human — where every fragment of pain also holds the light of love. “Grief is not the opposite of love. Grief is love — wearing another face.” #TEDxUniversityofPretoria #Grief #Healing #Poetry #Kaleidoscopic Grace Storm Barnes is a performer, choreographer, spoken word artist, author, and educator whose work explores the intersections of grief, love, and healing through movement, poetry, and performance. She holds a BA (Hons) in Dance Theatre Composition, an MA in Applied Drama, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Drama at the University of Pretoria, where her research, Grief as Poetic Body, investigates mourning as nonlinear, collective, and embodied. Since 2016, Grace has created and toured acclaimed original works including Regression, Slip, Breathe, Wait/Weight, and Grieve, that is how you survive, which premiered at the National Arts Festival in 2024 before touring Cape Town and Ghana. She has also published three poetry collections on love, loss, and grief. Through her practice, Grace crafts multidisciplinary forms that give voice and body to experiences often left unspoken, inviting audiences to reimagine grief as a passage into memory, love, and joy. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx