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The All Souls
River Procession

Save the date for the next All Souls River Procession,
Saturday November 7th, 2026
Green Anchors, North Portland, Oregon

Photo by Rusty Blazenhoff

In the fall of 2021, Moni J. Sears, Ivy Stovall and Mellissa Berry decided to create a small walking procession with masks and handmade lanterns by Cathedral Park and the Willamette River. It was held around All Souls Night, and used art and land-based ritual to acknowledge those lost during the first year of the Covid 19 pandemic, and to honor and remember the larger community of beloved dead, both human and other-then-human. Then following the wildfires in 2022 they decided to do it again. And yet again in 2023 in response to the war in Ukraine, and the war between Palestine and Israel.

Over the first three years the walking procession grew from around 30 friends of friends to an all-ages community art event with about 300 people attending. Then in 2024 we had almost 600 in attendance despite a heavy downpour.

In 2025 the procession had to be canceled due to venue complications. But we are looking forward to the procession's return in 2026 with the help of a North River Roots grant. This grant, with funding provided by Oregon Metro and coordinated by the Portland Harbor Community Coalition, and fiscal sponsorship provided by Puppeteers of America, supports our creation of an inter-generational grief ritual by the Willamette River, with workshops and place-based storytelling to support healing and connection to land and community.

Visit http://www.pdxallsouls.org for more information, or visit our volunteer page if you would like to be involved with helping creating the procession.