Trail of Truth Announces First National Event
On Monday, August 15th, Trail of Truth Executive Director Alexis Pleus, and Project Coordinator Jess Saeman, hosted a Facebook Live press conference to announce the first ever National Trail of Truth to raise awareness for substance use related deaths.
Attendees take the Trail of Truth memorial cemetery to the streets of Binghamton, New York (Photo by Deborah Seely)
The event, which partner organization Truth Pharm has been hosting annually in Binghamton, New York since 2016, is one part memorialization, and one part live performance art piece. A memorial cemetery is held, comprised of hundreds of tombstones, featuring the names and faces of those lost to substance use related causes, lovingly hand-painted by directly impacted families and community members. Tombstones are marched to a location of political prominence, where they are planted along a sidewalk to allow the families and friends of those lost to trace their bodies in chalk in front of the stones, and fill the tracings with art, quotes, and messages in honor of their life.
This year, in addition to Binghamton’s local event, Trail of Truth has teamed up with over 60 partner organizations to bring the event to the national stage, in Washington, D.C.
“The losses aren’t just here at home. We see our friends suffering, we see other organizations suffering, we see the loss that is escalating across the United States every single day,” Pleus states when asked why the event was going national. “We have an endless list of ways that people are losing their lives, and if we were able to build this power and create change at home, why not build this power across the nation.”
Trail of Truth National 2022 will be held on September 24th, in Washington, D.C.