The powerful symbolic and metaphorical nature of ritual is a compelling “medium” unto itself for community artists and cultural workers. “Performance artists” and artist-activists often use elements of ritual to engage and involve audiences or groups in ways that are meaningful, provocative, motivational and even life-changing. But unlike the individualistic, self-referential practices of many “high art” artists, community-based, arts-based ritual is at its most powerful when it emerges from or is designed to reflect the history, traditions, culture or struggles, goals and aspirations of specific groups of people. Ritual both builds and presupposes community; its symbols have the ability to bring the members of the group together in a shared experience (Kollar). “Healing rituals empower the dying and the bereaved to move from the fragmented, alienating and disorienting consequences of change to a renewed sense of wholeness” (Zulli 262).