Raina Otoun
Living Grief Storyteller
I carry the lessons grief brings with me and turn them into part of my identity. I carry them not from a place of pain, but rather from a place of compassion.
Raina Otoun is a Nigerian-born mental health professional and podcaster who was born and raised in Togo and has called Minnesota home since immigrating to the United States in 2004. A wife and mother of four, Raina facilitates groups in mental health and community settings and is passionate about creating spaces where people can connect, share experiences, and support one another. Her Muslim faith, West African heritage, and experiences as an immigrant have shaped her understanding of family, community, identity, and belonging.
For Living Grief, Raina reflects on grief as something much broader than the death of a loved one. Her story encompasses the loss of her mother, separation from family and homeland, changes in cultural identity, and the loss of security that can accompany immigration and displacement. She also considers how cultural traditions can shape the ways grief is expressed—or left unspoken—and how she has had to learn new ways of acknowledging vulnerability, asking for help, and caring for herself.
Through faith, reflection, gratitude, humor, and connection with others, Raina has learned to carry loss as part of who she is. Rather than viewing grief as something to overcome, she describes a process of allowing loss to deepen her compassion, strengthen her relationships, and remind her to value the people and moments that make up her life.
Living Grief: Honoring Loss Across Communities and Cultures is a community storytelling project that explores the many ways people experience, understand, and carry grief.
Through a series of video stories, participants reflect on loss in its many forms—from the death of loved ones to the loss of homeland, identity, relationships, culture, security, and belonging. Drawing on personal experience as well as cultural, spiritual, and generational traditions, Living Grief creates space for stories that are often difficult to name or share. Together, these reflections offer a living archive of how people remember, heal, adapt, and carry loss forward.
Living Grief is funded in part by the Minnesota Humanities Center with money from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund that was created with the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.