Death Cafe write-ups
Columbus Ohio Death Cafe #7 Write up
Posted by Columbus Death Cafe/Lizzy Miles on Sept. 12, 2013, 9:45 a.m.
I Need to Know
By Lizzy Miles
This Death Café was an exciting event because we had just recently been featured in the Huffington Post in an article, “Death Cafes grow as a Place to Discuss, Learn about End of Life.” The article garnered hundreds of comments and I started to get emails from people who were interested in attending. I worried that we might have TOO big of a crowd.
But let’s be real here. People aren’t beating down the doors to have a conversation about death. It take a brave soul to face their own mortality. I used to worry about attendance, but now ...
Columbus Ohio Death Cafe #6 Write up
Posted by Columbus Death Cafe/Lizzy Miles on Sept. 12, 2013, 9:41 a.m.
The Death Café events never cease to amaze me in the variety of attendees, which leads to unique conversations each time. This Death Café had some repeat attendees and some new ones. Mix in an attendee with a Master’s in Transpersonal Psychology and an attendee who ...
First LGBT Death Cafe in the US! Write up
Posted by Columbus Death Cafe/Lizzy Miles on Sept. 12, 2013, 9:35 a.m.
The First LGBT Death Café in the United States
By Lizzy Miles
It was raining buckets on the evening that we had our first LGBT Death Café. The event was hosted in partnership with Stonewall Columbus, an organization that has been serving the central Ohio LGBT community with programs and services for over thirty years. I was so grateful that they agreed to co-organize this pilot program.
A funny side note about our cake for the event. Lori Gum, my co-facilitator and the Stonewall Program Director, ordered it. She requested that it had tombstones, but a blue sky. The cake decorator automatically asked if it was for Halloween ...
Columbus Ohio Death Cafe #3 Write up
Posted by Columbus Death Cafe/Lizzy Miles on Sept. 12, 2013, 9 a.m.
I am continually amazed at the diversity of conversations that arise from the Death Café events. Each event is unique and the variety stems from the topics brought up by the participants. While Maria and I call ourselves facilitators, we are more like hosts that start the ...
Columbus Ohio Death Cafe #2 Write up
Posted by Columbus Death Cafe/Lizzy Miles on Sept. 12, 2013, 8:38 a.m.
Eddie Izzard may ask you to choose between cake or death, but at the Death Café, you can have cake AND death (conversation). Twenty-one people attended the second Columbus, Ohio Death Café on August 23, 2012.
When asked what interested them about the Death Café, the attendees ...
First Death Cafe in the US! Write up
Posted by Columbus Death Cafe/Lizzy Miles on Sept. 12, 2013, 8:14 a.m.
Thursday night’s Death Café event in Columbus, Ohio was a pleasant way to spend the evening. Although it was hot and muggy outside, 13 brave participants came to gather with strangers to talk about death.
More than half of the attendees who RSVP’d ended up ...
Denver Death Cafe Write up
Posted by Anita Larson on Sept. 10, 2013, 11:12 a.m.
Highlights of Denver’s 1st Death Café
September 8, 2013
Welcome! Many thanks to Wy Livingstone and Wystone’s Tea for hosting Denver’s first Death Cafe and to Alex our wonderful server. Thank you to Larry Larson & Sherry McDowell for helping with signups, greeting guests and taking notes during the event. Intro about Death Café – what it is and what it is not. Visit www.DeathCafe.com to learn more of the history and find Death Cafes in other cities or countries.
Denver Death Café has a Face Book page here: www.facebook.com/denverdeathcafe Please like the page and post any thoughts, comments or resources ...
The 2nd PDX Death Cafe Write up
Posted by Holly Pruett on Sept. 9, 2013, 4:21 p.m.
Despite near 100-hundred degree weather, our 2nd PDX Death Café drew an astonishing 58 folks to the cool environs of Cyril’s at the Clay Pigeon Winery. You can see what participants had to say about the experience in the word cloud posted on our page (the bigger the word, the more frequently mentioned). Interesting, open, stimulating, comforting, honest, thought-provoking, and friendly were the descriptors that led the pack. Nearly everyone completed an evaluation form. All but two people indicated that they would consider attending a future Death Café and would recommend it to friends and family.
What We Served Up
§ We opened with some words by ...
The 1st PDX Death Cafe Write up
Posted by Holly Pruett on Sept. 9, 2013, 4:14 p.m. 3 comments
If asked to go indoors on a gloriously sunny springtime day to talk about Death, would you expect to describe the experience as fun, exciting, inspirational or enlivening? Those in fact are some of the most common words participants used to describe the first PDX Death Café, held April 28 at the Bijou Café in downtown Portland, Oregon.
The top descriptors volunteered by our 60 participants were: interesting, informative, enlightening, and educational – remarkable given that this event presented absolutely no content. No featured speakers, no presentations, no informational handouts. The format consisted exclusively of sitting with three or four strangers and sharing why they chose to come to ...
Death Cafe Boothbay Write up
Posted by Lynne Tobin on Sept. 6, 2013, 1:38 p.m.
Boothbay's 2nd Death Cafe was a great success. Five new people attended. Discussions centered on green funerals and home burials.
Everyone enjoyed cupcakes ornamented with skull rings.
So much to talk about, so little time!
Death Cafe in Glasgow Write up
Posted by FinalFling on Sept. 4, 2013, 10:55 a.m.
Review first published in The Drum on 7th August 2013.
Final Fling, the group which “aims to be to death what Mumsnet is to birth” took the unusual step of hosting a 'Death Café' event to market and promote its services. Final Fling describe the cafés as “an informal group discussion over a cuppa”.
The group is supported to talk about how their life experience informs their view of death and how their experience of death shapes their life. 25 Death Cafes have been held in six countries so far.
Maureen O’Brien, an Australian nurse who recently lost her father, went along to take on one ...
Death Cafe Petaulma Write up
Posted by Karen Garber, RN on Aug. 31, 2013, 11:29 p.m.
Aqus Café was packed with nearly 40 participants eager to share in the first Death Café Petaluma. After the local newspaper ran an article on the event, the RSVPs poured in. Unbeknownst to the facilitator, Karen Garber, an article also ran in several other community papers without mentioning an RSVP! Tables were set with flowering plants, boxes of Kleenex, and tent cards reserving them for Death Café attendees. Printed out lists of Questions for Your Consideration were distributed. Those questions can be found at the end of this entry.
Tables filled up quickly and conversation started to buzz before the event even started. A microphone was needed so ...
Perhaps 45 people were there for the DC event about 15 of which, like myself and my sister-in-law driver, did not RSVP and were a surprise to the hostess. The cafe had another 20-30 folk in the other end of the same room who were just random patrons.
Having said all that it was a lively group with many earnest but localized discussions going on. I watched the tables occasionally and noted postures that indicated to me that the folk involved seemed to be enjoying themselves. I heard no unusually raised voices or arguing at all.
Karen opened the meeting with a short statement about DC and a ...
Death Café New York City started off with soft jazz and carpeting, as 35 attendees entered the brightly lit basement of an IHOP (International House of Pancakes) in the West Village. The demographics (based on evaluations from 21 out of 35) showed a nice 50/50 split between males and females as well as a 50/50 split between the Under- and Over 50 set, with an additional attendee falling somewhere between 18-24 and another at 85+.
Faith/religion/beliefs included: Agnostic, Humanist, Atheist, Open-Minded, Jewish, Spiritual, Catholic, Buddhist, Interfaith, including a follower of Baruch Spinoza, the philosopher.
Serendipitously, we sat three film people together, one of whom ...
Death Cafe Atlanta Write up
Posted by Mark (Atlanta, GA) on Aug. 25, 2013, 7:53 p.m.
It was a beautiful day to be in Oakland Cemetery: blue sky and a warm day with just a slight touch of fall in the air. Thirty people showed up to participate in Atlanta’s 5th Death Café ranging in age from five months to 91. The spread of food included fresh fruit, cheese and crackers, vegetable tray, finger sandwiches, various teas and coffees, and of course a delicious cake with the Death Café Atlanta logo on it. Discussing death simply goes better with cake and a cuppa. Thanks to Crossroads Hospice Charitable Foundation for the grant that underwrites Death Café Atlanta!
Topics varied significantly from table ...