Wake September In-Person Death Cafe

A Death Cafe is a social gathering of people, often strangers from many walks of life, organized for the purpose of discussing death, without any formal agenda or commercial pressures. Anyone can attend and chat informally about different aspects of death, over tea and cake, with a goal of making the subject less taboo and scary. Death Cafes were pioneered by Jon Underwood in the U.K., based on the work of Swiss Sociologist Bernard Cretaz. First held in the U.S. by Lizzy Miles, they are now popular all over the world.

Register here for the Death Cafe and receive specifics about the location the day before the event. The September 25th Death Cafe will be facilitated by Becca Chapman and Laurie Dietrich:

Becca Chapman (she/her) is the Executive Director of Prescription Joy, a healthcare clowning nonprofit in New Orleans that promotes healing through human connection and education. She is a local theatrical performer and clown who has dabbled in circus, stage combat, comedia and more! Becca is also training to be a Somatic Experience Practitioner to help heal trauma and has recently completed training to become a death doula.

Laurie Dietrich (she/her) is a New Orleans-based artist, ritualist, and deathworker. She holds multiple certifications in death doula work and thanatology, and has a background in hospice. She is passionate about education, agency, and empowerment, for the dying and their beloved community, at the end of life. Laurie believes deathcare work is inherently activist, in a death-phobic and grief-illiterate culture, and thinks Death Cafe is a great place to start, because talking about death won't kill you.