Join Hood River County Library District for the third Hood River Death Café , Sunday, October 11th at 3pm in the Hood River Library. At a Death Café, people, often strangers, gather to eat cake, drink tea and discuss death. The objective is to increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) lives.
Death Cafés offer the opportunity to engage in open, group-directed discussions of death with no agenda, objectives or themes. They serve as intimate forums for exploration and reflection rather than being grief support or counseling sessions. They provide an open, respectful and confidential space where people can express their views safely and freely. There is no specific age limit. Adults of all ages, from 18 to 90+, have participated in Death Cafés across the country.
The discussion will be facilitated by Anna Lim. Aside from working at the library, Anna has a PhD in cultural anthropology and teaches part-time at the National College of Natural Medicine in Portland. Her current research focuses on the medicalization of death and the current transformations—institutional, legal, technological, and ideological—surrounding death and how people die in the US.
Death Café is a “social franchise.” The Death Café model was developed by Jon Underwood and Sue Barsky Reid, based on the ideas of Bernard Crettaz. The first Death Café in the UK was offered in Underwood’s house in September 2011. Death Café s have spread quickly across Europe, North America and Australasia. As of today, over 1600 Death Café s have been offered throughout the world. Lizzy Miles ran the first Death Café in the U.S. and has played a significant role in Death Café’s development.
This Death Café is being organized as part of a monthly discussion series on death, dying and end-of-life issues sponsored by the Hood River Library. The program is free and open to anyone. Check the Hood River Library website for future events.