Albuquerque Death Cafes are being held online for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic.
The next online ABQ Death Cafe will take place on Zoom on Sunday, October 11 from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time. To get the link to participate, send a note to Gail [at] AGoodGoodbye.com and let her know you’d like to join in the conversation.
There will also be a series of Death Cafes held during the Before I Die New Mexico Virtual Festival, held online October 30 to November 2, 2020. Those events will be held on Friday, October 30 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. MDT, Saturday, October 31 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. MDT, Sunday, November 1 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. MST, and Monday, November 2, 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. MST. Register for all four Festival Death Cafes for $20.
About Death Cafes
The objective of the Death Cafe is “To increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) lives.” It’s all about an interesting, unstructured conversation – open and free-flowing with no specific agenda.
The Death Cafe concept was started in the United Kingdom by Jon Underwood. He was influenced by the ideas of Swiss sociologist Bernard Crettaz, who started holding Cafe Mortel events in France and Switzerland. At these events, people come together in a relaxed, confidential and safe setting to discuss death, drink tea (or your favorite beverage) and eat delicious cake or cookies.
Sadly, Jon Underwood died suddenly three years ago at the age of 44 from a brain hemorrhage. It was caused by undiagnosed acute promyelocytic leukemia, a cancer of the white blood cells.
Jon’s mother Sue Barsky Reid and Jon’s sister Jools Barsky have continued his Death Cafe work, as Jon requested. To date, the Death Cafe movement has grown to more than 11,305 events in 73 countries worldwide (as of August, 2020). For information on how to hold a Death Cafe in your community, review the information at www.DeathCafe.com.
Albuquerque was the site of the second Death Cafe held in the United States. Gail Rubin hosted this pioneering event in September of 2012. Lizzy Miles held the first Death Cafe outside the U.K. in Columbus, Ohio in August of 2012.
Join The Meetup Group
To keep in the loop on upcoming Death Cafes, join the Albuquerque Death Cafe Meetup group. You’ll receive notice of upcoming events. Click here to go to the Meetup page.
Your ABQ Death Cafe Host
Albuquerque Death Cafes are hosted by Gail Rubin, Certified Thanatologist, and a pioneering death educator. Rubin is a public speaker, a published author of three books, host of a TV interview series and podcast, a blogger, a funeral industry trade journalist, a Certified Funeral Celebrant, and an innovator in the funeral business.
She created a conversation-starting game called The Newly-Dead Game®, introduced the Death Café movement in the United States, and held the first Before I Die Festival west of the Mississippi in 2017. Albuquerque Business First named her one of their 2019 Women of Influence.