Doyennes of Death

Please join Michele Woodger and me for an afternoon lecture duo 2pm this Sunday discussing the architecture of memorials and cemeteries as community space. We’re presenting our talks as part of the ‘How Do You Want to Be Remembered?’ exhibition, which is a joint curation between the Geffrye Museum and the Lettering Arts Trust.

The exhibition will be presented in the Geffrye Museum onsite cemetery garden, which is not usually open for visitors, so this is a unique opportunity! The cemetery garden will be open from 9am-5pm presenting a time capsule of beautiful memorials drawn and carved by leading letter carvers, prompting us to consider how we would like to be remembered.

We invite you to come by for our talks at 2pm, perhaps take my free ‘Thoughts on Mourning’ audio walk around the Geffrye grounds, spend some time in the cemetery garden exhibition, and enjoy a glass of wine and a chat in this unique cemetery space!

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/lecture-duo-with-dr-romany-reagan-and-michele-woodger-tickets-59104084909

Life Death Whatever asked me to contribute to their series – here are Five Things I learned about cemeteries while researching my PhD thesis. ☠️⚰️💐

Five Things I've learnt about cemeteries by Dr Romany Reagan. Romany Reagan received her PhD from Royal Holloway, University of London in performing heritage in 2018, with a focus on community engagement. Her practice-based research project ‘Abney Rambles’ is comprised of four audio walks that she researched, wrote, and recorded from 2014 to 2017 within th...

The Geffrye Museum is having a 'How do you want to be remembered' exhibition with stone-making workshops, talks, and other events 8-12 May. ☠️❤️

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/lecture-duo-with-dr-romany-reagan-and-michele-woodger-tickets-59104084909

"When I was younger, I was very afraid of death due to the link between death and the devil, a link that was created by many sermons of damnation, 'scary' end-of-times propaganda films, even the Bible itself. Since I’m no longer an evangelical Christian, I wanted to explore other folklore and myths and see if I could discover a new way to look at death that was less fear-based and more inclusive." – Jezebel Jones

http://hautemacabre.com/2019/02/jezebel-jones-of-bye-bye-banshee/

Play This At My Funeral: Interview With Jezebel Jones Of Bye Bye Banshee (Exclusive Album Download) | Haute Macabre

"Although the figures have become closely associated with the holiday Dia de Mu***os (Day of the Dead), Posada originally drew his calaveras as political cartoons, commenting on various issues of the day. Over the century or so since they were first created, though, these calaveras have thrown off the shackles of their initial context. They’ve been repurposed by artists to express ideas and opinions across the political spectrum, as well as by advertisers, animators, and activists. For skeletons, they live a whole lot of different lives." Atlas Obscura

The Endlessly Adaptable Skeletons of José Guadalupe Posada Calaveras created by the Mexican artist have been repurposed for generations, with wildly varying intent.

If anyone is familiar with Crossbones Graveyard down in Borough by London Bridge, would you please take a short survey for my friend Lucy Coleman Talbot's PhD project? I know what it's like trying to heard cats for PhD surveys – if you know Crossbones, please help, it's super short! ☠️❤️☠️

Lucy Coleman Talbot on about.me I am a PhD Student in Wi******er, United Kingdom. Visit my website.

If anyone finds themselves in Bristol this weekend, I'll be giving a talk on Victorian garden cemeteries with a focus on one of my favourite cemeteries, Arnos Vale! ☠️💐

Victorian Arcadia: A Saturday Morning Lecture on the Victorian Garden Cemetery - Arnos Vale Victorian mourning practices are famous for their dark beauty: elaborate mourning costumes, plumed horses drawing lacquered funerary carriages, and countless mourning ephemera housed in museums and […]

Some more photos from our Women of Abney Park Cemetery tour on Saturday!

Some photos from our Women of Abney Park Cemetery tour on Saturday!