Death Cafe
New York City

Leave it to the French to bring a discussion about death and dying into the mainstream. The first death cafe was in Paris in 2010 known as Café Mortel. Jon Underwood was inspired by this and began an organized Death Café in London in 2011. These are not a destination restaraunt or coffee house whose thematic ambiance is about death and dying. In fact it is an open forum discussion about death and dying where individuals gather in a cafe-like setting. These discussions are usually moderted and organized by a clinical pyschologist or grief counsoler of some nature.

This very timely discussions that started in Paris and speard to Engalnd and now to America allows people from all walks of life whether griveing, facing and illness, and willing to have an open discussion with perfect strangers about our inner fears regarding death and dying.

When we decided to document a death cafe in the process, what better place than the heartbeat of America, New York City. It's here that Audtrey Pelacino and Nancy Gershman hosted their tenth Death Café. The one that we were able to document took place on the second floor of China Sun, located at West 39th Street and 6th Avenue in Manhattan. The 30 attendees ranged from young to old and were a mix of men and women, all of whom had one thing in common, they are going to die some day and they are not afraid to talk about it.

We are sure that this spirited conversation will be a very important part of our documentary sereis "The Embrace of Dying."

We would like to thank Audrey, Nancy, China Sun and evreyone who attended.

To learn about the next Death Café in New York, the history of Death Café and even China Sun here are links for their websites.

http://www.meetup.com/Death-Cafe-New-York-City/
http://deathcafe.com/

http://www.chinasunasian.com/