We are now into summer (for this week at least!) and the festival season is upon us, so we are taking the opportunity to look back at ‘A Matter of Life and Death Festival’ in May. With 22 events taking place in 13 days, we had a brilliant turn out of over 350 people – thank you all for your support!
So why do we do it? Well, we believe talking openly about death helps us prepare for dying and loss. Through this festival we design and create safe spaces for conversations, helping to normalise dying well and cultivate support within communities.
Coinciding with Dying Matters week, AMOLAD 2024 pulled together events across Birmingham and the West Midlands, covering a wide range of topics from Meet the Undertakers with A Natural Undertaking in Kings Heath, to a family friendly theatre show performed by the Itzantna Arts Collective. Visitors of all ages learnt about wills, explored the cycle of life and death and were able to share their experiences of grief.
We would like to thank everyone who collaborated with us: Compassionate Communities, Pyn Stockman, The New Photo Company, Death Café, A Natural Undertaking, Northfield Neighbourhood Scheme, Age UK, Sun Rising Burial Ground, The Coffin Works, Anjuna Lounge, Itzatna Arts, Northfield Arts Forum, Crow’s Nest Theatre Company, The Heath Bookshop and Sarah Tarlow, Kevin Thomas – Birmingham Walking Tours, The Coffin Club, Tuckshop Flowers and all involved in the Interfaith walk.
This year we were lucky to be joined by new collaborators, including Northfield Neighbourhood Scheme, who ran six events including “To Absent Friends” and “Coffins Cake and Connections”. Read more about the NNS events here: https://www.northfieldcommunity.org/post/death-life-and-all-that-matters
One of the participants in the ‘To Absent Friends’ event at The Black Horse in Northfield said,
‘it helped me explore how to channel my grief in a safe space and release it in a soft manner.’
Kevin Thomas led a wonderfully interesting walk around the Birmingham Catacombs and one participant said,
‘It was fascinating to hear many stories and for the group to reflect on how previous generations were, in many ways more curious and certainly more comfortable taking about death and dying than we are today.”
Now a regular venue for BrumYODO events, Anjuna Lounge hosted a ‘To Absent Friends’ event with people sharing poems, stories, photos, a composed song and even a tattoo as they remembered loved ones. One participant said,
‘Wow! A chance to sit, talk honestly, talk about poetry, sing, cry, laugh and listen – all about death… And it was completely beautiful. People need more of this.’
At one of our last events, tea and cake was provided with informal chats and information at NNS’s event Coffins, Cake and Connection.
For the final event of the Festival we were delighted to welcome Andrew Smith, Interfaith Director for The Church of England as a new collaborator. The interfaith walk took in 5 places of worship and offered a fascinating insight of how different faiths mark death and celebrate life as communities.
Did you attend an event at the festival? If so, we would to hear from you! If you have any thoughts, feedback or photos that you are happy to share please email us on brumyodo@gmail.com
Would you like to be involved in next year’s festival? Do you have an event you would like to include? Contact us with your suggestions and we will get back to you as soon as possible!
