{"id":97356,"date":"2018-10-23T17:15:20","date_gmt":"2018-10-23T23:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-library-hopes-to-normalize-conversations-about-death\/"},"modified":"2018-10-23T17:15:20","modified_gmt":"2018-10-23T23:15:20","slug":"mancos-library-hopes-to-normalize-conversations-about-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-library-hopes-to-normalize-conversations-about-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Mancos library hopes to normalize conversations about death"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Mancos Public Library will host a Death Cafe on Nov. 11 following the first one held at the library on Oct. 17. The events, which will take place monthly, aim to normalize discussions about death and alleviate people\u2019s fears and stigma that surround it.<\/span>The Journal file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Mancos has joined thousands of other cities around the world as it begins hosting a regular event known as a Death Cafe.<\/p>\n

The event is hosted by the Mancos Public Library and facilitated by the library\u2019s manager of development and adult programming, Shari Dunn.<\/p>\n

The event is part of an international movement to normalize conversations about death and directly address people\u2019s fears regarding dying.<\/p>\n

Dunn says she was inspired by the Peregrine Book Co. in Prescott, Arizona, which hosts its own Death Cafe events and wanted to bring a similar event to Mancos.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am so concerned about how people have become fearful of death,\u201d Dunn told The Journal during a phone interview.<\/p>\n

Dunn says that the point of the conversational events is not to discuss merely the logistics of death, but people\u2019s attitudes toward it. She wants to see people get past the fear of death \u201cso we can live our lives more fully.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mancos\u2019 first Death Cafe was held on Oct. 17. Dunn says about a dozen people showed up, most of them older. She says she hopes to see more young people come to the next event, which will be 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 11, in the Mancos Public Library.<\/p>\n

Dunn says the only requirement for attending an event is to bring food and or drink to share with the group. The purpose, she said, is to \u201cengender fellowship\u201d and to create a more comfortable environment as the group discusses a taboo topic together.<\/p>\n

More on the Death Cafe organization<\/div>\n

According to its official website, the Death Cafe organization and \u201cmodel\u201d were developed in England by founder Jon Underwood and UK-based psychotherapist Sue Barsky Reid. They derived their ideas from those of Swiss sociologist Bernard Crettaz.<\/p>\n

Since Underwood began his work on Death Cafes in 2011, at least 7,000 have been held in more than 50 countries. Underwood died in 2017 after a battle with cancer, at which point Underwood\u2019s wife and sister began running the Death Cafe organization on a voluntary basis alongside Reid.<\/p>\n

The organization has published a guide<\/a> about how to host a Death Cafe. The organization also provides a map<\/a> of Death Cafe locations, although Mancos was not listed in this registry.<\/p>\n

cpape@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

thousands of others hosting such events<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97357,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[255,13,83],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-97356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-death-and-dying","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-mancos"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97356"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=97356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}