Homeless, unhoused, unsheltered, houseless, hobo, bum, vagrant, transient, street person… At the start of 2021, I submitted my PhD thesis in Creative Writing, Not All Deaths are Created Equal: Essays Exploring the Intersection of Death, Inequality, and Homelessness, to a book publisher for consideration. My book is a journey to understand what happens to someone who dies while… Continue reading
Eight minutes and forty-six seconds. That’s how long an officer kept his knee on George Floyd’s neck resulting in his death from asphyxiation. In eulogizing Floyd, Reverend Al Sharpton said, “Since four hundred and one years ago, the reason we could never be who we wanted and dreamed of being is you kept your knee… Continue reading
In the 2017-2018 academic year, myself, Dr Naomi Richards, and Dr Elizabeth Reeder held a series of reading and writing workshops centered around the topic of death and dying. We each facilitated a couple of workshops. A fellow PhD student, Solveiga Zibaite also facilitated a workshop. They brought together a diverse group of people all… Continue reading
Our first few Reading and Writing Death workshops have been a great success. They have challenged us to consider how memoirs from the dying can be such valuable resources for the living; how experimental essays can be used to dig into such a difficult topic; and we’ve discussed memory, experience, and empathy via anthropological texts on… Continue reading
