SANCTUARY BURROW
at the
_edited.jpg)
DEATH FAIRE 2024
Friday & Saturday: November 1st & 2nd
​
​
It's the 9th annual DEATH FAIRE, a modern-day ritual inspired by the death positivity movement that shares a rich time of knowledge, wisdom, celebration, and remembrance for our community.
Death Faire is a day-long event held at The Plant, Pittsboro's diverse 17-acre eco-industrial park, and is focused on exploring grief to live our best lives. We offer many different opportunities to change the culture that currently surrounds something every living being must experience. ​
In preparation for Death Faire 2024, heart2heartnc, in conjunction with Chatham Community Library is hosting a 3-part Living & Dying Film Series on Tuesday evenings beginning October 15, 2024. The series showcases three thought-provoking films that delve into the themes of the beauty and complexity of mortality, the celebration of life, and the acceptance of the inevitable. All films will be screened in the Holmes Family Meeting Room beginning at 5:00 pm. These screenings are free and open to the public. After each screening, stick around for insightful discussions and reflections on life, death, and everything in between, with our special guest speakers
We will be opening Death Faire with Friday night's "Tending to the Heart '' with the heart2heart team. Saturday's Faire commences with a variety of immersive sessions offering such topics as ancestral healing, grief rituals, psychedelics for living and dying, as well as hands-on experiences with candle-making, chanting death mantras, dancing, poetry, and more. You won't want to miss our keynote speaker Sherri Dillard, nor the opportunity to hear the wisdom of our guest presenters. The Paperhand Puppets will be dancing around the event all day offering ancestral magic and our day will close with the transformative music of Bear Roots.
Throughout the weekend, an interactive altar will be present for you to place your tokens of remembrance and speak from your heart. The Smelt Art Gallery will feature our Death Faire Art Exhibit. There will be vivacious vendors and plenty of food and beverages. This is an event you don't want to miss.
Directions to The Plant
SCHEDULE
Purchase tickets here.
PRESENTERS
SHERRI DILLARD, keynote speaker
Continuing the Journey with Your Loved Ones on the Other Side
​​​​​​​Sherrie Dillard is an internationally renowned medium and medical intuitive who has given over 60,000 readings worldwide. She is the best-selling author of eleven books, including I'm Still With You: Communicate, Heal and Evolve with Your Loved Ones on the Other Side and her latest, Raise Your Frequency and Manifest Abundance: A Guide for Empaths, Intuitives and Sensitives. Her books have been translated into fifteen languages, and her writing has appeared in publications such as The Today Show Blog, O Magazine, Oprah Daily, Om-Times, Huffington Post, and on the Yahoo! home page. She has been featured on national television for her work with police detectives in the Stephanie Bennett cold murder case.
Sherrie has an M.Div. in New Thought and Metaphysics. Her passion for the fusion of intuition, spirituality, and conscious self-growth has made her a popular speaker and teacher at retreats and conferences, both nationally and internationally.
With a lifelong devotion and dedication to be of service, she has worked with diverse populations in unique settings. In addition to her work as a professional medium, Sherrie has helped to house and feed the poor and homeless in New York City, San Jose, and San Francisco, CA. She has helped to build simple water systems in native villages in the mountains of southern Mexico and Guatemala and created art therapy programs in treatment centers for troubled youth in North Carolina and Georgia.
​
Saturday/1:30-2:30/Main Stage
MIGUEL AMARU
The Eternal Cycle: Death, Renewal & Dreaming in Shamanic and Yogic Traditions
Miguel Amaru is an internationally recognized esoteric educator, ceremonial facilitator, and medicine musician. His journey into the unseen began as a child with lucid dreams and now, with over 20 years of teaching experience, he carries multiple lineages of Buddhist and Himalayan yoga, shamanism, Taoist alchemy, and Christian mysticism in a living tradition of ancestral wisdom for the modern age.
A profound exploration of death and renewal, this session delves into ancient perspectives and practices that can prepare us for death, facilitate communication with the departed, and foster acceptance by connecting us with the natural world. The talk is enriched with original and deeply moving music that reflects on impermanence, interconnectedness, and transformation.
​
Saturday/4:00-4:45/Smelt Gallery
​
​
​Opening Prayer / Behind the Veil
The Opening Prayer will consist of an offering to the 7 directions and the ancestors with copal, tobacco, and song. Behind the Veil will be a dive into the mechanics of the afterlife based on the philosophies of various cultures, particularly Native American and West African, with tips on how people can honor their transcended loved ones in their day-to-day lives. Both offerings will conclude with songs related to the topic.
Tito Avila is a mestizo Roadman of Teocali Quetzalcoatl Native American Church and Fire Chief of Xiuozelometztli Moondance, working in service with plant medicines for the last 13 years and offering temazcal sweat lodges in various communities around the world. He is also a priest of the Bakongo tradition, certified Yoga/Neigong instructor, TBJ Tracker School Scout, and seasoned medicine musician.
Saturday/2:45-3:45/Smelt Gallery
BEAR ROOTS and Friends
Closing Music
​Bear Roots music is a fusion of tight harmonies that reflect healing and resilience—infused with messages of hope, love, and empowerment. Through vivid imagery and storytelling, listeners are invited on a journey of inner exploration and healing, using music as a medium to express profound emotions and insights.​ Additionally, the music of Bear Roots incorporates an Americana style, blending elements of folk, country, and American roots music to create a unique and heartfelt sound. There is a depth and richness to the storytelling within the songs, all originals, written by Lolly Dunlap. Bear Roots is Lolly Dunlap (guitar, vocals) and Amy Durso (vocals). We are accompanied by our very talented friends, Sheila Fleming (percussion), Cathy Edwards (percussion), Richard Edwards (bass), and Will Ridenour (Kora & Percussion).
Bear Roots first album, recorded at NightSound Studios in Carrboro, will be for sale at the event and is available on Spotify at https://open.spotify.com/artist/0mVSfniOhbgpQuipULjWY0.
Saturday/5:00-6:00/Main Stage​​
​
​
SUSAN BAKER CARTLEDGE
Soul Art Masks
From King Tut to Abe Lincoln and Resusci-Annie, death masks help us remember the faces and lives of those who have gone before us. We will place ourselves on the inside of the mask and imagine what the departed would have wanted to leave with us. Using various materials, we will explore this liminal space in a way that will invite us to connect with their memories and perhaps learn something about them we didn’t know.
Susan Baker Cartledge is a Registered nurse and representational oil portrait artist. Assisting her patients as they have moved through stages of life and death over the past 30 years has given her a unique affinity for observing the human face and spirit and capturing this on canvas. She lives near Pittsboro and enjoys gardening, cooking, wine-making, and hiking with her husband, Tony.
​
For more info check out this youtube video here: "Fascinating Death Masks of Historical Figures"
Also, from the National Portrait Gallery:
​
Saturday/4:00-4:45/Building 2
OSCAR GARCIA
Colibri: Spirit in Motion
​​For instructor Oscar Garcia, dance comes out of joy and necessity after he was diagnosed with diabetes during the pandemic. "I started working on myself, coming here doing Zumba four days a week, eating healthy, and I made a promise to myself," Garcia said. "After a year, I didn't have diabetes anymore.”
​
Dance is a therapeutic and creative tool that can transform your life and the lives of others. Dance helps you to have a connection with yourself, others, and with the totality.
Come and enjoy a dance class with Oscar, dancing to the Latin rhythms from Cumbia, Salsa, Merengue, Bachata, and many more…
​
Oscar Garcia is a dance instructor, community leader, and social activist living in Chapel Hill, NC.
​
Saturday/2:45-3:45/Building 2
​
DR. ELDRIN DEAS
On the Coming of the Dawn: A Valediction for the Living
For the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore, death was not seen as the extinguishing of a light but as “putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.” And for American poet Raymond Carver, the questions that come at the end of our lives might best be resolved upon reflection by feeling ourselves ‘beloved on the earth.’ For many who are yet living, though, the prospect of stepping into great unknowns can be quite uncomfortable. Together, we will practice a valediction—a farewell—to those parts of ourselves that shun the light. We will explore how to meaningfully meet and care for our deepest selves so that when our dawn comes, we will already know it. Because, as Kahlil Gibran puts it, “what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?”
Eldrin Deas is a writer, researcher, and musician who has led a diverse portfolio of community outreach and partnership-building projects. He is also an ardent arts advocate, having recently completed a three-year term as a member of the Durham Cultural Advisory Board (DCAB). From his time as the first non-law student intern at the UNC Center for Civil Rights, Eldrin has sought ways to build and strengthen communities while connecting those communities to resources that help them thrive. Eldrin holds a B.S. in Mathematics from Morehouse College, an M.S. in Social Foundations of Education from Georgia State University, and a Ph.D. in Culture, Curriculum, and Change from UNC-Chapel Hill.
Saturday/4:00-4:45/Wheelhouse
​
MEADOW DEFOSCHE
The Mahamrityunjaya Mantra
The Mahamrityunjaya Mantra, or the Great Death Conquering Mantra, is a powerful mantra that we chant for protection, healing, and to overcome our fear of death. For this practice, we will chant this sacred mantra 108 times together to lift our collective vibration and invite healing, release, and peace. Bring your favorite mala beads if you wish to keep count. We will start with a short discussion of the mantra and practice pronunciation together. Handouts will be provided so that you may follow along.
Meadow DeFosche, eRYT-500, is certified in Restorative Yoga, Yoga for Post-Traumatic Stress through Yoga Warriors International, and Integral Yoga for Stress Management through Satchidananda Ashram. She has also extensively completed studies in Ayurveda and Yoga for Pain Management. She takes the approach of a lifelong learner and continues seeking new knowledge about Yoga and Yogic philosophy to deepen her connection to the Divine.
​
Saturday/12:15-1:15/Gazebo
​
LEIF DIAMANT
Nature as Healer and Teacher: Loss, Grief, Trauma, Death / Living and Thriving
Loss, grief, and death are part of Nature as are resilience, beauty, vitality, joy, and vastness. Nature can help mediate and relieve grief and trauma through observation, intimacy, and exploration of it. Its wisdom, adaptation, and nurturance assist us in whatever we are dealing with. It is an ally, teacher, healer, and beloved as we connect with it in these ways. This will be an experiential workshop as we wander, pause, notice, and go deeper into ourselves and Nature exploration and connection
Leif Robert Diamant, MEd, NCLMHC, is a licensed psychotherapist, interfaith/spiritual minister, and lifetime student of nature. His practice of psychotherapy often focuses on helping people with trauma, loss, death and dying, PTSD, and complex PTSD. He has been practicing, studying, and teaching about ecopsychology and nature, spirituality for the past 20 years. He frequently teaches at Shakori Hills Festival, Piedmont, Earthskills, and the Death Faire. He was on the Duke University, Medical Center faculty for 10 years. He also is a small-scale farmer and forest steward with a herd of African dwarf goats.
Saturday/ 12:15 - 1:15/ The Playground Stage
HEART2HEART
Tending to the Heart: A Holding Through Love & Loss
Join us on the eve of Death Faire as we tend to our precious hearts. Through the combination of healing touch, restorative sound, & gentle guidance, we will create the heartspace to love fully, grieve deeply, & take comfort as we are held in supportive community.
Enter into stillness with your tender hearts full of
sorrow, joy & love. Cradled in compassion, the heart2heart team (director Cathy Brooksie Edwards and musicians Lolly Dunlap, Amy Durso, & Sheila Fleming) will lead you through a journey where you will be held in healing stillness, ceremonial music & guided meditation. We will be joined by massage therapists Jenn Browning, Leigh Hall, Candor Bourne, and Edwin Nothnagle offering calming, healing touch for those who desire it.
​
Bring your yoga mat, bolster, eyemask, blankets, and whatever makes you comfortable.
Friday/7:00-8:30 pm/Starrlight Meade Great Hall
​
KAREN HOWARD
Love After Life: Community Poetry Reading
Calling all Poets and Poetry Lovers!
Whether you're a seasoned poet or simply love the beauty of language, come celebrate the power of poetry with us. Bring your original poems to share, or if you'd prefer to simply listen and soak in the art, you're more than welcome. If you have a poem that you would like to share, all are welcome to reach out to Karen at karen@howards-end.net
​
"Hosting this year’s Death Faire Poetry feels especially poignant. It has been quite a year, from terminal diagnosis to acceptance to actually walking the labyrinth that will ultimately take the man I once called husband and lover to the end of his journey. I have struggled to be patient and kind even when I am afraid and angry. I’m learning the art of loving someone close to death as I watch him struggle to hold onto the good parts of life while navigating the treacherous path of explaining his impending death to our autistic son and his heartbroken mother who buried her own husband at 49 and held onto this boy-turned-man as a lifeline."
​
Karen Howard is an artist, poet, mother, friend, grandmother, and public servant. In addition to serving as a County Commissioner here in Chatham, she has also been active in the promotion and support of the Arts. Karen discovered her creative talents later in life and has immersed herself in performing and hosting poetry events here at The Plant and in the surrounding community. She is a child of the diaspora from her early life in the Bahamas, which has informed much of her creative work to her current residence in a former plantation bringing her story full circle.
Saturday/2:45-3:45/Wheelhouse
VANESSA JACKSON and CHERIE LYON
Sacred Transitions: Honoring the Cycles of Life
Join us for this magical experience of honoring cycles of life through rituals and ceremonies for sacred transitioning. This gentle guidance allows the grieving process to be organic and life-affirming while clearing the path for new and powerful beginnings. You are invited to bring items for your personal altars to be charged by our collective energy.
Vanessa Jackson is a Soul Doula, writer, activist, and social worker based in Atlanta. Her work focuses on power, social and economic liberation, African American psychiatric history, and reclaiming traditional practices to support individual and community healing. Vanessa is the owner of Dudley’s Apothecary which offers healing sprays in the traditions of her root worker ancestors.
Saturday/12:15-1:15/Building 2
JENNA MATLIN
What Spirits Can Carry
​
What truths might you uncover about yourself if you came face to face with your own death? Join Jenna Matlin - psychic medium, tarotist, and author of Will You Give Me a Reading? on a guided meditation to visit the threshold between this world and the next. Together, we’ll explore the liminal spaces between worlds, offering you a glimpse into the mysteries of your next chapter. Afterward, we’ll share our experiences, discuss insights, and reflect on this otherworldly encounter.
Jenna Matlin, M.S., has been a full-time psychic practitioner since 2012 and was awarded "Best of Philly: Spiritual Guru" by Philadelphia Magazine in 2019. She has also been featured on various online platforms such as BuzzFeed and Bustle. Jenna is the author of three books: Will You Give Me a Reading?, Have Tarot, Will Party, and Have Tarot, Will Travel. She presents at conferences both domestically and internationally. Jenna offers tarot and mediumship readings to clients from her Chapel Hill, NC, office, as well as to clients around the world.
Saturday/2:45-3:45/Gazebo
CAREY McKELVEY
Grief Chronicles 2023 Film & Video Booth
Endeavoring to capture grief, CMCK.Media set up a video booth at Death Faire and invited people to record memories of loved ones lost, personal journeys with other types of grief, or just a sounding board to express themselves. This year, the resulting film "Grief Chronicles 2023" will be shown in the Wheelhouse.
Carey will have the Video Booth open this year as well. If you don’t know what to say, no problem, we can give you prompts to get thoughts flowing or give you a starting point. We will capture these moments and deliver them to individuals who participate, mostly unedited. Think of this as a photo booth, but with a video where you can walk away with your thoughts, feelings, and memories recorded. How do I sign up? We will be open for walk-up appointments or you can book in advance by registering here.
​
Carey McKelvey, M.A./M.B.A., is a creative filmmaker, photographer, and seeker of stories.
Saturday/12:15-1:15/Wheelhouse
KATHERINE SAVAGE & MELODIE WILDER
From Field to Shroud: A Project of Becoming a Culture-Changing Seed
Hear the story of how a death midwife's exploration of what to do with her body after death, aligned with her appreciation for growing food and inspired a vision of growing her death shroud from flax seed. Through a partnership with a fiber arts teacher and community engagement in the making process, the flax was grown, processed with hand tools, wheel spun, and loom woven, as Katherine consciously connected her lifecycle to each stage of the shroud's birth and death. The shroud now plants seeds of visions, encouraging others to contribute to the collective effort to change our death culture by creating infrastructure and capacity for community death care tending.
​
Katherine Savage is a home funeral guide whose purpose is to build a culture in which people live in accordance with the planet’s regenerative cycles. She offers ways and means for people to attune their lives to the universal forces of creation and dissolution so that death can become their teacher. With skill and care, she guides individuals on their personal journey to open to the wisdom of this teacher and supports communities in building practices that dignify the dying process and honor the earth that will receive us. Katherine plants the seeds for a culture that embodies a way of living harmoniously with the earth that conjured us.
​
Melanie Wilder is a weaver, natural dyer, and explorer of material and process living in the Asheville, NC area where she currently runs the fiber program at Warren Wilson College. She is interested in exploring how process crosses into our daily lives, and how intentional choices can help shape our footprint on the future. This involves the yearly rhythm of growing fibers and dyes and how the textiles made from these plants create ritual and meaning. Cloth is with us daily from birth until death. She is interested in how storytelling weaves metaphor, healing and resonance into fabric made to tell the stories of our lives.
​
Saturday/2:45-3:45/Main Stage
%20(1).jpeg)
MATT ZEMON
Psychedelics for Living and Dying
Catalysts for profound awakenings, psychedelics can offer a spiritual compass to guide us through the thresholds of life and the enigma of death. This eye-opening talk delves into the transformative role of psychedelics in illuminating the path for both those who are departing from this world and those who bear witness to the departure. Step into the here and now to learn how these sacred compounds deepen both everyday joy and profound spiritual connection. There will be time for questions. Matt Zemon, MSc, is the author of the best-selling book, Psychedelics for Everyone: A Beginner’s Guide to These Powerful Medicines for Anxiety, Depression, Addiction, PTSD, and Expanding Consciousness as well as Beyond the Trip, A Journal for Psychedelic Preparation and Integration. With a Master's degree from King's College London, he has studied the effects of psychedelics on the mind and the potential for these experiences to serve as a catalyst for positive transformations. A dedicated explorer of the inner world and a passionate advocate for the thoughtful and responsible use of psychedelics, Matt serves as the executive director of Sacred Path Community.
Saturday/12:15-1:15/Main Stage
PAPERHAND PUPPET INTERVENTION
Ancestral Celebration Parade
Paperhand Puppet Intervention’s mission is to use diverse styles of puppetry and artistic expression to create works that inspire, promote social change, and are deeply rewarding for all involved. These styles include giant puppets, rod puppets, shadow puppetry, masks, stilt dancing, and anything under the sky that strikes our fancy. Our vision is inspired by our love for the earth and its creatures (including humans). Paperhand Puppet Intervention is comprised of artists and volunteers who share their energy, creativity, sweat, smarts, strength, and support and hold a belief in our vision and promote our mission. Community is the lifeblood of Paperhand. It makes our creations, our performances, and Paperhand Puppet Intervention’s existence possible.
​
Saturday/4:45-5:00/Main Stage
​
DEATH FAIRE ART EXHIBIT
“Embracing Life in the Face of Death” - Meet the Artists
_edited.jpg)
Emily Merletto, artist
Sometimes, when facing death, we are left speechless.
Art can offer solace, provide respite, spur contemplation, and perhaps, even evoke a sense of hope. We have integrated the Death Faire Art Exhibit into the main events on Saturday to offer our artists an authentic audience, allowing them to feel acknowledged and welcomed into this compassionate, heartfelt community. This year our new feature, "Meet the Artists" is scheduled from 12:15 to 1:15 in the Smelt Art Gallery. The art and the artists deserve to be seen. We hope you will take a moment to reflect in this space and be inspired by their art. "Embracing Life in the Face of Death" will be on display until November 19.
If you are interested in participating, whether as an artist or as a volunteer for the art exhibit (or both), click the link https://www.theplantnc.com/smeltgallery for more information.
Scanning the QR code will take you to the Death Faire Art Exhibit Application Form.
Saturday/12:15-1:15/Smelt Gallery
WILL RIDENOUR & DONOVAN ZIMMERMAN
Drum Circle: Rhythms for Living and Dying
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
Saturday/4:00-4:45/Main Stage
This facilitated drum circle will create a space for communal reflection on life and death through rhythm. Each with a drum, participants gather, following the facilitator’s lead as the beats start slow and meditative, evolving into a shared, flowing rhythm. The circle fosters a nonverbal expression of emotions like grief and remembrance, allowing participants to connect deeply without words. Our communal drumming becomes a healing ritual, blending mourning and celebration in a powerful, collective experience.
ONGOING HIGHLIGHTS at Death Faire
Interactive Altar
You are invited to honor your loved one(s) by participating in this open, interactive Death Faire Altar. If you wish to honor and recognize those who have passed from your lives, you are encouraged to bring photos, art, or small items that are your treasured keepsakes of your significant person. You can bring a poem, a writing, or a quote as a tribute piece. You can write a wish, a prayer, or a memory to any of your ancestors that can be hung on the provided line or placed in the burning pot of ashes to send to the ancestors by way of smoke. We will have incense & candles lit so mind where you set your pieces.
Be sure to mark your name on pieces you leave at the altar so they can be easily returned. Above all respect each precious contribution to this altar. Many different faiths and beliefs will be represented and the tokens placed will be special to each participant.
Vendors
_edited.png)
Food & Beverage Service
Meats & Eats Food Truck
The Den
