UW-Green Bay Psychology students will be hosting nine different Death Cafes in the greater Green Bay community. It is not what you think! A Death Café is designed to gather people, many who are strangers to one another, to come together to discuss death in a safe and comfortable environment. It usually helps to have cake!! There is no agenda or objectives and it is a discussion group rather than a grief support or counseling group. Death Cafes originated with Jon Underwood in London in 2010. Since then, Death Cafes have been held in Europe, North America and Australia—69 countries thus far!
Students in Illene Cupit’s Dying, Death and Loss class have organized nine such Death Cafes around the Green Bay area. They invite you to join them at a table where you can have some refreshment and discuss a variety of end-of-life issues ranging from funeral customs, assisted death, the afterlife, and the experience of grief (to name a few). There will be a sign identifying the Death Café table and you will be happily received. The students have registered their cafes on the deathcafe.com website but here is a listing of the venues and times. The students would be delighted if you would join them in this important conversation, which is slated to last for about an hour. We just do not get enough opportunities to discuss this important facet of life! Caffeinated or not, the conversation promises to be quite lively!!!
Death Café Dates:
- Cura Coffee House (above Brown County Library); March 4 from 12:00pm– 1:30pm
- Kavarna Coffee House; March 5 from 4:00pm – 6:00pm
- The Attic (730 Bodart Street); March 8, 11:00am – 1:00pm
- Dunkin Donuts; March 9 at 3:00pm
- The Attic (730 Bodart Street); March 12 from 8:30am – 9:30am
- The Exchange, De Pere; March 12 at 9:00am
- Cheesecake Heaven (2075 South Oneida Street); March 12 at 3:30pm
- Luna Café (2665 Monroe Rd, #130, Bellevue); 9:30am
Illene Noppe Cupit, graduate of Temple University, is the Ben J. and Joyce Rosenberg Professor of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. She teaches Dying, Death & Loss course on her campus. Dr. Cupit’s research focuses on college student bereavement, social media and death, adolescent grief, death education, and the efficacy of grief camps. Dr. Cupit co-edited a book with Carla Sofka and Kathy Gilbert entitled, Dying, Death and Grief in an Online Universe (Springer Publishers, 2012). She also founded Camp Lloyd, a day camp for grieving children. She was the President of the Association for Death Education and Counseling for 2012-2013.
