Pilgrims Hospices’ Trees of Love remembrance services have seen over 1,000 local people join together each year in memory of their loved ones to raise vital funds to support the incredible services that Pilgrims offers.
Trees of Love is an important event for many families who come together with others who may have shared similar experiences, to remember their loved ones. Guests are invited to come along to see their dedicated dove on one of the Trees of Love, listen to festive and remembrance readings and sing carols, whilst enjoying a warm mince pie, hot chocolate or mulled wine.
“Christmas is a special time of year for families and friends to come together, but losing a loved one can make celebrating this time of year very difficult.
“Trees of love is a place for all to come together in remembering their loved ones during the festive season. We are thrilled to be able to invite everyone back to our hospices for our remembrance services, which we have been unable to host due to the restrictions in place during the pandemic.
“We will also be releasing a Trees of Love film again as we understand how important this has become for those who choose to remember at home.”
Trees of Love has been an important fundraiser for the hospice for more than 25 years, helping to care for those living with life-limiting illnesses and support their families after they are gone.
It offers a space for anyone throughout east Kent who has lost someone special to join together, to reflect and remember their loved ones year on year.
Trees of Love events will take place at our hospices in Ashford, Canterbury and Thanet at 5pm on Saturday 3 December 2022.
We also offer indoor services with seating across our east Kent community:
Firmager, St Nicholas Church, New Romney, 1:30pm on Saturday 3 December 2022
St Peter and St Paul Church, River, Dover, 4pm on Sunday 4 December 2022
All Souls Church, Cheriton, Folkestone, 5pm on Sunday 4 December 2022
Barham Crematorium, Barham, 4.30pm on Thursday 15 December 2022
Charing Crematorium, Charing, 4.30pm on Friday 16 December 2022
You can also post a message and a photo in memory of your loved one on our online Trees of Love memory wall.
If you or someone you know is coping with a life-limiting illness and you think you may benefit from Pilgrims free services, talk to your GP or Healthcare Professional about your options or click here to read about our Wellbeing Programme.
29th November 2022
This Grief Thing: Helping people to talk about grief
Photograph: This Grief Thing Middlesbrough 2018 by Fevered Sleep
Following the devastating and sudden death of his sister, David Harradine, Co-Artistic Director and CEO of arts production company Fevered Sleep, launched This Grief Thing.
We live in a time when many people find grief impossible to talk about. David explains how This Grief Thing aims to normalise conversations about grief, helping people to support each other through a universal human experience.
It’s 24 November 2011, the night my life changed. 6:50pm, and I’m in my studio in London, editing a short film about ageing and time. My phone rings. My sister-in-law’s voice, “David… I don’t know how to tell you…”. In the background, my mum, wailing, screaming, pain. A sound I will never, ever forget. “David… I don’t know how to tell you…”
On 24 November 2011, my life changed. My older sister, my closest sibling, had died in a car accident. Immobilised with shock, I called my partner. He came to collect me. We drove back to our flat. In the kitchen, I smashed things up. We got in the car, we drove up the A1 to my parent’s house in Yorkshire, the house where I grew up, and I stayed there for the next three months, in a house of grief, in shock, in my childhood bed, trying to help my parents, trying to come to terms with what had happened.
Again and again, we heard about invisible grief, unacknowledged grief, grief that had to be hidden, silenced, ignored. We talked about mourning clothes, about wearing black, or arm bands, about the different rituals in different cultures and religions and countries, all the different ways that grief could be worn on the surface of the body: “I’m still grieving: talk to me about it.”
David Harradine
During that time, I felt completely disconnected from my former life. I stopped working, focused completely on my parents and all the ways I might be able to help them survive this loss. Cooking for them, eating together, crying together, visiting my sister’s grave. I tried to fill the abyss that she had left behind; trying to take up the space of two children; trying to produce that much love.
For myself, I felt as though a veil had lifted, a veil that had been obscuring a whole emotional landscape that I didn’t know existed. A landscape of loss, and death, and grief; a landscape I was completely lost in, confused and angry and heartbroken; a landscape for which I had no map.
This Grief Thing Preston 2018 by Garry Cook
I am lucky. I work in the arts. I’m co-artistic director of an arts production company called Fevered Sleep. My friends and colleagues are in tune with their emotions, sensitive and articulate, and they were amazing; an amazing support, unafraid of my grief, it seemed; able and willing to acknowledge it. My mum had a very different experience: seeing people turn away when they saw her in the supermarket; going out for coffee with friends who didn’t ask her how she was. As though being a grieving mother was a disease, something contagious, something to avoid. Or something just too awful to acknowledge. But one by one by one, my friends also stopped asking how I was, how my parents were; stopped asking about my sister. After a few months, everybody else seemed to be back to business as usual. Me? I was still in the thick of grief, still in shock, still bewildered, and increasingly angry and disappointed that those people who had been so amazing at the start had one by one by one forgotten to ask how I was; had forgotten how to see and acknowledge my grief.
One day I said to Sam Butler, Fevered Sleep’s other artistic director and my best friend, “I want to make a T-shirt that says: ‘I’M STILL GRIEVING: WHY HAVE YOU STOPPED TALKING TO ME ABOUT IT?’”. Without hesitation, Sam said, “Let’s do that, let’s make that happen, let’s make that for you”. And so our project This Grief Thing was born.
This Grief Thing Preston 2018 by Garry Cook
This Grief Thing Manchester 2019 by Richard Tymon
This Grief Thing Manchester 2019 by Richard Tymon
This Grief Thing Manchester 2019 by Richard Tymon
This Grief Thing Manchester 2019 by Richard Tymon
This Grief Thing Manchester 2019 by Richard Tymon
This Grief Thing Manchester 2019 by Richard Tymon
This Grief Thing Manchester 2019 by Richard Tymon
This Grief Thing London 2021 photo by Method Films
This Grief Thing London 2020 by Paul Akinrinlola
This Grief Thing London 2021 by Method Films
This Grief Thing London 2021 by Method Films
This Grief Thing London 2021 by Method Films
We began as we always do when we’re making a new project: by talking with other people about the thing we are working on. Over several months, we travelled the country, meeting small groups of people to talk about grief. We gathered stories, advice, words and phrases that we heard repeatedly. Words that attempted to describe grief; words that might be useful for someone who’s grieving: Grief is like the weather. Grief = Love. Don’t panic if I cry. Let me be sad. There will be joy again.
This Grief Thing London 2020 by Fraser Muggeridge Studio
Again and again, we heard about invisible grief, unacknowledged grief, grief that had to be hidden, silenced, ignored. We talked about mourning clothes, about wearing black, or arm bands, about the different rituals in different cultures and religions and countries, all the different ways that grief could be worn on the surface of the body: “I’m still grieving: talk to me about it.”
Sam and I worked with a graphic designer, Fraser Muggeridge studio, and made a collection of clothing – T-shirts, jumpers, scarves – as well as things like cards and brooches and badges. Every item showed one of the phrases that we’d gathered through those conversations about grief: Let me be sad; Grief = Love; Don’t panic if I cry
Once we’d made this collection, we travelled around England, opening pop-up shops. The shops became places for people to gather to talk about grief. We sold the items on a pay-what-you-want basis (someone might pay 50p for a jumper, someone else £50). Hundreds and hundreds of people came to talk, to listen, and to learn about grief. When the shops were closed, we held more conversations, which we called Grief Gatherings. These became a vital, central part of the project, and when the pandemic arrived in 2020, and meeting in person was no longer possible, we moved the Grief Gatherings online. Suddenly we found ourselves in conversations with people all over the world: people in the UK talking with people in Canada and Australia, France and Belgium and the USA. As the project grew, we invited other people to host conversations for us. Brilliant guest hosts engaged people from their own communities. Deaf actress and producer, Deepa Shastri, held Grief Gatherings in BSL; queer activist Dan de la Motteheld gatherings for LGBTQ people; multidisciplinary artist Lou Robbin held them for people from the Global Majority.
This Grief Thing has tried to make grief more visible. It’s an attempt to normalise grief, to insist that it’s a normal, healthy emotion that shouldn’t be hidden or suppressed; that grief isn’t something to be ashamed of.
David Harradine
In 2021, we put together a whole programme of events in London: we opened market stalls instead of shops; we ran a billboard and poster campaign, trying to make grief visible in public spaces; we did many more Grief Gatherings; we commissioned artists Akshay Sharmaand Rayvenn d’Clark to make work on the theme of grief. We also curated a series of online conversations on grief, which brought together various ‘grief experts’ to talk about grief from their own perspectives. An artist with a philosopher; a death doula with an academic; a photographer with a bereavement counsellor; a theatre-maker with a fashion historian. If you’re interested, you can find recordings of these conversations on our website.
In all these different ways, This Grief Thing has tried to make grief more visible. It’s an attempt to normalise grief, to insist that it’s a normal, healthy emotion that shouldn’t be hidden or suppressed; that grief isn’t something to be ashamed of. Through all the many conversations we’ve had with people about grief, in the shops, in Grief Gatherings, on the street and online, we’ve learned so much, and the project carries this learning from place to place. This Grief Thing is a resource, a community, a declaration, and an attempt to bring grief into the light. Thanks for reading this blog: your engagement is another small step towards acceptance of grief; another small act of radical compassion; another gesture of solidarity in the face of unbearable loss.
As I write, we’re taking a pause from This Grief Thing while we work on new projects. We’ll be doing more Grief Gatherings and another online programme in summer 2023, and all the items from the collection are available from our online shop. If you want to keep in touch, sign up to our mailing list and you’ll be the first to know when the project is running. We’d love to see you at one of our events; we all need to talk about grief.
David Harradine
David Harradine is an artist, and co-founder of Fevered Sleep, making performances, installations, films, books and digital art. He’s Professor of Interdisciplinary Practice at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London and is a trustee of Yorkshire Dance. Born into a rural, working class community in West Yorkshire, he now lives in York and London.
There’s much more to death than we think; what if it isn’t just an ending, but an event we can plan for? Thinking beyond the four walls of hospices and hospitals, we have the chance to approach it with confidence and plan a good death. After Wards is a collection of insights and ideas from people who can help us all to re-imagine this essential part of life, and to live well until we die.
Continue the conversation at our Time to Talk events with film screenings, poetry readings, Death Cafes and much more.
28th November 2022
Amy: “I’m a proud Palliative Specialist Nurse”
Amy Stevens from Westwell near Ashford has been a Palliative Specialist Nurse (PSN) at Pilgrims Hospices since July 2022.
Starting out her palliative care career on the hospice wards, Amy wanted to broaden her skillset; she now enjoys helping patients to receive holistic, tailored end-of-life care at every step of their journey, and empowering them to live well in each moment they have.
Amy shares what drew her to palliative care, and why others might like to consider a career at Pilgrims.
Dying is just as important as being born; if you feel the same, then Pilgrims is the right place for you. Here, you can support people in their palliative journey, making day-to-day life and symptoms more manageable, ensuring quality of life is a priority and engaging with patients and families to make decisions about their care. At Pilgrims, we aim to fulfil patients’ wishes where possible, and provide compassionate, skilled palliative care to enable everyone to have a good death.
I qualified as a nurse in 2019, starting as a community nurse, where I found my passion for end-of-life care and care planning. I then worked as a ward nurse at Pilgrims Hospice Thanet for six months, before transferring to the Ashford hospice ward for a further seven months.
During this time, I developed my communication skills and my end-of-life and palliative care knowledge. I knew I wanted to push myself and play a more active role in helping patients to make decisions about their care, and support them with advance care planning. And so here I am, a proud PSN.
I am honoured to help patients voice their wishes and thoughts around death and dying; empowering them to find peace and have a good death.
Amy
I’m enjoying the autonomy of this role, working alongside the clinical team in the hospice and external healthcare professionals to provide the best palliative and end-of-life support that I can. I’ve been able to develop my communication skills further – from having difficult conversations with patients and families regarding diagnosis and prognosis, to reassuring conversations that help patients’ wishes be heard and enable them to find peace.
It’s fascinating to learn about the different symptoms involved in a palliative illness, recognising the signs of these and helping patients to control them through pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments.
What is special about Pilgrims is that we have our own multi-disciplinary team to support patients with their social, physical, psychological and spiritual needs; this is an invaluable asset, helping us to provide the very best patient-centred care. The hospice is a relaxed and calm environment for both patients and staff. We work collaboratively, and everyone has the same goal – to give patients the high-quality palliative and end-of-life care that they need and deserve. Everyone is so compassionate, supportive and caring, and this is evident in how hard they work; Pilgrims feels like one big family.
I am honoured to help patients voice their wishes and thoughts around death and dying; empowering them to find peace and have a good death. Being able to provide support and reassure patients that we’re here for them is one of the most rewarding and fulfilling aspects about being a PSN.
Pilgrims Hospices cares for thousands of local people each year, free of charge, during the most challenging time in their lives. They offer care and support in people’s own homes, in the community and in their inpatient units as well as running a 24-hour advice line.
18th November 2022
The invaluable support of Trusts and Foundations
Pilgrims Hospices receive £2.4 million annually from the NHS, yet to provide its services to the local community costs £15 million a year, or £40,000 a day.
To bridge our funding gap, Pilgrims applies to a variety of Trusts and Foundations to fund specific services as well as new projects.
Trusts and Foundations is a term for a wide and diverse set of charitable bodies. Their motivations and ways of operating are as distinctive as the individuals and organisations they represent. Trust and Foundations fundraising refers to the process of asking or applying for support from these charitable bodies that are empowered to make grants for charitable purposes.
Our Trusts and Grant funders have enabled us to purchase a wide range of specialist medical equipment and helped to deliver vital building and refurbishment works. Additionally, funding for core running costs helps Pilgrims to continue delivering its services free of charge for the east Kent community. Pilgrims receive grants of varying sizes, and each and every one makes an incredible difference to its patients and hospice settings.
Pilgrims’ domestic team with the floor scrubber, which was purchased thanks to a generous donation by the Cantiacorum Foundation
Isabel Smith, Trusts Fundraiser, said: “At Pilgrims Hospices, we are fortunate enough to have received support from a number of Trusts and Foundations. Last year, we received in excess of £185,000 in various grants to support our vital care across the three hospice sites. Each grant is important and makes a significant difference to the patients who we care for. As a charity, we are extremely grateful for every grant that we receive.”
Kate White, Head of Nursing, added: “People think that hospices are sad places, but really they are places to help our patients live fully and well in the time that they have. Ongoing improvements to our facilities and equipment enable families, carers and patients to have a brighter and more inspiring setting for their care. A hospice isn’t a place to be fearful of – it is a place that removes fears. Every day we want to continue in the spirit of delivering innovative end-of-life care, by updating our facilities.”
Here are just a few recent examples of the generous support that Trusts provide:
The Albert Hunt Trust donated a very generous £50,000 to contribute towards Pilgrims’ essential core running costs; this continued support is so valuable to the charity.
Cantiacorum Foundation made a generous donation to allow Pilgrims to purchase a new floor scrubber and dryer machine. This helps ensure floor cleaning is always at an exceptionally high standard and surfaces are left clean and dry immediately, to ensure minimal disruption is caused to hospice users.
The Provincial Grand Lodges of Mark Master Masons of Kent supported Pilgrims with an incredible £16,000 donation from their Mark Benevolent Fund, to be used towards core running costs. Pilgrims is very grateful to them for their continued support throughout east Kent.
At Pilgrims Hospice Ashford, the Frank Brake Charitable Trust kindly funded the Therapy Centre downstairs reception and garden pergola. Pilgrims is proud of its long association with the Trust and is extremely indebted to them for their continued support.
Pilgrims Hospices is thankful to all of the Trusts and Foundations who have or continue to support the charity; it simply couldn’t provide its expert, end-of-life care without them.
There are many items of equipment that are always needed.
We are continually working on an equipment replacement program for the benefit of our patients and to enhance our clinical settings. These aren’t always funded by Trusts; sometimes they are funded by generous members of our community, too.
If you, your family, group or business would like to support, please get in touch by emailing [email protected].
Pilgrims Hospices cares for thousands of local people each year, free of charge, during the most challenging time in their lives. They offer care and support in people’s own homes, in the community and in their inpatient units as well as running a 24-hour advice line.
14th November 2022
Trees of Love: Christina’s story
Christina Johnson supports Trees of Love in memory of her mum, Julie.
Here, she shares why she chooses to remember Julie in this way.
Our family – my mum and her husband, Terry, and two daughters, myself and Sarah – was originally from London, but later moved to Sandgate to be by the sea andthe countryside.
My mum was diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time, which then spread, and she sadly passed away in March 2016.
Pilgrims Hospice Ashford cared for my mum from November 2015 until March 2016. We had no idea what to expect, but we felt Mum had the best end-of-life care. Their service was exceptional, and it was reassuring knowing that she was being looked after so well. Mum always said she felt she was in a nice hotel! The staff were so kind and friendly, making Mum laugh, with time for conversation.
Trees of Love is such a special event for us, and we attend every year. Christmas time is hard and feels different now Mum is no longer with us. By joining other families at this event who have lost loved ones, we draw comfort, and enjoy the time to come together to remember our dear mum.
Christina
My mum always liked to look her best. The side effects of chemotherapy made her lose her confidence, but Pilgrims Hospices provided a volunteer beautician, who gave Mum a lovely pedicure in her room. The little extras they do for people are wonderful. She even enjoyed a little glass of red wine on some evenings!
Trees of Love is such a special event for us, and we attend every year. Christmas time is hard and feels different now Mum is no longer with us. By joining other families at this event who have lost loved ones, we draw comfort, and enjoy the time to come together to remember our dear mum. The hanging doves on the trees are a wonderful, personalised tribute to each individual family, for their lost loved ones. The beautiful lit-up gardens at Pilgrims Hospice Ashford, and the music and prayers, bring us both joy and comfort.
Pilgrims Hospices will always be a part of our lives. It helps us to feel connected to our mum and keep her memory alive.
Trees of Love events will take place at our hospices in Ashford, Canterbury and Thanet at 5pm on Saturday 3 December 2022.
You can also post a message and a photo in memory of your loved one on our online Trees of Love memory wall.
If you or someone you know is coping with a life-limiting illness and you think you may benefit from Pilgrims free services, talk to your GP or Healthcare Professional about your options or click here to read about our Wellbeing Programme.
8th November 2022
What is an eco funeral?
Eco, natural, or modern funerals, are terms often used to describe a funeral that tries to be more environmentally-friendly. Most of these options aren’t new, but they are becoming more widely available and increasingly popular.
Elle Hogben from Willow and Green Funerals explains just some of the ways that funerals can have a lighter impact on the planet.
People choose eco funeral options for many different reasons.
Some want to lessen their impact on the environment as they die. Others like the idea of being naturally returned to the earth, and enjoy a simpler way of doing things. And some people just like the aesthetic that comes alongside a more natural method; perhaps they love being outdoors or in their garden.
Natural burial grounds
In 1993, Ken West formulated the first woodland burial grounds – areas of cemeteries with no headstones that would have trees planted and be left wild. The popularity of natural burial grounds has grown significantly since then, and continues to do so. There are now over 220 recorded natural burial grounds in the UK. Some council-run cemeteries have designated an area for natural or woodland burials. There are also natural burial grounds on privately owned areas of land, and they can be beautiful, peaceful places to visit.
Their goal is often to create and preserve a natural habitat for wildlife, and try to avoid any non-biodegradable elements, so that everything is naturally returned to the earth. Each burial ground differs on what they allow, and your funeral director or the burial grounds staff will be able to guide you.
The coffins used are usually made with completely biodegradable components, and the same goes for flowers, including no plastic or oasis (also called flower foam), which is a non-biodegradable plastic. Traditional gravestones are not permitted, but most cemeteries allow smaller wooden markers or something similar. Often, a tree or plant of some variation is planted next to or around the grave. The woodland and natural landscape make beautiful surroundings for a funeral service, or for the scattering of ashes.
What does an eco coffin look like?
Natural coffins include materials like willow, bamboo, or seagrass, and are really beautiful. These coffins are completely biodegradable, including their fixings, linings and handles. The lattice method of weaving the coffins also provides a great opportunity for adding flowers. There are even some coffins that are grown and made in the UK, reducing the carbon footprint, including some particularly lovely willow farms in Somerset.
Cardboard is one of the most efficient and cheapest eco coffin materials. For me, a personal favourite is when families choose to have white or neutral cardboard coffins, allowing family, friends and children to draw and write messages on the coffin. Or, how about a coffin with pictures of cats for a cat lover? These coffins provide a great opportunity to personalise a funeral, and get the whole family involved in a precious moment.
One of the most simple options is a shroud. Shrouds are usually made from natural materials such as cotton, linen, silk and many more. Families can then lay flowers and decorate the shroud in the same way they would a coffin. These are such personal choices, which is why it’s a good idea to think about what you might want, to make these hard decisions a little easier for your family.
Funeral flowers have always been a large part of the traditional funeral, from flowers accompanying the hearse, to flowers gifted by mourners. People often ask for donations to charities instead of gifted flowers, or sometimes a mixture of both.
Whilst flowers themselves are biodegradable, oasis is a common element of flower displays, and therefore many traditional displays are not biodegradable. The RHS flower show banned oasis from their displays in 2021 because of its harmful impact on the environment. Fortunately, there are alternatives, such as moss. The majority of florists now provide at least some eco-friendly options. Unfortunately, we only grow certain flowers in the UK at various times of the year, so understandably flowers often have to be imported from across the globe. Chat to a florist or your funeral directors about what flowers they can source more locally at specific times of the year.
Local flower farms are wonderful places to visit; some even allow families to come and browse and choose flowers to be made into tributes. A local florist told me that families sometimes request for bulbs to be added to the floral displays. The family can then take these home and plant them in their gardens – what a beautiful way to reuse funeral flower displays and remember a loved one. A lady once showed me a wonderful display of dried flowers she had made for her mum. I was surprised at how much colour and vibrancy the flowers still had. When dried, flowers can be taken home and shared with the family and enjoyed for a lot longer. It’s great to see that the options available to families are growing.
There are also creative alternatives to flowers.
For example, for a football fan, how about a football shirt on the coffin? I recently saw a Star Wars fan’s funeral had pallbearers dressed as stormtroopers and a Lego Star Destroyer on the coffin (although Lego is made from plastic, the figure may have belonged to the family and have been kept by them afterwards; it would have been removed before burial and therefore wouldn’t impact on the natural environment); how creative!
There are some wonderful craftspeople out there who make beautiful things, like paper flowers made from recycled books that the family can keep forever.
There is no right or wrong answer, and families often come up with some beautifully unique ideas.
Customising a funeral: Orders of service, ashes and more
Orders of service can be made on recycled paper. A wedding I attended used beautiful seed paper for the wedding order of service; the paper is usually made from recycled materials and embedded with herb, vegetable or flower seeds to be planted. This is a lovely idea that reduces waste and can be adopted for funerals, giving guests something special to take home and remember their loved one by. And remember, just because orders of service are a traditional part of a funeral, doesn’t mean they are essential. You might decide to have a single order of service placed for all to see, or send out an electronic version.
A biodegradable urn
There are many beautiful options when it comes to deciding what to do with loved ones’ ashes. Some people like to plant the ashes in urns, and maybe even grow a tree near them. Arboform urns are a great option that will start to naturally biodegrade. However, they can also be used as a display urn, because they will only start to biodegrade when planted in the ground. This eco option comes in a wide range of shapes and beautiful styles; they are often cheaper than some metal, ceramic and wooden urns.
It’s exciting to see the increased use of electric hearses in the funeral industry. But what about all the guests attending? A simple idea such as carpooling is a great way to reduce funeral guests’ carbon footprint. Often, this allows families to spend more time together, and it’s a way of respecting and honouring the wishes of the person who has died, if their preference was for an eco funeral.
These are just a few of the many ways that a funeral can be more eco-friendly. The most important part of arranging any funeral is empowering the family to have choices. As a funeral arranger, it is our job at Willow and Green Funerals to source a wide range of options for families to achieve whatever they want. Traditional funerals still play a big, important part in the funeral industry. All we hope is to show people that they don’t have to sacrifice this in order to be more environmentally conscious.
Elle Hogben
Elle Hogben is a funeral arranger working for Willow and Green Funerals, an independent funeral home in Ashford, Kent. Willow and Green believe in providing personal, high-quality funerals that don’t cost the earth. Elle feels it is a privilege to be able to help people through one of the hardest times of their lives.
Elle has been attending Pilgrims Hospices events for many years with her mum, Annie. She is always impressed by the amazing and vital work that the staff at the hospice do.
There’s much more to death than we think; what if it isn’t just an ending, but an event we can plan for? Thinking beyond the four walls of hospices and hospitals, we have the chance to approach it with confidence and plan a good death. After Wards is a collection of insights and ideas from people who can help us all to re-imagine this essential part of life, and to live well until we die.
Continue the conversation at our Time to Talk events with film screenings, poetry readings, Death Cafes and much more.
