Defying convention and daring to discuss death - members of Grand Forks’ own Death Cafe celebrated the two-year anniversary of the group on Saturday.
Death Cafe is a worldwide movement challenging people to defy the Western convention of not discussing death, dying, and end of life. In Grand Forks, the cafe got its start two years ago at the Grand Forks Library. Curtis Shokoples, one of the facilitators of the group, said Saturday they are not a counselling group - it’s about discussion.
The group is tolerant of all communities and belief systems, holds discussion confidentially, and does not aim to come to a conclusion or course of action. The foremost rule, Shokoples said, is that all members agree to listen respectfully - especially when they disagree.
Over the two years, the group has discussed everything from the funeral industry to end of life planning to ideas about afterlife.
The group meets once every two months. Sometimes the discussion will start with a prompt (on Saturday it was a children’s book called The FUNeral), and other times the discussion starts with the members.
The group averages 10-20 participants per session, which was a great surprise to library programming coordinator Lizanne Eastwood, she said.
“People are interested in the conversation,” Eastwood said.