NYC Death Dispatch: July 2026
14 reasons to leave the house and engage with death and grief.
Hi all. The heat is testing the electric grid, it’s America’s birthday, and the World Cup is making people around the globe scream and weep. This is a slimmer issue than usual, and I suspect all the death positive organizers have gone to the Hamptons.
All kidding aside, I’m happy to be sharing the sixth edition of this newsletter. This month there are lots of spaces to ponder and move through grief, plus a death doula gathering and a workshop for teens to learn how to use birth and death records to discover their ancestry. Wishing you an inspiring July.
Happening this month
✍️ WORKSHOP | Tue Jul 7: Writing a Letter to Someone Who Will Never Respond
Join Dragonfly Crossing for a quiet place to write and ponder the space where love and loss coexist. Open to people carrying loss of all kinds.
$45 | 4-5:30 pm | 307 W 38th St, Suite 1403-B, Manhattan
☺️ WORKSHOP | Sat Jul 11: Grief and Joy Workshop
Take part in an interactive workshop to release the weight of grief and awaken a joyful self through movement and laughter. Another session will be held on Jul 25.
$95 | 3-6 pm | HumorVille, 164 Meserole St, Brooklyn
🗣️ WORKSHOP | Tue Jul 14: Coping With Grief (Men Only)
Part of a six-part series from Carmel’s Depression and Anxiety Wellness Foundation, this session for men features guest speakers talking about silent struggle.
Free | 6-7 pm | Cortelyou Library, 1305 Cortelyou Road, Brooklyn
🗣️ MEETUP | Thu Jul 16: A Gathering for End-of-Life Doulas
This bi-monthly event is designed to cultivate support and connection amongst local death doulas at various stages of practice. RSVP using this form.
Free | 6-8 pm | Sparrow Funeral Home, 161 Driggs Avenue, Brooklyn
🐤 MEETUP | Sat Jul 18: Birding, Grief, and Interdependence
Attendees will go birding with the intent of working through difficult feelings, and think about how nature plays a role in grief processing.
$15 suggested donation | 10 am-12 pm | Prospect Park (Ocean Ave and Lincoln Rd)
👩🏻💻 WORKSHOP | Mon Jul 20: All About the Databases
Teens and young adults will learn how to discover their family stories by accessing birth, marriage, and death records, and many other resources.
Free | 4-5 pm | Morningside Heights Library, 2900 Broadway, Manhattan
📚 BOOK EVENT | Tue Jul 21: Matthew Schnipper, Rise Above
Schnipper’s memoir of grief and resilience charts the short life of his son Renzo and the aftermath of his passing. The author will be in conversation with Hua Hsu.
$5-$35 | 7-8 pm | McNally Jackson Seaport, 4 Fulton St, Manhattan
🕯️ CEREMONY | Thu Jul 23: Tisha B'Av Grief Ritual
Temple of the Stranger hosts Tisha B'Av, the ancient Jewish day of communal mourning, to welcome grief and move through it. No prior experience with Judaism necessary.
$18-55 | 6:30-9:30 pm | The Onyx Room, 8 Wyckoff Avenue, Brooklyn
🗣️ Monthly meetups
These free, ongoing series have an open format and are spaces to find support, be curious, and share experiences. Check the links for all the details.
Sat Jul 11: Death Cafe at New York Public Library
First come, first seated | 3:30-4:30 pm | Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library, Room 304, 455 5th Ave, Manhattan
Mon Jul 13: Brooklyn Mourners Common at Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture
7-8:15 pm | 269 4th Avenue, Brooklyn
Tue Jul 14: Grieving and Weaving at Green-Wood Cemetery
6:30-8:30 pm | 500 25th St, Brooklyn
Wed Jul 22: Good Life/Good Death Cafe at Brooklyn Public Library
2-3:30 | Park Slope Library, 431 6th Ave, Brooklyn
Thu Jul 23: Death Cafe at Green-Wood Cemetery
6:30-8 pm | 500 25th St, Brooklyn
Mon Jul 27: Death Cafe at New York Society for Ethical Culture
3-4:30 pm | 2 West 64th Street, Manhattan
Looking ahead
📚 MEETUP | Tue Aug 4: Minding Our Mortality Book Club
Next month’s selection is Aftertaste by Daria Lavelle, a novel about a man who’s been followed by ghosts since his father’s death.
$10 suggested donation | 7-8:30 pm | Neighbor, 176 9th Ave, Manhattan
Registration and ticket policies vary by event. Double-check details before attending in case I mis-typed something.
Endnotes
I love park bench dedications. They’re by turns moving, playful, and reverent. Last week I was in Bodega Bay, CA, and encountered a single bench overlooking a gulch, on a path that led to the ocean. The dedication read:
Live in the sunshine.
Swim the sea.
Drink the wild air.
There was no one else around and I was swollen with anticipatory grief over how I’m going to lose my parents. They were back at the rental house, packing up for the drive back to San Francisco. It had been a lovely trip, but it was ending, and bittersweetness had set in.
The air is truly wild in that part of California. The previous day we’d been greeted by gale force winds at Bodega Head, where we stood on a cliff at the edge of the continent. The sea stuck to our hair and the wildflowers vibrated on their stems. My mom had opted out and my dad felt unstable on his feet in the face of all that wind, and retreated to the car. The rest of us wandered from majestic view to majestic view.
Walking along the gulch grounded me. It felt like the bench was telling me to be here now, in what I’d gotten to experience rather than what I hadn’t yet. My parents took off for home. I rode with my brother, directly into the sunshine.
I remembered your substack when you mentioned at the doula meet up tonight at Sparrow. I'll say hello next time!