NYC Death Dispatch: May 2026
Sustainable burial in New York City, a death cafe for teens, and so many performances.
“I’m not finding that much stuff,” I said earlier this month. “I hope this isn’t a thin issue.”
I’m delighted to report that it’s the opposite. This edition feels fuller than ever with chances to feel seen and welcomed. There are soft spaces to honor lost mothers and maternal figures. Go birding with others who process grief in nature. See a performance that floors you with the truth in the way only live theater can.
I hope you’re as excited about these events as I am.
Happening soon
🚶🏻♂️WALKING TOUR | Sat May 2: 200 Years of Death and Hauntings in Greenwich Village
Explore Greenwich Village through the lens of death to learn how tragic events have impacted the life, politics, and folklore of the city.
$40 | 6 pm | Departing from Church of the Ascension, 7 West 10th Street, Manhattan
📚 BOOK LAUNCH | Sat May 2: Siri Hustvedt, Ghost Stories
Hustvedt will be in conversation with Katie Kitamura about her memoir of grief, memory, and lasting love that she began writing after her husband, Paul Auster, died. (She will also be speaking at NYPL on May 5.)
From $23.18 | 4-5:15 pm | Strand Rare Book Room, 828 Broadway, Manhattan
🎭 PERFORMANCE | Wed May 6: How to Kill a Mouse
This solo comedy from Alex Berr is about her life as a biomedical researcher processing the loss of her mother to the rare form of cancer she used to study.
From $18.76 | 9:30-11 pm | Caveat, 21A Clinton Street, Manhattan
🗣️ TALK | Fri May 8: The Past, Present, and Future of Sustainable Burial in New York City
Columbia University DeathLAB will present and guide conversation about how funerary practices shape the urban landscape.
Free | 6-7 pm | Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library, 7th Fl, 455 5th Ave, Manhattan
🏃🏽♀️MEETUP | Sun May 10: Mom Memoriam Mother’s Day Walk
This guided, reflective walk is a community experience for people navigating the loss of moms or other maternal figures on Mother’s Day.
Free | 12-3 pm | Prospect Park, location shared after registration
🗣️ TALK | Sun May 10: Finding the Good Inside the Grief
Jon Imparato, author of The Good Inside the Grief, speaks with V (formerly Eve Ensler) at this event for everyone who has ever loved, lost, and dared to laugh through the tears.
Free | 12-1:30 pm | The Center, 208 West 13th Street, Manhattan
🗣️ MEETUP | Tue May 12: Grieve and Gather: Mother’s Day Event
Gather in a gentle, LGBTQ+-affirming space to honor the loss of mothers, grandmothers, and maternal figures of all kinds.
From $10 | 6:30-8 pm | BOYFRIEND Co-op, 1157 Myrtle Ave, Brooklyn
📚 MEETUP | Tue May 12: Minding Our Mortality Book Club
This month’s selection is When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi.
$10 suggested donation | 7-8:30 pm | Neighbor, 176 9th Ave, Manhattan
🗣️ MEETUP | Thu May 14: Death Cafe at the Teen Center
Teens are invited to bring their beliefs, experiences, and questions about death to an open discussion with their peers. There will be snacks!
Free | 5-6 pm | Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library, Teen Center, 455 5th Ave, Manhattan
Later this month
🗣️ MEETUP | Sat May 16: Grief, Arts & Design Gathering
This session about the intersection of grief, arts, and design explores how objects function as carriers of memory, meaning-making, and healing.
Free | 2-3:30 pm | 115 Bowery, Manhattan
🗣️ MEETUP | Thu May 21: 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.
Free | 6-8 pm | Sparrow Funeral Home, 161 Driggs Avenue, Brooklyn
🐦 MEETUP | Sun May 24: 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)
📚 BOOK EVENT | Sat May 30: Becky Robison, My Parents Are Dead: What Now?
Robison’s book demystifies complex legal and financial processes with a sense of humor. After a reading, she’ll be in conversation with death doula Lauren Seeley.
Free | 5 pm | Morbid Anatomy Library, 254 36th St 2nd floor, C248, Brooklyn
🎉 OPENING | Sat May 30: Right to Flight
This rooftop installation raises awareness about the hundreds of thousands of migratory birds that die each year colliding with NYC buildings, with a live performance on opening night.
$5-$25 suggested donation | 6-9 pm | Noo Arts, 520 Kingsland Avenue, Brooklyn
Ongoing
🎭 PLAY | Blood in my Mouth
A woman visits her brother’s grave and makes an unexpected connection with the happy-go-lucky brother of the deceased person one tombstone over.
$20 | May 1-10 | Andrew Logan Projects, 352 Van Brunt Street, Brooklyn
🎭 PLAY | Love Story
Maria is dead, and trapped inside a play that keeps restarting itself, where scenes from her life are rehearsed and revised by her loved ones.
From $28 | Through May 17 | The Tank, 312 W 36th St, Manhattan
🎨 ART | El Cielo del Mar
Bony Ramirez’s installation uses sculpture, painting, and sound to explore loss, memory, and the passage between worlds.
Free | April 18-June 7 | Green-Wood Cemetery, 500 25th St, Brooklyn
🎭 PLAY | Well, I’ll Let You Go
A woman contemplates the sudden loss of her husband and tries to learn the circumstances of his death in a study of grief that moves back and forth in time.
From $49 | Through June 20 | Studio Seaview, 305 West 43rd Street, Manhattan
🎭 PERFORMANCE | Sardines (A Comedy about Death)
Actor-comedian Chris Grace ponders whether we can enjoy life if we know how it ends in this hit from the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
$34 | May 5-June 24 | New York Theatre Workshop, 79 East 4th Street, Manhattan
🖼️ EXHIBIT | Unrolling Eternity: The Brooklyn Books of the Dead
On view for the first time is a restored 2000-year-old Egyptian Book of the Dead, which contains spells that guide a deceased person through the underworld.
Museum admission | Ongoing | Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, 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 May 9: Death Cafe @ New York Public Library
First come, first seated | 3:30-4:30 pm | Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library, Room 304, 455 5th Ave, Manhattan
Sun May 10: Grief Support Circle @ QED
Free with $5 café purchase | 5-7 pm | 27-16 23rd Avenue, Astoria
Wed May 13: Grieving and Weaving @ Green-Wood Cemetery
6:30-8:30 pm | 500 25th St, Brooklyn
Mon May 18: Brooklyn Mourners Common @ Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture
7-8:15 pm | 269 4th Avenue, Brooklyn
Mon May 18: Death Cafe @ New York Society for Ethical Culture
3 pm | 2 West 64th Street, Manhattan
Wed May 20: Death Cafe @ Green-Wood Cemetery
6:30-8 pm | 500 25th St, Brooklyn
Wed May 20: Good Life/Good Death Cafe @ Brooklyn Public Library
2-3:30 | Park Slope Library, 431 6th Ave, Brooklyn
Thu May 21: Life and Death Discussion Group @ Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture
6:30-8:30 pm | 269 4th Avenue, Brooklyn
Sun May 24: The Open Door Death Cafe @ Creative Mornings
1-2:30 pm | Manhattan, address shared after registration
Thu May 28: Legacy League @ End of Life Choices New York
10-11:30am | Dorothy Ross Friedman Residence, 475 West 57th Street, 2nd Fl, Manhattan
Registration and ticket policies vary by event. Double-check details before attending in case I mis-typed something.
Endnotes
The trees are weeping petals. I feel like I shouldn’t be so sad about fallen blossoms. Isn’t this what you wanted? Spring? But I didn’t spend enough time with them, I didn’t appreciate them enough, and I would like to lodge a complaint about the burst of pink and white being so fleeting.
But it’s what comes after that’s the main event. The lustrous leaves, the spectrum of green, the little ears on ginkgo branches graduating to full fans. They sway and rustle, and they’re not going anywhere for a long time. The certainty of that is wonderful. The blossoms will be back.
I hope you’re enjoying the trees, sinuses be damned, and navigating your sadnesses, whether tiny or torrential.