Series 4: Days of the Dead in Brooklyn

Program Files include correspondence, event-related materials, publicity, funding, and financial information. Also included are research materials, which encompass press clippings, event flyers, and related items about topics explored during the course of the project and to the death and dying traditions of various cultural groups. Audiovisual documentation includes digital photographs, recordings of events, as well as performances of funerary songs and a series of interviews with Brooklyn funeral directors.

Days of the Dead in Brooklyn events included:

Mexican Days of the Dead How to prepare a Mexican Days of the Dead ofrenda, a traditional altar to honor the dead. Sunset Park Library, October 28, 2008.

Mexican Days of the Dead Preparing sugar skulls and paper flowers for an ofrenda. Sunset Park Library, October 29, 2008.

All Soul's Day: Symbols, Stories and Trumpets A gravesite tour of Green-Wood Cemetery and a Haitian rara graveyard procession, November 2, 2008.

Prayers for the Dead Concert highlighting a variety of culturally specific funerary musical traditions, including Jewish, Italian, Buddhist and African-Grenadian. Congregation Beth Elohim, November 23, 2009.

Undertaking Death: A Conversation with Brooklyn Funeral Directors Featuring local undertakers providing insight into the folklore of death and remembrance as practiced in Russian, Polish, Lebanese and Dominican communities. Brooklyn Public Library, Grand Army Plaza, Dweck Auditorium, May 20, 2009.

Understanding Traditional Arts and Death and Dying , June 16-23, 2009.

Diverse Traditions of Death and Dying in Brooklyn A kick-off symposium/arts demonstration presenting discussion and performance from funeral directors and traditional artists. Brooklyn Historical Society, September 21, 2008.

Ofrenda Altar and Chinese Buddhist Ancestral Altar Dedication Sunset Park Library, November 1, 2008.

Folk Feet 6th Annual Traditional Dance Showcase Trinidadian limbo, Chinese folk dancers, Turkish mevlid, rural Dominican funerary processional, classical Indian dance, Grenadian bongo, South Korean funerary procession, excerpts of Greek Orthodox memorial service hymn. Brooklyn College Center for the Performing Arts, Whitman Theater, March 1, 2009.

Virgin of Sorrows Procession Sacred Hearts and St. Stephen Church, Carroll Gardens, April 10, 2009.

Waking the Dead: Afro-Caribbean Funerary Expressions Featuring traditional artists, scholars and funeral directors exploring pan-Caribbean mourning traditions. Brooklyn Public Library Flatbush Branch, April 23, 2009.