Death Cafe – New Romney

At a Death Cafe, people gather together to eat cake, drink coffee, and talk openly about death – a subject we all too often avoid in our everyday conversations.

A death cafe is a group-directed discussion of death with no agenda, objectives or themes. It is a discussion group rather than a grief support or counselling session. Our only objective is to increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) lives.

The Death Cafe movement was set up in 2011 by Jon Underwood from his home in East London. Jon believed that a Death Cafe could be a safe and informal space for people to come together and talk about death over coffee and cake. This idea took off and has since spread around the world; perhaps its popularity is due to how often we avoid talking about death as part of our daily lives.

We held our debut Death Cafe in 2017 as part of Dying Matters Awareness Week. Local playwright Karen Bartholomew shared her experience of this event, including her expectations beforehand and what she gained by coming along to her first ever Death Cafe.