Inspired by a 4-day trip to Mexico in 2019, Tales From the Trip will be a personal recounting of the Mayan Day of the Dead rituals experienced by those who attended the excursion. Learn about the “Brushing of the Bones,” a Hanal Pixan ritual that is only practiced in the tiny cemetery in Pomuch, in Southern Mexico. Experience the ceremonies and cemeteries through photos from the trip. And understand the relationship that the Day of the Dead provides as a loving, visceral bridge between the living and the dead.
Co-sponsored by the Association for Gravestone Studies & Morbid Anatomy
Speakers:
Elizabeth Broman is an art librarian at the Cooper Hewitt Design museum in New York City. She discovered AGS while researching her thesis on Green-Wood cemetery in Brooklyn over 20 years ago. She was ecstatic that she found her people and is currently on the Board of Trustees and Chair of the Archives committee. When the Museum of Morbid Anatomy opened in Brooklyn, she found the rest of her tribe, became a member, and gave several lectures at the museum. Elizabeth volunteers as a docent at Morbid Anatomy exhibitions in Green-Wood cemetery.
Joanna Ebenstein is a Brooklyn-based multi-disciplinary artist, award winning curator, writer, photographer, producer, art director, designer, and public speaker. Her work explores the intersections of art and medicine, death and culture, the objective and subjective, the living and the inanimate. She traces her lineage back to Judah Loew ben Bezalel, who is credited with creating and animating the Golem in 16th century Prague. She is a proud member of The Order of the Good Death.
Daisy Tainton is a librarian and amateur entomologist. She worked for over a decade at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC and continues to work with insects, taxidermy, and jewelry, incorporating natural once living materials into her art. A lot of people and animals close to her have died, and she thinks about them and their impact daily. That conservation is vital and critical is a theme that runs through her life.
Evan Michelson is an antiques dealer and collector, essayist, lecturer and award-winning curator. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, The New Yorker and The Financial Times of London. She was co-owner of the landmark Obscura Antiques and Oddities in New York's East Village for 24 years, and star of the hit reality TV series “Oddities” that ran for 5 seasons on Discovery Science. She is currently the owner of Obscura West (curious objects a specialty) in Lambertville, NJ.
