Taught online via Zoom
Tuesdays August 1, 8, 15, 22
7 - 9 pm ET
$125 Patreon Members / $145 General Admission

PLEASE NOTE: Classes will be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time.

Whether a grand Victorian cemetery or a humble graveyard of granite stones, there is likely a cemetery near you. For many people, a cemetery is only a site to place the dead within the earth and return periodically to mourn. But a cemetery can be appreciated by anyone for the stories it tells, the history it records, and the outdoor respite it offers.

Especially during the pandemic, cemeteries became in demand as natural landscapes. Yet entering an unfamiliar cemetery can be intimidating, whether not knowing if you are allowed in or what is acceptable as respectful recreation. Every cemetery is different, but all are made for the living to honor and witness the dead. 

In this class, led by writer and cemetery tour guide Allison C. Meier, participants will have a crash course in taphophilia, or the appreciation of cemeteries and tombstones. 

The four sessions of the class will feature discussions, optional readings, and prompts to visit the dead near you. Each of the four will build on the others:

• The Joys of Cemeteries: An Overview of Cemetery History and the Traditions of Respectful Recreation

• How to Appreciate a Cemetery: A Guide to Cemetery Walking and How to Understand a Place through its Dead

• Reading the Tombs: How to Decipher a Monument through its Shape and Symbolism

• Creative Ways to Share Cemeteries: Zine Making, Walking Tours, and More

Allison C. Meier is the author of Grave (2023, Bloomsbury) and regularly writes about culture and its intersections with death, with articles in publications including The New York Times, CityLab, Wellcome Collection, Lapham's Quarterly, Hyperallergic, The Art Newspaper, and Curbed. She has led cemetery walks at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, Hartsdale Pet Cemetery, and other New York City area burial grounds.

Images: "In Chutney Falls they hunted up the cemetery and peered at the tombstones of Harry's mother's family." Original art and lettering from THE WILLOWDALE HANDCAR, 1962), via the Edward Gorey Charitable Trust; A grave Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, photo by Allison C. Meier; Cemitério dos Prazeres in Lisbon, Portugal, photo by Allison C. Meier