Our new Welcome Center is open | Learn more and visit
Purchase Tickets
Join us for the Lakewood Book Club, where we read and discuss books covering topics related to death, loss, and grief, as well as what it means to live in the presence of death and dying. You are welcome to participate in the complete quarterly series or pick and choose the titles that most interest you.
Registration is recommended. Spaces are limited.
You will need to purchase your own copy of the book (or audio book) to read ahead of the event. We encourage shopping locally and buying your books through our neighbors at Magers & Quinn or other local booksellers, or checking it out from your local library.
Depending on the number of attendees, we will either have a large group discussion or break out into smaller groups. Discussion questions and topics will be provided to spark conversation, but we encourage you to bring your own questions as well!
About This Month’s Book
Briefly Perfectly Human by Alua Arthur
(Memoir; End-of-life planning)
In her debut book, Alua Arthur presents mortality not as taboo, but rather as the most enriching conversation we can have as communities, as families, and as humans. But taboo-breaking conversations about death were not always part of her world. Arthur recounts her own transformation, through deep depression brought on by losing loved ones, to finding her calling as a death doula. With courage, authenticity, compassion and humor, Arthur acknowledges fear and then urges us to examine it. She shows people that through examining the reality of one’s eventual death, we are not alone, we put death in context by living fully, and we make end-of-life decisions that express love to our communities and families. A prominent voice in the end-of-care professional community, Arthur founded Going with Grace, an organization that exists to help people answer the question, “What must I do to be at peace with myself so I may die peacefully?”
About Your Host
Emily Stacken, is a trained End-of-Life / Death Doula, and gained her certification through Going With Grace. Emily leads Communications for the MN Death Collaborative and is a Hospice Volunteer for Sholom Hospice. She also provides grief support and resources for organ donor families at LifeSource. She attended United Theological Seminary and received a Masters of Arts in Leadership. Her capstone project, the Radical Death Series, prioritized issues of racial equity, collective grief, and what it means to embrace death as inseparable from life.
Location
This event will take place in the Community Meeting Room inside the Lakewood Welcome Center.
Lakewood Heritage Foundation
This event is free for all to attend. In lieu of a ticket cost, we encourage you to donate to the Lakewood Heritage Foundation. Your donation to LHF helps support educational programming, as well as the preservation and restoration of Lakewood’s landscape, art, architecture and public spaces—for the benefit of all. Thank you!
You can donate when you purchase your ticket, or on the Lakewood Heritage Foundation page.
Questions?
Call the Lakewood events line at 612-540-5165 or email to events@lakewoodcemetery.org
