Death, Decay and Decomposition

About Facilitator

Pista (any pronouns) is a queer South Asian herbalist, educator and organizer currently based on occupied Lenapehoking land in so-called Queens, NY.  After many years of working in the tech industry, Pista began composting at the start of the pandemic to re-center mutuality & living connections. Pista works now to compost systems, beliefs & ideas that no longer serve our communities in order to rebirth futures of greater reciprocity and care through connecting ancestral Earthwork with abolition.

Objective

What does it mean to have a “Good Death”? Who gets to have a “Good Death”? In a world that has been subsumed by necropolitics, how do we begin to reclaim our connection to Death and learn to sit with the fear and discomfort of the unknown, to fight to live and die in dignity? The objective of this workshop is to rebuild our connections to our ancestral and cultural practices around death. We live in a society and time where death is feared and misunderstood, where many of us are constantly inundated with news around wars and genocides. The compost pile teaches us so much about healthy living and dying, about the natural cycles of being. This workshop will allow attendees to share and hear stories of ancestral practices around Death and transformation and learn some basic science on composting.

What's Included:

• Take home booklet with journal prompts + science/how to of composting

What to Bring:

• Cultural or personal stories around transformation
• Information on cultural/ancestral practices around Death

Disclaimer:

The garden is one ground level with uneven terrain. There is an elevated area and a pond off the side of the path.