Illustrated lecture with Licensed Funeral Director Amy Cunningham 
Date: Tuesday, August 5th 
Time: 8pm 
Admission: $8 (Tickets here)

Tonight’s tour of cremation’s history with Licensed funeral director Amy Cunningham will take us from Julius Caesar’s raging pyre on the Roman Forum, to Percy Bysshe Shelley’s beachside burning (under Lord Byron’s supervision), to Ghandi’s funeral on the cover of “Life” magazine, to Jessica Mitford’s “Communist” pro-cremation leanings. Who knew that woven into cremation’s story was so much soul searching, hotly-contested views on facing death, threads of faith, science, and public hygiene?

Cunningham will lean lightly on Stephen Prothero’s published history of cremation, combined with first-hand knowledge of Brooklyn’s crematory at Greenwood Cemetery. She will discuss which mode of disposition is best for ourselves and for all civilization (hint: cremation today isn’t as green as you’d want it to be). Lots of name dropping may ensue, as Mark Twain was a cremation advocate, as was Rudolf Steiner. Walt Whitman hewed hard to burial, while it was Pope Paul VI who freed cremation from its fetters in 1963 when he allowed Catholics to cremate -as long as a nice urn was purchased to keep it all together!

Amy Cunningham was a magazine writer and blogger until 2007 when her father’s cremation and memorial service got her excited about helping folks plan more meaningful end-of-life services. She directs funerals at Greenwood Heights Funeral and Cremation Services on Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn, and lectures on the greening of the 13-billion dollar funeral industry.