If There's Death, Let There Be Dancing: Discussing Cemetery Use
Recorded event - This talk was first live streamed on 18 August 2020.
In this online talk, which took place on 18 August 2020, Dr Romany Reagan offers perspectives on what cemeteries have meant to their communities throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries—and today—as spaces of mortality mediation. Building upon research from cemetery historians, mixed-use case studies, dark tourism, and her own research within Abney Park cemetery, Reagan explores the diverse secular thanatouristic practices within cemeteries today—and the the future of navigating these practices within community contexts.
Whilst 'dark tourism' and 'thanatourism' have sometimes been used interchangeably, thanatourism can be defined as a more specific long-standing practice motivated by a specific desire for an encounter with death. The long history of thanatourism is motivated more by thoughts of memento mori than a contemporary thrill-seeking dark tourism activity. Encounters with death themes represented in the Romantic Movement were precursors and inspiration for the development of Victorian garden cemeteries. The mortality mediation offered by these cemeteries has a long-standing association with a desire for encounters with death.
Many Victorian garden cemeteries have opened their gates as community spaces, extending the purview of cemetery community space beyond that as strictly sites of mourning. Contemporary changing attitudes towards death and dying—and our cultural desire for secular mortality mediation—means mixed use of cemeteries as community space are likely to become more commonplace. As these spaces embrace a variety of perspectives and voices within their walls, the perception of cemeteries is transforming from morbid and solemn, to celebratory and inclusive. These cemeteries endeavour to become places of community connection and joy.
Watch the recording
Biography: Dr Romany Reagan
Romany Reagan received her PhD from Royal Holloway, University of London in performing heritage in 2018. Her practice-based research project ‘Abney Rambles’ is comprised of four audio walks, which are offered as pieces of creative public engagement with heritage space that she researched, wrote, and recorded from 2014 to 2017 within Abney Park cemetery, located in the north London community of Stoke Newington. Researching the layers of heritage that make up Abney Park led to a study of the occult literary heritage of Stoke Newington, ‘earth mystery’ psychogeography, and folklore. Since completion of her PhD, Romany has expanded her folklore research scope to encompass legends and lore from the British Isles, which she is documenting on her blog Blackthorn & Stone.
Twitter/Instagram: @msromany
Website: blackthornandstone.com
This event was organised to help recover the loss of income incurred by Abney Park Trust during the Covid-19 pandemic. As the Trust has been unable to raise funds via its usual methods of walking tours, talks, and events, we are asking that you make a donation if you enjoyed this online talk.