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SANCTUARY BURROW
at the
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11th Annual
Death Faire
Saturday
November 7th
2026
11:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Welcome to Death Faire
Death Faire brings death out of the shadows
and into the heart of community.
Through conversation, creativity, ritual, and connection,
we make space for grief and honor the mystery of mortality.
Come celebrate with us the beauty of being alive,
and remember that embracing death can teach us how to live more fully.
Explore Death Faire
General Admission
Vendors Only
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Vendors/Sponsors
The Road to
Death Faire
Interested in Volunteering?
Death Faire 2026 Schedule
Death Faire Presenters
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Arlo & Tami
Welcome to Death Faire
Tami and Arlo have a history of opening Death Faire with a song and a story. Arlo wrote a song that was published in Welcome to Death Faire: Love, Loss, and Healing in a Small Southern Town. They will be performing this song together.
Tami Schwerin is the founder of Death Faire, a re-developer at The Plant, creator of experiences, aspiring ballerina, and perpetual seeker of truth and consciousness. She is a true community entrepreneur—always creating, connecting, and finding new ways to make her town thrive.
Arlo Estill is a farmer, artist, and entrepreneur in Pittsboro, NC. He runs Hempsmith Clothing Co., a sustainable, slow-fashion brand, and Little Pond Gardens, one of the on-site farms at The Plant in Pittsboro. He practices regenerative agriculture by building the soil while growing food and continues to develop the food system at The Plant. He grew up at The Plant and now helps manage the project with his parents, Lyle and Tami.
main stage 11:30-12:00
Betsy Barton
Advance Directive Care Planning: Transitions Life Care
At some point, we or someone we love may face a situation in which important healthcare decisions must be made when we are unable to speak for ourselves. Are you prepared?
Come to this interactive workshop to learn how to get your ducks in a row. We’ll talk about advance care planning, healthcare proxies, and legal paperwork, and include a hands-on exercise to help you clarify what type of care you would want—and would not want. We’ll also have a booth in the vendor area throughout the day, where you can have your documents notarized and receive additional guidance.
Betsy Barton, MPH, CT, is the Director of Special Projects at Transitions LifeCare. She plans and conducts interactive education on a variety of topics for clinical and community audiences. She is the Executive Producer of the documentary film An Act of Love: Talking With Your Family About Serious Illness and End of Life Care and is currently working on a second culturally specific film for the Latino/Hispanic/Latinx community.
wheelhouse 12:10-1:00
Daughters of
the Drum
Living Arts Collective featuring Daughters of the Drum
Join Daughters of the Drum for an interactive rhythm experience where you’ll explore drumming, body percussion, movement, voice, and call-and-response. Bring your own drum or percussion instrument if you have one—no instrument or experience is needed to participate! Then, enjoy an original performance weaving together percussion, movement, song, spoken word, and storytelling.
Inspired by the rhythmic traditions of the African diaspora and seasoned with a little Carolina spice, this joyful offering honors remembrance while celebrating the call to live more fully.
Daughters of the Drum is a women-centered percussion ensemble guided by master drummer, educator, and composer Beverly Botsford, alongside Aubrey Roze, Jasmine Powell, Zoya Cisneros, and Sage Battle, with musical collaborator Brü Roze on harp and percussion. Together, they bring diverse backgrounds in professional dance, percussion, education, facilitation, and community arts, united by a shared love of rhythm, movement, and connection.
Living Arts Collective is a network of artists, educators, facilitators, and collaborators contributing to a vibrant creative and cultural ecosystem. We produce participatory experiences in movement, music, making, ceremony, and embodied care that foster creativity, connection, and engagement through life’s cycles and thresholds.
Main Stage 3:15-5:00
Meadow DeFosche
The Mahamrityunjaya Mantra
The Mahamrityunjaya Mantra, or the Great Death Conquering Mantra, is a powerful mantra that we chant for protection, healing, and to overcome our fear surrounding transitions, both big and small. It also helps us release our consciousness from limiting patterns and sets the stage for greater self-awareness and expression. For this practice, we will chant this sacred mantra 108 times together to lift our collective vibration and invite healing, release, and peace. Bring your favorite mala beads if you wish to keep count. We will start with a short discussion of the mantra and practice pronunciation together. Handouts will be provided so that you may follow along.
Meadow DeFosche, eRYT-500, is the owner of Pittsboro Yoga, nestled in a cozy corner at The Plant. She is certified in Restorative Yoga, Yoga for Post-Traumatic Stress through Yoga Warriors International, Integral Yoga for Stress Management through Satchidananda Ashram, and Yoga Nidra through Arhanta Ashram. She is also a certified Accessible Yoga teacher and Thai Bodywork practitioner.
She approaches her practice as a lifelong learner and continues to seek new knowledge about yoga and yogic philosophy to deepen her connection to the world around her.
gazebo 2:15-3:00
Sascha Demerjian/Kelly Sklare
Grief Spill
The natural world doesn’t make things that aren’t useful. Even painful things—fires, floods, and every kind of death—support abundance. What if the world needs our grief like it needs every other naturally occurring thing? What if keeping grief inside robs the ecosystem of something vital and nourishing? What if letting our grief out is generous?
We will practice letting out the things that we are so often told to hide, made to make nice, or expected to forget, and let our stories be witnessed and held in community. We will practice this together with kindness and gentleness.
Sascha Demerjian, PhD, MSW (she/they), is a community weaver, Grief House and Death Care Collective tender, mother, daughter, sister, partner, and friend. She is also co-founder and Executive Director of The Grief House.
Kelly Sklare, CNM, FNP (she/her), is a midwife, meditator, teenage girl-mom, grief-tender, adventurer, and avid practitioner of joyful silliness and frivolity. She is also an End-of-Life Doula, Certified Grief Educator, and Death Care Steward with the Atlanta Death Care Collective.
yoga studio 12:10-1:00
Leif Diamant
Nature’s Wisdom:
A Wild Walkabout with
Death, Dying, and Thriving
Loss, grief, and death are part of Nature—as are resilience, beauty, vitality, joy, and wonder. Through observation, exploration, and deeper connection with the natural world, we can find comfort and support as we move through grief, trauma, and life’s many transitions. Nature offers its wisdom, adaptability, and nurturance, becoming an ally, teacher, healer, and beloved companion.
This experiential workshop invites us to wander, pause, notice, and listen—deepening our connection with both Nature and ourselves.
Leif Robert Diamant, MEd, NCLMHC, is a licensed psychotherapist, interfaith/spiritual minister, and lifelong student of nature. His practice of psychotherapy often focuses on helping people with trauma, loss, death and dying, PTSD, and complex PTSD. He has been practicing, studying, and teaching about ecopsychology and nature spirituality for the past 20 years. He frequently teaches at Shakori Hills Festival, Piedmont Earthskills, and Death Faire.
He was on the Duke University Medical Center faculty for 10 years. He is also a small-scale farmer and forest steward with a herd of African dwarf goats.
tree museum 1:15-2:00
Richard Edwards
The Long Goodbye: The Hidden Grief of Alzheimer's
In the six to seven years since my father’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis, I became acquainted with the loss of my father, but somehow, I was still not prepared. This panel discussion will explore the landscape of pre-death grief and ambiguous loss by drawing on professional guidance and lived experience.
Richard Edwards (aka Mr. Brooksie) is a resident of Pittsboro and the son of Dave Edwards, who died in May 2026 after a seven-year journey with Alzheimer’s. Richard’s work life consists of advocating on behalf of people with disabilities, seniors, and veterans for accessible home- and community-based care.
wheelhouse 1:15-2:00
Karen Howard
Poetry lounge
Calling all Poets and Poetry Lovers!
Whether you’re a seasoned poet or simply love the beauty of words, join us to celebrate the power of poetry. Share your original work or come to listen and enjoy. If you’d like to read, contact Karen at karen@howards-end.net.
Karen Howard is an artist, poet, mother, grandmother, and Chatham County commissioner. A lifelong advocate for the arts, she began writing and performing later in life and now regularly hosts poetry events at The Plant and beyond. Born in the Bahamas and now living on a former plantation, Karen’s journey deeply shapes her creative voice.
wheelhouse 2:15-3:00
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Vanessa Jackson/
Cherie Lyon
An Offering of Grief
This ritual, An Offering of Grief: Conscious Grieving as a Path to Transformation, will invite us to tap into our grief, which holds beautiful memories of who and what was lost and the self that we became through that connection. If we can create rituals that allow us to fully embrace love, joy, pain, and loss, we can create a pathway to new beginnings that are grounded in our lost connections, with new roots and branches.
Join us in the circle as we name and claim our losses, reflect on the gifts from the connections that still reverberate in us, and imagine a future where pain and possibility are at peace.
Vanessa Jackson is a High Priestess, healer, and activist. She is the owner of Dudley’s Apothecary, an aromatherapy healing practice based in Atlanta, Georgia.
Cherie Lyon, Sage High Priestess, is a magical being who prefers to be invisible, but she shines way too bright a light to be missed. She holds the center at the Spiritual Salon in Atlanta, Georgia.
tree museum 12:10-1:00
Pat Jobe/Gary Phillips
opening ceremony
Using call and response, this presentation explores the values of community, kinship, kindness, and compassionate care surrounding the dying process and death itself. Are we willing to do the hard work of clear-eyed connection and deep respect—even to dance with joy—in remembering that death need not be hidden or denied?
Rev. Pat Jobe is a 33-year veteran of pastoral ministry, primarily in the Unitarian Universalist tradition. He has been a public radio commentator, newspaper columnist, and contributor to a number of books. His bestselling title is 365 Ways to Criticize the Preacher. His mother was once stopped on the street by a friend who said, “I like your son’s newspaper columns.” Mrs. Jobe replied, “Me too—when I can understand them.”
Gary Phillips is a land-based poet living in the community of Silk Hope in Chatham County. He is the former poet laureate of Carrboro, North Carolina, and lives in a rammed-earth house with his wife, Ilana Dubester, who is a community activist. He was a pastor for four years at Mt. Zion United Methodist Church. His book of poetry and occasional pieces, The Boy the Brave Girls, was published in 2016 by Human Error Publishing (Wendell, Mass.).
His newest chapbook is titled Subjects Suitable for Poetry (Charlotte Literary Press, 2023).
Main Stage 11:00-11:30
Frank Phoenix
Making Prayer Circles with what nature has to offer
Back during early COVID, I wanted a place in nature to pray, so I started making prayer circles. I would gather and arrange in circles whatever was around: pinecones, rocks, flowers, bark, sticks. It became a way of immersing myself in nature for hours at a time. At one point, I had six circles within walking distance of my house. On a good morning, I would visit and tend to all six. Now I am making a prayer circle at Death Faire.
I will have the materials and a start to the circle; come join me, and let’s be creative together.
Frank (Byrd) Phoenix is a professional engineer and philanthropist. In 1999, he set up a foundation with assets from a company his grandfather started in 1917. He has served as president ever since, supporting people and organizations working for systemic and cultural change. Today, Byrd strives to see the Earth through a new and ancient lens—as a sentient, sacred being.
He strives to connect with the Earth and the other-than-human world using prayer, deep humility, respect for the ancestors, and a shared longing for a just and more beautiful world.
gazebo 12:10-1:00
Lydia Scheidler/
Mary Ann Bumbera
Grief and the
Human-Animal Bond
A grief ritual honoring the bond we share with our animals. We welcome you to share your story, release what weighs heavy on your heart, and deepen the ever-present connection.
Dr. Lydia Scheidler and Mary Ann Bumbera have been friends and companions in death work since 2017. Dr. Lydia is a veterinarian specializing in end-of-life care for companion animals. Mary Ann is an Animal Chaplain and Certified Animal Hospice Practitioner.
Together, their work focuses on reducing death phobia and supporting the immense love within grief. They host a monthly Animal Companion Death Café in Pittsboro and are soon collaborating to offer in-home hospice and palliative care for animals.
yoga studio 1:15-2:00
Tami Schwerin
Welcome to Death Faire:
Book talk
Join us for a special reading from Welcome to Death Faire: Love, Loss, and Healing in a Small Southern Town, featuring several of the book’s contributing authors and poets. Through excerpts, poems, and personal stories, we’ll explore grief, love, death, resilience, and the unexpected gifts that can emerge when we share our stories.
Contributors will also reflect on what it meant to bring this deeply personal collection into the world—and the healing, connection, and community that grew from publishing it. Come listen, reflect, laugh, perhaps shed a tear, and celebrate the power of telling our stories.
Tami Schwerin is a visionary, creator, community builder, and founder of Death Faire. She re-developed The Plant, transforming a Cold War industrial site into a vibrant hub for food, art, and experiences. She is the founder of Abundance NC and a key force behind Chatham Marketplace, the local co-op in Chatham County. She is mother of Zafer, Arlo, and belle-mère of Jessalyn and Kaitlin, and Granny to Margot, Aidan, and Zara. Tami is a sun dancer, sparkle mama, and backwoods queen.
She sees pure potential in every challenge and builds the world she wants to live in with creativity, grit, and grace.
smelt gallery 1:15-2:00
CJ Suitt
Poet Laureate, Chapel Hill, NC
CJ Suitt (he, him/they, they/them) is a performance poet, arts educator, and community organizer from Chapel Hill, NC, whose work is rooted in storytelling and social justice. CJ co-directed, produced, and starred in a historical reenactment of the 1947 Freedom Rides, performed at many national and local music festivals, including Gnarnia, Shakori Hills, and Bonnaroo, and acted in a production of Hands Up: 6 Playwrights, 6 Testaments.
His career as an educator has allowed him to work with young people awaiting trial at the Durham Youth Home, older inmates whose voices have been silenced within the Orange County Correctional Facility, and high school and college-aged men pushing to redefine masculinity in their schools and communities. Additionally, he has collaborated with organizations such as Transplanting Traditions, Benevolence Farm, and Growing Change on the intersection of storytelling and food justice.
In 2019, CJ was appointed as the first Poet Laureate of Chapel Hill. He is committed to speaking truth to power and aims to be a bridge for communities who can't always see themselves in each other.
Main Stage 1:15-2:00
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Unisong/Songs
of Devotion
Gathered in Song:
A Community Song Circle for Healing, joy, and Connection
Honoring the healing tradition of community song, this gathering invites participants into an experience of connection, resilience, and shared humanity through simple songs, sacred chants, freedom songs, and heartfelt melodies. No musical experience is needed—only a willingness to breathe, listen, and lend your voice.
Unisong, founded in 2026 by Edith "Deja Belle" McCaskill and Tessie Castillo, aims to foster community engagement in North Carolina through inclusive song circles and music workshops that facilitate connection, emotional expression, and personal and collective healing.
Sheila Fleming, Amy Durso, and Lolly Dunlap facilitate heart2heartnc’s Songs of Devotion, a community song circle celebrating the joy of singing together. Blending sacred chants, folk traditions, and songs of spirit, nature, and love, they invite all voices into a welcoming circle where participation matters more than performance and music becomes a path to connection.
Main Stage 2:15-3:00
Christina L. Vair
Facing Death, Finding Life: A Meditation on Impermanence
Borrowing from the work of poet, author, and educator Stephen Levine, this death meditation is a guided mindfulness practice designed to help foster acceptance of our impermanence, release fear, and open our hearts to the present moment through experiential confrontation with our mortality and the opportunity to live more fully and consciously.
Christina L. Vair, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist who has devoted her career to serving veterans, their families, and caregivers through the Department of Veterans Affairs and is a faculty and Executive Advisory Board member of the Conscious Dying Institute. Her work weaves together science and soul, blending behavioral medicine with integrative healing arts such as mindfulness, meditation, clinical hypnosis, biofeedback, Healing Touch, and yoga.
yoga studio 2:15-3:00
Lee Warren
Find the Village, Build the Village, Die in the Village
What would it look like if no one had to face death or grief alone?
The bad news is that we live in a culture where death is medicalized, isolated, and outsourced, leaving many people disconnected from one of the most universal experiences of being human. The good news is that the village is all around us.
Drawing from her forthcoming book, Dying Together: The Art of Community Death Care, and decades of intentional community living, Lee Warren shares real-life stories of community-based death care at Earthaven Ecovillage, a rural intentional community in Southern Appalachia near Asheville, NC.
Lee Warren is a death educator and author of Dying Together: The Art of Community Death Care. A cultural pioneer and leading voice in reimagining intimacy with death as a pathway to ecstatic aliveness, she draws on more than 30 years of ecovillage living and community-based death care experience. She lives in Asheville, North Carolina.
smelt gallery 2:15-3:00
Bryan Welch
The Gift of a Broken Heart
Grief can be profoundly disorienting and traumatic. Yet it can also open our hearts, strengthening our empathy, affection, and compassion for other people. It may even open us to new forms of joy. In his book, The Gift of a Broken Heart, Bryan Welch shares his own journey through deep grief following the loss of his 25-year-old son to addiction.
All love ends in grief. Through grief, we form profound bonds with other human beings. This, as much as sadness, is part of his son’s legacy, and he explores practical, psychological, and spiritual ways of honoring that legacy and sustaining a more compassionate, less egotistical view of the world.
Bryan Welch is the author of The Gift of a Broken Heart: How Our Grief Can Connect Us, which was published this year, and his award-winning book Beautiful & Abundant: Building the World We Want, published in 2011. He is a longtime CEO of purpose-driven companies, including Mother Earth News, the Utne Reader, Mindful Communications, and Silk Grass Farms.
He and his wife, Carolyn, raise organic, grass-fed cattle, sheep, and goats on their farm near Lawrence, Kansas, with the help of their grandsons.
tree museum 2:15-3:00
Matt Zemon
Dying Before You Die
A direct encounter with the Sacred, whether it arrives at the end of life or in the middle of it, has a way of taking the fear out of dying and handing back the day in front of you. I will share what that looks like and what it asks of us afterward.
Matt Zemon, DMin, MSc, is Executive Director of the Council on Spiritual Practices, an organization that for more than three decades has been dedicated to making experiences of the Sacred more available to more people. The author of six books on psychedelics, religion, and healing, Matt serves an entheogenic faith community and views direct spiritual experience as rooted in religious tradition.
Main Stage 12:10-1:00
Ongoing Throughout The Day
Interactive Altar
You are invited to honor your loved one(s) by participating in this open, interactive Death Faire Altar. If you wish to honor someone who has passed from your life, you are encouraged to bring photos, art, or small items that are treasured keepsakes of your loved one.
We will have incense and candles lit, so please be mindful of where you set your pieces. Be sure to mark your name on any items you leave at the altar so they can be easily returned.
The Artspace on the Go van will bring the magic of art with Raleigh artist Peter Marin, who will provide free, high-quality art experiences for children and families.
Artspace is a nonprofit visual arts center located in downtown Raleigh. Visit Artspace to explore exhibitions featuring national and community artists, engage with more than 35 artists working in their studios, and enjoy art classes and community events for all ages and abilities.
Death Faire Art gallery
We invite you to step into a quiet reverie in The Smelt Gallery and be inspired by what you see. The 11th Annual Death Faire Art Exhibit will open in the Smelt Gallery on (TBA) and will continue through the month of November.
To honor our artists with an authentic audience—to make them feel seen and welcomed into this heartfelt community—a “Meet the Artists” event will be held from 12:10 to 1:00 p.m. in the Smelt Art Gallery. We hope you will join us, as this art and these artists truly deserve to be seen.
Call For Art: Death Faire
Artists are invited to submit work for Death Faire, a community exhibition exploring grief, remembrance, celebration, and the many ways we honor life.
Inspired by the death positivity movement, this juried exhibition welcomes 2D and 3D visual artists whose work connects with themes of memory, transformation, and mortality. Artists may also offer their work for sale during the exhibition.
Roam Paint Press, llc
Roam Paint Press is a small, creative art business specializing in printmaking and watercolor, with a particular love for linocut and gelli printing. We also enjoy experimenting with a variety of other artistic mediums, so there’s always something new to explore!
Our pop-up events are designed to be welcoming, hands-on, all-ages, and beginner-friendly—perfect for anyone who wants to try something creative in a relaxed setting. For adults looking to dive deeper, we also offer comprehensive 1–3-hour workshops that give you more time to learn techniques and build your skills.
healing arts for Grief & well-being
Visit Little Pond Gardens, a welcoming space for reflection, connection, healing, and care. Explore a variety of practices that offer different pathways to comfort, insight, grounding, and renewal. Our practitioners will offer Reiki, bodywork, Tarot, and psychic readings—creating opportunities to slow down, listen inward, honor what you’re carrying, and perhaps discover a new perspective. Whether you are moving through grief, seeking greater well-being, curious about intuitive practices, or simply looking for a moment of connection and care, we invite you to explore, receive, and see what speaks to you.
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