Working with Jude Kelly, founder of the WOW – Women of the World Festival and the international charity, the ‘Death Festival’ encourages us to consider death and dying through two days of talks, concerts, performances, workshops and installations. Held at the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts at the University of Sussex, Deborah Madden has collaborated with researchers, practitioners, clinicians and artists in contibuting two panels to the programme on Friday 11 November. Friday’s programme is for those who research, study, create, campaign and work across subjects related to death, dying and bereavement. This is an opportunity to meet, share ideas and move vital conversations on this issues forward.
Programme for CMNH panels, Friday 11 November:
13:00 – 13:15 – Welcome
13:15 – 14.15 – Hope in End of Life Care: Examining the ‘Good Death’
14.15 – 14.30 – Break
14.30 – 15.30 – Creative Responses to Grief
Hope in End of Life Care: Examining the ‘Good Death’
David Liley, Chief Officer, Healthwatch Brighton and Hove Emily Kenward, Founder and CEO at Time to Talk Befriending and Ollie Minton, Clinical Director for cancer and consultant in palliative medicine, NHS University Hospitals Sussex.
This panel, presented by The Centre for Memory, Narrative and Histories at the University of Brighton explores the key issues and wider discussions around the so-called ‘good death’. Drawing on the expertise and experience of leading practitioners in the field, panellists look at how end of life care can be improved with a ‘good death’ being attainable for all. Research carried out by local organisations and networks within end of life care has revealed stark inequalities regarding aspirations for a ‘good death’ with the most vulnerable not being able to adequately advocate for this. David Liley, Chief Officer for Healthwatch Brighton and Hove, highlights research that gathered the personal stories of people and families in end of life care during 2020. This followed up on the recommendations put forward, taking the work further in 2022 to consider how it could be improved for LGBTQ+ communities in Brighton and Hove. David Liley sees how ‘HOPE’ in end of life care means ‘Hearing Other People’s Experiences’. Emily Kenward, Founder and CEO at Time to Talk Befriending, shows how ‘Preparing to Say Goodbye’ was developed to help people talk about the taboo subject of death in a safe and supportive way. Due to the effects of Covid-19, this work further transitioned to provide training to multi-disciplinary professionals, supporting them to use a guided conversation toolkit. She evidences how this has increased awareness, confidence and best practice in relation to talking about death and dying. Ollie Minton, Clinical Director for cancer and consultant in palliative medicine based in Brighton, draws on extensive practice and research when looking at quality and service improvement, as well as the education of staff and undergraduate students in healthcare disciplines. As the national clinical advisor to Macmillan for end of life care, his talk provides insights into the supportive and palliative care needs of patients, regardless of diagnosis.
Creative Responses to Grief
Dr John McCullough, University of Brighton, Erin Burns and Dr Deborah Madden, University of Brighton
This panel, presented by The Centre for Memory, Narrative and Histories at the University of Brighton, explores different creative responses to grief, including poetry, writing, site-responsive theatre and oral histories. The poet John McCullough will read and discuss the compositional processes behind elegies from his collections Spacecraft and Panic Response, including his experimental piece ‘Flower of Sulphur’, shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem in 2021. McCullough shows how poetic techniques and structures can be used not only to commemorate but to embody and complicate ideas about grief. This includes reflecting on the ways in which sound, silence and fragmentation are especially suited to capturing how grief and absence are often shaping forces. The artist Erin Burns reflects on how the process of making has always been a cathartic response to pain, death and grief, which allows the artistic process to do the healing work. Death has been a theme in her work, which documents nature in the process of decay and renewal. Cultural historian and psychotherapist, Deborah Madden, explores the generative politics of grief for personal and collective memory-making processes. Drawing on a creative arts project that collected oral histories during Covid-19, her work raises questions about historical silencing, collective memory and mourning, as well as contemporary uses of history when investigating the emotional registers of past and present pandemics.
For full programme and to book a place, please register here at eventbrite.
The event is also welcoming public audiences for the Friday evening, Saturday daytime and Saturday evening programme.
