Events

UPCOMING EVENTS

Rad Death Reads: Decolonizing the Role of the Cemetery Supervisor- a month long course of study and discussion on decolonizing cemeteries and the role and responsibilities of those who supervise them, curated and led by Sarah and Dr. Kami Fletcher. December 4-26, 2021, (Zoom Event)

Dia de Muertos: A History of Resistance - Sarah will discuss how today’s Día de Muertos traditions are connected to a rich legacy of resistance which help to define identity, cultivate community, and help to decolonize the borders created by colonization, between the living and the dead. Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, on October 25th, 2021. (Zoom Event)

Unearthing The Past: Panel Discussion About ‘The Things Are Against Us” - Sarah will be participating in a panel discussion with playwright Susan Soon He Stanton, and others about the MCC Theatre’s production of ‘The Things Are Against Us.” On March 5th, 2021 (Zoom event).

Conversation: Collective for Radical Death Studies and devynn emory with Anthony Ryan Hatch - Sarah will be part of this conversation concerning practices and visualizations of death in radical and decolonizing contexts, hosted by Wsleayn University. On November 9th, 2020.

The Cult of Santa Muerte: Origins and Rituals of Mexican Death Culture - October 28th, 2020. Sarah will be in conversation with activist and artist Maria Del Carmen Rivas, with an introduction to, and conversation around, Mexican death culture and the cult of Santa Muerte.

Settling the Unsettled: Decolonizing Ghost Lore - Zoom, October 4th, 2020. Join Sarah for a talk on the new Guatemalan film La Llorona, which uses traditional folklore to address real events of the genocide of Indigenous people and Colonialism over the past few decades. Sarah will talk about the indigenous roots of the spirit’s archetype, her part in modern Latinx identity, and how traditional Latinx ghost stories illustrate that most of these stories are warnings about colonization and white supremacy.

Settling the Unsettled: Decolonizing Ghost Lore, “Starving For Attention: Chinese Ghosts At Home and Abroad.” - Zoom, October 3rd, 2020. Sarah will be in conversation with Louise Hung, writer and producer of Ask a Mortician.

Pop-Up Magazine - Las Vegas, March 1st. Come listen to some amazing stories about showgirls, charreadas of the Southwest, Latinx art, and the evolution of death practices in the U.S.

Your Magic Live! - Los Angeles, February 15th, 2020. A live mystical talk show hosted by Michelle Tea.

Yes! Magazine Presents: A Good Death in Seattle on October 22, 2019. Explore how to have a good death with local and national leaders of the alt-death movement. You'll learn how to plan for death, care for the dying, and lay bodies to rest in sustainable ways. A panel of experts will be moderated by Sarah Chavez, YES! contributor

Death Witch at The Creeping Museum Artist Market and Fairy Tale Salon - August 24th, in Portland. Come learn about the feminist and death positive history of Halloween, and how women have used death, the archetype of the witch, and the holiday itself to empower themselves.

Victorian Fair of the Far West at the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum - April 28-29th, 2019, in Los Angeles. Sarah will be curating a pop-up exhibit and doing talks throughout the weekend in El Campo Santo, one of the oldest private cemeteries in Southern California.

To Dust screening and panel, February 17th, 2019, at the Lammle Royal in Los Angeles. Sarah will be on a panel discussion with the filmmakers.

Teen ‘Scape Career Conversations hosted by Los Angeles County Public Library. Teens can learn more about careers in death with Sarah and Amber Carvaly, on March 23rd.

Death Salon: Boston - September 27-30, 2018, at Mount Auburn Cemetery - Feminist Death Work Panel –  Sarah Chavez with Dr. Kami Fletcher & Alua Arthur / The Unwanted Dead: Burying Tamerlan Tsarnaev – Sarah Chavez in conversation with Peter Stefan

Death Witch: Talk and Tour of Salem Join Sarah and Melissa Nierman of NowAge Travel for a special event at Hauswitch as we explore the feminist and death positive history of halloween and an interactive walking experience through Salem’s history of the occult and transformation into a Halloween mecca. On October 1st, in Salem.

306 Hollywood premiere - October 2018, Lammle Royal in Los Angeles - Sarah will be on a panel discussion with the filmmakers. Details TBA. 

PAST EVENTS

Death and Folklore

Southern Association for Women's Historians Conference: Resistance, Power, and Accommodation - June 7-10, 2018 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama - Female Death Ways and Feminist Death Work - With Dr. Kami Fletcher

Death Salon: Seattle - September 8-10, 2017 in Seattle - Saturday: Death and the Maiden: Why Women Are Working With Death and the Future of the Death Positive Movement. Sunday: Decolonizing Death - Sarah Chavez and Matt Ignacio in conversation. 

Victorian Fair of the Far West at the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum - April 28, 2018, in Los Angeles - Forget Me Not: Death and Mourning in the Victorian Era

Haunted America Conference - June 22-23, 2018 in Alton, Illinois - Feeding the Dead: Food in Death Rituals, Ancestor Worship, and Festivals

Death & the Maiden Conference, University of Winchester

Our Dead Are Not For Sale: Dia de Muertos, Death and Mexico’s National Identity, Barts Pathology Museum, libraries and museums throughout California.

Los Angelitos: The Rituals and Art of Child Death in Mexico, Mutter Museum, and University of Winchester.

Nourishing Death: How the World Honors Death With Food, Death Salon: San Francisco.

Death and the Hollywood Ending: The Legacy of Forest Lawn and the Future of Death in Los Angeles, The Getty Villa.

The Disneyland of Death – a Tour of Forest Lawn Cemetery, Atlas Obscura Society, private tours for various historical groups (available by request). 

 Walpurgisnacht (Witches’ Night): Halfway to Halloween, Witches’ Night at Phantom Carriage. 

HISTORY AND MUSEUM

Talks created for Sarah's work at both Linda Vista Hospital and the Lindsay Museum. 

Death and Mourning in the Victorian Era

The Sisters Fox: Death and the Birth of Feminism

Heroines and Heroine: the Extraordinary World of Early Lindsay Medicine

Westword Ho!: How California History Shaped Our Language

From Tuesday to Tea-Time: A History of Lindsay’s Social Organizations

Linda Vista Hospital: A History

Lindsay: The Making of a Book

MENU DESIGN AND CONSULTATION

Harold and Maude: An Evening of Film, Food and Funerals at Cinefamily

Sarah worked with Conjuror's Kitchen to create and cater a "funeral" following the screening, consisting of funeral and death ritual foods. 

Death Salon: Getty Villa - From Ancient Necropolis to LA's Metropolis

Working in conjunction with the Getty Villa's curators and chefs to design a menu and write detailed description cards for each dish, highlighting various funerary and death ritual foods discussed during the event. 

Little Book of Maudism Book

Sarah contributed a recipe to this truly special book by Lucy Coleman Talbot, celebrating the cult film, Harold and Maude.