What if an obituary wasn't just an announcement — but a work of art? Over five Tuesday evenings, we'll gather to write, reflect, and create. Through whatever form calls to you — writing, poetry, collage, song, or visual art — you'll leave with a finished piece that captures something true and beautiful about who you are and the life you have lived.
DETAILS
Five Tuesdays May 19 — June 16, 2026
8:00 p.m. EDT 75 minutes per session
OnlineLink shared upon registration
Pay your own price starting at $50 for all five sessions
FACULTY
Carmel Clavin Creative Alchemist & Workshop Facilitator
Carmel Clavin is a storyteller, connector, and self-described vaudevillian who has spent her career turning the extraordinary into the unforgettable. Founder of Spectacle & Mirth and the Richmond Fringe Festival, she was the founding Creative Director at Révéler Immersive Experiences in Richmond, VA — where she brought internationally award-winning shows to life, including City Liminal, Journey to the Kingdom of Hypnos, and The Marvelous Mechanical Musical Maiden.
As Outreach Manager for the World Fringe Network, Carmel tours the globe conspiring with fellow humans, telling stories, and playing wearable musical inventions. She sings too loud, smashes class structures, and wears the grandest of hats — and she wouldn't have it any other way.
She comes to the Obituary as Art workshop as a serial collaborator and weaver of connections, bringing her gift for drawing out what is most alive and most true in the people she works with. In her hands, your story becomes art.
Kelly Cummings, PhD, Director Conscious Dying Institute & Workshop Facilitator
Kelly Cummings has been a nurse for 40 years, a Veteran, and a death worker for most of her life — which means she has spent decades in the rooms where it matters most, holding space for what is most human, most tender, and most true. She has done serious academic work in social construction and discourse analysis, which is a fancy way of saying she understands that the stories we tell about our lives — and our deaths — have the power to change everything.
As director of the Conscious Dying Institute, Kelly has built her life's work at the intersection of clinical wisdom, healing arts, and the radical belief that dying well is something we can learn, practice, and offer to one another. She is a devoted practitioner of breathwork and the healing arts, and brings that somatic, whole-person sensibility to everything she teaches.
She is also, it should be said, deeply creative — and absolutely convinced that art is one of the most powerful medicines we have.
Kelly co-leads the Obituary as Art workshop not as an academic exercise but as an act of love — for the lives we have lived, the stories we carry, and the legacies we are still writing.
“For many, it becomes one of the most meaningful things they have ever had the opportunity to make.”