Death Fest a celebration of ultimate recycling

Vickie Kelley comes from a generation that believed in peace, love and going back to the land.

She still does.

And she thinks returning bodies to the earth is the perfect completion of the circle of life, both for her generation and generations to come.

The idea is called "green" or "natural" burial, and it's the focus of a new Northwest Arkansas event, "Death Fest: A Celebration," which begins Oct. 27.

ALL NATURAL

Ask Kelley how she even thought of natural burial as an option, and she returns a look with the "duh" implicit in it.

"I grew up watching cowboy movies," she says. "And I read books about the pioneers. As long as I can remember, I've wanted to see natural burial available as an option."

Kelley, who has long been an activist on women's issues, says she's never been as passionate about any other cause.

"I was blessed to be present when the universal consciousness was ready" to bring the idea forward, she says. "I thought it was inexcusable that the Natural State didn't have a natural cemetery."

She is one of the founders of the Natural State Burial Association, which earned its 501(c)3 nonprofit status in February, and Death Fest is intended to both raise awareness and act as a fundraiser for the organization, which seeks to "to provide environmentally sound burial and diverse memorial options through the founding and operating of cemeteries designed to conserve natural landscape."

Natural burial is exactly what the name implies, Kelley explains. It's burying a body without embalming, without the expensive coffin or the vault that promises perfection in perpetuity, without using the energy required for cremation. It means putting a body in the ground with just a shroud or a simple pine box. Pine is a soft wood, says Cindy Jones, who can now call herself a coffin maker. It decomposes relatively quickly. And in 10 or 15 years, adds Tom Dureka, an archaeologist, nothing should be left in the ground but perhaps a few teeth.

At this point, Kelley says, there are 107 green cemeteries in the United States, but there are none in Arkansas. In time, she hopes to see those cemeteries exist on all three levels -- hybrid, in which natural burials share space with coffins and vaults; natural, areas that are clearly cemeteries, with flat tombstones allowed; and conservation, where only a magnetic nail marks the GPS coordinates of a grave.

"In the meantime, we are a clearinghouse and [provide] educational outreach," she says of the Natural State Burial Association. "People need to know they have a choice."

"The idea was totally new to me," says Walter Schmidt, a songwriter whose "Natural State" is the theme song for the organization and for Death Fest. It appears on a compilation CD that also includes music by Still on the Hill, Clarke Buehling, the Cate Brothers, John Two-Hawks, Ocie Fisher, Trout Fishing in America and Jori Costello. The songs touch on wildly divergent thoughts on death and dying -- from "Better Off Dead" by Dana Louise and the Glorious Birds to "When I'm Dead, Dress Me in Drag" by Emily Kaitz. Schmidt says it didn't take him long to be convinced.

"It's so common-sensical for our generation to come to this idea," he says.

Kelley and Dureka share the explanation that embalming really came into use during the Civil War, when families wanted their soldiers' bodies returned home. Embalming was cemented by the death of Abraham Lincoln, whose embalmed body traveled for mourners to see. As death came to happen in hospitals, instead of at home, an industry of death and dying was born.

Again, Kelley points to the rise in home births, home schooling and home hospice. Why, she wonders, shouldn't home funerals and "DIY" burials be part of the movement?

DEATH FEST

A year ago, the Natural State Burial Association hosted a Day of the Dead dance and silent auction, and it was "clear it could be bigger," Schmidt says. "And we had enough people with enough energy to plan something bigger."

"Ideas were bantered about for quite a while -- conference, symposium, seminar, convention -- all sounded too academic, too stuffy," Kelley says. "We tried out the name Death Fest on a few friends, and they all seemed slightly uncomfortable, but intrigued. When we hit upon the tag line 'A Celebration,' we knew we could make it fly. 'Death Fest: A Celebration!' is edgy, makes one do a double-take, sticks in the memory bank and gives us room to grow. We hope future events include theater, art shows, restaurant 'menu' selections, funeral parades and bands. Just you wait and see! It's Death Fest."

When Kelley suggested a six-day event for 2016, Schmidt says he was taken aback. "But when I look at the program, I'm astonished at the breadth of the subject matter and the people who said, 'Hey, can I do this?'"

Among those who have gotten involved is Erika Wilhite, founder of Artist Laboratory Theatre in Fayetteville.

"This is not my favorite subject," Wilhite says. "I'm reluctant to die, but I'm fascinated by the mystery."

Wilhite's troupe will facilitate "an interactive conversation" with storytelling prompts and other dramatic devices -- and throw in an impromptu bit of performance, too.

"It's a compelling artistic endeavor and a topic I have to grapple with myself."

Also performing will be vocal group Harmonia and slam poet Houston Hughes. And that's not to mention workshops, an open mic and keynote speaker Abby Burnett, author of Gone to the Grave: Burial Customs of the Arkansas Ozarks, 1850 to 1950.

"And it's going to be the coolest Halloween party in town," Kelley says of the Oct. 31 evening, titled "Cajuns, Costumes, & Comedy: One Wicked Halloween Party," featuring music and dancing with Jumpsuit Jamey & the Can't Wait to Playboys and comedy with the Phunbags troupe.

And on Nov. 1, the Day of the Dead, Eureka Springs dance company Afrique Aya will present "Drums of Passing: Funeral Rhythms, Dances and Processions from the Ivory Coast Tradition." It will be followed by the drawing for the raffle prize: a pine coffin created by Cindy Jones. The best part, she says, is that until you need it, it can be set up to become a book shelf in your home.

While Death Fest doesn't always take itself seriously -- there's an open mic event called "I've Been Dying to Tell You" -- Kelley is very serious about her philosophy.

"For me, a natural cemetery is a sanctuary where the process of becoming earth is peaceful, harmonious and just as natural as can be."

And she hopes that will be her final resting place and her legacy.

NAN Our Town on 10/20/2016