Program Details
Let's put the "practice" back into burial practice in this collaborative funeral demonstration with led by Natural Path Sanctuary Cemetery Director Dustin Duve, artist Lexi Ames, and musical group Worn Mantle.
This experience will give attendees an opportunity to engage in a simulated natural burial, accompanied by experimental music.
Combining their interests of rot and transformation, Lexi Ames and Worn Mantle have studied the pungent ecology of the cemetery, and learnt the song that soil sings. Riotous, churning, and triumphant, they will perform a dirge that guides a human form to an earthen embrace. All are invited to attend and explore this foundational, historical standard of human disposition.
Location
Park Hall Grounds
307 Polk Street
Sauk City, WI 53583
- Demonstration
- Performance
- Outside
Contributors
Natural Path Sanctuary, Lexi Ames + Worn Mantle
Natural Path Sanctuary
lexiames.com
Instagram: @lexidermy, @wornmantle
Dustin Duve is the Director of Natural Path Sanctuary, a green burial ground located within the Farley Center for Peace, Justice, and Sustainability in Verona, Wisconsin. He has been with the organization since 2021. He frequently leads walking tours and educational workshops, such as the "Mock Burial Workshop", to teach the public about eco-friendly end-of-life options. He has also been featured in local media discussing how his work as a cemeterian in a natural burial cemetery helps families navigate grief through more direct, manual involvement in the process. Dustin is a devoted father of two daughters, ages 18 and 9, whom he loves to spend time with. He also enjoys running trails and playing guitar. For this experience, he is joined by Maggie Balistreri and Brenda Emerson.
Lexi Ames is a deathcare worker and science illustrator. Her artwork pursues the biology of death and decomposition, deathcare traditions, and green cemetery practices. With Ian Erickson, Cara Hagstrom-Skalneck, and Nick Demaioribus, she is part of the musical group Worn Mantel: noise-makers, swamp-trampers, stain-appreciators, smell-sniffers, bug-catchers, food-nibblers, belly-laughers, and whistlers.