I collaborated with my friend Bronwyn Hazelwood on a brand new zine: Manhole Covers: The World Underfoot! It brings together my photos and writing about manhole covers I’ve seen around the world with Bronwyn’s illustrations, all to celebrate the humble art of utilitarian design. You can pick up a copy here!
I covered the Getty’s exhibition on blood that combines medieval manuscripts with modern and contemporary art. Check out the story on the Art Newspaper with some of the compelling images about how blood remains a provocative, often taboo visual subject and material.
American Cemetery & Cremation magazine profiled me in their latest issue, in which I talk all about my thoughts on the grave! We cover zines, tour guiding, and why I wanted to do a cemetery book tour.
I wrote a preview for the Art Newspaper on the new Harlem Renaissance exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. Read here about how it came together, particularly through loans from traditionally Black colleges that collected works that major institutions overlooked.
I’m excited to be kicking off the Last Tuesday Society’s Supernatural Mystery Symposium, an online series curated by Shannon Taggart that brings together talks that were part of last summer’s event in the Spiritualist community of Lily Dale, New York. I’ll be speaking on March 3 about the future of the grave, with many fantastic talks to follow on occult collections, music channeled from other worlds, Shaker manifestations, and much more.
The winter issue of Fine Books & Collections magazine—a publication I started editing last year—is out now! I’m proud of how this one came together with a wide range of stories that explore the diverse world of books and collecting. Pick up a copy here (love live print!). I also contributed a short piece about an ephemera archive in San Francisco.
Jessica Mesman at the Christian Century wrote a review of Grave that you can check out here. She kindly calls it “a digestible history and literary tour of American funerary practices, but it’s not just that. It’s also a case for the dignity of the human person beyond death and a call to keep the dead in community with the living.”
I covered a new project at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans that is using AI to engage visitors with oral histories of veterans and others who served during the conflict. Read the story online and in print with the Art Newspaper.
On March 13, 2024, I’ll be joining Arnos Vale Cemetery in Bristol for an online talk about the grave’s transformation. Get tickets here!
This October, I joined the Thinking Allowed radio program from the BBC to talk about the history of the grave. Give it a listen as part of a fascinating lineup that also includes a conversation about memorial benches!
I contributed four essays to the beautiful new Brooklyn Arcadia: Art, History, and Nature at Majestic Green-Wood book published by Rizzoli. It features Andrew Garn’s photographs of Green-Wood Cemetery across the seasons. Pick up a copy now! I also joined Andrew for a radio interview timed with the book on WNYC’s All Of It program.
I created a reading list for JSTOR Daily on the care of the dead and how it has changed over time. All of the JSTOR Daily lists allow free access to the linked research so check it out!
For the Art Newspaper, I wrote a story exploring the role of museums in video games and what museums can learn from video games. Read it here!
On October 18 at the Brooklyn Brainery, I’m bringing back my cemetery symbolism class for the autumn season! Come learn about the meaning behind tombstone symbols in New York City and beyond. Sign up here.
This October I’ll be leading two tours at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn with Morbid Anatomy. One will be on October 7 and themed on the language of flowers as seen through cemetery symbolism and the other will be on October 21, exploring memento mori symbolism.
On September 17 from 11 AM – 1 PM, I’ll be at the beautiful historic Congressional Cemetery in Washington, DC, for a free Grave book event and tour of the grounds. RSVP here!
I was on the ABC Radio Australia Late Night Live program to talk about American graves. Listen here!
On September 13 at Housing Works Bookstore in Manhattan, I’m joining the Municipal Art Society + Housing Works author series for a conversation about graves and NYC with fellow arts writer and cemetery tour guide Tiernan Morgan. You can even browse books while you listen! RSVP free here.
For the summer issue of ArtDesk I enjoyed interviewing the artist Brian Wall who at 91 is still innovating with his monumental, abstract sculptures. You can read the piece online and in print!
“As an artist, you always feel that you should push the limits of what you’re doing,” Wall says. “You still want to know and see what’s possible. I love the risk. I love the idea of doing something, and I’m just going to the edge, and so what if it’s a total failure? You learn from that and move on.”
My NYC Microseasons creative collaborator Erin Chapman and I joined the Fields podcast to talk about noticing changes in nature in the city. Is every season now a micro season? Is eating a few mulberries from a city tree good or bad? Listen to find out!