ABOUT WAKE

 

Community needs around death and dying

 

We founded Wake to provide practical solutions for community needs around death and dying. When facing dying and death there are few places to turn for support, outside of private companies with a vested interest in selling products and services. Wake is a non-commercial resource for people who are confronting death, either their own, or another’s. Whether you want to set up a healthcare directive in the prime of youth, or are looking for a death doula or home funeral guide at the end of life, we can help you connect with the right resource. We also offer Death Cafes as a platform for discussing dying and death, and we are working to provide affordable, green burial solutions in the State of Louisiana. 

 

Access to meaningful, sustainable deathcare 

 

Wake is rooted in the belief that everyone deserves access to meaningful, sustainable deathcare and we seek to approach this goal holistically. Historically, racial and class disparities have resulted in unequal treatment in death, as in life, and not everyone enjoys the same access to land and spaces of memory. In New Orleans, as in many urban areas world-wide, space for low-cost burial has become scarce. Cemeteries for the poor are over-filled and there is an acute need for more affordable burial options. Furthermore, the funeral industry has a surprisingly toxic footprint on the planet and green burial solutions, while quite simple and traditional, can be difficult to access.

 

A conversation about death

 

Finally, we believe that our prevailing culture is generally avoidant of death and, as a society, we suffer from fear and anxiety about the subject, making it taboo and seldom discussed or contemplated. We seek to open up a conversation around death. The Death Cafe model, pioneered in Europe and now popular in many countries world-wide, provides a useful way to engage the subject. Drawing together people from many walks of life, with no formal agenda or moral or commercial pressure, to discuss the subject openly and broadly in a safe environment, can help reduce collective trauma and fear. This has become particularly pressing in the wake of the Covid19 pandemic.