What a fun conversation this is with artist and death doula Brianna L. Hernández. Brianna shares a few stories about her mom, Miss Sylvia, including her sense of humor and her complicated relationship with cooking. We actually recorded on Miss Sylvia's birthday, so that was really special. Brianna talks about being a grief-y kid and her multimedia art installations that have been born out of caretaking her mom. She also shares some of the things that have become really important to her, like the artist's role in creating cultural death rituals and death education. See below for links to her art installations, articles and Ma's House Art Studio.
Brianna L. Hernández is a Chicana artist, curator, and death doula guided by socially engaged practices. In the studio, she creates multi-media installations focused on end-of-life care, grief, and mourning rituals based on lived experience, cultural research, and collaborations with peers including death education workshops. She proudly serves as Director of Curation and Board Secretary of Ma’s House & BIPOC Art Studio on the Shinnecock Indian Reservation, and as Assistant Curator at the Parrish Art Museum in Watermill, New York.
Ma's House Residency and BIPOC Art Studio
Anticipatory|Después
Útiles Curativos
Aquí Descansamos
Going with Grace Death Doula Program
Hypoallergenic article
- death education
- emotional public expressions of grief
- burials that are better for the environment
- healing our relationship with death and dying through creativity
- cooking for and caretaking for her mom, Miss Sylvia
- Miss Sylvia's sense of humor
- creating a living cemetery
- the way she approaches making matcha
- no difference between love and grief
- "mix to combine"