Green-Wood Cemetery is bringing back “Grieving and Weaving,” the series that uses knitting and crocheting as a way into conversations about death, memory and loss. The gatherings are free, they meet in the cemetery’s own chapel, and you don’t have to be good at any of it.
- The dates: 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 6, Friday, Nov. 13 and Saturday, Dec. 12.
- Where: Green-Wood Cemetery, 500 25th St., Brooklyn — sessions are held in the chapel.
- Cost: free. Registration is required through the cemetery’s Eventbrite listing.
- Who leads it: Gabrielle R. Gatto, Green-Wood’s manager of programs and curator of its Death Education programming, with yarn craftsperson Mary Pat Klein, whose craft work has appeared on Broadway (“Frozen,” “A View From a Bridge,” “Present Laughter,” “Mrs. Doubtfire”), in advertising and on television.
- Skill level: all of them. Beginners get knitting and crocheting tutorials; experienced crafters are encouraged to bring ongoing projects. Some materials are available first-come, first-served.
- Background: Green-Wood started the series in 2024 as part of its broader Death Education programming.
The design here is what makes it work. Repetitive handwork occupies enough of your attention to take the pressure off a difficult conversation, and nothing about the format demands that you produce a finished object or a coherent story about your own grief. You can show up alone, sit with a half-finished scarf, and listen.
It is also a reminder that Green-Wood runs a full slate of death-education programming — talks, workshops and walking tours — which is a strange and genuinely useful thing for a cemetery to offer a city that mostly keeps the subject at arm’s length.