It’s not too late to get to the Death Salon

The first-ever Death Salon is being held in Los Angeles on Saturday. A gathering of writers, artists, academics, and death professionals -- read morticians -- the Death Salon aims to look at the rituals, practices and fascination with death from many angles.

Happy early Halloween.

The Death Salon began Friday and continues from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday with a series of mini-lectures and panel discussions from writers and performers including Colin Dickey, author of “Cranioklepty”; Caitlin Doughty, author of “Ask a Mortician”; Evan Michaelson from the television show “Oddities”; Paul Koudounaris, author of “The Empire of Death: A Cultural History of Ossuaries and Charnel Houses”; filmmaker Alison de Fren; and more.

All the Saturday events are free at the Center for Inquiry West in Los Feliz and organized by Morbid Anatomy. There’s no need for tickets -- drop-ins are welcome.

After the morning’s discussion and screenings that explore the interstices of art and medicine, culture and death, there will be a break for lunch at 1 p.m. -- if you’re hungry.

The afternoon’s events begin at 2 with a panel discussion about saints and mortification of the flesh, followed by a lecture on fin de siècle Parisian death-themed cabarets and a cocktail party featuring re-creations of their classic drinks.

Organizers held more academic-focused discussions Friday that were open to registrants only. They plan to make the Death Salon an annual event, held in the UK in 2014 and Cleveland in 2015.

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