Philadelphia was a center for people trying to talk to the dead, including at Laurel Hill! Join Audrey for a graveside picnic lunch (bring your own) to discuss October’s Member Choice Book: _Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil_ and then maybe we’ll be able to communicate with Minerva when we take the _Talking with the Dead_ 💀 tour!**FEE: $17 ($15 for adults over 65)** Purchase using [this link](https://67610.blackbaudhosting.com/67610/tickets?tab=2&txobjid=9fdf36ab-a846-469c-8cf2-cc22d72be58d) and pay directly to the cemetery.
**11:30am LUNCH: Picnic and book discussion**
Bring your own. Exactly location in cemetery for picnic will be provided on day of event.
1:00pm **TOUR: TALKING WITH THE DEAD: SPIRITS AND SPIRITUALISTS**
Where: [Laurel Hill Cemetery East](https://laurelhillphl.com/event/talking-with-the-dead-spirits-and-spiritualists-of-laurel-hill-east/)
People have been trying to communicate with the dead since ancient times. This desire sprang up anew in mid-19th century America, shortly after the founding of Laurel Hill East. Spiritualism, as this movement came to be called, featured intermediaries or mediums, who promised they could summon departed souls and establish communication with the living through a series of knocks, called spirit rapping. Spiritualism spread rapidly; after all, who wouldn’t want to communicate with dead ancestors, family members, or friends?
PARKING:
Parking inside of the cemetery’s Ridge Avenue entrance is temporarily suspended due to construction. Free on-street parking is available near the cemetery although we discourage parking along Ridge Avenue.
Parking is allowed along the roads in the cemeteries for general visitation and tours.
**BOOK**: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Genre: nonfiction
Shots rang out in Savannah's grandest mansion in the misty,early morning hours of May 2, 1981. Was it murder or self-defense? For nearly a decade, the shooting and its aftermath reverberated throughout this hauntingly beautiful city of moss-hung oaks and shaded squares. John Berendt's sharply observed, suspenseful, and witty narrative reads like a thoroughly engrossing novel, and yet it is a work of nonfiction. Berendt skillfully interweaves a hugely entertaining first-person account of life in this isolated remnant of the Old South with the unpredictable twists and turns of a landmark murder case.
It is a spellbinding story peopled by a gallery of remarkable characters: the well-bred society ladies of the Married Woman's Card Club; the turbulent young redneck gigolo; the hapless recluse who owns a bottle of poison so powerful it could K*ll every man, woman, and child in Savannah; the aging and profane Southern belle who is the "soul of pampered self-absorption"; the uproariously funny black drag queen; the acerbic and arrogant antiques dealer; the sweet-talking, piano-playing con artist; young blacks dancing the minuet at the black debutante ball; **and Minerva, the voodoo priestess who works her magic in the graveyard at midnight**. These and other Savannahians act as a Greek chorus, with Berendt revealing the alliances, hostilities, and intrigues that thrive in a town where everyone knows everyone else.
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**Housekeeping**!
Here are the Club’s [Basic Rules](https://docs.google.com/document/d/11gJVZLn9-ZtlHNTvhRi8DomXn1akjqU30iFhQfXQJis/edit) and **Liability Release**. You should read them because by signing up for an event you agree to them! 🙂
Event Venue
Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
