Join us on a discussion about natural burial and how it has become legal again in Vermont featuring a presentation of the award-winning documentary “From Earth to Earth: The Lost Art of Dying in America.”  This short (20 minute) documentary describes natural burial and its benefits through stories from the people who worked to make it legal in Vermont, and the stories of people whose experiences have shown the ways it can help come to terms with the loss of a loved one and with one’s own mortality.  

The documentary will be followed by a Q&A session led by Michelle Hogle Acciavatti, founder,  and Jim Hogle the Communications and Outreach Coordinator of the Vermont Forest Cemetery. 

This event is free, ADA accessible, and open to the public.

Jim Hogle, PhD - is an emeritus professor at Harvard Medical School, who specialized in structural virology, molecular biology and biophysics and was Chair of the Harvard Biophysics PhD program. He is a board member, donor, and future resident of the Vermont Forest Cemetery where he serves as President of the Board of Directors, Communications and Outreach Coordinator, and general gopher helping out wherever he can during events and burials, and the proud father of Michelle and grandfather of Nico.

Michelle Hogle Acciavatti, MS - is a deathworker, storyteller, mother, and the founder of Vermont Forest Cemetery. She is a licensed funeral director, and has trained as an advance care planner, a death doula & educator, a home funeral and pregnancy loss guide, a natural burial advocate & educator, a master naturalist, a writer, a neuroscientist, and an ethicist. Her work focuses on caring for the dying and dead at home, returning their bodies to the earth, and how natural burial can address the needs of mourners, conservation, and the living.