Grief Cafe Workshop

The Grief Cafe is back at York Theatre Royal on Tuesday 28 July, with a workshop session running in the Keregan Room from 16:30. It's a gentle creative space run by the Futureproof team, and it's specifically for young people aged 18–35 who've experienced bereavement. The whole idea is to bring together art, music and theatre in a supportive environment where you can explore those things at your own pace. There's no pressure to perform or produce anything particular—it's more about connecting with creativity and with other people who're navigating grief, too.

The session is led by a small team. Stef Bricklebank is a bereavement practitioner here in York who works with young people exploring grief. Jem leads the sessions and brings their own personal experience of loss to the room. And Eleanor is a York-based artist and performer whose work blends fantasy and traditional folk stories to look at the human experience. Together they hold the space, so you can just show up and be where you are.

Behind the scenes is the Futureproof team, a group of people from different creative backgrounds brought together by York Theatre Royal to look at how people connect to theatre and what that means for its future. The Grief Cafe is one of the ways they're putting that into practice, creating a space for a specific community to come together around making things.

If you can't make the workshop, there's also a relaxed, drop-in event on Saturday 11 July from 10am to 1pm. The workshop itself is on Tuesday 28 July at 16:30 in the Keregan Room, and it's free to attend.