Sip Salon: Why do we keep the dead alive?

Monday, September 28 2026 6:00-8:00 PM

Location: Honest Friend Brewing

We talk to dead relatives. We visit graves. We keep their clothes. We feel guilty when we stop thinking about them as much.

Welcome to the Sip Salon where we gather to learn together through articles and discussion. Read the article, join the discussion. Just curious folks coming together to discuss topics. Whether you know a little or a lot, we hope to grow together in our understandings. With drinks.

Grief researchers call this 'continuing bonds theory', the idea that healthy grief isn't about letting go, but about finding a new relationship with the person who's gone. Research shows that between 25 and 50% of people report some form of after-death communication experience: hearing a loved one's voice, sensing their presence, or receiving what feels like a message.

And in 2026, the question has gotten stranger: AI companies are now offering to recreate deceased loved ones as interactive digital avatars, feeding algorithms with texts, emails, and voice recordings to simulate conversations with the dead. Is that grief support or something more troubling?

This October Sip Salon pairs beautifully with our Haunted Elegies Siposium and asks the quieter, more personal question underneath all of it: what does it mean to keep someone alive after they're gone and when, if ever, do we stop?

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The Siposium - Haunted Elegies

Monday, October 5 2026, 7:00-9:00 PM

Location: Columbus Brewing Company Taproom

What better time than October, month of Halloween’s embrace of all things spooky, to get acquainted with elegy: a lyric poem, a song of sorrow, an expressions of grief on the occasion of loss. Elegy is even more complex than that, for as we move through time, even poems that once celebrated the moment can feel elegiac, like photographs seen in retrospect, those clicks of the shutter that caught moments now vanished. In this sense, most poems are elegies. As we move through time, they sing of what is gone. Add this October thing: elegies also haunt, by remembering and commemorating persons, animals, or aspects of the culture that have passed, making them appear again. Some elegies even recount visitations, ghosts, hauntings that, in their own smoky style, breach the barriers of mortality to sing. In this Siposium event, Charlene will read poems from her most recent collection, Habitat of Ghosts (Broadstone Books, 2026) some earlier poems, and some poems by other poets. Then she’ll offer writing prompts, we’ll write, and the brave among us will share what they wrote.

Bio for Charlene Fix

Charlene Fix’s poetry collections are Habitat of Ghosts (2026 Broadstone Books), Jewgirl (Broadstone Books 2023), Taking a Walk in My Animal Hat (Bottom Dog Press 2018), Frankenstein’s Flowers (CW Books 2014), and Flowering Bruno: a Dography (XOXOX Press 2006). Her prose homage/film criticism is Harpo Marx as Trickster (McFarland 2013). She has published poems in Poetry, Literary Imagination, JAMA, The Journal, Cincinnati Review, The New Ohio Review, Mudfish, and The Manhattan Review, among other literary magazines, has received grants from The Ohio and the Greater Columbus Arts Councils, and once upon a time won the Robert H. Winner Memorial Award and the Louis Hammer Memorial Award from The Poetry Society of America. Emeritus Professor of English at Columbus College of Art and Design, Charlene co-coordinates Hospital Poets at the Ohio State University Medical Center, works for peace and social justice, and is the mother of three and grandmother of two. Her website is charlenefix.com

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Sip Salon: Who decides what nature is supposed to look like?

November 4, 2026, 6:30-8:30 PM

Zaftig Brewing

We love to talk about getting “back to nature”, but what exactly does that mean? Is a forest more natural than a bonsai tree? What about a dog? A farm? A city park? A restored prairie? A zoo? Or a coral reef that humans helped rebuild?

Humans have been shaping the natural world for as long as we've been around. Sometimes we've made a mess of things. Sometimes we've helped repair the mess. And sometimes we're not even sure which version of nature we're supposed to be trying to save in the first place.

At this Sip Salon, we'll get a little philosophical, a little scientific, and probably a little argumentative as we explore where we draw the line between nature and human creation. If people are part of nature, are the things we create unnatural? When should we intervene? When should we step back? And perhaps the biggest question of all: who gets to decide what nature is supposed to look like?

Come ready to question your backyard, your national parks, your dog, and possibly your entire definition of “natural.”

The Siposium: Patience in a Pot - The Philosophy, Science, and Obsession of Bonsai

November 8, 2026, 7-9 PM

Seventh Son Brewing

Ever wish your favorite NPR segment or Ted Talk came with trivia, drinks, and real conversation? Welcome to The Siposium, a live, interactive gathering where we deep dive into surprisingly niche topics with expert guests, thoughtful dialogue, and just enough irreverence to keep it fun. Think NPR-style curiosity, casual community vibes, and real-time interaction. With drinks.
This month, Patience in a Pot: An Unnatural Natural Act - The Philosophy, Science, and Obsession of Bonsai explores why we shrink trees, what it teaches us, and why bonsai is both deeply natural and completely unnatural at the same time. This informal, wide-ranging, and unabashedly nerdy talk is designed to be introductory but goes in-depth, covering everything from horticultural science and design principles to cultural influences and the nature of obsession. Whether you're curious about your very first tree or you've been pruning for years, you'll leave with a new way of seeing these tiny landscapes. Lots of room for tangents and an extended Q&A.

Mark Passerrello is a bonsai artist, potter, and teacher based in Columbus Ohio. A long time interest in plants as well as Japanese culture lead to early experiments with bonsai, and the journey continues today. A longtime member of the Columbus Bonsai Society, he is currently newsletter editor for that organization as well as a contributor to the American Bonsai Society newsletter. After decades of growing bonsai trees he began creating bonsai pottery, a complimentary hobby that has become a business. He has lead many classes and demonstrations about bonsai. With a background in theatre and music, he has developed a lively teaching style that makes bonsai accessible and engaging for beginners and advanced students alike.

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