LUIS JARAMILLO & MATTHEW BROOKSHIRE
June 2, 2017
The Other Side: Borders and Crossings
Borders are places of defense and of vulnerability. Through writing as ritual, divination, conjuring and channeling, we pass through perceived barriers to get from what we know to what we would like to know.
Photography by Stephanie Orentas
Luis Jaramillo is the Director of the MFA in Creative Writing Program at The New School. He is the author of The Doctor’s Wife, winner of the Dzanc Books Short Story Collection Contest, an Oprah Book of the Week, and one of NPR’s Best Books of 2012. His work has also appeared in Open City, Gamers (Soft Skull Press), Tin House Magazine, H.O.W. Journal, and Red Line Blues. In 2014 he was selected as a Sewanee Writers Conference Fellow. He teaches courses in fiction and nonfiction in the MFA Creative Writing program and the Riggio Honors Program: Writing & Democracy, and is co-editor of the journal The Inquisitive Eater: New School Food. He received an undergraduate degree from Stanford and an MFA in Creative Writing from The New School.
Matthew Brookshire is a songwriter and performer originally from North Carolina. His song “Belly Breathe” is featured on the 50th anniversary season of Sesame Street on HBO. Matthew’s acoustic duo project with singer/banjo player Anielle Reid, Boy Girl Banjo, appeared on TED.com, and their debut EP is available now.
Matthew collaborated with choreographer Keely Garfield on several dance-theater works, including the Bessie Award-nominated Twin Pines (Joyce Theater, Danspace Project) and Pow (Roulette & 92nd Street Y). About Garfield’s WOW, where Matthew interpreted the songs of Kate Bush, The New York Times wrote: “performed live by the marvelous Mr. Brookshire on vocals and piano…The arrangements are stripped down and seductively vibrant.” With composer Curtis Moore, Matthew wrote original music for the film Palindromes (co-written with Eytan Mirsky; directed by Todd Solondz), pop songs for drag icon Kevin Aviance and Sara Ramirez, and created a musical about a woman’s obsession with Lifetime Movies called For The Love of Tiffany (book co-written with Thomas Mizer and lyrics by Amanda Green). Matthew contributed songs to several films by Casper Andreas–including Violet Tendencies, starring Mindy Cohn from The Facts of Life! Matthew’s albums 8 Songs and Best Friend are available on iTunes. He is also featured on Kelli Rae Powell’s Live at Jalopy and on a compilation from the American Folk Art Museum. Matthew is a graduate of the North Carolina School of the Arts and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.