Reimagine Virtual Candlelight Vigil with Nickole Brown and Keith Tutt, II
Reimagine has been hosting candlelight vigils throughout the pandemic in order to break down taboos and hold space for all that we've lost. Tonight's program will include a conversation with poet Nickole Brown, cellist Keith Tutt, II, and Reimagine collaborator Kelli Dillon.
Nickole Brown received her MFA from the Vermont College, studied literature at Oxford University, and was the editorial assistant for the late Hunter S. Thompson. She worked at Sarabande Books for ten years. Her first collection, Sister, a novel-in-poems, was published in 2007 with a new edition reissued in 2018. Her second book, a biography-in-poems about her grandmother called Fanny Says, came out from BOA Editions in 2015 and won the Weatherford Award for Appalachian Poetry. The audio book of that collection came out in 2017. She has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Kentucky Foundation for Women, and the Kentucky Arts Council. She was an Assistant Professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock for four years and was the co-editor of the Marie Alexander Poetry Series for ten. Currently, she teaches periodically at a number of places, including the Sewanee School of Letters MFA Program, the Great Smokies Writing Program at UNCA, and the Hindman Settlement School. She lives with her wife, poet Jessica Jacobs, in Asheville where she periodically volunteers at three different animal sanctuaries. Since 2016, she’s been writing about these animals, resisting the kind of pastorals that made her (and many of the working-class folks from the Kentucky that raised her) feel shut out of nature and the writing about it. Her work speaks in a Southern-trash-talking way about nature: beautiful, damaged, dangerous, and in desperate need of saving. To Those Who Were Our First Gods, a chapbook of these first nine poems, won the 2018 Rattle Prize, and her essay-in-poems, The Donkey Elegies, was published by Sibling Rivalry Press in 2020. In 2021, Spruce Books of Penguin Random House published Write It! 100 Poetry Prompts to Inspire, a book she co-authored with her wife Jessica Jacobs, and they regularly teach generative writing sessions together as part of their SunJune Literary Collaborative. https://nickolebrown.com/
Keith Tutt, II, is an award-winning producer, professional cellist, songwriter/composer, and master teacher. His musical journey began on the cello at the age of four. By the age of seven, he was studying with world-renowned National Cello Institute founder Richard Mooney. Over the years, Keith's repertoire has expanded to include multiple instruments, programming, and producing. This diverse musical background has enabled Keith to work with a variety of critically acclaimed artists across multiple genres. His string arrangements have been heard on Grammy award-winning albums, and His production has also earned him numerous accolades.
His latest focus has landed him in the wellness sector where he provides an immersive sound-aided release experience, called sonikwell™. Using the unique properties of the cello aided by electronic replication to provide balance, release, and rejuvenation to emotionally intense, high-stress environments.
Keith was born and raised in Southern California, where he currently resides.
www.keithtuttii.com @keithtuttii
Kelli Dillon’s life work is an ode to the iconic artist Sade Adu's song lyrics: “We move in space with minimum waste and maximum joy.” As owner of Endpowered, Kelli is a licensed Willow End of Life Educator™creating safe spaces and facilitating open and honest communication for transformative personal discoveries, by guiding others through exploring our relationships with death, dying and legacy. If you are curious about discovering and implementing, heart-centered and pragmatic planning for a well-lived and love-filled life here and now, Endpowered is here to help you take brave steps to get clear on who and what matters most to you in this life, as we contemplate our inevitable death that may be minutes, days, months, or years away. Kelli is the co-host of Threads of Our Matriarchs, a Reimagine event on Mother’s Day.
About Reimagine
Reimagine hosts community-driven experiences that bring creativity, connection, and essential conversation to face adversity, loss, and mortality, and channel the hard parts of life into meaningful action and growth. Reimagine envisions a world where we can embrace life fully—from this moment through the end—and collectively contribute to a more just and compassionate society.
