Ravinia_2018_Issue_7_Week

Considering Matthew Shepard

Text authors and publication credits.

All music composed by Craig Hella Johnson ©

1. Cattle, Horses, Sky, and Grass

Craig Hella Johnson / Please Come to Wyoming by John D. Nesbitt ©

by John D. Nesbitt. Used by kind permission. / Cattle, Horses, Sky, and

Grass by Sue Wallis © by Estate of Sue Wallis. Used by kind permission.

Quoting

Prelude in C Major Book , Well-Tempered Clavier

by J.S. Bach

2. Ordinary Boy

e Meaning of Matthew,

by Judy Shepard p.

. / + I Love Poem by Matt Shepard © by Judy

Shepard. Used by kind permission.

3. We Tell Each Other Stories

We Tell Each Other Stories © Craig Hella

Johnson

e Fence (before)

* Lesléa Newman

e Fence (that night)

Material reproduced from Hildegard of Bingen

from

Symphonia: A Critical Edition of the “Symphonia Armonie

Celestium Revelationum” (Symphony of the Harmony of Celestial

Revelations), Second Edition,

translated by Barbara Newman. ©

by Cornell University. Used by permission of the translator,

Barbara Newman, and publisher, Cornell University Press. / e Fence

(that night)* Lesléa Newman

8. A Protestor

* Lesléa Newman / Additional italicized text by Craig Hella

Johnson

10. Keep it Away From Me ( e Wound of Love)

by Michael Dennis

Browne and Craig Hella Johnson ©

by Michael Dennis Browne

and Craig Hella Johnson. Used by kind permission. / Gabriela Mistral

12. Fire of the Ancient Heart

by Michael Dennis Browne and Craig Hella

Johnson ©

by Michael Dennis Browne and Craig Hella Johnson.

Used by kind permission. / ^Genesis : / Rumi / ~William Blake.

With thanks to Tom Burritt – percussion consultation and special

arrangement

14. Stray Birds

Stray Birds by Rabindranath Tagore

15. We Are All Sons (part )

by Michael Dennis Browne ©

by Michael

Dennis Browne. Used by kind permission.

16. I Am Like You / We Are All Sons (part )

17.

e Innocence

by Michael Dennis Browne and Craig Hella Johnson ©

by Michael Dennis Browne and Craig Hella Johnson. Used by kind

permission.

19.

e Fence (one week later)

* Lesléa Newman

21. Stars

* Lesléa Newman / Dennis Shepard Statement to the Court

22. In Need of Breath

Ha z lyrics from “In Need of the Breath” from the

Penguin (New York) publication

e Gi : Poems by Ha z

by Daniel

Ladinsky. ©

Daniel Ladinsky and used with his permission.

23. Deer Song

by Michael Dennis Browne and Craig Hella Johnson ©

by Michael Dennis Browne and Craig Hella Johnson. Used by kind

permission.

24.

e Fence (a er) / e Wind

* Lesléa Newman

25. Pilgrimage

* Lesléa Newman

26. Meet Me Here

27.

ank You

“ anks” from

e Rain in the Trees

by W.S. Merwin. ©

by W.S. Merwin, used by permission of e Wylie Agency LLC.

Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House,

Inc. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf

Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House

28. All of Us

by Michael Dennis Browne and Craig Hella Johnson ©

by Michael Dennis Browne and Craig Hella Johnson. Used by kind

permission. / + from

Divine Comedy

, from the

Paradiso

by Dante

adapted by Michael Dennis Browne

29. Cattle, Horses, Sky, and Grass (reprise)

Cattle, Horses, Sky, and Grass

by Sue Wallis © by Estate of Sue Wallis. Used by kind permission. /

Please Come to Wyoming by John D. Nesbitt © by John D. Nesbitt.

Used by kind permission.

Recitations I–X

compiled from news reports and cra ed by Craig Hella

Johnson and Michael Dennis Browne.

* All works authored by Lesléa Newman are from

October Mourning: A Song

For Matthew Shepard

. ©

by Lesléa Newman. Reproduced by permission

of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA. Selections used by

permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd. ©

“Introduction” from

October Mourning: A Song For Matthew Shepard

by Lesléa Newman

On Tuesday, October ,

, at approximately : p.m., -year-old

Matthew Shepard, a gay college student attending the University of

Wyoming, was kidnapped from a bar by -year old Aaron McKinney and

-year-old Russell Henderson. Pretending to be gay, the two men lured

Matthew Shepard into their truck, drove him to the outskirts of Laramie,

robbed him, beat him with a pistol, tied him to a buck-rail fence, and le

him to die. e next day, at about : p.m.— hours a er the attack—he

was discovered and taken to a hospital. He never regained consciousness and

died ve days later, on Monday, October , with his family by his side.

One of the last things Matthew Shepard did that Tuesday night was

attend a meeting of the University of Wyoming’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and

Transgendered Association. e group was putting nal touches on plans for

Gay Awareness Week, scheduled to begin the following Sunday, October ,

coinciding with a National Coming Out Day. Planned campus activities

included a lm showing, an open poetry reading, and a keynote speaker.

at keynote speaker was me.

I never forgot what happened in Laramie, and around the th

anniversary of Matthew Shepard’s death, I found myself thinking more

and more about him. And so I began writing a series of poems, striving to

create a work of art that explores the events surrounding Matthew Shepard’s

murder in order to gain a better understanding of their impact on myself and

the world.

What really happened at the fence that night? Only three people know the

answer to that question. Two of them are imprisoned, convicted murderers

whose stories o en contradict each other (for example, in separate interviews

both McKinney and Henderson have claimed that he alone tied Matthew

Shepard to the fence). e other person who knows what really happened

that night is dead. We will never know his side of the story.

is book is my side of the story.

While the poems in this book are inspired by actual events, they do not in

any way represent the statements, thoughts, feelings, opinions, or attitudes of

any actual person. e statements, thoughts, feelings, opinions, and attitudes

conveyed belong to me. All monologues contained within the poems are

gments of my imagination; no actual person spoke any of the words contained

within the body of any poem. ose words are mine and mine alone. When the

words of an actual person are used as a short epigraph for a poem, the source

of that quote is cited at the back of the book in a section entitled “Notes,” which

contains citations and suggestions for further reading about the crime. e

poems, which are meant to be read in sequential order as one whole work, are

a work of poetic invention and imagination: a historical novel in verse. e

poems are not an objective reporting of Matthew Shepard’s murder and its

a ermath; rather they are my own personal interpretation of them.

ere is a bench on the campus of the University of Wyoming dedicated

to Matthew Shepard, inscribed with the words

He continues to make a

di erence

. My hope is that readers of

October Mourning: A Song for Matthew

Shepard

will be inspired to make a di erence and honor his legacy by erasing

hate and replacing it with compassion, understanding, and love.

October Mourning: A Song For Matthew Shepard

. ©

by Lesléa

Newman. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick

Press, Somerville, MA.

Considering Matthew Shepard

was developed with the support of Conspirare.

Please visit

conpsirare.org

to learn more about this project and learn more

about the many individuals and organizations who support this work.

Conspirare, e Matthew Shepard Foundation, and KLRU-TV, Austin

PBS are partnering to ensure that

Considering Matthew Shepard

reaches

as many people as possible on the stage and screen.

e Matthew

Shepard Foundation has provided ongoing support in outreach and project

development. Conspirare and KLRU-TV, Austin PBS are co-producing a

Considering Matthew Shepard

television special commemorating the th

anniversary of Matthew Shepard’s passing. KLRU pro led Craig Hella

Johnson’s creative process in their documentary series

Arts in Context

(available at artsincontext.org). e lm will be accompanied by outreach

and engagement programs.

Commissioned by Fran and Larry Collmann and Conspirare

Dedicated to Philip Overbaugh

RAVINIA MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER 10 – SEPTEMBER 16, 2018

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