Tuesday, September 12, 2023
When Christopher Gregory got his driver’s license in 2008, he registered as an organ donor. Soon afterward, Chris died from a brain aneurysm—and six desperate strangers received his organs. Eric Gregory, Chris’s father, wrote a memoir about his son and the friendships the family developed with his organ recipients.
What are the ethics of making art inspired by someone else's story? This question is just one of the many considerations that went into Close and Apart, the song cycle inspired by Eric's memoir. Join collaborators Matthew Jaskot, composer and Professor of Music, and Susan Elizabeth Sweeney, poet and Professor of English, along with Eric Gregory, author of All My Tomorrows: A Story of Tragedy, Transplant, and Hope, and Grace Gregory, for this conversation.