Melanie Beth Curran
Curriculum Vitae
Education
Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, Fiction, The New School University, New York City, New York, 2019
Hettie Jones, Thesis Advisor
Relevant Coursework:
The Teaching of Writing, Laura Cronk
Fiction Workshops, Alexandra Kleeman, Dale Peck and Darcey Steinke
Literature Seminars, Hettie Jones, Camille Rankine, Shelley Jackson
Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology, The Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA, 2013
Coursework focused on ethnographic methods, American cultural studies and French language studies.
Appointments
Part-Time Faculty – Montclair State Univeristy, Monclair, New Jersey, 2022
First-Year Writing
Fellow – Fulbright Fellowship, Université de Bretagne Occidentale, Brest, France, 2019 – 2020
For creative non-fiction project, “Between People, The Living History of Musique Traditionellle in Northwestern Bretagne”.
Teaching Assistant – The New School, 2018
“America is Hard to Find”- Undergraduate Seminar, Dr. Jeremy Varon, The New School University, New York City, NY.
Teaching Artist Experience
Teaching Artist, 2021
“Finding Songs on the Air: Lessons from Brittany, France”, Musicology Colloquium Series Spring: Ethnography and Creative Process in The Arts, University of New Mexico College of Fine Arts, Albuquerque, NM.
Teaching Artist, 2020
“Home Songs” Songwriting Workshop, Jalopy Theatre and School of Music Brooklyn, NY. (Virtual)
Teaching Artist, 2018
Haiku in the Park, The Madison Square Park Conservancy, New York City, NY.
Teaching Artist, 2017
Inspire Talks, “On Being a Musician”, Woodward Middle School, Bainbridge Island, WA.
Workshop Leader, 2017
Vocal Harmony, East Vancouver Old-Time Social, Vancouver, B.C.
Workshop Organizer, 2014
Mansion Writers’ Workshop, Kent, WA.
Positions Held
Founder
Meralingua Writing Consultancy, New York City, NY 2022
Personal Assistant
Writer and educator Hettie Jones, New York City, NY, 2018
Historical Tour Guide
Bill Speidel’s Underground Tour, Seattle, WA, 2015-2016
Community Folklorist
“Blue Collar Narratives”, Bainbridge Island Historical Society, Bainbridge Island, WA, 2016
Community Folklorist
“The History of Doe Bay”, Orcas, Washington, 2013-2014
Oral Historian and Interviewer
Return to Evergreen, 40th Anniversary Alumni Event, Olympia, WA, 2013
Awards and Honors
City Artist Corps Grant, 2021
For public musical performance and album release “People’s Beach Day”. Awarded by The New York Foundation for the Arts and The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
Fulbright Research Fellowship, 2019-20
For creative non-fiction project, “Between People, The Living History of Musique Traditionellle in Northwestern Bretagne”, Université de Bretagne Occidentale (UBO) Brest, France.
Travel Grant, Cross Cultural Journeys, 2016
Teen Talking Circles Organization and Cross Cultural Journey’s LLC, Bainbridge Island, WA for travel to Havana, Cuba, with musician Taj Mahal.
Manuscripts in-Progress
Between People
A book-length memoir and work of cultural criticism about what remains unbroken in my life as an American long separated from her traditional homelands. What has passed on through my people in-spite of technological progress? What traditions have been preserved because of it? I examine themes of dispossession through various personal lenses: As a white banjo player and practitioner of American traditional music. As someone who once chased fame trying to become a country singer. As a settler-descendant in the Pacific Northwest. As an inheritor of ancestral involvement in residential schools, in coal mining, in land claims, in the silencing of our own indigenous languages and life-ways for a slice of the American Dream.
Endangered Species
A book-length hybridized text documenting my search for the truth behind my Uncle’s death in the East Village, 1983. The book uses personal narrative, familial artifact, interview, dream recollection, and archival research to piece together a slice of history that is little known: the existence of a center for Gay Men on 9h Street where death by suicide was not an unusual fate for members. This book challenges assumptions about just what can and cannot be passed on through generations. It challenges assumptions of a monocultural gay community in the pre-AIDS East Village. It complicates time space and venerates that most romantic of possibilities – to be a struggling artist in the greatest city in the word.
Publications
“This is How I Saw Them”, Artist Profile of painter Joanne Onorato, RokoPak blog, 2020
“Undamming”, Poem, Inner Sleeve Magazine, 2020
“Alligator Consciousness”, Essay, Pulse Newsletter published by Planet Drum, 2020
Girl Zoo by Aimee Parkinson and Carol Guess, Book Review, The Brooklyn Rail, 2019
“A Line Becomes a River, Interview with NBCC Finalist Francisco Cantú”, The New School Creative Writing Blog, 2019
“Whereas, Interview with NBCC Award Winner Layli Long Soldier”, Brooklyn Magazine, 2018
Western Female, seasonal newsletter, reflections on my life as a songwriter and ethnographer of
living musical traditions, 2017 – Ongoing
A Star is a Normal Person, self-released zine reflecting on two weeks spent in Havana, Cuba with blues musician Taj Mahal, 2016
“The Lived-in Quality of Architecture in New Orleans”, essays and paintings in book, Writing American Cultures: Studies of Identity, Community, and Place, The Evergreen State College Press, 2013
Discography
San Benedito Beach, Melanie Beth Curran, 2021
Lost Love Tapes (EP), Melanie Beth Curran, 2020
Hot Sauce in Kitsap County, Melanie Beth Curran and Friends, 2016
The High-Waisted Ramblers, High Waisted Ramblers, 2016
Honky Tonk Highway (EP), Melanie Odelle, 2014
West Coast Trickle Down, Free Pile, 2012
Selected Performances
People’s Beach Day, Immersive Musical Street Performance, Brooklyn, NY, 2021
Crabtree Sessions Songwriter Series, North Haven Island, ME, 2021
Brooklyn Americana Festival, Brooklyn, NY, 2021
The Melanie Curran Show, virtual livestream performances with guests, Queens, NY 2021
Stay The Folk Home Livestream Series, Jalopy Theatre and School of Music, Brooklyn, NY, 2020
Immersive Musical Performance, “To Drown : Westering”, The Nambé Mill House, Nambé, NM, 2019
The Folklife Festival’s American Standard Time Showcase, and Pacific Northwest Musical Tour, 2019
The Woodstove Music and Arts Festival, Cumberland, B.C., 2018
Regular performer and host, Jalopy Theatre and School of Music, Brooklyn, NY, 2018 – 2022
Governor’s Island Performances, New York City, NY 2017 – Ongoing
Square-dances, Greenwood Cemetery and Domino Park, Brooklyn, NY, 2017
The East Vancouver Old Time Social, Vancouver B.C., 2017
Musical Tour of Southeastern Alaska with High Waisted Ramblers, Petersburg, Juneau, and Sitka, AK, 2016
The Pike Place Market, street performer / busker, Seattle, WA 2014 – 2017
Conferences
“Between People”, panelist, Franco American Fulbright Commission, Paris, France, 2020
Colloque Écran Total et Musiques Locales, Association DROM, Brest, Bretagne, France, 2019
LWC } NYC, Community of Literary Magazines and Presses, New York City, NY, 2018
SLICE Literary Conference, Brooklyn, NY, 2017
American Folklore Society Annual Meeting, “The Lived-in Experience of Architecture in New Orleans”, presenter, New Orleans, LA, 2011
Press
“Melanie Beth Curran—Taxidermy”, music video feature, American Standard Time, Seattle, WA 2020
“Melanie Beth Curran—Rough to Ride”, music video feature, American Standard Time, Seattle, WA 2020
“Buy This Record: Lost Love Tapes”, album review, American Standard Time, Seattle, WA 2020
“The Triumphant Return of Western Female”, profile feature, American Standard Time, Seattle, WA, 2019
“Melanie Curran Hopes to Give Back at Folklife,” interview and profile, The Kitsap Sun, Poulsbo, WA 2019
“Honky Tonk Tunes Written from a Bainbridge Bedroom,” interview and profile, The Bainbridge Review, Bainbridge Island, WA, 2016
“Islander Puts Local Life into Songs,” interview and profile, The Kitsap Sun, Poulsbo, WA, 2016
Films
“Taxidermy”, short film & music video – writer, director, producer, editor, actor
The Big Muddy Film Festival, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 2021
Radio
The Otherside of Nowhere, performance and interview, KRTS 93.5 FM Marfa Public Radio, Marfa, TX, 2019
The Desert Rose, performance and interview, KMRD 96.9 FM Madrid Community Radio, Madrid, NM, 2019
Tossed Salad, performance and interview, KPTZ 91.9 FM Radio Port Townsend, WA 2019
KFSK FM Petersburg; KCAW FM Sitka; and KTOO FM Juneau, Alaska, performances and interviews, 2016
5,4,3,2, Fun!, performance and interview, KCSB 91.9 FM Santa Barbara, CA, 2015
Scholarships
Provost Merit Scholarship, The New School, New York City, NY, 2017-2019
Scholarship, The SLICE Literary Conference, Brooklyn, NY, 2017
Multiple Scholarships, The Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, Port Townsend, WA 2010-2017
Affiliations
The Black Banjo Reclamation Project
American Studies Association
Fulbright Alumni Association
Languages
English, fluent
French, fluent
Italian, beginning / intermediate
Russian, beginning
Lushootseed, beginning