Brener and Imara first worked simultaneously across the Atlantic in 2014 when they revised and self-published their memoirs, (Imara’s Crack, and Brener’s Holy Candy, whose content was co-incidentally somewhat contentious.) In 2019, they co-created the short film Y&I, conceived from opposite sides of the Atlantic, and performed in London in December of 2019.
In 2020, they planned a second short film to be started in New York and London, and culminated in Windsor, using rivers and coming together as a theme. Then the coronavirus happened, and this project was re-conceived as Y&I Lockdown. The short film highlights the restlessness, frustration, boredom of isolation, alongside a global connectedness, reflecting that though we may be quarantined and alone we are all doing so together and experiencing universal feelings and challenges
Imara’s recent work focuses on video documentation of seemingly insignificant moments, in between action, like liminalities of time, edited and looped to make choregraphies that describe new meanings. Brener and Imara’s shared love of unconventional dance forms integrates live pedestrian movement with these digital manipulations to create an evocative hybrid form. Although naturalistic, the audio has a randomised element, being processed with a digital cut-up technique, again forming new meanings by its juxtaposition with film.
Brener’s recent work focuses on the tension between structure and content in poetry and short fiction. She combines nonfiction and magical thinking into her writing, and most recently is branching off into graphic storytelling using cartoons and illustration. She teaches writing for the City University of New York, and also works as a teleprompter operator for broadcast television.
Together, Brener and Imara combine words, choreography, domestic landscapes, and sound to examine the patterns in our everyday routines, habits, and hopes.
Brenimara 