me arts ed

Creating thick air! Submitted by John Holdridge

Deputy Commissioner of Education Angela Faherty attended the workshop

The poet Rick Benjamin once used the term “thick air” in a workshop I attended at Brown University. Actually Rick’s session was part of a weeklong workshop for teachers that I had organized as part of the NEA’s summer arts program and poetry was one of the multiple art forms we were using to interpret and comprehend Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. Rick was there himself to help thicken the air and since that day I have taken ownership of his term (isn’t that what good learners do?) and it now forms one of the bedrocks of my teaching. For me, and I think for Rick as well, the idea of creating thick air in a learning environment means creating a space where multiple voices and interpretations are encouraged and the air is ripe with the possibilities of imagination and creativity. In effect, if we can create thick air in our classrooms, we can reframe them as studios for thinking and for producing original work that demonstrates understanding of all content areas.

A On February 6th I led a creative literacy workshop for educators in Portland, Maine. Sponsored by the Southern Maine Writing Project and the Telling Room, the workshop brought together an interesting mix of educators that included an undergrad from the USM teacher ed. program, an Americorp volunteer working in education, a middle school teacher, a home school Mom, a graduate student in the Stone Coast MFA writing program, a retired teacher, professional writers, non profit leaders, and the deputy commissioner of education here in Maine. Needless to say our professional conversations were deep and wide with the variety of experiences of those in the room. But as varied as the participants seemed to be, 30 minutes into our day someone commented on how amazing it was that we all seemed to be quite comfortable sharing and performing with each other and that something had definitely changed since entering the space. It may have been that the coffee had kicked in, but I think it had more to do with the air that was already thick with movement, music, stories, and conversations.

Although the workshop was sponsored by two well respected writing organizations, the day was actually less about writing and more about literacy development and the concept of creating meaning and understanding through the arts. Working with a core text written by Halima, a young writer at the Telling Room, we wrestled with the essential question “What do we carry?” Taken from a line in “Hijab,” the question served as our grounding point for creative work and the discussions that occur during the act of creating and during and after the viewing of artistic products. We spent the day in a series of exercises that included performance (movement, tableaus, choral readings) writing (free writing and poetry) visual art(reading photographs and creating collage) and conversation. Each activity built on the previous and served as a lens for deepening comprehension based on individuals’ experiences and how they collided with the printed text and the various “texts” created and presented by others. Where the first answers to the question included “my bike bag, this pen, a cup of coffee,” the final answers included “we carry the joys and sorrows of those we know, we carry our culture and the lessons of our elders, and we carry hope for the future.” Thick air to say the least, and the kind of thick air that invites one to breathe deep and inhale the possibilities of creativity in teaching and learning.

John Holdridge is the Artistic Director of the Center for Creative Literacy, an education project dedicated to supporting community, creativity, and comprehension in our learning environments. He lives on Peaks Island, ME.