In this episode of The Art Engager Claire Bown talks with Tina Demirdjian, a poet and educator who has spent over 30 years transforming how people connect with poetry and visual art.
Tina is someone who in her own words 'changes people's minds' about poetry, about themselves and about their capacity for creative expression. Working primarily with second language learners and immigrant communities in Los Angeles she has developed unique approaches that use visual art as a gateway into poetry writing.
The conversation explores why museums are 'sacred spaces' that support creativity, practical techniques for facilitating poetry writing in galleries and how to help people overcome their intimidation about writing.
Listen to this episode if you want to:
This episode offers practical insights into poetry programming and how to create the 'ease' that helps everyone discover they have at least one powerful poem in them.
The Art Engager is written and presented by Claire Bown. Editing is by Matt Jacobs and Claire Bown. Music by Richard Bown. Support the show on Patreon and find more resources at thinkingmuseum.com
‘The Art Engager: Reimagining Guided Experiences in Museums‘ is now available worldwide through your favourite online platforms and retailers. Buy it here on Amazon.com: https://tinyurl.com/buytheartengager
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Episode Links:
Art inspires youth poetry at MOCA
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tina-demirdjian-a102488/
Hello and welcome to The Art Engager podcast with me, Claire Bown.
Claire Bown:I'm here to share techniques and tools to help you engage with your audience
Claire Bown:and bring art objects and ideas to life.
Claire Bown:So let's dive into this week's show.
Claire Bown:Hello, and welcome to a new episode of The Art Engager.
Claire Bown:I'm Claire Bown, and today I'm chatting with Tina Demirdjian, a poet
Claire Bown:and educator who has spent over 30 years transforming how people connect
Claire Bown:with both poetry and visual art.
Claire Bown:But before we dive in, I just want to share a quick note.
Claire Bown:If you found my resources such as this podcast, the free downloads on
Claire Bown:my website, or my blog helpful and would like to support my work, you can
Claire Bown:become a friend of The Art Engager on Patreon, or you could pick up a copy
Claire Bown:of my book, The Art Engager Reimagining Guided Experiences in Museums.
Claire Bown:Thank you for your support.
Claire Bown:Now let me introduce today's guest.
Claire Bown:Tina Demirdjian is a poet and educator who has been teaching poetry in
Claire Bown:Los Angeles for more than 30 years.
Claire Bown:Tina's someone who in her own words.
Claire Bown:Changes people's minds specifically about poetry, about themselves, and about their
Claire Bown:relationship to creative expression.
Claire Bown:Tina works in schools, museums, and businesses with a focus on second language
Claire Bown:learners and immigrant communities.
Claire Bown:Now, Tina didn't expect to become a poet.
Claire Bown:In her late twenties, she volunteered at a community center where a poet invited
Claire Bown:her to try writing that first poem excited her so much, she had to stop on
Claire Bown:the freeway to write down more lines.
Claire Bown:Now she brings that same excitement to her workshops, believing she can
Claire Bown:change people's minds about poetry and help them discover they can write.
Claire Bown:Tina works with museums and cultural institutions, including running artful
Claire Bown:conversations at the Brand library.
Claire Bown:She's particularly interested in how museums create different atmospheres
Claire Bown:that support creative work.
Claire Bown:Tina also trains young poets to facilitate workshops in their communities.
Claire Bown:Now in our conversation, we explore how visual arts can serve as a
Claire Bown:bridge into creative writing, why museums provide unique environments
Claire Bown:for this kind of work and practical approaches like using curator texts
Claire Bown:and artwork titles as poetry prompts.
Claire Bown:We discuss what makes museum spaces different from classrooms for creative
Claire Bown:expression, and how Tina's methods can help engage diverse audiences,
Claire Bown:including English language learners.
Claire Bown:This episode is perfect if you are curious about incorporating poetry
Claire Bown:into museum programming or want practical ideas for using art to unlock
Claire Bown:creative expression in your visitors.
Claire Bown:Enjoy.
Claire Bown:Hi, Tina, and welcome to The Art Engager Podcast.
Tina Demirdjian:Thank you so much, Claire.
Tina Demirdjian:It's such a pleasure to be here.
Tina Demirdjian:Well, I'm delighted you could join us here.
Tina Demirdjian:So could you tell us who you are and what you do?
Tina Demirdjian:It's so interesting.
Tina Demirdjian:I've thought about sometimes how I even wanna answer this question at times.
Tina Demirdjian:One, I am a poet and I've been writing poetry and teaching poetry for more
Tina Demirdjian:than 30 years in Los Angeles, in schools, museums, and businesses.
Tina Demirdjian:But the other part of that answer is I change people's minds.
Tina Demirdjian:I change people's minds about poetry, Sometimes really about themselves and
Tina Demirdjian:their relation to poetry and their relation to others, and that's how
Tina Demirdjian:I like to see myself, somebody who allows someone else to be surprised
Tina Demirdjian:about themselves and others.
Claire Bown:I love that.
Claire Bown:That's a really beautiful way of describing yourself and the work
Claire Bown:that you do, and obviously that's the reason I invited you on the podcast.
Claire Bown:We had a lovely initial chat when I was in LA.
Claire Bown:Yes.
Claire Bown:We talked about your work and how it relates to art to museums, the
Claire Bown:work you do in schools as well.
Claire Bown:So can you tell us a little bit about how you ended up where you are today?
Tina Demirdjian:I will try to make this concise because this story sometimes
Tina Demirdjian:becomes long, but I can say that it happens in a couple of different ways.
Tina Demirdjian:First, it was the journey just writing poetry, which is the
Tina Demirdjian:last thing I ever expected to do.
Tina Demirdjian:This is why I love to teach poetry.
Tina Demirdjian:This was not on my radar in my late twenties.
Tina Demirdjian:And so I was interested, however, in community centers
Tina Demirdjian:and folklore and storytelling.
Tina Demirdjian:And so I happened to go to a community center named Homeland
Tina Demirdjian:Neighborhood Cultural Center, and I wanted to volunteer my time.
Tina Demirdjian:I had already graduated college.
Tina Demirdjian:I was taking some classes at UCLA, had just moved to the
Tina Demirdjian:west coast from Washington, DC.
Tina Demirdjian:And I thought, I'll volunteer.
Tina Demirdjian:And there was a poet in residence and he said, why don't you come up
Tina Demirdjian:and write poetry with us tonight?
Tina Demirdjian:And I thought, I don't write poetry, but I stayed.
Tina Demirdjian:I wrote, I even took the freeway home, which was a seven 10 freeway to get
Tina Demirdjian:home to Arcadia where my parents lived, and I was so desperate to stop on the
Tina Demirdjian:freeway to write a line of a poem.
Tina Demirdjian:And excited.
Tina Demirdjian:and I thought, what is happening?
Tina Demirdjian:What is happening?
Tina Demirdjian:This is not happened to me before.
Tina Demirdjian:And so it is with that excitement that I really show up every time I teach.
Tina Demirdjian:It's so palpable those moments that I was waiting to stop on the freeway and
Tina Demirdjian:instead I did wait to get off at the exit and sat at the seven 11 parking
Tina Demirdjian:lot, which perhaps wasn't also a very great idea, but I couldn't help it.
Tina Demirdjian:At that point, my life had changed.
Tina Demirdjian:The other part that brings me to what I do though, is when I came across a
Tina Demirdjian:poet and just approached him and let him know how much I liked his work.
Tina Demirdjian:It was my first poetry reading actually, and he said, I liked your work too.
Tina Demirdjian:Have you thought about teaching?
Tina Demirdjian:And I said, teaching?
Tina Demirdjian:I've been writing for three months.
Tina Demirdjian:I started to laugh and he said, well, when you are ready, come and find me.
Tina Demirdjian:And immediately I understood when I went home that night
Tina Demirdjian:that I needed to find him again.
Tina Demirdjian:And as luck would have it, or as serendipity occurs, we were asked to be
Tina Demirdjian:in the same performance group together.
Tina Demirdjian:And so started my journey in thinking of myself, not only as a poet, but
Tina Demirdjian:also as someone who taught poetry, even though it was my beginnings.
Tina Demirdjian:And I wanna add this other part that's important to me because how I got to
Tina Demirdjian:connecting it with visual art, which is really important, is that, when I
Tina Demirdjian:finally started reaching out to school districts and connecting with people
Tina Demirdjian:to find out how am I gonna do this job?
Tina Demirdjian:How will I teach poetry?
Tina Demirdjian:Where am I gonna teach it?
Tina Demirdjian:I came across this woman, Lila Silver, who worked for LA Unified School District,
Tina Demirdjian:and she worked for the Emergency Immigrant Education Program, EIEP, and she said to
Tina Demirdjian:me, ' I would like to use poetry to work with second language learners because
Tina Demirdjian:so many of the gifted and talented students, which is GATE, which is a
Tina Demirdjian:program in the United States for gifted and talented education, would bring
Tina Demirdjian:poetry to those students, but I think my students should have access to that.'
Tina Demirdjian:That's really where my journey as an educator began working
Tina Demirdjian:with second language learners.
Tina Demirdjian:And then I had to think, well, how am I gonna do this?
Tina Demirdjian:How am I gonna connect with these students?
Tina Demirdjian:Remembered all the postcards I had from my travels in England and in
Tina Demirdjian:Europe at the time in the eighties.
Tina Demirdjian:And I would love to collect all these postcards.
Tina Demirdjian:And remember back then people actually wrote you postcards.
Tina Demirdjian:Absolutely.
Tina Demirdjian:So, so I had postcards also that I had kept, and so I
Tina Demirdjian:thought I'll start using art.
Tina Demirdjian:And that's how I started to be connected.
Tina Demirdjian:With art and poetry as well.
Claire Bown:And you mentioned there that you use these postcards that you
Claire Bown:had been collecting for many years and use that as a bridge To get students
Claire Bown:English language learners, second language learners into writing poetry.
Claire Bown:But what is it, do you think about visual art that makes it so powerful for
Claire Bown:poetry writing for creative expression?
Tina Demirdjian:Well, first of all, I think it's part of creating
Tina Demirdjian:the ease that I talk about because it gives everyone something to see.
Tina Demirdjian:And when I teach, I notice that when, even though I talk about the five
Tina Demirdjian:senses, the one that most people connect with is what they see.
Tina Demirdjian:So right away the art, whether it's the postcard or it's actually
Tina Demirdjian:in the museum gallery, people can start to feel at ease when I start
Tina Demirdjian:to ask them questions about simile.
Tina Demirdjian:I talk about what simile is: comparing to things using 'like an as'.
Tina Demirdjian:And at first they might not know what the word means, but they
Tina Demirdjian:use it all the time in their own language or they've heard similes.
Tina Demirdjian:So right away the art itself has all the senses.
Tina Demirdjian:Even if it doesn't have the music playing, I can play with the idea of
Tina Demirdjian:what music do you think is playing?
Tina Demirdjian:What instrument do you hear in that painting?
Tina Demirdjian:If that painting, if that woman in the painting were to ask you
Tina Demirdjian:a question, what would it be?
Tina Demirdjian:So right away there's that connectivity.
Tina Demirdjian:And I think that sometimes, we're not used to having the opportunity
Tina Demirdjian:to connect, especially in this age.
Tina Demirdjian:Like we're connecting on screen on our phones all the time, but how are
Tina Demirdjian:we thinking about what we're seeing?
Tina Demirdjian:And so this gives everyone a chance to open up.
Claire Bown:I love the sound of that.
Claire Bown:I think it's very powerful using art as a bridge, as a prompt,
Claire Bown:as a way of kind of opening up the creative process as it were.
Claire Bown:But how do you think that looking at art really changes the process of writing
Claire Bown:poetry compared to all the other sorts of prompts and other exercises we might do?
Claire Bown:What's so special about looking at art?
Tina Demirdjian:Well, it is certainly one thing to look at the
Tina Demirdjian:postcard in the classroom, right?
Tina Demirdjian:And it's another thing to look at the painting or the artwork, sculpture,
Tina Demirdjian:whatever it may be in the museum.
Tina Demirdjian:So I will say a couple of things about that.
Tina Demirdjian:First, I'll start with a postcard.
Tina Demirdjian:I have forgotten about this story until just now.
Tina Demirdjian:So I had been working in this middle school for many years.
Tina Demirdjian:And the principal wanted me to work with her teachers as a
Tina Demirdjian:professional development opportunity.
Tina Demirdjian:And funny thing about teachers, me being one of them too, by
Tina Demirdjian:the way, is we talk a lot.
Tina Demirdjian:And so they, the middle school students, they taught were more well
Tina Demirdjian:behaved than the teachers were in that classroom where I was working.
Tina Demirdjian:I love teachers.
Tina Demirdjian:No, nothing bad about teachers, but I thought, why are they talking so much?
Tina Demirdjian:It just seemed a little extra, and then I noticed there was one ringleader that
Tina Demirdjian:was causing a little bit of the commotion.
Tina Demirdjian:And so I had already given out the postcards and at this point I was walking
Tina Demirdjian:around, trying to connect with everybody.
Tina Demirdjian:So I get to her and I wonder what's happening.
Tina Demirdjian:So I see the first line she has, and I can't remember the first
Tina Demirdjian:line, but I remember thinking, oh, that's a good first line.
Tina Demirdjian:Can you tell me about that?
Tina Demirdjian:I ask her, and in the meantime, even while I'm talking with her, she's trying to
Tina Demirdjian:communicate with the others around her.
Tina Demirdjian:And she has a Rembrandt in front of her and she says to me as she's speaking,
Tina Demirdjian:well, she says, 'all this reminds me of is the muddiness during Katrina'.
Tina Demirdjian:And Katrina, I don't know if you recall, was devastating in New Orleans.
Tina Demirdjian:She was someone who had come to Los Angeles after her place was destroyed, and
Tina Demirdjian:I thought, yes, this is what's happening.
Tina Demirdjian:And of course, she stopped talking after that, she started to write and she had
Tina Demirdjian:the most powerful piece in the room.
Tina Demirdjian:It was not just the poetry, it was the image.
Tina Demirdjian:It was the painting.
Tina Demirdjian:It was the colors Rembrandt used.
Tina Demirdjian:Because you see, I think language is memory, and memory is language.
Tina Demirdjian:So that connectivity happens on many levels when we're dealing both with
Tina Demirdjian:poetry and with visual art, with art.
Tina Demirdjian:No matter what kind it is, there's something in the
Tina Demirdjian:movement of some of peace.
Tina Demirdjian:There's something in the color that's used, or maybe it's a painting of
Tina Demirdjian:an image that is familiar because it reminds you of someone you know.
Tina Demirdjian:So right away I believe that the artwork is actually creating a sense of ease.
Tina Demirdjian:Even if it might, in this woman's case, create tension as well.
Tina Demirdjian:Right.
Tina Demirdjian:But, something I heard, which I hadn't heard before, is
Tina Demirdjian:tension helps create change.
Tina Demirdjian:Even like the I, the simple idea of if you wanna shoot a rubber band across the room.
Tina Demirdjian:You have to create tension first.
Tina Demirdjian:I remember hearing that.
Tina Demirdjian:'cause at first I didn't understand what it meant.
Tina Demirdjian:And so that is part of what happens when you use art.
Claire Bown:Yeah, and I've seen it so many times over the years working with
Claire Bown:objects as well as artworks in different types of museums and the different
Claire Bown:connections and links and stories that those artworks are able to surface
Claire Bown:from people that are so unexpected a lot of the time, not connections
Claire Bown:that you would imagine to happen.
Claire Bown:And you mentioned there about there is a difference between doing this kind
Claire Bown:of work in a classroom with a postcard and being in a museum environment.
Claire Bown:So I'd like just to talk about that a little bit.
Claire Bown:So Absolutely.
Claire Bown:What is it about being in the museum that really supports the creative process?
Tina Demirdjian:So, when you're in the classroom.
Tina Demirdjian:You might see the artwork
Tina Demirdjian:in a very clear way, but you might not because you're distracted by
Tina Demirdjian:your peers, the bell going off the clock ticking, you have all of
Tina Demirdjian:that happening in the classroom.
Tina Demirdjian:And I still get the poems out of them, but what in the museum?
Tina Demirdjian:You, this is my opinion, of course, you are entering what I consider
Tina Demirdjian:sacred space because there's a certain hum in the museum.
Tina Demirdjian:The hum is different than what's in the classroom.
Tina Demirdjian:The hum in the museum is about people whispering.
Tina Demirdjian:It's about a certain level of light.
Tina Demirdjian:It is about, if people are talking a little bit louder, it's about art.
Tina Demirdjian:Then you have the work on the walls or in the center of the
Tina Demirdjian:Romes, if there's sculptures and so forth, and you have history.
Tina Demirdjian:You have so much history.
Tina Demirdjian:You have the energy of the creativity of the people who created the works.
Tina Demirdjian:And all the people who walked through the museum to have looked
Tina Demirdjian:at this work to have engaged with this work in one way or another.
Tina Demirdjian:Whether some engaged on a more deeper level or some just wanted
Tina Demirdjian:to see the work and the beauty.
Tina Demirdjian:And also.
Tina Demirdjian:Here's the other thing.
Tina Demirdjian:It's that when they write the poetry, this is something I was thinking about since we
Tina Demirdjian:connected as well, that even though it's something I had thought about, is how when
Tina Demirdjian:I work in a museum setting that while I say that we are connecting with the past.
Tina Demirdjian:Because we're connecting with those who created the work, those who walked through
Tina Demirdjian:those museum halls in the past, and of course, we're connecting with the present.
Tina Demirdjian:What happens when we're writing the poems is that we're also connecting to a future.
Tina Demirdjian:Like a way of seeing the world that hadn't been spoken yet or written about
Tina Demirdjian:yet because you just wrote that poem.
Tina Demirdjian:And also I think that this is a way of having agency.
Tina Demirdjian:Our presence in the world is that we can look at something and we can
Tina Demirdjian:start asking it questions to also be connected with it in a way that brings
Tina Demirdjian:us to a different space that is beyond those cubic feet in the museum gallery.
Claire Bown:There's a very special atmosphere in museums.
Claire Bown:You can see it as soon as people cross the threshold, there's
Claire Bown:a different atmosphere there.
Claire Bown:And even, if yourself, you're feeling stuck in your work and
Claire Bown:you're able to take half an hour in a museum in the middle of the day.
Claire Bown:I don't know what it is, but there's something about the environment itself
Claire Bown:that really fires up your creativity.
Claire Bown:So tell me about the different types of museum programs you facilitated.
Claire Bown:I know you've worked with Mocha in la you also do artful
Claire Bown:conversations at the Brand library.
Claire Bown:So tell us about the different sorts of programs you do and then maybe what
Claire Bown:a typical session might look like.
Tina Demirdjian:Sure.
Tina Demirdjian:I'll tell you like some of the little ways, some of the ways I've
Tina Demirdjian:gotten my students into the museum.
Tina Demirdjian:So I had a job where I live at the Glendale Youth Alliance.
Tina Demirdjian:And I remember Lisa McMurray, bless her, she had hired me to teach for one month.
Tina Demirdjian:One month of poetry, four days a week.
Tina Demirdjian:Four hours a day.
Tina Demirdjian:And I thought, oh, either these kids are gonna love me or not love
Tina Demirdjian:me at all by the time this is over.
Tina Demirdjian:Right.
Tina Demirdjian:I loved it.
Tina Demirdjian:It was the, it was probably the most concentrated time of, poetry that
Tina Demirdjian:I've ever experienced in my life.
Tina Demirdjian:And I will tell you with them, we wrote, they were second language
Tina Demirdjian:learners also, and then I took them I took them to two museums.
Tina Demirdjian:I took them to the Getty, but we had been writing so much poetry and, it always
Tina Demirdjian:happens, the student most unlikely to want to write poetry, becomes the student
Tina Demirdjian:who writes the most powerful work.
Tina Demirdjian:And the other boys would come to me and say, ' did he really write
Tina Demirdjian:that or did he, did you, did he take it from somewhere?' I said 'No.
Tina Demirdjian:He wrote that'.
Tina Demirdjian:And so in that case, I took him to the Getty.
Tina Demirdjian:They wrote poetry and I took him to the Peterson Automotive Museum
Tina Demirdjian:and I took them there and they all sat in front of the cars.
Tina Demirdjian:And what I did was I talked about how are you going to write this poem.
Tina Demirdjian:Initially I would start with similes, metaphors and onomatopoeia.
Tina Demirdjian:It was the easiest way to really connect.
Tina Demirdjian:So, I would do, let's write a simile.
Tina Demirdjian:Someone find the color.
Tina Demirdjian:Someone would point out a color, someone write as simile, what
Tina Demirdjian:is a simile for that color?
Tina Demirdjian:And then we do the same with metaphor, trying to really scaffold the learning
Tina Demirdjian:of figures of speech with what was happening in the museum and what was
Tina Demirdjian:available for them to connect with.
Tina Demirdjian:So that was one way I connected students.
Tina Demirdjian:As time progressed though.
Tina Demirdjian:I started thinking about how I wanted them to connect with the work.
Tina Demirdjian:So then, especially when I started artful conversations at brand library,
Tina Demirdjian:I started to take what the curators wrote about the concept of the work
Tina Demirdjian:in the gallery, and I said, oh, I do plenty of found poetry using other text,
Tina Demirdjian:like, I'll just go off for a second.
Tina Demirdjian:When students are having difficulty with science, for example, I'll
Tina Demirdjian:say, go into a science book.
Tina Demirdjian:Let's pick out a paragraph and let's do some work with found and redacted poetry.
Tina Demirdjian:What that means is, when they're looking at the concept of what the
Tina Demirdjian:curators wrote, what they really saw as a power of the work in the gallery,
Tina Demirdjian:and they took the writing on the wall.
Tina Demirdjian:I said I usually make a copy on a worksheet so they have it in front
Tina Demirdjian:of them, and I say, I want you to pick out your favorite words.
Tina Demirdjian:Pick out your favorite words and circle them.
Tina Demirdjian:And I said another part of the assignment can be is you can walk around the
Tina Demirdjian:gallery and pick out your favorite titles of the art pieces as well.
Tina Demirdjian:And so with that, we're gonna write a spine poem.
Tina Demirdjian:And the spine poem is exactly what it is.
Tina Demirdjian:It's a spine down our back.
Tina Demirdjian:I say one to three words per line.
Tina Demirdjian:And what that does is it helps us focus, absolutely focus without having any extra
Tina Demirdjian:words, on what seems to be most important.
Tina Demirdjian:And suddenly the curator's concept expands.
Tina Demirdjian:It's still what they said.
Tina Demirdjian:But it actually gives new life to what it is.
Tina Demirdjian:And I actually can read a couple, if that would be of interest to you.
Tina Demirdjian:That would be great.
Tina Demirdjian:Here's the piece written by Jean Hartman, a Wing and a Prayer, which was the title
Tina Demirdjian:of the artwork, but also the exhibit
Tina Demirdjian:thrown away, forgotten, used up.
Tina Demirdjian:Yet become something new.
Tina Demirdjian:Flying above the past,
Tina Demirdjian:sending solace
Tina Demirdjian:to those who have read
Tina Demirdjian:you over and over.
Tina Demirdjian:Now, finding a new soul,
Tina Demirdjian:sharing an old knowledge,
Tina Demirdjian:remembering
Tina Demirdjian:what used to be
Tina Demirdjian:important,
Tina Demirdjian:wrapping me in inspiration.
Claire Bown:Now, the person who wrote that, had they written any poetry before?
Claire Bown:Yeah.
Claire Bown:Was it a student?
Claire Bown:Was it an adult?
Tina Demirdjian:It was an adult.
Tina Demirdjian:and most of the people I work with, there are a few who will say, ' I write poetry'.
Tina Demirdjian:Very few.
Tina Demirdjian:I would say 10%, 20, if i'm lucky, but not even lucky.
Tina Demirdjian:I'm actually more lucky when they haven't written poetry because this is
Tina Demirdjian:the part that I shared in the beginning is where I change people's minds.
Tina Demirdjian:All of a sudden it's something they didn't think they can do.
Tina Demirdjian:And here's the other part I wanted to share with you as well is that it is
Tina Demirdjian:because I know they will write a poem.
Tina Demirdjian:That I believe creates part of that ease for them.
Tina Demirdjian:I already know they're gonna write a poem.
Tina Demirdjian:I consider myself someone who brings poetry with me when I enter the
Tina Demirdjian:room, whatever room it is, whether it's a boardroom, a classroom, or a
Tina Demirdjian:museum gallery, I already know that.
Tina Demirdjian:So my job is always how am I gonna connect with that person to accomplish
Tina Demirdjian:what I know is going to happen anyway?
Tina Demirdjian:It's a little bit, it might sound a little strange, but it's very true.
Tina Demirdjian:This happens with my students as well.
Tina Demirdjian:Even if I'm gonna have them, let's say for five sessions, they're second
Tina Demirdjian:language learners, and it's the older students that are always more
Tina Demirdjian:concerning than the younger students.
Tina Demirdjian:The younger students are always very excited to do anything.
Tina Demirdjian:Once they hit sixth, seventh grade, then I know I need to be pulling
Tina Demirdjian:a little bit more from them.
Tina Demirdjian:Engaging them more, but still, I believe it's the ease that helps engage them
Tina Demirdjian:and brings access to poetry and to art to those students or those adults.
Claire Bown:Can you talk a little bit about that sense of ease, because
Claire Bown:we talked as well off air about people feeling intimidated by art, by
Claire Bown:museums as well, and also by poetry.
Claire Bown:And I've done activities before around poetry which have, like
Claire Bown:you say, always created poems, always created fantastic poems.
Claire Bown:When you first introduce the idea, now we're gonna create a poem.
Claire Bown:There's sometimes a little ripple through the room or maybe an
Claire Bown:eye roll or I can't do poetry.
Claire Bown:So how do you create that sense of ease that you talk about and get people over
Claire Bown:that hurdle of feeling intimidated?
Tina Demirdjian:I think that people forget.
Tina Demirdjian:That they're really part of the world.
Tina Demirdjian:It's a strange thing to say, but when I start to just talk about poetry and
Tina Demirdjian:also sometimes read poems and say how I've connected with poetry and how I
Tina Demirdjian:also used to be nervous when I would read out loud, that I understand that
Tina Demirdjian:and that I never liked to write before.
Tina Demirdjian:I also like to go right into it, because I think sometimes I don't like to say too
Tina Demirdjian:much without going right into it, because then I, I don't wanna create that tension.
Tina Demirdjian:I rather create the tension of them trying to think what kind
Tina Demirdjian:of blue that is in the painting.
Tina Demirdjian:Is it the morning sky or the night sky?
Tina Demirdjian:And right away when I start using poetry and that process, I believe it creates the
Tina Demirdjian:ease and suddenly it doesn't seem so hard.
Tina Demirdjian:And to be honest with you, sometimes the hardest part really is not when I have
Tina Demirdjian:the people around me and I have their attention, it's getting them there.
Tina Demirdjian:It's using the word poetry in the title of an event that
Tina Demirdjian:is probably the hardest sell.
Tina Demirdjian:Because right away people, un people will say, 'oh yeah I don't like poetry' 'Oh, I
Tina Demirdjian:had a teacher who told me I was terrible and I never wanna write a poem again'.
Tina Demirdjian:I've had many adults tell me that.
Tina Demirdjian:Also, sometimes , they have a certain standard of poetry and poets that they
Tina Demirdjian:want to live up to and feel like if they can't, then they're certainly
Tina Demirdjian:not somebody who can write a poem.
Tina Demirdjian:So sometimes I also have to dismantle that as well.
Tina Demirdjian:And when I have longer periods of time to teach, usually let's say.
Tina Demirdjian:Like at Artful Conversations, we have an hour and a half, but really
Tina Demirdjian:I only have 45 minutes because Valerie Taylor, who's a wonderful
Tina Demirdjian:art historian and also my colleague, she takes the first amount of time to
Tina Demirdjian:really walk us through the exhibit.
Tina Demirdjian:Now, that's a completely different experience because she's doing part of the
Tina Demirdjian:work that I might do when I'm teaching.
Tina Demirdjian:But when I have more time, editing has become one of the most important aspects
Tina Demirdjian:of writing that I advocate for now.
Tina Demirdjian:Years ago, I created simple 10 steps to editing your poem to create to,
Tina Demirdjian:for your poem to become more powerful.
Tina Demirdjian:And this is where I let people know that they have agency over their work.
Tina Demirdjian:Sometimes people think things will just come down and they'll
Tina Demirdjian:be inspired, but the inspiration just doesn't come from top down.
Tina Demirdjian:It actually comes from inside out.
Tina Demirdjian:So all of us have that capacity.
Tina Demirdjian:And so when I talk about editing, especially my students, and I'll
Tina Demirdjian:say, in my classroom or in my workshop, ' is this powerful?
Tina Demirdjian:Or can it make it more powerful?' And so that gives the participants the idea that
Tina Demirdjian:they have agency over what they wrote.
Tina Demirdjian:And not only do I think everyone has a poem in them, but everyone has
Tina Demirdjian:at least one powerful poem in them.
Tina Demirdjian:Beyond that, it's their choice.
Tina Demirdjian:It's their decision whether they choose to be a poet or not, or
Tina Demirdjian:live in the world in that way.
Tina Demirdjian:So that ease is also created with my understanding, but
Tina Demirdjian:also with the work itself.
Tina Demirdjian:You are connected to so much in history and suddenly you don't realize it.
Tina Demirdjian:So when I bring it back to their being part of that history,
Tina Demirdjian:I think it opens people up.
Claire Bown:So I love that idea of opening people up.
Claire Bown:One thing that you were mentioning there was the editing process, and
Claire Bown:I'm fascinated by that, that's part of the process of writing a poem.
Claire Bown:It doesn't just stop once you have your first draft.
Claire Bown:Right.
Claire Bown:There's an editing process that you work through, and then also
Claire Bown:there's the reading part of the poem.
Claire Bown:Yes.
Claire Bown:Which you emphasize as well.
Claire Bown:And i'd love for you to talk a little bit about that, because I think
Claire Bown:that's another layer of building confidence that we're adding on here.
Claire Bown:Confidence in writing poetry, confidence in editing the poetry,
Claire Bown:and then reading it aloud.
Claire Bown:So perhaps you could talk us through that a little bit.
Tina Demirdjian:Absolutely.
Tina Demirdjian:I love having this as part of the work because something different happens
Tina Demirdjian:to us when we read our work aloud.
Tina Demirdjian:It changes.
Tina Demirdjian:And I also use it as part of the editing process.
Tina Demirdjian:And I tell people: 'and stand up even when you're just in your house, stand up
Tina Demirdjian:and recite the poem, because look at your words, because that rhythm is created'.
Tina Demirdjian:How do you create that rhythm?
Tina Demirdjian:How do you hear your poem?
Tina Demirdjian:What is happening?
Tina Demirdjian:And that connection to poetry and the arts and the process of creativity, different
Tina Demirdjian:parts of our brain are lighting up.
Tina Demirdjian:In fact, on a tiny tangent, if I may, this is how I got interested in neuroscience
Tina Demirdjian:and what was happening in my brain when I had the first draft of the poem.
Tina Demirdjian:But then what was happening in my brain when I started to make changes.
Tina Demirdjian:And part of that process is through recitation.
Tina Demirdjian:So I really believe something changes in the students when they get up to
Tina Demirdjian:recite and they have a certain value that they didn't have of themselves before.
Tina Demirdjian:And sometimes, depending on how nervous a student is, now I have learned,
Tina Demirdjian:over my 30 plus years, how to add some tension and allow my students or workshop
Tina Demirdjian:participants to be slightly uncomfortable.
Tina Demirdjian:It's okay to then get up and recite their poem.
Tina Demirdjian:And to be open also, if they cry.
Tina Demirdjian:I have cried many times when I recited my poems.
Tina Demirdjian:I don't like it still, I have to admit all these years later.
Tina Demirdjian:But it's that absolute connection to people in the audience, whether they're
Tina Demirdjian:in the gallery or they're in the classroom, or they're in your workspace.
Tina Demirdjian:That reminds us that we are human.
Tina Demirdjian:So sometimes what I'll do with my students, especially the middle to high
Tina Demirdjian:school age, I don't really usually have to do this with the adults, but middle
Tina Demirdjian:to high school age I'll stand with them.
Tina Demirdjian:I just stand next to them.
Tina Demirdjian:And sometimes I have students that will talk like this.
Tina Demirdjian:You just, you don't know what you're gonna do to be able to raise
Tina Demirdjian:their voice and be able to project.
Tina Demirdjian:But you know what, I think of that as a special challenge because
Tina Demirdjian:I want them to hear themselves.
Tina Demirdjian:I really do.
Tina Demirdjian:And sometimes they're just people who are always quiet.
Tina Demirdjian:And then sometimes they're just people who suddenly don't know how they're gonna be
Tina Demirdjian:vulnerable in front of their classmates, who think of them in another way.
Tina Demirdjian:Right.
Tina Demirdjian:So, I will stand next to them and try to create as much ease.
Tina Demirdjian:Like, I don't want them to be nervous, but I'll say, oh,
Tina Demirdjian:we're gonna do this together.
Tina Demirdjian:I'm gonna say the first line, and I want you to meet the pitch of my voice.
Tina Demirdjian:I want you to be as loud as me.
Tina Demirdjian:And so that's how we work it out.
Tina Demirdjian:And.
Tina Demirdjian:I love it when suddenly by the end of the series they're
Tina Demirdjian:getting up without any issue.
Claire Bown:And I'd like to just look to the future.
Claire Bown:Perhaps we can look ahead, what's next for you?
Claire Bown:Perhaps if you could tell us how people can find out more about
Claire Bown:you and how they can get in touch.
Tina Demirdjian:Absolutely.
Tina Demirdjian:Thank you so much for this opportunity, Claire.
Tina Demirdjian:It's been such a pleasure.
Tina Demirdjian:So first of all, I'm poetry consults.
Tina Demirdjian:That's the name of my business.
Tina Demirdjian:Poetry consults.com.
Tina Demirdjian:You're welcome to write to me.
Tina Demirdjian:I'm my Instagram handle's a little bit different.
Tina Demirdjian:It's @poetinastudio.
Tina Demirdjian:You can find me there, you can see some videos I've created of
Tina Demirdjian:some of our times at Brand Library doing the artful conversations.
Tina Demirdjian:You can see a recent publication called Remain in Light, where I was
Tina Demirdjian:part of an anthology of photographers and poets through uc, LA's Fowler
Tina Demirdjian:Museum program that we had there.
Tina Demirdjian:And, i'm working on my next book, working title is Artemis
Tina Demirdjian:and the book of Questions.
Tina Demirdjian:But also A couple of things.
Tina Demirdjian:that I'm very excited about.
Tina Demirdjian:So one of the things that I'm working toward is literacy and leadership.
Tina Demirdjian:Whereby I would like to train a cadre of poets, young poets in the community to
Tina Demirdjian:learn how to facilitate the writing of poetry and to bring them into a museum or
Tina Demirdjian:gallery with me, and to become the leads in creating poetry with the community.
Tina Demirdjian:So that's one.
Tina Demirdjian:And then the other also is the Neuroscience Resource Center.
Tina Demirdjian:I am very excited to be connected with this project
Tina Demirdjian:called the Neuro Arts Blueprint.
Tina Demirdjian:I'd love to be teaching a poetry workshop with a neuroscientist, doing
Tina Demirdjian:the practical and then the research.
Tina Demirdjian:And finally, I'm going to say that.
Tina Demirdjian:The next step in some of my workshops and museums is I'm looking at making
Tina Demirdjian:the connection with neuroscience myself in using a museum's collection, to
Tina Demirdjian:create lessons that help attendees consider uncertainty, build resilience
Tina Demirdjian:and using art and poetry as an avenue toward building wellness
Tina Demirdjian:in a way that maybe art and poetry wasn't used before, because we have
Tina Demirdjian:different language around all of this.
Tina Demirdjian:And so those are some of the things that I'm very excited about and very
Tina Demirdjian:happy that I have the opportunity to share them and to connect with other
Tina Demirdjian:people who are connected with you and in the very important work that you
Tina Demirdjian:do in bringing engagement to museums.
Claire Bown:Thank you so much for sharing that.
Claire Bown:Lots of exciting things on the horizon.
Claire Bown:Thank you so much for taking the time to share all the details about your work.
Claire Bown:It's been absolute pleasure talking to you.
Claire Bown:Thank you, Tina.
Tina Demirdjian:Thank you so much, Claire.
Claire Bown:So a huge thank you to Tina for being on the show today.
Claire Bown:You can find out more about Tina and her work@poetryconsults.com,
Claire Bown:or you can follow her on Instagram.
Claire Bown:Go to the show notes for all the relevant links for today's episode.
Claire Bown:And if you've enjoyed this episode or if any of our previous episodes
Claire Bown:have helped you in your work, please consider supporting The Art Engager.
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Claire Bown:Or you can pick up a copy of my book, The Art Engager Reimagining Guided
Claire Bown:Experiences in Museums Available now wherever you buy your books.
Claire Bown:That's it for today.
Claire Bown:Thank you so much for joining us.
Claire Bown:See you next time.
Claire Bown:Thank you for listening to The Art Engager podcast with me, Claire Bown.
Claire Bown:You can find more art engagement resources by visiting my website,
Claire Bown:thinkingmuseum.com, and you can also find me on Instagram at Thinking
Claire Bown:Museum, where I regularly share tips and tools on how to bring art
Claire Bown:to life and engage your audience.
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Claire Bown:Thank you so much for listening, and I'll see you next time.