Known By Heart Poetry Performance
Monday, September 16, 2013, 7 pm
Hamline Midway Library, 1558 W. Minnehaha Ave., St. Paul.
Performed by Ed Bok Lee and Sharon Chmielarz
Hosted by Naomi Cohn
What does it mean to know something by heart? We’re saying we care about something enough to remember it and carry it around with us wherever we go. Join poet/performers Ed Bok Lee, Sharon Chmielarz, and Naomi Cohn as they answer this question in poetry and conversation. Hear poems presented from the heart and join in a conversation about poetry and the things we value enough to remember.
Visit the Known By Heart Poetry site for more information.
Artist bios
Ed Bok Lee is the author of Whorled, winner of a 2012 American Book Award, and a Minnesota Book Award for Poetry, and Real Karaoke People, winner of a 2006 PEN/Open Book Award.
Sharon Chmielarz’s eighth book of poetry is Love from the Yellowstone Trail. Her work has been a finalist in the National Poetry Series, and in ‘99, ‘01, ‘02, ’05, ’07, ’10 and ‘11 nominated for a Pushcart Prize. It’s been featured on American Life in Poetry (‘07) and individual poems translated into French and Polish. She’s had poems published in magazines like The Notre Dame Review, The Iowa Review, Prairie Schooner, The Hudson Review, The North American Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Commonweal, Salmagundi, Margie, The Seneca Review, Louisiana Literature, Ontario Review, CutBank. She’s the recipient of the 2012 Jane Kenyon Award from Water~Stone Review
Naomi Cohn’s poetry has been recognized by grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board, VSA Minnesota, and numerous residencies. Her writing has appeared in Water~Stone, Fourth River, and Star Tribune, among other places. Red Dragonfly Press is publishing her chapbook, Between Nectar & Eternity, in 2013. She developed Known by Heart as part of a larger project on memory and forgetting.
Memory Matters Poetry Workshop
Monday evenings, September 30-October 21, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Dreamland Arts, 677 Hamline Avenue North, Saint Paul, MN 55104
Teaching Artists/Instructors: Naomi Cohn and Zaraawar Mistry
Cost: $100 for 4-session workshop
Registration through Dreamland Arts.
Tel: 651-645-5506
E-mail: [email protected]
Have you ever wanted to present a poem from memory? Curious about reconnecting to poetry’s roots as a spoken art form, presented from memory?
In this 4-week workshop, we’ll play around with the uses of memory in writing, revising and presenting our work. Final class will be a public performance where you get to share your work with friends and community.
Join us as we explore:
- How to memorize and share poems or other work that matter to you
- Techniques for committing work to memory
- Techniques for presenting your work
- How these techniques can help you craft stronger work for both listeners and readers
No performance experience necessary; just a willingness to have fun and learn.
Maximum enrollment: 12
Teaching Artist Bios
Naomi Cohn’s poetry has been recognized by grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board, VSA Minnesota, and residencies at The Studios of Key West, Norcroft, Anderson Center, Pine Needles, and Edenfred. Her writing has appeared in Water~Stone, Fourth River, and Star Tribune, among other places. Red Dragonfly Press is publishing her chapbook, Between Nectar & Eternity, in 2013. She developed Known by Heart as part of a larger project on memory and forgetting. Cohn presents workshops on writing craft as well as strategic direction for artists and organizations.  She’s taught or presented for Springboard for the Arts, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, Loft Literary Center, and Minnesota Council on Nonprofits, among others.
Born in India, Zaraawar Mistry has been a theater artist and consultant in the Twin Cities for over 15 years. He and his wife, Leslye Orr, own and operate Dreamland Arts, a 40-seat theater attached to their home in St. Paul. Zaraawar co-founded the Center for Independent Artists in Minneapolis, and is former Associate Artistic Director at Theater Mu. As an actor he has performed at the Guthrie, the Children’s Theater Company and Mixed Blood Theater. He has collaborated as an actor, writer and director with Ragamala Music and Dance Theater. Zaraawar has an M.F.A. in Theatre from UC, San Diego and a B.A. from Bennington College in Vermont. He has received numerous grants in support of his work. He has taught theater classes at many organizations and colleges in the Twin Cities, including as an Adjunct Professor at Hamline University.
Zaraawar Mistry and Naomi Cohn first worked together during the development of Known by Hart, Cohn’s project on poetry and memory; Mistry provided coaching to Cohn on presenting poetry from memory. This workshop grew out of that experience.
Known by Heart Poetry Workshop Performance
Monday, October 21, 2013, 7:30 pm
Dreamland Arts, 677 Hamline Ave. N, St. Paul, MN 55104
Hosts/MCs: Naomi Cohn and Zaraawar Mistry
Visit the Known By Heart Poetry site for more information.
Tel: 651-645-5506
E-mail: [email protected]
Come cheer on your friends and neighbors as they share work they care about enough to commit to memory. Hear work presented from the heart by members of your community. This performance will feature the fruits of the labor of participants in Memory Matters, a workshop on poetry, performance and memory co-taught by poet Naomi Cohn and theater artist/performance coach Zaraawar Mistry. For more information on Memory Matters please see Dreamland Arts or Known By Heart Poetry’s Website.
Known by Heart Project Overview
Memory Matters. This series of events explores the contemporary value of memory and remembering. Hear poetry presented from the heart, learn how to create memorable poetry and how to present work from memory. Share poems you remember with others.
Along the way this series asks:
- What does it mean to know something by heart?
- In an age when technology can remember for us why bother memorizing/remembering?
- How can we use memory as a personal and cultural tool