 My name is Damon Arendelle. I am a poet and a performer and a teaching artist and I have a lesson here that in poetry that I would like to share with you all. So thank you for being here. The title of this learning plan or lesson plan is Ecfrastic Influence. Ecfrastic poetry is poetry that is written in response to some other form of art. Uses it as inspiration and it can be visual art and it's traditionally visual art but it could also be dance, it could be music, it could be any other form of art that you're inspired by so much so that you want to write something about it. So we're going to be primarily focusing on visual art in this particular lesson and where we're going to start or the big idea behind this lesson is that our brains create narratives or stories when we look at images that are very rarely based on our actual experience. When we interrupt that story we're able to see new truths and new beauty for ourselves. So when we interrupt the story that our brain starts to tell us when we look at an image we can actually create brand new stories and see the beauty for ourselves. So where we're going to start is I'm going to show you an image, this image here and what I'd like you to do with this image is just take a minute to write down what you see. I'm not going to say anything else. What do you see when you look in this image? Just take a minute to see if you can get down five or six different things. What do you see? I've done this lesson with a lot of different groups of people, kindergartners, college students, high school professors and regardless of who the people are and where they're from there's something that almost everybody in the classroom focuses on in this image and it's these things hanging from this wire and the questions that I and what they say is the shoes hanging from the wire and the question that I ask is how do you know that they're shoes? Well I just know they're shoes. Well we're looking at a two-dimensional image that is a representation of something but how do you know that they're shoes? What is it that and I also should stress with you all that I'm going to ask some questions during this lesson that seem kind of stupid. Just bear with me on this. How do you know that they're shoes? I usually have students actually in the classroom come up and point out the things that they're seeing so I'm not misrepresenting anyone. So basically most folks eyes are drawn to the center of the image or what is closest to the center and they tend to forget or ignore the stuff that's on the sides. Most people don't pay any attention to the sky don't pay much attention to the stuff that's at the bottom or on the sides they tend to focus on this stuff here and not just that they're shoes but the story of why the shoes are there even though they don't know they start to tell me all kinds of stories like that those shoes are there because it's a signal that the neighborhood is poor and that the drugs are sold there or it's a way to signify that a particular gang operates there or it's a way to commemorate somebody who's died so a lot of violent images or violent stories seem to come up based off of this one image that no one knows exactly what the story is. Sometimes people will comment on the railings on the side of the buildings the fire escapes and they'll tell me that they know that this picture is taking place in New York they know that it's taking place in New York they know that it's taking place in some place like Chicago they know that it's taking place in an area that some people would refer to as a ghetto and what I find interesting is that in most cases no one has spent time in this exact neighborhood or knows exactly why those shoes are hanging up there they have ideas which brings me to the idea of stereotypes a stereotype is a story that people tell about you based on some part of your identity so assuming for example that because I am I identify as black because I have brown skin that that I'm really good at basketball that I that I only listen to rap music there are all sorts of assumptions that people make about me because I belong to a particular identity group that's a stereotype my definition is when someone else gets to tell your story for you think about an assumption that someone has made about you based on the color of your skin or how tall or how short you are or because you wear glasses or because of the neighborhood that you live in those are stereotypes those are assumptions that someone taking a look at you and deciding who you are they are deciding what your story is so what we're going to do today is take a look at some different images and write our own stories or rather interrupt the story that our brain starts to tell so that we can look at what's really going on and then do some writing in response so we're going to start by looking at a particular image and the first thing that's going to come into your mind very likely is what is this thing that's the story of this image what is this thing let's put a pause on that story and let's focus on some very specific details we're going to focus on the details of color shape texture temperature and emotion take a look at this image what are the different colors that you see and some of you may be saying white okay but it's not a blank white sheet of paper and different areas of the image have different colors what are some of those colors look in the places that are darker look in the places that are lighter what are those different colors that you see I've had some students some student students in my classes be able to name 15 different colors in this image but a big part of that is slowing down and really looking lean into your screen look at the different colors as you look at this image what are some of the shapes that you see how would you describe this shape here compared to this shape here what would you say this shape here is or this shape or down at the bottom these shapes how would you describe them I've had some students say things like well those are teeth teeth aren't a shape what's the shape that you see are they more square are they more rectangle rectangular are they circular are they triangular how would you describe them what's the shape we've got color shape let's think about texture if you think about texture if you could touch this thing what do you think it would feel like and in what places would this part here feel the same as this part up here would this part here feel the same as this part here what different textures would they feel like how heavy do you think this this thing would be let's imagine for a sec that it's this big where it could fit on this table do you think you'd be able to lift it here's another question temperature looking at this image does this seem cold to you lukewarm hot what is what temperature comes to mind and last question looking at this what emotion comes to mind does this seem happy sad overwhelming boring curious confusing what emotion does this image seem to represent to you use your imagination there's no wrong answer that's just what you decide now we just spent a few minutes looking at this image and answering a whole bunch of questions now i will actually tell you what's in this image i've had one student in the almost 10 years that i've had uh using this this lesson in this image teaching only one student has ever guessed it it is a moose skull now if i had just said that from the beginning we wouldn't have caught all the different colors all the different textures all the different shapes the temperature or the different emotions all of which helps us to really see what's in the image instead of making assumptions about the image that makes a huge huge difference now when you apply those same ideas to people you get some very different thought patterns going i love this image and the first time that i brought it into my students a lot of my students were very focused less on the details of the image the colors the shapes the textures they went straight to places of stereotypes they were assuming the gender of the two people that are up here they were assuming the sexuality of the people up here they were assuming all kinds of different things based off of skin tone they were creating a story that was full of stereotypes full of assumptions they were missing this person down here they were missing what is actually a roller coaster in the background the title of this image is mermaid parade there's a whole bunch of stories beautiful stories that we can see in an image when we actually take the time to look past the surface we start to look at the details what are the colors going on what are the shapes what are the textures what does this feel like what emotions are going on in this image that helps us to tell a more interesting story we have to incorporate the details so that we don't just make assumptions and fall into the realm of stereotypes where we're not really seeing a person we're just repeating what other people have said about them in the past which I don't want anybody to think about me but I also can't help that what I can do is work on those ideas for myself so I'm going to show you a couple different images and you get to decide which one you would like to write about but I'm going to give you some framework for how we're going to write about them first I want you to take a minute looking at either one of the two images you get to pick which one take a minute to write down as you look at the image what are the colors you see what are the shapes what are the textures the temperatures and the emotions what is represented what are those details that are represented in the image take a minute to do that first then you're going to follow a flow to describe that image and use your imagination to really help to bring it to life and you're going to use this particular framework when I look at the picture I put it up for you so you can see when I look at the picture I see I see I see when I look at the picture I hear I hear I hear when I look at the picture I feel I feel I feel when I look at the picture I am I am I am so again you're going to start I'm going to show you the two different images two different images for you to focus on you get to decide pick one you can always come back and do this again if you really want to but two different images your job is going to be to tell the story of this image but not the same story that everybody else is going to tell making assumptions using stereotypes you're going to start by taking a minute for each image or for one of the images excuse me what are the colors what are the shapes what are the textures what are the temperatures what are the emotions take a minute to write down at least a couple for each of the categories once you've done that then you're going to follow the framework and tell the story of this image using those different categories and use it to let it take you in a different in all sorts of different directions whatever directions come to mind now sometimes my students get stuck on what do I write when I get to I am well think about this can go in several different directions when you say when I look at the picture I am you could describe how you feel emotionally that's one direction another direction is to write like you are someone or something in the in the picture yourself imagine that you're in the picture what would you say so again when I look at the picture I see I see I see when I look at the picture I hear I hear I hear when I look at the picture I feel I feel I feel when I look at the picture I am I am I am so start by taking a minute to look at the image and write down the colors shapes textures temperatures and emotions those five different categories just take a minute to write down those things so now I'm going to give you a couple minutes to write with me in response to one of these two images after you've collected again the different the five different categories again when I look at the picture I see I see I see what are those things that you see you can't look at the picture and say I don't see anything because there's colors shapes textures temperatures emotions what are those things when I look at the picture I hear what do you imagine you would hear in the image or as you're sitting here writing what do you hear around you what do you feel what are the things that you might feel the textures within the images or what are you feeling emotionally as you're looking at it and the last thing when I look at the picture I am I am I am how is it impacting you or it could be elaborating on how it makes you feel just take a couple minutes I'm going to read you what I came up with and hopefully you will take the chance and opportunity to read to someone to what you've come up with when I look at the picture I see pink wrapped in black fading and flowing into purple like a cascading waterfall I see eyes turned downward but still open I see black wrapping up brown skin how they go together one protecting the other how we can belong and coexist when I look at the picture I hear echoes and clicks of a camera bouncing off of tiles when I look at the picture I feel hidden kept behind a closed door that does not lock when I look at the picture I am a flower petal blossoming in the nighttime thank you for taking the time to write with me I appreciate it please keep writing and enjoy the rest of your day