Georgia Tech's Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow Caroline Young focuses her English 1102 class on poetry, specifically the evolving relationship between contemporary poetry’s form and function.  This semester, students studied poetry that focused on isolated and displaced voices in America and across the globe. This included a project in which students creatively responded to the writing of incarcerated men at Phillips State Prison, designing corresponding artifacts that extend the reach of these writers' voices.  The incarcerated poets are all enrolled in Common Good Atlanta’s college education program.   (commongoodatlanta.com)

 

This work, supported in part by Caroline's 2016-17 Poetry@Tech Pedagogy Grant, gives students the opportunity to analyze and translate the poems into new form, considering the challenges and affordances of media conversion.  The three course sections created film, literary broadsides, and an outdoor visual art installation on the terrace of the Stephen C. Hall Building.  

 

Caroline designed the project as part of the Writing and Communication Program's Embedded Artist Project (supported by a 2016-17 GTFIRE Grant), working with Ruth Stanford, an Associate Professor in the Ernest G. Welch School of Art & Design at Georgia State University. Their goal is to enforce the idea that art is a form of communication––that it is researched, planned, drafted, and that art, like writing, is an opportunity for analysis and reflection on the world around us.. 

 

Here are images of some of the projects her students created, displayed in the Writing and Communication Program's annual art exhibition, STUDENT VIEW.  The artwork is on view through April's end.  Happy National Poetry Month!