While I wasn’t bothered by the comment, I was taken aback. Clearly, this freshman was not impressed. All jokes aside, they made me consider what parts of their experience and the way I was facilitating were leading to this conclusion. While it was a single response, I treated it as a useful signal rather than an outlier. I also wasn’t going to shrink myself for their comfort. I did some reflecting on how I could lead, even more with experience, before talking about who I was. 

I decided to tweak the beginning of the session the following day, for the sophomores, so that after the cold open performance, I would immediately shift into the guided tour, and then introduce myself and give context on ADSS and Experiential Language Architecture (ELA). This way, students experienced not just the poem, but the environment, and added their voices to it, before learning anything about me. 

The feedback from the two other sessions did not include any similar comments to those of the freshman. 

For each grade level, they truly embraced the environment and interacted with each installation piece. The Textual Tapestries naturally attracted most students. The freshmen were put in the tough position of being the youngest, but the first ones to break the ice. After a sole student wrote the first marks on one of the tapestries, slowly but surely, the students engaged with the entire installation. In the following sessions with the sophomores and juniors, many would take a moment to read what was already on the tapestry before adding their own voice.

The typewriter was a quiet student favorite. I think partly because of its novelty, but also the physical experience of pressing the keys,  and being forced to slow down in a way that is quite different from typing, the students enjoyed. It was planning for this Versescape that I finally found an appropriate name for the typewriter station, dubbing it the Typewriter Exchange. Although the guiding principle is type a poem, take a poem, there were a few students who asked or decided to keep what they had written. There were also many poems taped to the wall for display. Something I want to consider for the future is to encourage more people to take a poem that someone else has written. 

The journal also got consistent use. Besides the typewriter, it was one of the most underutilized components from my first Versescape. Students wrote short sentences -- like words of wisdom to others, rather than longer entries. When introducing the journal to the students, I reminded myself that they themselves were artists and would have their own careers and notoriety, and that I may be the lucky one to have my name next to them in the future. I think the idea of community and being remembered, and coming back to something, almost like a note you write to yourself, but you’re not sure when exactly you’ll get to see it again, resonated. Many students wrote the date next to their entries. 

The performance cycle conversations were fruitful. Going into this experience, I wasn’t sure how my poems from Thoughts and Feelings About BEing HUMAN would land with a younger audience. Many of the poems reflected on identity and the reflections that come on the other side of something—experiences that students in high school likely have not yet experienced. 

Their depth astounded me. The freshmen engaged with one of the most challenging poems, discussing topics like harsh self-talk. Regarding one of the prompts, which read, “Sometimes harsh self-talk is necessary,” they told me that the word “sometimes” made it harder for them to decide to agree or disagree because it introduced too much nuance. I got rid of the word for future discussions. 

With the sophomores, we discussed the word innovation. I reflected on the poem and writing it, as I’m now deeper in my understanding of my work and its direction and talked about how its connotation is often with technology. I discussed how social innovation is something rarely talked about. I took this a step further with the juniors, and with the same poem, encouraged them to use their own artistry to socially innovate if they felt that current social conventions were limiting in the way that they were sharing. 

That moment was a special one to me. To push students' creativity and show respect for their own practice and their own identities revealed a key lesson for me: Children have their own ideas they want to develop. My work is not about showing how awesome I, ADSS, or ELA is, but being a spark for others to engage more deeply with themselves and their own work. 

I enjoyed the opportunity to engage in a seminar-like discussion with the juniors. Each group was thoughtful, sharp, and clearly thinking about things it took me many lessons to understand in my own life.