This time around it is my distinct pleasure to interview our very own Dr. Annick Safkin. You’ll know when she enters the room. That smile, that fashion sense, that wonderful accent! Annick, as we informally refer to her, is the quintessential poetry professor. She is so chic! We are thrilled to have her talent bringing an amazing- and in high demand- writing class to WomanKraft which wonderfully rounds out our offerings at the School of the Arts.
I asked: Your class, “Writing with Rumi,” combines poetry, reflection, and writing. What inspired you to bring Rumi’s voice into the classroom, and how do you see his work resonating with writers today?
Annick: Two brilliant professors showed me the way to do this work. Jim Fadiman, a gifted
researcher in consciousness studies, taught me how to experience Rumi. I took his weekly class,
Sufi Stories, for 7 quarters, soaking in Rumi’s poetry. Most people read a poem and feel good.
If not, they jump to another one. But I found out that, if we listen with our full attention, the
poem resonates with the deeper core of our being. We take a step into awareness. Another
professor, Jill Mellick, taught me how to nurture every ounce of creativity in each of us. It is not
enough to have an insight; we have to see what comes with it, feelings, thoughts, images,
sensations, and then, voila, we put them on the page. A student in my class heard a poem,
asked herself: How does it work?” She saw herself in the mirror-poem, she took in Rumi’s
teachings, and brought light in the dark places of her life.
Next I wanted to know: You’ve lived a rich life as a scholar, writer, and now as a docent in an art gallery. How have the visual arts shaped or deepened your relationship with the written word?
Annick: Rumi said, “There is a light seed grain inside. You fill it with yourself, or it dies.” I need beauty around me. I need to breathe it, inhale it, exhale it. I am not just an observer when I come to the gallery. The pieces of art talk to me, and I respond. Sometimes I smile, sometimes I get sad, sometimes I giggle. I am in a community of spirit, with Gayle, you, Traci, and everyone. The little light inside becomes a flame. Then I go home and write, with all the truth and passion I can muster,.. and sometimes I go and teach creative nonfiction.
My next question was: As someone originally from France with a deep love for language and beauty, how has your cultural background influenced the way you teach, write, and dress?
Annick: I lived, worked, and loved in 3 places. France, Quebec, and now, the US, for the last 35 years. I have been more concerned with the commonalities than the differences.
Everywhere, I want to say: ”Hey, I am just one of you, guys.” The obvious thing for me is
that there are thousands of ways to “kneel and kiss the ground,” as Rumi says. We can
honor the sacredness of life in many ways, but what makes us friends, lovers, and spiritual
companions are universal qualities. My husband knows that. There is a community of spirit I
found here, and yes, I still dress a little French, cook French, and speak a little Québécois.
But hey, I like it.
Now I’m interested. I asked: Many students walk into writing classes feeling uncertain. What do you hope they walk away with after attending “Writing with Rumi?”
Annick: Awareness. Every response to a poem is valid. No blame or shame in this class. Sometimes we have to pull the truth out. We wonder: is it what we feel, what we think, what we sense in our bodies? Whatever it is, it is great. Truth frees us. Sometimes we come up with a crazy image. But is it crazy or creative? Rumi did not care about what was conventional, nice, or
proper. He experienced an extraordinary scope of ideas and emotions. Only Rumi,
Shakespeare, and a few others can reach the deepest recesses of our souls. The metaphors
we commonly use to describe inner and outer worlds are worn out. They have no bite.
Rumi gives us new ways to understand ourselves. Knowing ourselves is the only game here.
Time for one last question: If you could offer one piece of wisdom to emerging writers—or anyone seeking a more creative life—what would it be?
Annick: Come to a class. Try. Take another class. There are more pieces of yourself you don’t know yet, that want to be revealed.
Artist Interview: Gerrie Young- Artist, Mother, Teacher
I am excited to announce our decision to revisit WomanKraft artist interviews in the Castle Voice. Looking for a little inspiration to help me generate some interesting questions I prompted Chat-GPT and it did not disappoint. Fingers crossed, here goes.
It’s my distinct honor to have the chance to sit down and talk with Gerrie Young the day after National Women’s day. This esteemed board member has been involved with WomanKraft since 1993 when she and her children came to help renovate the Castle before WomanKraft could even move into the building! Nikki, also a board member, and Jason were just 16 and 13 when Gerrie felt the pull to get them involved in the community.
You might know Gerrie as a ceramic artist but she is so much more. Her immeasurable involvement in our community reaches well beyond her role at WomanKraft. Gerrie currently has work in two shows at other galleries, teaches at Parks and Rec., serves on the board of WomanKraft and works with the Drawing Studio where she serves on that board and practices the art of printmaking. Go Gerrie! Gerrie’s perspective about how and why she creates art is refreshing:
“Originally, I started making my large pots because I wanted blind people to feel them… I wanted them to feel that there were faces/people in the clay… I want them to see that the faces weren’t exactly angular, that there was little bit of me in those faces and all the people I know from home which is Philadelphia, and people that I’ve met [in my life] and also my art school background was also in those pots… that [they were] mostly sculptural pots instead of a utility pot.” While many people spend a lifetime trying to find their purpose in life, Gerrie knew from the age of 9 that she wanted to be an artist. Though art classes weren’t always available to her in her teens, Gerrie explains, “all I could think about was when I go to college I will be an artist because this is where my head was.” From her very first college art class in her first week she felt that she had finally realized her dream, found her place, “and I remain in that field until present day”.
After graduating from Little Flower Catholic High School in Philadelphia, Gerri attended Temple University and earned a degree in Art Education. Later in life she added a masters in Art Education degree from Prescott College because she wanted to be a “well rounded” teacher. “I’m not limited to ceramics even though I am a potter. I do all areas because I teach all areas. I teach drawing and watercolor but I do most of my drawing through printmaking.”
Another AI prompted question told me to ask: Ceramics have a long history across many cultures. How do your own cultural roots influence the way that you work? Gerrie: “I feel like I come from lots of cultures and so I’m not really stuck in my own culture and I’m not stuck in the cultures where I have been… because my husband was in the Air Force and I would live all over the place. So it seems like every place I go I kind of mold myself to the activities of the culture that’s there and it has accumulated… there ‘s certain things I like about each culture that I’m in and I just kind of gravitate towards those things… when I go to different countries or cities I think you pick up things,” she continues, “ things that I buy, clothes that we buy it all comes from the cultures that we were in at the present and… when I go home to Philadelphia with my family, I go back to the culture that I was in… I start wearing big earrings, and speak the language [of that area] and wear the clothing that we wore,” she warmly reflected.
I wanted to dig deeper into her methods so I asked: Have you ever intentionally broken or altered one of your pieces to transform its meaning? Gerrie: “ I actually did that recently. I made a piece and it was supposedly a portrait and I thought it was one portrait but then when it was hanging in the show… I noticed that the picture had two people in it. One was a profile {and one was] a straightforward portrait and it just floored me because all these years I had not even thought of that. I hadn’t known that it was two people and now it’s like, I got to change the name of this piece now … and I was trying to think back because it was made a while ago. What was I thinking then? Why did it split now? That’s the magic of the arts.”
As a mom of two and wife of an Air Force officer, Gerrie remained true to her inner artist while balancing the duties of family life: “I think my experience is of being more worldly, more cultural. It kind of came from my husband being in the Air Force because I had to fend for myself, even though we were married (and we’ll be married for 50 years) and having two children [in tow]. But, I had to pick up the fort and I had to hold up while he was traveling all over the place.” When it comes down to it, Gerrie stays true to her life’s purpose even in the face of adversity and the pressures which surround married women and mothers. She tells me, “I also had to be myself and I always felt like I had to fight for the little piece that belongs to me, myself which was the artistic part of me and… I was not going to give up that part of me that I know I was born with.”
Finally, I asked her: If your ceramic work could speak, what would it say about the world today and the place of women of color within it? “Well, it probably would say that Gerrie Young was here… I have put my stamp on the world. This is me and either accept me or not!”
Make sure to check out Gerri’s three workshops at WomanKraft this trimester: Drawing Trees, Drawing with Black and White and Parts R Parts!
