Poetry in Embodied Pedagogy

Faculty Advisor: Alice Lesnick

Field Site: katyhawkins.teachable.com/Bryn Mawr College

Field Supervisor: Katy Hawkins

Course Description:

While this course maintained its aim to explore how the embodiment of poetic analysis through yoga and sensory awareness can promote mental and physical wellness, my methods and roles have shifted during the process. Working in tandem with Field Supervisor Katy Hawkins and my Field/Praxis partner Ellie Canty, I have engaged in the poetry, music, and movements (combining aspects of yoga, dance, and improvisational motions/positions) from Katy Hawkins’ “The Yoga of Poetry” course derived from her Moving Poetics project. The one-semester PE class at Bryn Mawr was initially designed to address experiences of the pandemic that have separated us from an “inner wisdom,” but it evolved into a space that addressed all sorts of experiences, scratching at the surface of bodily, emotional, cultural, and societal traumas. I helped develop activities, writing prompts, mini-lessons, and informal assessments that would relate poetry with body to broaden understanding and appreciation for embodied analysis, as was initially planned. But as students in the class engaged in conversations with Hawkins about the potential appropriation that goes into modifying yoga for our work, my focus shifted from justifying multidisciplinary work to addressing issues of colonization, generational trauma, and privilege in education with care. It begged the question of whether there ever was an inner wisdom for us to return to, or if we are only now starting to develop one.

Praxis Presentation:

Please click here to access the presentation.