VIEW EVENT PHOTOS HERE
Supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
In Partnership with the MIT Center for Constructive Communication
THE LISTENING WALL
- Magnet Poetry
About:
This January, the Poetic Artiste is curating an open mic and panel discussion centered on storytelling, listening, and collective expression. At the core of the experience is The Listening Wall, an interactive installation designed to evolve through community voice.
One side of the wall features black-and-white magnetic poetry, where short haikus begin as fragments and shift as stories are shared. The reverse side is a blank canvas—an open surface for handwritten notes, poems, reflections, and responses. Using provided markers, cuttable magnetic sheets, sticky notes, and other materials, participants are invited to leave their mark in their own words.
As an artist, I listen closely to what is spoken and felt, allowing those moments to shape the work in real time. The Listening Wall becomes both archive and living poem—a space where individual stories gather, overlap, and transform into collective meaning.
Theme: Seen, But Not Held
What happens when artists are celebrated for what they create, but not fully seen for who they are? This theme explores the distance between artistic recognition and human connection.
Key Words: Inorganic Energy | Connection | Transactional | Value | Perform | Proof | Business | Platforms | Power
THEME:
Community | Art x Artists | Funding
Roots and Rhythm
I feel supported
in spaces —
created by my peers,
by Black and Brown hands,
intentional spaces,
where no agenda hides,
just room to breathe,
to move,
to be.
Spaces where we gather,
not for show,
but to hold each other,
to take care —
of ourselves,
of the whole.
Here, we are seen,
we are heard,
we are home.
- Poetic Artiste
