Meet our Artists
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Naomi Cohn | Literary
Naomi Cohn | Literary
Naomi Cohn’s passion as a teaching artist is to share the ways poetry can create wholeness in our selves and our communities. Naomi brings to this work her expertise as a poet and writer, her training as a family therapist, and her background in community organizing and a variety of other art forms. Naomi credits her own experience living with vision loss in giving her some street cred with people she works with, many of whom cope with the challenges of aging and disability in a culture that often fails to support these experiences.
“Our residents thrive in Naomi’s poetry classes. They can’t wait for each new series to start and they attend faithfully (without reminders!). She brings in a splendid array of materials each time to enrich their learning and make the sessions lively, multi-dimensional, and fun. The participants get so excited about sharing what they have written, and its quality is quite high. She’s one of the best teachers I’ve run across.”
She gets great joy out of watching writers:
find their unique voice
make sense of experience
take creative risks
build community, and
grow as writers
Naomi’s been teaching in community since 2002. A few of the places she’s taught in recent years include Avivo, Ebenezer, Episcopal Homes, Film North, Fraser, Hamline Midway Elders, Saint Anthony Park Area Seniors and Seal High Rise. Her own work has appeared in a chapbook by Red Dragonfly Press (Between Nectar & Eternity, 2013) and in publications such as Poetry, Hippocampus, Nimrod International, Fourth River, and Water~Stone. Her writing has also been recognized by numerous grants and awards including three Minnesota State Arts Board grants and a Pushcart nomination.
Her work as a teaching artist has been recognized by a Saint Paul Knight Arts Challenge grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Learn more about Naomi in her July 2016 Artist Spotlight interview or at her Known by Heart website.
Sample Programs: Customizable To Site’s Needs
Workshop
Inviting Poetry into Your Life—Find Your Voice, Find Your Community
Inviting Poetry into Your Life—Find Your Voice, Find Your Community: This hands-on workshop series invites participants into the world of poetry and mindfulness. In a safe and playful context, we will share poems that inspire us and generate our own writing, using poems, objects, movement, mindfulness, and our observations of the world around us as invitations to creativity. Participants will leave with ideas for continuing to explore poetry and mindfulness on their own.
