Poet, essayist and social activist Ama Codjoe introduced students to the art of ekphrasis through an exploration of identity, the Black female body and the act of reclamation.
As a part of UCA’s Artists in Residence series, Codjoe interacted with students from Sept. 23 through Sept. 24 in a master class, public reading and craft talk.
Codjoe is the author of “The Bluest Nude,” winner of the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize and other awards, and “Blood of the Air,” winner of the Drinking Gourd Chapbook Poetry Prize. Codjoe received the Rona Jaffe Graduate Fellowship from New York University and was the former Associate Director of Professional Development of the DreamYard Art Center.
Much of her work centers around how art and experience can intermingle to create new and authentic ways of seeing. Composed of several ekphrastic poems, Codjoe’s “Bluest Nude” showcases her ability to create relationships between visual art and the written word.
“There’s so much of the book that is autobiographical, but there’s also me imagining myself into different bodies and me thinking about my mother, my grandmother, my great grandmother, the person that I am, the person that I’m going to be and maybe even the people that I’ll never be,” Codjoe said at the public reading in McCastlain Hall.
The Artist in Residence series allows students the opportunity to hear from and interact with artists with first-hand experience working in creative careers.
Junior Drew Reynolds said, “It’s one thing to read somebody’s published work and it’s another thing entirely to see the artist or writer actually interact with that work through reading it.”
Senior Zoe Schultz said, “It really just creates an energy that sort of leaves everyone really creatively inspired, and leaving that room you just sort of want to write and create something on your own that is based around a thought that you were inspired by.”
In the master class and craft talk, Codjoe taught techniques for writing ekphrastic poetry such as considering doors and frames, doing close readings and employing analogy.
“That is part of the power of the poem,” Codjoe said on combining personal experience with artwork to create an analogy. “The autobiographical thread represents something else. The artwork lets us get to something more.”
At the craft talk in Win Thompson, Codjoe provided original prompts for students to take home and practice these techniques. One prompt called students to “return to a piece you’ve written and notice whether or not you make use of simile and analogy.”
During the master class in Win Thompson, Codjoe used exercises, such as “slow-looking” through art museum postcards, to show students one way how ekphrastic ideas can be generated.
Many students from the Creative Writing Department read Codjoe’s “Bluest Nude” as a part of a TOPICS class on ekphrasis. Some students in this class, such as senior Alex Comeaux, attended the public reading and had unique experiences hearing Codjoe read from her book.
“I really enjoyed a lot of the poems that we read in class,” Comeaux said. “But then hearing the artists themselves sort of recontextualizes everything.”
After the public reading, attendees were invited to join Codjoe in the lobby of McCastlain Hall for snacks and refreshments. Codjoe answered questions and signed books, writing personalized encouragement and thanks to eager students and aspiring writers.
