The Needed Work of Voice and Vision

By Tatiana Montavon
Last year, English Professor Alessandra Lynch found herself in awe over her students’ creativity
—not just with poetry, but in art as well. She was heartbroken to learn that most of these students
couldn’t fit an art class into their schedule, no matter how much she tried to convince them to
work it in.
That was where the idea for Lynch’s Voice and Vision class, which combine art and poetry, was
born.
That, and with the results of the presidential election.
Lynch found herself busy with frequent office visits from students following the election. She
felt so much fear and concern radiating off them about destruction in our country and elsewhere.
She was asked through the tears of her students again and again about what they could do. Her
response was simple.
“Well, the only thing I know, the antidote I can think of right now is to create as much as you
can. Just make as much art as you can, paint as much as you can, draw as much as you can, write
poetry, write songs as much as you can,” Lynch would say to her students.
She had hoped to help these people express a lot of the trauma they were feeling at the time.
The course description for this class highlights exactly that, expressing Lynch’s desire for the
class to be an outlet. “I encourage you to follow your deepest, most urgent calls this semester.
There is no topic or subject that is ‘off-limits’ --this class is for you.”
Each day is different in the Efroymson Center for Creative Writing. Lynch typically begins class
by reading a poem. There’s no analysis of the poem, no discussion. The poem will usually lead
to some kind of a prompt for the class.
“Think about the relationships in your life,” Lynch said. “Create a shape for each of the
important people in your life. Consider the color, the form, and the placement of these shapes.”
From there, Lynch asks the class to write about what they’ve noticed about what they’ve drawn
and has them create a poem based on their drawing and their notes.
However, Lynch doesn’t solely rely on drawing. She’s given them prompts and assignments that
included dancing or singing, or creating a one-minute film of movement and color.
“Every day is untypical,” Lynch said.
Haley White, a third-year English major, agreed with Lynch on that idea.
“Although her teaching methods are a little bit unorthodox,” White said with a laugh, “she
cultivates so much creativity and it shows significantly through the work that you create in her
class.”
Lynch began Voice and Vision at the undergraduate level last year. This spring semester she
moved it up to the graduate level. She had envisioned the class with only nine students but found
that it filled very quickly to 15.
Lynch stressed that people don’t need to be art majors or to have ever done art in their whole
lives and they could still take the class. She is totally open to anyone taking the class. She hopes
to see someone who has never touched a paintbrush or crayon in her class, as well as anyone else
who feels pigeon-holed in their majors.
Current Voice and Vision student Melody Groothuis took the course feeling that she needed to
reconnect with why she writes poetry outside of a traditional workshop setting. This class helped
her do exactly that.
“The class is a wonderfully confronting and opening journey - I cycle out of this class with a new
sense of my own poetic and creative life, a stronger and more purposeful voice and so many
added elements to my daily writing habits,” Groothuis said, noting that she now keeps a daily art
notebook because of this class.
Aimee Morgan, who after graduating from Butler in 2004 finds herself now Butler’s MFA
program, feels very similarly about how the course impacted her.
“The course helped free me as an artist. I feel more awake to the words and images that whirl
around me at all hours of the day and night,” Morgan said. “I realized that often my written
pieces impacted my creations; however sometimes my creations informed my words. Sometimes
you need to get some paint, clay or charcoal between your fingers to truly explore what it is
you're trying to say. Then you can let your voice speak through your tangible vision.”
All three of Lynch’s students strongly encourage anyone to take the class, no matter who you
are, or what you do. They all recognize its importance.
“It is not easy work if done intentionally,” Groothius said, “but it is needed work.”