ALA and Experience Over Understanding

I am honored to have been selected as one of four presenters for the American Theatre and Drama Society’s panel at the American Literature Association Conference this weekend, titled Staging Academia: Campus Controversies in American Drama.

However, my favorite takeaways from the 30th annual ALA conference did not come from my own experience presenting, but from the lessons I learned in Boston this weekend.

First of all, Boston is a beautiful city bisected by a large river, just like my own (much smaller) hometown. I’m smitten.

Dr. Ivy Schweitzer from Dartmouth said in a panel today that “poetry isn’t meant to be understood and nailed down; it’s meant to be experienced.” The words never change, but the experience always does, meeting the reader’s needs at that time. I feel like this is insight that can be applied to dramatic literature as well; the script’s words may remain constant, but each company may craft a unique interpretation so that the audience’s experience changes. Art is experienced individually; as I like to say, the performance is fleeting, but impact lasts. However, impact is always individual.

Similarly. Dr. Renee Bergland stated that as educators and as lovers of art, we shouldn’t ask “what does it mean,” but instead focus on how each piece communicates its meaning.

These concepts were repeated in a rock that I found, painted red and laying on the ground. “Don’t Hit Quit; Hit Restart” was emblazoned across the stone.

We need to embrace experimentation and uncertainty; queer temporalities and corporealities as expressed in Dickinson and in our surrounding art and environment. Shifting perspectives illustrate personal growth; our cognition isn’t set in stone. When our understanding is challenged, we should consider that our current interpretation is not nailed down, but is meant to change as our experience of the world shifts to meet our current needs.

Whether in poetry, performance, or our world, don’t seek solid answers in asking what the experience means; be willing to ask instead how it makes meaning known to you. If your first interpretation seems insufficient, don’t hit quit; hit restart.

Who would have thought you could learn that from a rock?