JCCFS: Tell us a little bit about yourself. What’s your background in your medium? How did you get started?

EZ: Prior to starting a mobile clay workshop here in Michigan, I was the director of the International Poetry Guild at the University of Michigan for 15 years. The guild guided undergraduate students to mentor middle and high school students’ creative writing. In order to guide others, they needed to take a good look at their own writing processes (or, for many of them, just BEGIN some creative writing processes), Transform you Ordinary Writing is a kind “greatest hits” of the writing exercises that we practiced during our time on the guild; participants in this workshop will be getting the best of the best- a small cohort size, high-interest and creatively challenging writing prompts, and a supportive writing community, that through the sharing of this work, will become attentive collaborators in their creative process.

JCCFS: Tell us more about your class’s specific technique or process.

EZ: In addition to the work I did with the International Poetry Guild, I was also a high school English teacher for 26 years. Through those years, I learned what makes an exciting class and what doesn’t (teenagers aren’t shy about letting you know these things!) While I have a BA in English with a focus in poetry from the University of Michigan and was awarded several writing fellowships, what makes the writing workshops really work is my teaching background. Sharing skill sets is one thing, but being able to create and facilitate successful curriculum and then teach it is another. Because of my teaching background, the classes I facilitate benefit from the 26 years of “practicing” on thousands of people. I’m getting pretty good at it now!

JCCFS: What can students expect to leave your class with?

EZ:Students will gain a few things from this class. They will be given a creative “tool box” to help them when they are stuck in their writing or when they need to take a fresh perspective. If students at JCCFS are like my other students, they will find these creative writing exercises fun and engaging and will find that the topics we discuss enrich their ways of seeing and enliven their creative and everyday writing. Students will be working on their own encyclopedia of their lives, which is a great introduction to memoir writing and lends itself to continuing to add entries after their time at JCCFS is over.

JCCFS: What do you enjoy most about teaching?

EZ: What I enjoy most about teaching is crafting the experience as a set of invitations to my students. I’m really proud of the programming I offer. As an educator, I’ve spent a long time thinking learning about educational experience design (learnings that were furthered by my time with Odyssey Works). It’s important for me to create enticing and empathetic workshops that help people foster connections (with others, artistically, with themselves). If I’ve done my work right, the workshop should feel seamless. The preparations should be invisible. I want participants to feel cared for and supported during the time they spend with me. I want everyone to think that writing is for THEM; everyone should have a seat at the table.

JCCFS: What attracted you to The Folk School? What are you most excited about for your first time teaching here? 

EZ: I was lucky enough to take TWO workshops this past year at the Folk School. They were both professional development for my clay workshops. It was a dream come true to take a workshop with Susan Feagin, a clay instructor that I had admired for several years. I felt like a fan girl when I first met her! I couldn’t believe that I got to meet and then LEARN from this person who had unknowingly been helping me shape my clay practice and business for several years. The Folk School model is something I cherish. Having such a diverse group of people come together to share knowledge and then relaxing with those people outside of the workshop at meals and the social events really deepens human connection and a sense of purpose in my creative work. Those two workshops were like a time out of time, a special space that everyone is holding to experience craft and be open with one another. It’s magic and precious, and something that I don’t get to experience everyday. I am excited to be able to contribute to this magic; to use my background to help create this connection and magic for others.

JCCFS: What’s one piece or craft object you’ve made recently that you are proud of, and why? 

EZ: One of the most exciting projects I’ve been involved with this past year is a storytelling wind chimes project that I directed for the artists at St Louis Center, which is a residential facility for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. We worked collaboratively to record and make podcasts of stories from our lives and then we made silk screens of images from that story and printed them
on clay that we turned into windchimes. I was so proud of the tenacity of the artists as we worked through each stage of this 4 month project, which culminated in an  art show at the local library as well as a show at the state capital. There’s a really nice article about this project here

JCCFS: Where can folks find you if they want to stay up to date on your work? 

EZ: @curiouserclay,  or www.curiouserclay.com