Thomas Boyd is a master teaching artist, songwriter, and prolific writer of prose. His songs have appeared on “Rock ‘n’ Roots,” a public radio music program. He has been an artist-in-residence at City of Berkeley (California) Echo Lake Camp, a writing instructor, and a songwriting instructor at The Creative Center in New York City.
We asked Thomas to share his experiences teaching one of our storytelling programs at The Bay Ridge Center in Brooklyn, NY and about his life as an artist. Please find his responses in the form of an essay below.
On writing and teaching
Growing up in pre-TV Ohio, there was a “reading chair” for me at my grandparents’ house and that’s where I got hooked on words. Sure, snowball fights and fireworks were fun but reading and then writing – that’s where I caught the early scent of Twyla Tharp’s truth that “art is the only way to leave home without running away.” My art became words and writing and it’s the medium I know and love.
I loved some of my teachers, too (not ALL of them!) so naturally I wanted to mimic them, be like them, do what they did. I got my first real chance as a teaching assistant in graduate school and found out what it was that made me tick as a teacher: the engagement and shared excitement of words, ideas, expressive moments – using writing as the medium. I was wise enough to avoid the hard sciences and formulas and the atomic table and other esoterica. For me, teaching and writing just made sense and made good moments in class.
Creative Aging is a vibrant, welcoming reality
All of these discoveries took place long before I got my first AARP card. Once I got the card and started getting too many birthday candles to fit on the cake, I realized that getting older didn’t threaten my adventures in teaching and writing. I have always been drawn to memoir and personal narrative and I began to stretch out, most wonderfully in a series of songwriting sessions I taught with my good friend, the gifted singer-songwriter Ina May Wool. That led to writing classes in New York and (summers) in California. Thus I found myself in classes of my peers or elders and I began to see “creative aging” as a vibrant, welcoming reality for me and my students.
And like all journeys (thank you, Joseph Campbell) this unknown world has had its surprises and challenges. Who knew that so many people were already working on memoirs or journals or personal stories? Who is that quiet one at the end of the table who suddenly writes a blistering piece that could peel the paint off the classroom walls? Challenges are the ones you might encounter with any group of people who write: conflicts with other priorities…emotional meltdowns when the writing touches a nerve…and overall, the inhibition that comes from thinking of WRITING as a big-letter discipline with rules and barriers and too hard. It isn’t and it’s not.
“Tell ‘Em You Were Here”*
At The Bay Ridge Center in Brooklyn, “non-writers” joined our first session and surprised themselves with wonderful narratives. Our class is called “Tell ‘Em You Were Here” and that’s the spirit of the work we are doing together. We listen to great songs to learn the secrets of lyricists. We read excerpts from splendid memoirs and personal essays. We ponder character, setting, plot, the dramatic arc of every good story. Then we share our stories with the whole Center population – and serve cookies. Stories and cookies are a hit!
Participants often exhibit creative courage
One of our colleagues in the first session shared a real breakthrough. She had never been able to write or even tell the story of a great personal loss – her fiancé died serving his country in the Vietnam war. It jolted her then, disrupted her life in ways that echoed for years. Finally, in our writing group, she found the words to tell about him, about their sun-kissed young love and about the ghastly collapse of that world. It silenced the listeners, it brought tears and caught us all in a moment of shared reflection. My writing colleague (not really a student, I like colleague or collaborator) had a few dozen Center friends come up to her to thank her for her courage.
We want more and we’re on our way to more in the second round of “Tell ‘Em You Were Here.” Bay Ridge Center leadership and I are talking about expanding the reach of the culminating event, maybe using a different venue, certainly adding community organizations to our network of invitations and promotions and looking forward to another round of compelling personal stories. And there will be cookies.
The power of creative discipline and community
As it was back in those days in Ohio, and the days and years since, writing is what I like to do. I’m one of those writers (like lots of others) with a computer full of an unfinished novel, a memoir, a dozen poems in process, writing for fun and for clients and for publication when appropriate. For the past several years I’ve been a part of a 100-word writing circle: each of us, on an assigned day of the week, writes EXACTLY 100 words about anything. Great discipline and a wonderful swap meet for writing friends. I’m looking forward to the next season of Creative Aging and the chance to share my love of the writing life with a new gang of adventurous seniors!
Thank you Thomas, for your wonderful work with Lifetime Arts.
Check out Thomas’ Teaching Artist Profile on Lifetime Arts’ Roster, or search the Roster to find qualified Teaching Artists in your area.
*Thomas’ class at The Bay Ridge Center in Brooklyn, NY is part of Lifetime Arts’ Catalyzing Creativity initiative and was made possible with the support of The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation’s Healthy Aging Program.
