Creativity, Intimate Publics and the Proxemics of Pop Up Poetry Performance

Anne Harris, Stacy Holman Jones

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter (Book)Researchpeer-review

Abstract

While developing and nurturing creativity is increasingly a centerpiece
of economic, cultural and arts policies, notions of what creativity is in an educational sense remain problematic to both policymakers and to the educators who seek to define, measure, and nurture it in their environments. In this chapter we use current research on creativity in education to highlight the ways performance and drama education currently approach the teaching and learning of creativity. We consider a recent relational ‘pop up poetry’ performance that embodies a kind of ‘one-to-one’ applied theatre that draws everyday audience members into relationship with the public poet, and in so doing creates a ‘politics of encounter’ which offers creative, pedagogical and political opportunities for social change. Such methods ask us to reconsider our ideas about the role of creativity in education contexts by claiming public space as a classroom and using performance encounters as creative rehearsal for social change. The ‘intimate publics’ created in such performances engage participants in a person-to-person encounter marked by collaborative learning and creative activism and citizenship.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCreativity in Theatre
Subtitle of host publicationTheory and Action in Theatre/Drama Education
EditorsSusanne Burgoyne
Place of PublicationCham Switzerland
PublisherSpringer
Chapter6
Pages89-104
Number of pages16
Volume2
ISBN (Electronic)9783319789286
ISBN (Print)9783319789279
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2018

Publication series

NameCreativity Theory and Action in Education
PublisherSpringer
Volume2

Keywords

  • applied theatre
  • drama education
  • Performance Studies
  • Proxemics
  • affect theory

Cite this