Write to the Point 2021 Showcase

 

Session 1

Family

Jayden Senior, Lakhi Daniels, & Matias Peña

My Antagonist
I Was Never Good at Goodbyes

Jayden Senior

Mirror Mirror
Moving on From the Climbing Tree
Playing fetch with the sun

Lakhi Daniels

Son’s Grudge (a suite of haikus)
The Loss of Innocence
Hostas’ Lungs

Matias Peña

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Disconnection, Self-connection

Mary Jordan, Java Benitez, & Madison Pramuka

Reflection
Yellow Rose and Solomon’s Seal
A Final Cry

Mary Jordan

Ruby
Laiba

Madison Pramuka

Love Behind Hate

Java Benitez

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Reflection

Sara Cove & Zameen Hassan

 

Session 2

Our Fight 

Kohana Mehl-McKee, Brock Coursey, Sara Cove, Caitlin Chatterton, & Zameen Hassan

Porcelain Heart
Wild Mirror

Kohana Mehl-McKee

The Human and the Ant

Brock Coursey

Danser Sous la Pluie (Dancing in the Rain)
Late Night Drives

Sara Cove

history: a pantoum
thank you mom: a suite of haikus

Caitlin Chatterton

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A Door Propped Open By Denial

Janani Balaji, Alli Benthien, Zameen Hassan

Tabula Rasa

Janani Balaji

a dream fragmented

Alli Benthien

torment
narcissism flares amongst a cruel cold

Zameen Hassan

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Battle of the Generations

Kohana Mehl-McKee, Brock Coursey, Sara Cove, & Caitlin Chatterton

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Neighborhood Studios is a program of the Greater Hartford Arts Council as part of their mission to inspire all people to participate and invest in the arts.  It is supported by Travelers, The Hartford, Lincoln Financial Group, Voya, Ensworth Charitable Foundation, George A. & Grace L. Long Foundation, Charles Nelson Robinson Fund, Berkshire Bank Foundation and the Stanley D. and Hinda N. Fisher Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.

Write to the Point! is also supported by the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving and the Vernon D. and Florence E. Roosa Family Foundation Memorial Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.

Special thanks also to: Pieter Roos, Executive Director; Rebecca Floyd, Director of Interpretation; Mallory Howard, Assistant Curator; and Bridget McGrath.

Photographs by Al Benford. Illustration by Phoebe Chung.

Ekphrastic Poetry with Community Partners In Action

Towards the end of this summer’s studio, the apprentices worked on ekphrastic poetry. They spent time writing in the museum’s gallery spaces with the new Community Partners in Action Prison Arts Program Annual Show 2020/21 for inspiration.

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There’s a Fine Line Between Defending and Destroying

Inspired by Loneliness by Lawrence Simonoff

By Alli Benthien

somewhere an oak tree
holds onto her last leaf
wrapping gentle fingers around it
so the cold air can’t reach it

she’s known these winds for centuries
she knows how much they give
and how much more they take away

gazing at her once full branches
now bare and brittle
she sighs
wishing
she’d held the rest of her leaves
protected them

if only she’d known there would soon be one left

as a gust approaches 
she tightens her grip 
anticipating it’s too-familiar talons
that had snatched almost every part of her
and torn it to shreds

with all the strength that remains in her bones
she clutches the little brown leaf
knuckles flashing white
eyes firmly shutting
as the wind flies through her

and though it felt like hours
it was only a few seconds

slowly opening her eyes
and standing up straight 
she exhales
and gently releases the leaf from her grasp
crushed into unrecognizable shards
it looks up at her one last time 
and falls lightly to the ground

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a picturesque green world

Inspired by Carlos Otero’s The New Green World of 2020

By Janani Balaji

in a picturesque green world
a tree’s extended limbs
lean into the sun’s rays 
like lovers locked in an eternal embrace
bathing in the sunlight
like a warm caress

foliage erupts from the tree’s feet
transforming into verdant valleys
green quilts that decorate mother earth’s skin

the landscape:   A respite from humanity

where the blue heavens 
and the lush greenery
can rest without consequence
out of people’s poisonous clutches 

because humans 

trample upon Mother Earth’s delicate feet
parching her body and scorching her insides 
leaving her barren and exposed

we are selfish to a fault

perhaps we caused our own doom 
and man is extinct 
and this is what it would look like
when the forbidden fruit is restored
a picturesque green world

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Wild Mirror

Inspired by Untitled by Travis Gornto

By Kohana Mehl-McKee

Drowning in her insecurities– 
The mirror on the wall is a wild river,
instead of someone that she should love 
But it’s not her fault. 
And she’s begging you to see
How she went from A to B.
A kind child 
with a pleasant smile 
to a woman
with claws and fangs bared 
just to make it through the day. 
And when people look at her, 
they see her roses
thinking they can just trim her thorns– 
But the thorns are there 
to protect the roses
from being picked and turned into a pretty bouquet 
that will wilt in just a day. 
And she doesn’t want to die, 
but the water is clogging her lungs 
as she drifts down the mirror 
wanting to be loved. 

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He Lies

Inspired by The Devils Pope by Esau Rivera

By Matias Peña

it is possible
that the words that bleed from my lips
equate to nothing 
when i am pulled into silence–

i am imprisoned
and dying

from sins i never tell–
because the scriptures i speak of
are a reminder of my mortality 
my hypocrisy
and a warning from 
Lucifer
who pulls my lips 
into a stiff smile

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Self righteous hypocrisy

Inspired by two pieces: 

Universal Equality by Angel Gonzalez
We Unity – LGBTQ Community Around the World by Adrian Cartagena

By Lakhi Daniels

For what a petty reason
someone who doesn’t look like you 
acts like you think like 
you?
Haven’t we killed enough?
How long will it take till you realize the monster you paint 
us to be is you?
When will you realize the savage you say is you?
How come when we take control and give back what YOU do,
we are persecuting or hating you?
Why do you suddenly believe in equality?
“That says very plainly you know what’s happening.
You know you don’t want it for you. So why let it continue to happen for others?”
These chains of inequality discrimination or persecution will never be 
Broken without YOU. 

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Sharp Edges

Inspired by Ilda Cruz Shattered Pieces

By Sara Cove

You told me it’s okay to hurt,
before I jump.

Watch.

Listen.

Think.

S h a r p

E d g e s

have consequences.

 

Every

S c a r

tells a           story.

 

I loved you like a

         House

            Of              cards

I let it fall             apart.

But we all            fall down,

    we live             somehow.

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Stars

Inspired by Ilda Cruz City Stars

by Caitlin Chatterton

As I stare into the night sky,
I see stars high above my head. 
Through the bars of my cell,
I see the earth shining. 
There are more stars here 
back home there is too much light to see. 
What happens to stars when they falter?
Does their light dim while they reevaluate what they are living for?

Do stars even make mistakes,
because right now they seem to all be bright. 
I wonder as I stare into this black abyss,
where it seems so easy to get lost in. 
To fade away and have no one remember you,
to be away from the world so long–
And that everyone at home won’t see you there,
that only if they leave and find you – they’ll see you:
the lone star in my sky. 

 

Two Blind Birds

Inspired by Kirk Ginter Birds in the Valley 

by Caitlin Chatterton

(This poem is best experienced on a full-size screen)

a bird 

        cries 

                 into the valley

 

a second bird answers

                                     the cry

                                                together and alone

 

they are blind

                          unable to see the other

                                                            they can only communicate through their cries

 

they will never know what it is to see

                                                            they can only imagine 

                                                                                    but the mind may never replicate correctly

 

two blind birds

                          together in a valley they cry

                                                                          the only way they know that they are not alone

 

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Postponed from last spring, this is the 42nd Annual Show, featuring hundreds of artworks by incarcerated, and formerly incarcerated, artists in Connecticut. Artists and prison staff work all year (two years, this year!) towards this unique and extraordinary community event.

Prison Arts works to encourage and enable productive, personal, and introspective endeavors in Connecticut’s prisons. Advocacy, workshops, independent projects in cells, exhibition and publication opportunities, and reentry services help participants develop technical, communication, and critical thinking skills, empathy, self-discipline, self-responsibility, self-esteem, work ethic, hope, calm, and connection with loved ones and the outside. And, the resulting artwork is often amazing!

Prison Arts is a program of Community Partners in Action (CPA), a criminal justice agency created in Hartford in 1875, as the “Prisoners’ Friends’ Society.” The agency has a long and storied history, which, at times, has been intertwined with that of Mark Twain, himself. Today, CPA’s many programs and projects focus on behavioral change and advocate for criminal justice reform, working to reduce recidivism, enhance public safety, and inform public policy.

Learn More Here

Write to the Point 2020

Beginning Monday, June 29, sixteen apprentices began receiving virtual instruction in creative writing, and exploring the role of power in a writer’s work through poetry, creative non-fiction, and museum exhibition. Under the tutelage of Master Teaching Artist Vicky Nordlund and assistants Joyce Hida and Robin Chiburis, they have spent six weeks fine-tuning their creative voices while using the Mark Twain House itself as inspiration. As their apprenticeships end, the museum is proud to present the culmination of their six weeks of hard work: four slam poetry performances, four virtual exhibits, and sixteen individual creative writing portfolios.

Group Poems

 

 

 

Exhibits

The Curious Happenings of Fulton County

Prisca Afantchao, April Bartolotta, Sara Cove, Chelsea Koss

This exhibit follows the gruesome events that unfolded in the small town of Fulton, somewhere in New England, through October 2009 to December 2009 after a luxury housing company began construction in the town’s ominous woods. When a contractor briefly vanishes and is found brutally attacked while on the job an investigation is opened, one that would go down in history. Detective Regina Chester, someone relatively new to town, and her partner Detective Joe Rogers, must delve into the elusive case when it is assigned to them. Little did they know, the case was impossible to solve. As more and more employees involved with the new luxury apartments died in the same exact way, with no traces of DNA or signs of tampering, the possibility of supernatural involvement became less irrational, even to practical Detective Chester.

While the CEO of Horizon Smarter Living is pressuring Detective Chester to speed up her investigations and stories of horrifying encounters in the Fulton Woods seem increasingly feasible, Detective Chester feels herself falling apart under the weight of paranoia and moral responsibility. After reading an urban legend that described an inexplicable experience of being mutilated by a glowing figure, with uncanny similarities to the deaths of the Horizon Smarter Living employee deaths, Detective Chester decides to look into it. She even goes into the eerie woods herself, clad with a camera, to see if there’s any validity to the stories. When she sees a glowing figure like the one she heard about and catches it on camera her sense of reality seems to disappear completely.

After a young Fulton resident named Charlie Murray approaches Detective Chester with concerns about the woods, conspiracies, photos, and files pointing to the connection between the tragedies and the construction she feels regret that there is nothing she can do to prove it. The deaths weren’t a result of a crazed environmental activist or freak accidents, they were retaliation against the destruction of the woods, from the woods. The story reflects on human interaction with nature, the dangers of corporate greed, and how it harms the Earth.

The Bubonic Plague: An Inside Account from the Lives of Those Who Lived It

Lakhi Daniels, Ashia Hawes-Brown, Violet McCabe, and Ayanna Tavares

COMING SOON!

The Wives of the 50’s

Ahjeiza Adrian, Harper Benitez, Siri Palreddy, Noemi Villaparedes

This exhibit traces the story of four bold and dangerous women living in 1950’s New Haven, Alice, Kathleen, Maria, and Nancy. The common thread, which binds them together, is that they are all housewives trapped in toxic and unfair marriages with their husbands. They have no control over their own lives until they decide as a group to set themselves free and kill their husbands.

These women were defined as merely wives for most of their lives — their interests and ambitions were ignored by their husbands. The women themselves lost some of their self-worth due to being in such power imbalanced relations. While extreme, by murdering their husbands, Alice, Nancy, Maria, and Kathleen rediscovered themselves in a society where women weren’t meant to prioritize themselves and their identities over serving their husbands.

The 2200’s: An Exploration

Victoria Mitchell, Charlotte Watts, Ella Samson, and Maddy Brouillard

This exhibit explores the many walks of life and cultures of the 23rd century. You will be following four particular people and their relationships with the world around them. Throughout these collected pieces, you will take a sneak peek inside each person’s life and gain a sense of understanding about the rich history, dynamics, and the rise and fall of power hidden inside the 2200’s.

The 23rd century saw the rise of artificial intelligence used in many ways, including as CareBots for affluent children. One such Bot, “Nova”, was retired after a malfunction caused her to become too attached to subject Secorah Xander, who went on to become a renowned Captain of the vessel Regnolium. Nova embodies the plight of bots in general, discouraged from emotion and not given autonomy over their bodies. Explore her story here.

Andrew Michaels is a Major General for the UMars Army. People are starting to evacuate Earth and head to other planets that have been thoroughly investigated and had numerous safety checks. Andrew was one of the first few people to live on Mars and now works for UMars military. He is engaged to Audrey Gauvin, a preschool teacher who is on her way to Mars and is pregnant. The UMars government is slowly controlling everyone without them knowing and Andrew wants to change that. Explore his story here.

One of the more well-known members of the working class was Nadia Opifex, an esteemed mechanic based out of the Aurelia Docking Port, based near Venus. She worked with many ships and crews to climb her way into the higher ranks of the Interstellar Mechanic Society. Although the working class is treated as a less essential part of society, her story highlights the true power they have over keeping things running smoothly. Explore her story here.

Claude Gaskin VI was a notable journalist working for The Gabbler, a prominent publication funded by, and dedicated to, the interests and dealings of the super-wealthy. At the tender age of 26, due to a fascination with historical icon Dr. Astra Xander, he slowly became disillusioned with the class system perpetuated by his writing. This exhibition tells his story and explores the distribution of wealth and power of his moment. Explore his story here.

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Individual Creative Writing Portfolios

A Symphony of Heartbreak by Ahjeiza Adrian

Prisca Afantchao

Ordinary Fiction by April Bartolotta

Mother­ by Harper Benitez

The Present Meets the Past by Maddy Brouillard

The Effects of Power by Sara Cove

Lakhi Daniels

The Exchange of Power by Ashia Hawes Brown

Chelsea Koss (Coming Soon)

The War on Bugs by Violet McCabe

Regeneration by Victoria Mitchell

Budding by Siri Palreddy

Pearl Necklace by Ella Samson

The Literal Definition of Power by Ayanna Tavares

Children are Invisible Fliers by Noemí Villaparedes

The Power of Experience by Charlotte Watts