On April 24, 2025 at 2:30pm, The Rose Art Museum invited students to perform their poetry in conversation with Hugh Hayden’s exhibition, “Home Work.” I arrived ten minutes early, setting aside my belongings. Student poets dressed in flurries of flowery patterns and spring colors were scattered in the Museum, reciting their poems and practicing silently to themselves as I wandered through the exhibition. I made my way to the entrance to await the formal start of the tour. I found a stack of booklets titled “After Hugh Hayden” that was a chapbook collection of all the student poems

Madeleine Day Delpha, the assistant director of programs and community engagement, gathered the attendees, introducing Prof. Krysten Hill (ENG), the English Department’s current poet-in-residence, and Hill’s class. Prof. Hill expressed her gratitude to everyone including Prof. Gannit Ankori (FA), the Chief Curator, who made a guest appearance. Both Prof. Hill and Delpha led the audience members to the Lower Rose where the Hayden exhibition is located. 

The entire museum was divided into sections, each one consisting of a few wooden chairs, and a podium with a small microphone centered around an important piece in the collection.  

Among the attendees was a visiting class of a local elementary school consisting of children of color, which was so heartwarming to witness. They all sat silently observing students read their poems while many students and staff stood or sat close to the works and the poets.

Prof. Hill made her students feel welcome, calling audience members to show their love for students through snaps, a traditional form of applause, claps and call and response. She then welcomed Miriam Grodin ’27, as the first poet performance. Before beginning, she talked about her experience taking Prof. Hill’s class and the opportunity to write poetry about the exhibition as an “exciting opportunity that [she] was grateful to experience.” She then read the opening poem after Hugh Hayden’s “Walden.” The piece itself is a slanted wooden school chair and desk on which lies a book that is titled “Walden” by Henry David Thoreau. Grodin’s poem plays with enjambment and italicization to represent the literal and metaphorical slant of American history as it is often written in a non-objective perspective. 

Following this poem, two students Haleigh Rose ’25 and Summer Abdelrehim ’28, each performed a piece in response to Hayden’s “Positives.” This art installation is a collection suspended from the ceiling and contains a series of prototypes, or unfinished works, looking at the process of cast iron cookware being melded with masks, inspired by the African Diaspora, all hanging from a layered rack. Rose’s poem entitled “if they had names” focused more literally on the work of art, while Adbelrehim’s “The War That Always Wins” took a very personal approach. 

Hayden’s “Hedges” is one of the largest installation works outside of “Brier Patch.” This piece is literally a half of a constructed house made entirely of wood, with the signature branches extending out, and surrounded by the large mirrors making the piece seem like a house in a row of houses. Three students performed a poem each, including “Real Estate of Dreams” by Sofia Izurieta ’27. All three interrogate the American Dream.

The climax of the poetry tour led the audience to Hayden’s “3-Story Rapunzel,” a piece that uses a basketball hoop and creates an ethereal transformation using the net, made of synthetic hair, to represent hair as it descends more than 10 feet. G. Lomotey ’25 presented her piece titled “Hair Salon.” She wrote a narrative poem about her experience as a Black woman and her relationship with braids. Her performance balanced humor and beauty, inviting the audience to laugh with her and celebrate black hair. The lines that stood out the most were:

“You can not convince me that I am not the Queen of Queens. /After all the hours I sit, loving my braids is the least I can do.”

The elementary school girls were excited and a parent serving as a chaperone quietly told his daughter that she is the same way, especially when she gets braids. The schoolchildren had to leave at this point; an older man wearing locks and a hip-hop inspired outfit expressed his awe, saying,“Y’all are amazing!” before leading his students towards the exit. Assistant Director Delpha transitioned everyone towards the last section and performances.

I found it so interesting that multiple students wrote poetry on the same piece or collection and went in completely different directions. The last works that were featured in student poems were “The Hangers,” “The Kiss” and “Eden.” Both “Eden” and “The Hangers” feature wooden skeletons being connected in some way whereas “The Kiss” is metal helmets that are interlocked. One of the most creative poems, “I Wish I Could,” was written in a play form which required two readers, the writer Ed Azua ’27 and fellow poet Miriam Grodin. The poem was after Hayden’s “The Hangers” and captures the essence of the skeleton halves hung on a rack — a metaphor of love.

As students concluded their poetry showcase, Gannit Ankori gave a few words and Prof. Hill offered a spontaneous round of questions and answers. Prof. Faith Smith (ENG), joked about being of the library world, though not entirely in it, as she does not produce creative writing; nevertheless, she inquired about form, being in awe of a sonnet read earlier in the tour. 

As both an artist and a poet, I was inspired by the students’ poetry and their individual analysis of the works on which they based their poetry. The convergence between art and poetry, for me, has always been visceral and through this poetry tour, Prof. Hill’s class of poets made this accessible to the Brandeis community. While I am graduating and won’t be around for more events like this, I hope this work continues and new ideas are offered to bring cross-over to various disciplines within and outside of the arts.

— Editor’s Note: Miriam Grodin ’27 is a Copy Editor for The Justice and did not contribute to this story.