Pythian Games

by Kerry Vincent, 2009

I have been fortunate to have had many good teachers over the years, but my favorite always has been and will be Jane Ellen Ibur, my teacher and my friend, Janie. Last year, Janie received a well-deserved Outstanding Arts Educator Visionary Award. Her acceptance speech follows, preceded by a few words from me, her grateful student.

Dear Janie, I am so proud I can call you my teacher. As a teacher you probably remember mostly what happens in the classroom – as a student, I know that experience, but also what I carry with me, away from the classroom. It’s not just what teacher tells you, it’s how teachers help you listen to your own voice. For example, last month, when I was at the stained glass conference with people from all over the world, PhDs who are reknown historic stained glass restoration professionals, when we had to go around the room and introduce ourselves, I asked, “How many of you teach?” Over half the room raised their hands. I said, “I’m here because of my glass teacher. She showed me I could learn, but mostly, her passion for glass made me want to learn more.” But before Lynne Ulett (my glass teacher), there was, and always will be , Janie Ibur, saying, long before Barack Obama, “Yes you can.” And maybe, most importantly, “Yes you should – your art is worth doing, your words are worth hearing, your ideas are worth sharing.” So whether it’s poems or fused glass or mastering the art of French cooking, we can do it – but we need a teacher who says, “Yes, you can, yes, you should, now show me what you can do!”

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I introduce Ms. Jane Ellen Ibur…

Visionary Speech by Jane Ellen Ibur

Edward Albee says in Zoo Story … “sometimes you have to go a great distance out of your way to come back a short distance correctly.” Thus have I. A few things I knew for sure at a very early age: I was other, and those things that made me other were not okay, not okay for me to know, to discuss, to have a voice for – so I didn’t know till I met my partner 33 years ago that I was gay, wouldn’t say aloud till recently I live with the parasitic twin of depression, that I am also woman and Jew and none of those things were okay. I also knew I was a poet, that poetry, both reading and writing, saved me, so I was driven to write, to make art from a life and passionate to share my lesson of the transformative affect of art, particularly poetry, on the spirit and how finding a voice through the writing of poetry is finding a deeper way to breathe. I see the other others and to them, I’m a voice teacher, and through some stroke of luck, I’m a magical teacher, teaching through digression, humor, stories, authenticity, shock, singing, torture, prodding, cursing, cajoling, and downright lying. But I worried: was teaching radical enough? The way I teach, yes. I’ve taught ages birth to death, gifted kids to Alzheimer patients, homeless men and prisoners in maximum security. I can make anyone write something that will surprise them, something better than you’ve ever written before. When I returned to teaching after almost 20 years, I came back as a community artist, Ann Haubrich was there to hook me up with the jail, the CAT Institute, and a ton of varied gigs that I always said yes to and had to live up to. So I do. I guarantee my work. A prisoner student from last years said: “…In the St. Louis County Justice Center we were held as society’s trash in a lawless landfill, but Ms. Janie recycled us through writing. … . There was so much inside me that needed to be released. There was so much pain that needed to be converted. There was so much negativity that needed to be turned positive…. Ms. Janie helped us all reach deep down inside ourselves and reveal the true us to the many facades of hip talkin’, gold teeth, tattoo wearing, tough guys that really needed a road to redemption. That road was writing and Ms. Janie pointed us in the right directions, but it was up to us to take that first step.” Thanks Ann, for all your support over the years, for making us the Click and Clack of Literature on the radio. Quote: Pierre Reverdy says “…without doubt, a poet is not by definition one of the most perfect social beings, and if (s)he does not adhere to the order and if its injustice wounds the poet and throws (her)him outside of the degrading rights of society, (her)his work, which is a means of inserting and incorporating h(er)imself socially, recaptures for (her)him definitely a place in this society.” To the criminal, the homeless, the mentally ill, the elder, the seeker, the child, to all the others that I am, I raise our voices to say Thank you for recognizing us. I am abashed and deeply moved.

Jane Ellen Ibur