By Gabriela Griggs
Staff Writer
AC&T
Professor Amy Bagwell is a second–year English instructor at Winthrop University. She primarily leads writing courses, both in the university’s general education curriculum and in the fiction concentration.
As a recent addition to the Winthrop English Department, Bagwell expressed that she’d been eyeing an open spot at the university for quite some time. She owes her interest in Winthrop to alumni friends and a particular colleague who would frequently praise the Cultural Events that the university hosted.
“I’ve long admired Winthrop. After teaching elsewhere for 14 years, I began watching for an opening here, believing in Winthrop’s commitment to real education and to students,” Bagwell said.
Outside of teaching, Bagwell is involved in bringing accessible art and poetry to the public. In Charlotte, she is involved in the “Freestanding Poems” program, which is committed to the creation of artistic displays that make poetry easily available to the local community.
“I was inspired by the Poetry in Motion project in NYC and similar efforts that take poetry beyond the page, and my thesis led me to want to put great poems on walls so that people could read them if they wanted. Now called Freestanding Poems, we’ve done 25 plus murals and installations in Charlotte, all collaborations among multiple artists. Our latest mural, next to First Ward Park, features an Ada Limón poem,” Bagwell said.
Following her creation of Freestanding Poems, Bagwell was then given the opportunity for her and a team of friends to create an artist residency program in a donated Goodyear Tire Center that was located in uptown Charlotte. While it was originally slated for demolition, the center was temporarily transformed into an artistic space dedicated to all art forms with an emphasis on curated public and free showcases.
“It was wild there,” Bagwell said, “with experimental theater in the old lobby and kinetic sculpture and oil painting in the oil change bays.
This program became “Goodyear Arts,” a nonprofit artist residency program and gallery located in Charlotte’s Camp North End, a bustling renovated car factory complex that now houses local vendors, food stalls and, of course, public art.
While Bagwell is no longer a co-director of Goodyear Arts, she is still active and present on the program’s board.
“I’m proud that we’ve kept to our core principles: Events are free and public, we’re on public transit, parking is free, and artists are supported and encouraged to take risks in their work, which is in poetry, fiction, film, 2D and 3D visual art, music, dance, theater, and much more. This year, we had a fashion designer and a puppeteer as residents, both firsts,” Bagwell said.
Goodyear Arts has recently developed a partnership with Winthrop, led by Professor Stephanie Sutton, a university photography instructor and Goodyear Arts residency alumna. This partnership invites Winthrop art students to curate their own art exhibition within the Goodyear Arts gallery. This is the second year this partnership has been active, with a current deadline of November 30 and the exhibition occurring during the spring.
Bagwell also claims that despite the rise of technology and artificial art creation, tangible art experiences will continue to be something humans require, especially based on her personal experience and interactions with her son.
“I don’t think public art and traditional artistic experiences are going away. When they’re good, they’re in demand,” Bagwell said, “and honestly, it looks to me like young people are, more and more, seeking tangibility and direct experience beyond algorithmic reach. There are so many ‘traditional’ formats in resurgence, from vinyl records and DVDs to film cameras and Polaroids to paper books.”
Alongside public art and teaching, Bagwell enjoys reading, writing, music, spending time with her family and basketball.
“We love the NBA. In my heart, I’m a Knicks fan, but this year I may go full Heat. If anyone wants to talk basketball, I’m here, and I can’t wait to go to some Winthrop games.” Bagwell said.
When asked about her recent favorite pieces of literature, Bagwell expressed her admiration for Danez Smith’s poetry collection titled “Bluff.” She described it as “difficult and beautiful,” stating that many of the pieces required her to set the book aside and sit with what she’d read.
Alongside “Bluff,” Bagwell revealed her recent love for another new favorite: a craft book.
“For WRIT 507 (Advanced Fiction Writing) in the spring, we’re using A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders as the textbook. It’s the best craft book I’ve read, and the Russian stories in it are riveting, weird, and emotionally formidable” Bagwell said.
In regard to her all-time favorites, however, Bagwell crowns Carson McCullers’ “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter” as her favorite novel, alongside her admiration for the works of Toni Morrison and the poems of Frank O’Hara.
“Poetry was my first love and is my favorite. Remarkable poetry makes me feel like I belong somewhere and like I’m flying. It gives me hope. All of those are clichés, but they’re accurate. Like jazz, poetry is too often given the high-shelf treatment, as though meant only for the affluent and the academic, but poetry belongs to everyone,” Bagwell said.
Professor Bagwell continually finds herself happy with every minute she’s teaching. She has immensely enjoyed her time at Winthrop so far, praising both her colleagues and student interactions.
“Winthrop students are fascinating, curious, driven, smart, and compassionate. You’re very good to each other, so the classroom is a lovely, exciting, safe space, and I learn more there than I impart,” Bagwell said. “Winthrop is a special place.”
