A creative mentor and teaching artist working both one-on-one and with groups, Naomi’s brought to life a range of creative experiences centered on empowerment, building creative community, and healing at personal, group, and community levels.
To explore a writing experience for yourself or your group, contact Naomi here or via COMPAS.
Highlights on a few favorite projects and collaborations below.
Poetry Posters
Free posters showcasing poems by Naomi’s students.
I love how the poetry posters keep on giving. First in how featured poets felt heard and seen. And then, hanging on walls or passed out in writing workshops, empowering and inspiring new poets to put their words out into the world.
—Naomi Cohn
Get all 13 high-resolution, screen-reader-friendly poetry posters here.
Writing in Community
My teaching passion is to share ways writing can create wholeness in our selves and our communities. I bring to this work my expertise as a writer, training as a family therapist, and background in community organizing.
—Naomi Cohn
Naomi leads writing workshops through COMPAS and Known by Heart (the informal arts group she formed in 2015). She works with writers and artists at all levels of experience, and in addition to her generative and embodied current workshops, she’s taught and presented on access and inclusion, professional writing, and professional development topics for artists.
Past partners and locations include:
- Avivo, Minneapolis
- Abiitan Mill City, Minneapolis
- BARN—Bainbridge Artisans Resource Network
- Dreamland Arts, Saint Paul
- Embodied Health, Saint Paul
- Ebenezer Senior Living, Minneapolis and Bloomington
- Metropolitan Regional Arts Council
- Neighborhood Involvement Program
- St. Paul Public Library
- St. Anthony Park Area Seniors
- Seal Hi Rise / St. Paul Public Housing Agency
- Springboard for the Arts
- The Studios of Key West
- Winona Teen Voices
- Write On, Door County
Working with Naomi has allowed me to deeply affirm myself as an artist. Her approaches to coaching and mentoring are nuanced, personalized, and trauma-sensitive. At each session, she was able to meet my mind and heart in the moment.
—Coaching / Mentoring Client
Poetry Performances
In partnership with Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library, Naomi hosted five annual poetry performances. Rather than reading from a page, poets performed their work by heart and explored what that meant for their work, themselves, and their listeners. Poet-performers included Ed Bok Lee, Sharon Chmielarz, Donte Collins, Andrea Jenkins, John Minczeski, Patricia Kirkpatrick, and Heid E. Erdrich.
More about Known by Heart
Learn about more past Known by Heart projects in the archived blog, newsletter, and events list.
Naomi Cohn 