Welcome~
I’m Jenine Durland…intensely curious about people, their stories, and their creative contributions. A poet, technologist, maker, builder of communities. A strategist, designer, teacher with a passion for collaboration. An artist driven by the challenge of connecting seemingly disparate dots.
I work to create a moment of pause and connection–an awareness of our stories and the power they wield to bridge between us–particularly in the shifting context of public spaces.
I believe storytelling to be the oldest and strongest foundation of community–the most important ingredient in fostering active and empathetic engagement. Storytelling, as opposed to story, is a verb that denotes action. As a writer, media artist and interaction designer, I am drawn to this action–the way we tell our stories–and how those means affect our experience.
I’ve worked with a bunch of cool people and organizations including Capital One, TaDa, NYC Parks Department, the NY Department of Sanitation, NYU, the NY Hall of Science, Potion Design, and Wilkinson Public Library.
My personal projects and writing have been supported by grants & sponsorship from the Kellogg Foundation, Helly Hansen, Crazy Creek, the Colorado College President’s Fund and the Venture Fund, sending me from the Alaskan Arctic, across the American West, and out to the shores of Hawaii.
Before earning my Masters from the Interactive Telecommunications Department (ITP) at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, I directed programming for Wilkinson Public Library in Telluride, Colorado.
I hold a BA in Creative Writing in Poetry from the Colorado College, where my first collection of poetry, Waiting for the Moon, was published by the Press in 2005. Poetry & nonfiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Anderbo.com, Nectar Magazine, the Leviathan, Colorado Libraries, and the Cipher. A lover of oral storytelling, I’ve performed at Talking Gourds Poetry Festival, the San Francisco Poetry Slam, the Starry Plough, and the Bowery Poetry Club. My installations & exhibits have been shown at the New York Hall of Science, the World Science Fair, and the ITP Winter and Spring Shows at Tisch in New York City.
After a lovely stint in Brooklyn, I’m back in my native city by the Bay–Oakland, California.
Thanks for reading.
~j9