arTistic Attention: TA Tiffany Naiman supplements class with personal anecdotes

With the new series “arTistic Attention,” A&E; will feature the very people whose office hours we really should go to more and explore their arts & entertainment-geared interests to find out what really makes them tick.

If you know an artsy TA who deserves to be featured, email us at [email protected].

Tiffany Naiman, a musicology graduate student and teaching assistant, attributes many of her achievements and teaching philosophy to one piece of wisdom that has resonated throughout her life.

“All the things that have happened to me have happened because I’ve always said yes,” Naiman said. “Yes to new experiences, to new people, to jumping in and helping someone out. Because the world is kind of magical.”

After a career of studying and making music, producing award-winning films and managing nationwide film festivals, Naiman is a living textbook for what she now teaches. She’s taken a front row seat to Nirvana’s rise to alternative stardom, Oasis’ final concert and some of rock ‘n’ roll’s most historic moments.

And for Naiman, the intersection between all these experiences form the core of her classroom.

“Teaching is a performance. You have to find a way to engage the audience,” Naiman said. “I’ve met a lot of people because I’ve gone to lots and lots of shows, and that’s something you get from my classroom, a lot of anecdotes.”

Sitting in on her section one dull Thursday afternoon, you may be woken up to a story about Naiman’s first time watching her hero, punk rocker Courtney Love, perform, a tale of literal blood, sweat and tears.

Or you may get to hear a little about KISS’ legendary “Alive!” tour, through the perspective of a young woman bawling her eyes out in the front row at the magnanimity of it all.

What you won’t hear is a long lecture, because to Naiman, the whole point of discussion section is to get a conversation going.

“I was an undergraduate here too, and I know how big and isolating it can be,” Naiman said. “And I try to develop relationships with students, because everybody has a story, and I like interesting stories.”

Naiman’s story began in rural Lancaster, Pa., where she grew up as a self-described goth kid with dreams of punk. Starting as a volunteer at a film festival after high school, Naiman worked her way up through the film festival circuit to eventually start a career in entertainment, in which she worked for several award-winning films, including the Academy Award-nominated “Elling.”

At the height of her success, Naiman figured it was a good time to end her career and pursue a goal she’d thought about for a long time: college.

“I always just wanted to be a rockstar,” Naiman said. “But I had a moment when I realized being a rockstar probably isn’t going to work out, and I should really decide what I want to do.”

Still, Naiman said she likens teaching to being a kind of rockstar, in ways. She uses her classroom space to express herself and encourages her students to do the same, in a way that might not be possible elsewhere.

For example, a story about her time attending a Katy Perry concert might be woven delicately into the relevance of the discussion topic at hand, with a brief aside on how it’s the only concert where she got into a physical altercation with an angry fan. That might well open up discussion about punk culture, or pop songwriting or other topics the students find themselves thinking about.

“I’m not quiet, politically, in my classes, as I wouldn’t have been if I made music,” Naiman said. “I try and create a really welcoming space (for students) to speak their minds about whatever they want.”

Aside from teaching, Naiman is currently working on a documentary titled “Grrrl,” which explores the role of non-white women in riot grrrl, a feminist hardcore punk movement in the early ’90s, which rebelled against the misogynistic and violent nature of hardcore punk at the time.

The documentary focuses on those who Naiman said are unwritten in the history of the movement: the multi-gendered, multi-racial, diverse members of the movement that were ignored by the media.

Although settled into her life as an academic, Naiman said she still finds new things to say yes to, the key to her evolving experience.

It’s hard to piece together just one lesson, but it’s probably best summed up by the following advice.

“Get out of Westwood,” Naiman said. “And rock out once in a while.”