Missoula Writing Collaborative

October 29, 2013

﹑ica Arts!

A Journey in Nicaraguan Poetry, Theater, and Public Schools

Sponsored by the Missoula Writing Collaborative

and the University of Montana Environmental Studies Program

Laurel Nakanishi, co-founder of the nonprofit Nica Arts will share her

experiences working with young poets and actors in Nicaragua.

Friday, November 8th 7:00 pm

University Center Theater, University of Montana
Free admission

When Laurel Nakanishi set off for her Fulbright

scholarship in Nicaragua her goals were ambitious: start an artists-in-schools program and write a book of poetry. Nearly a year later, Nakanishi, in collaboration with five Nicaraguan artists, has offered arts workshops in cities and villages throughout Nicaragua.

Their organization, Nica Arts, continues to thrive amid financial uncertainty and bureaucratic complications. Thanks to a partnership with the Missoula Writing Collaborative, Nica Arts students participated in a poetry exchange with children from Russell Elementary School In May, 2013. Future exchanges between young writers in Nicaragua and Missoula are planned.

Nakanishi will share photos, videos and poetry from Nica Arts students and talk about Nicaragua's contemporary cultural and artistic communities.

watch Nica Arts

Laurel Nakanishi has a BA in English from Lewis and Clark College and an MFA in Poetry from the University of Montana. She is the recipient of the UM's Richard Hugo Memorial Scholarship and the Greta Wrolstad travel award. She was a Fulbright Scholar in Nicaragua for 2012, where she co-founded the Nicaragua Artists-in-the-Schools program. Prior to that she worked as in intern in school programs of the Missoula Writing Collaborative and taught classes in the MWC's Words With Wings summer program. She grew up in Honolulu, Hawai'i. She has been published in numerous literary magazines, and her chapbook Manoa Makai won the Epiphany Editions Chapbook Contest for Poetry.

Friday, November 8th 7:00 pm

University Center Theater, University of Montana
Free admission

Missoula Writing Collaborative

P.O. Box 9237, Missoula, Montana 59807

(406) 549-3348
info@missoulawritingcollaborative.org
www.missoulawritingcollaborative.org