Missoula Public Library

For National Poetry Month in April 2022, Free Verse is celebrating by displaying some of our publications, our student poetry and art, and some of the pastels from the Shape of Us exhibit at the Missoula Public Library, located at 455 E Main St.

Head over to the third floor Display Case, located right by the staircase and elevators, to get to know Free Verse and view some of the incredible poems and art work our students create. Grab a free pamphlet or bookmark, and be sure to tag us on social media!

Zootown Community arts center

*Pictured is the pastel works displayed at the Youth Gallery at the ZACC. The ZACC is located at 216 W Main St. in downtown Missoula.*

Shape of Us (January 2022) featured artwork and poetry created by youth in therapeutic group homes, jails, and prisons across Montana.

View the full pastel gallery below.

Shape of Us features two major Free Verse projects, the first being: The LoLA BIPOC Guest Artist Workshop Series, generously funded by the Missoula Community Foundation’s LoLA Grant, which allowed us to bring BIPOC artists Chris La Tray, Zane Reneau, and Valentina LaPier into the Missoula Juvenile Detention Center and the Pine Hills Youth Correctional Facility to lead virtual workshops on hip-hop songwriting, visual art with pastels, and poetry. The pastel and some poetry creations from these workshops are featured, and some of the raps were shared by Zane Reneau on Opening Night.

At the Opening Night event, Free Verse teachers shared recent poems published in the newest volume of *I Am Montana.*

Hip hop workshop leader Zane Reneau, also known as the rapper R’Know, read three of the raps created when he worked with the kids on song-writing and beats.

Fine arts gallery in dillon, MT

This Gift I Still Have

The second project in Shape of Us is from an exhibit first shown in October 2021, This Gift I Still Have.

This is a collection of pieces originally published as a zine series which were scrawled, painted, and drawn during the pandemic by teenagers living in therapeutic group homes, jails, and prisons across Montana. This collection was done in collaboration with Youth Homes Montana.

Click here

Pastel Gallery

Below is the gallery of pastel artwork created by students in Valentina’s workshops, titled ‘Native Creative’, which focused on teaching students the medium of pastels through the lens of Metis and Blackfeet art.