Resounds: I Am Montana
Aired by Yellowstone Public Radio
Resounds: Arts And Culture On The High Plains (Every Second and Fourth Monday At 6:30 PM)
Volume 3 of the I Am Montana: Student Reflections on Identity and Place, a poetry anthology, was published recently. We asked Billings Career Center teacher Wanda Morales, and student poets Hannah Usher, Nolan Leonard, and Karmen Joki into the studio to discuss the process of creative writing and creating a poetry anthology. Each of the students also read some of the work.
From left to right, poets Wanda Morales, Hannah Usher, Nolan Leonard, and Karmen Joki. Photo by Anna Paige.
The I Am Montana project is part of the Young Poets programming in conjunction with Free Verse in Missoula and Young Poets, a poet-in-the-schools program from the Creative Writing department of Montana State University Billings. It features work of students from all three public high schools in Billings and from incarcerated high school age students from around Montana. The project seeks to elevate young voices and voices from historically marginalized communities. The anthology was edited by Dave Caserio and Nicole Gomez.
At the start of 2021 in person visitations were still not allowed in schools or detention centers due to Covid 19. As a result, his current volume was created via the virtual classroom.
The anthology has received good reviews from the Montana Quarterly and from the Montana Arts Council newsletter. Additionally, the anthology is used in a course entitled Ways of Knowing at the University of Montana. Former Montana Poet Laureates Mandy L. Smoker and Melissa Kwasny have participated in both volumes 2 and 3.
Published January 24, 2022 at 10:08 AM MST
Resounds: Arts and Culture on the High Plains features interviews with individuals and organizations creating art in its myriad forms throughout our listening area. Hosts Anna Paige and Corby Skinner bring listeners access to the creators who live in our communities and who tell our stories through their art.