Visual Poetry Workshops Next Week at The Storefront Project

Visualize this! Students will create poetry in mixed media with instructor Michelle Solley

For Immediate Release
Contact: Ellen Waterston, Executive Director
The Nature of Words
Phone: 541.330.4381
Email: info@thenatureofwords.org
Website: www.thenatureofwords.org

Bend, OR. April 18, 2010. The Nature of Words will offer visual poetry workshops at The Storefront Project on Monday, April 26th and Thursday, April 29th from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Using watercolors, colored pencils, markers and newspaper, students will incorporate words and images in a mixed media project. The workshops will be taught by Michelle Solley, who has worked with eight school districts in the San Francisco Bay area to bring a variety of art experiences into the classroom. The Storefront Project is located in Dudley's Bookshop Cafe at 135 NW Minnesota in downtown Bend. The workshops are available to middle- and high-school students on a drop-in basis at no charge.

Solley said, "Because the 'writing' is limited to words cut from newspapers, students will be challenged to express their creativity in new ways."

Inspired by David Eggers' 826 Valencia concept in San Francisco, which is now in urban centers nationwide, The Storefront Project offers creative writing workshops and one-on-one language arts tutoring on a drop-in basis at no charge on Mondays and Thursdays after school. Workshops are theme-based and limited to 15 students. In addition, classroom teachers can schedule field trips to The Storefront Project during school hours for creative writing instruction. Workshops are open to students in public, private and alternative academic programs. Summer sessions will be announced soon.

Students who participate in The Storefront Project, as well as those in The Nature of Words' (NOW) Creative-Writing-in-the-Schools program, are candidates for NOW's Rising Star Creative Writing Competition. Complete details about the competition are available at www.thenatureofwords.org. Click on Writing Contest. Submissions are due by June 10, 2010. Prizes are awarded in age groups 15-18 and 19-25 in four categories: fiction, nonfiction, poetry and nature essays.

The Storefront Project, an extension of The Nature of Words' Creative-Writing-in-the-Schools program, is made possible by the generosity of the Oregon Arts Commission, Oregon Community Foundation, Terri Cumbie of Dudley's Bookshop Cafe, Margaret Heater, Central Oregon Community College, Oregon State University-Cascades, and numerous business and individual contributors.

About The Nature of Words
Now entering its sixth year, the mission of The Nature of Words is to foster an appreciation of the literary arts and humanities in the High Desert region of the Northwest through community interaction with acclaimed authors, and through creative writing programs for high school and college-age students in the region. The Nature of Words annual literary festival will occur November 3-7, 2010. For more information, visit www.thenatureofwords.org, call 541.330.4381 or email info@thenatureofwords.org.

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