Shape of Us – Works presented by Free Verse
Artwork & poetry by youth in therapeutic group homes, jails, & prisons across Montana
Opening First Friday, January 7, 5-8 PM
In the Blackfoot Communications Gallery & Youth Gallery through January
‘Shape of Us’ will feature artwork and poetry by youth in therapeutic group homes, jails, and prisons across Montana from two different projects: the LoLA BIPOC Guest Artist Workshop Series and ‘This Gift I Still Have.’
The gallery reception will feature readings of original poetry, songs, and essays by Montana’s incarcerated young people, and talks by the BIPOC guest artists. The reception is free for all to attend and will feature a cash bar and hors d’oeuvres. The exhibit will be open for viewing from January 7 to January 28 at the ZACC.
The LoLA BIPOC Guest Artist Workshop Series brought Montana-based BIPOC artists to teach virtual arts workshops to the youth incarcerated at the Missoula Juvenile Detention Center and the Pine Hills Youth Correctional Facility. The rapper R’Know taught hip-hop songwriting; Blackfeet artist Valentina LaPier taught visual art with pastels; and Métis poet Chris La Tray taught poetry. Recordings of the students performing their original hip hop lyrics from R’Know’s workshops will be on display, as well as the 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.
‘This Gift I Still Have’ is a collection of pieces originally published in a zine series which were scrawled, painted, and drawn during the pandemic by teenagers living in therapeutic group homes, jails, and prisons across Montana. The series contains a multitude of voices and experiences that reflect on place, family, identity, and experiences of isolation in a pandemic. The zine series was a collaboration between Free Verse and Youth Homes, and ‘This Gift I Still Have’ was originally hosted by University of Montana Western’s Fine Arts Gallery in the fall of 2021.
Free Verse empowers incarcerated youth across Montana to gain agency over their own narrative and to discover their capacity for creativity, empathy, and engagement in the classroom through lessons in literature and creative writing.
To read more about Free Verse and engage with more student work, visit their website at www.freeverseproject.org or follow on Facebook at @Freeversewritingproject and Instagram @free_verse_writingproject.
