Nancy Kangas is a poet, filmmaker, and teaching artist based in Columbus. In the 1980s and 90s, she edited Nancy’s Magazine, an intimate mix of poetry, comics, and advice; the full run of this zine was recently selected to be archived in the Rare Books & Manuscripts Library of The Ohio State University. She’s written and performed poetry-theater pieces, including a selection for the Cincinnati Fringe Festival, and paired family slides with flash fiction for fiction for Ohio Edit, an online magazine.

She facilitates creative writing workshops with students and teachers, with a special focus on art-making with preschoolers and elders. Her residencies have been sponsored by the Ohio Arts Council, The National Gallery of Art, the Wexner Center for the Arts, and others.

After decades of creating poems with very young writers, she co-directed Preschool Poets, a series of animations based on her students’ poems. With cinematographer Josh Kun, she co-directed the short film, Was That Boulder Always There, which won the Jury Award at Boone Docs Film Festival this past winter. Nancy and Josh are now working on a feature-length documentary about residents in a divided community in upstate New York and the playground they built together.

Availability

Upon request

 

RECENT PROJECTS: “Gratitude Project,” River View Elementary (Coshocton), K-2 graders / artist residency. Met with students in small groups to read, discuss, write and — the most electric part — revise poemstogether. We selected lines to embroider onto fabric visual artist Anne Cornell pieced together into large coats and gowns — Gratitude Coats — that the children took turns wearing.

“Poems and Stories with Preschoolers,” Columbus Early Learning Centers, 3- to 5-year olds / artist residency. Met with children in eleven classes including English Language Learners, to share a poem or poetic text , often in the form of a picture book, sometimes in the form of a song. Then met and wrote with children individually before sharing with families.

“Creative Writing Workshop,” Ohio Living Westminster-Thurber (Columbus), older adults / workshop. Led weekly poetry workshops to read and discuss poems, and write their own from which Nancy edited a printed anthology titled Living in the Penthouse.

 

O Creek

May I roar like you
crash and be froth
Squeeze through boulders
because I have to
Pool for a while as glass

O creek
Your fierce your fast
your bravado with algae
Your hiss your bash
that low boom

How you shake a life out of finding your bottom

 

Writing sample courtesy of the teaching artist.