Each year, either for a term or for the full academic year, LHSP sponsors a writer or artist in residence, who works and engages with the community on a variety of projects, such as talks, workshops, art installations, and readings.
Artist-in-Residence 12-13: Jerzy Drozd
Comic art professional, Jerzy Drozd, has taught the art of comics and lead professional development workshops in many venues around Michigan and the United States including: the University of Michigan, the Ann Arbor District Library, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. His publishing credits include Antarctic Press and Glencoe-McGraw Hill.
Poet-in-Residence 11-12: Matthew Olzmann
Matthew Olzmann’s first book of poems, Mezzanines, was selected for the 2011 Kundiman Poetry Prize and will be published by Alice James Books in April 2013. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Gulf Coast, Kenyon Review, New England Review, Margie, Rattle and elsewhere. He was the recipient a 2010 Kresge Arts Fellowship, and a Peter Taylor Fellowship from the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop. Currently, he is a writer-in-residence for the InsideOut Literary Arts Project, and the poetry editor of The Collagist.
Artist-in-Residence 10-11: Mike Mosallam
Mike Mosallam, a U-M graduate (1991) and theater director.
Mike Mosallam is excited about being back in the metro-Detroit area after living in New York and Los Angeles for the past several years. He currently serves as the Director of Film Initiatives for Wayne County, an award-winning office that attracts and works closely with film, TV, and digital media productions in Michigan.
Mike has a University of Michigan BFA in Musical Theatre (2001), and a Masters Degree in Directing from the Boston Conservatory. After graduating from the University of Michigan, he left Detroit to pursue his career in the entertainment industry. In Boston, Mike created a highly acclaimed one-man show, MUSLIM: the musical! The show, a look at various stereotypes Arab-American/Muslims face post-9/11, has seen regional success after its debut and is currently in development for a National Tour.
He has worked in prestigious venues, such as the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, and Symphony Hall with the Boston Pops. Also, he worked on projects featured on MTV and Comedy Central. He served as Associate Casting Director (US) for the critically-acclaimed film, AMREEKA and will soon begin casting for director Cherien Dabis’s follow-up feature.
An award-winning actor, director, and producer, Mike has traveled to Scotland to debut a new show, THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT: A ROMANTIC COMEDY at the Edinburgh Film Festival. He is currently working on a new reality TV show about his hometown of Dearborn, Michigan. Mike is a member of Actors Equity and soon will be a member of SAG.
Poet-in-Residence 09-10: Vievee Francis
Congratulations to Vievee!!
Vievee Francis Wins Cave Canem Northwestern University Press Poetry Prize
Vievee Francis has had work appear in literary journals, periodicals, on-line sites, anthologies and textbooks, including Callaloo, Marjorie, Crab Orchard Review, Fishouse and Approaching Literature (Bedford/St. Martin’s). Her first book, Blue-Tail Fly (Wayne State University Press), was chosen as one of Poets & Writers notable debuts for 2006. She has mentored and facilitated writing workshops for youth and adults in the metropolitan Detroit area independently, through her organization Journeyman Arts, and also through the InsideOut Literary Arts Project and Michigan’s Springfed Arts. She recently completed her MFA at the University of Michigan. Francis, a Callaloo Participant and Cave Canem Fellow, is married to Kundiman Fellow, Matthew Scott Olzmann.
Artist-in-Residence 07-08, 08-09, 09-10, 10-11, and 11-12: Alex Kahn and Sophia Michahelles
The Lloyd Hall Scholars Program is proud to present our artists in residence:
Alex Kahn and Sophia Michahelles, Master puppet artists and creators of the New York City West Village Halloween Parade (www.superiorconcept.org)
Alex and Sophia have done amazing creative work all over the world, and we have some great opportunities for you to get to know them. In February, Sophia and Alex will discuss their craft of giant puppetry and their experiences from around the world. Sophia and Alex will be working hands-on in the studio (1239 Kipke Studio), using their skills and knowledge to help LHSP students bring their quickly growing creatures to life! Come to the studio and work side-by-side with our students and professional street puppeteers.
Writer-in-Residence 06-07: John Bacon
Distinguished author John U. Bacon was the LHSP Writer-in-Residence 06-07. As a Michigan undergraduate, Bacon completed a history honors thesis and won Hopwood Awards in essay and fiction. He went on to write Sunday sports and business features for The Detroit News from 1995 to 1999, and now writes for dozens of magazines including Time, Fortune, and ESPN. His work has twice been recognized in the authoritative anthology, The Best American Sportswriting.
He has also published four books, including: the history of Michigan hockey (Blue Ice), which is being made into a PBS documentary; the stunning growth of Walgreens Drugstores (America's Corner Store: Walgreens Prescription for Success), and most recently, how Cirque du Soleil manages creativity (Spark: Igniting the Creative Fire that Lives Within Us All, (Doubleday) and Bo's Lasting Lessons: A Legendary Coach Teaches the Timeless Fundamentals of Leadership, a book about Michigan's legendary football coach, Bo Shembechler.
John Bacon is the recipient of the 2009 Golden Apple Award.
Artist-in-Residence 05-06: Beili Liu
Beili Liu is an emerging artist from northern China who studied Chinese literature before she moved from China to the United States in 1995. She received her BA from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and her Master of Fine Arts from the University of Michigan (School of Art and Design). Working as an installation artist while living in the United States, Liu seeks to unify the two cultural forces in her life: one Eastern, the other Western. She embraces a broad range of materials, from natural elements, such as salt, water, straw, and clay, to digitally processed images, video, and sound. In Winter 05, she taught a mixed media class at LHSP and organized an exhibit of her students' work in the Michigan Union Art Lounge.
As part of her residency in LHSP, Beili Liu:
- Completed an art installation called "Breadth" in the LHSP Dining Hall/Gallery.
- Participated in an exhibit opening.
- Delivered an artist's talk to LHSP students and the broader U-M community.
- Conducted workshops on multimedia art.
- Worked with several LHSP art and writing classes.
See Beili Liu's work as displayed in ArtPrize 2010
