Rooted in Professor Patricia Smith's monumental book of poetry, Blood Dazzler, four award-winning artists will lead students in a collaborative creative process for building performance through poetry, dance, music, and visual art. Blood Dazzler centered on Hurricane Katrina, a deadly category 5 storm. Twenty years later, students will research the storm and its ongoing aftermath, including watching documentaries, conducting interviews, attending events, reading, and writing. Students will be given assignments based on the day's activity and discussion and develop performance works for presentation to the Princeton community on April 24th.

The Year That Never Was is a course taught by composer/librettists Michael R. Jackson and Rachel J. Peters that invites students of all levels and abilities into the earliest stages of the creation of a new musical theater piece written in the style of television musical variety shows and holiday specials of the 1970s and 80s. As Jackson and Peters resume a collaboration they began asgraduate students, students will assist in thinking through the development of their piece by studying & discussing relevant source materials, working collaboratively to create material for their own variety shows that celebrate an obscure or invented holiday.

Taught by Bridget Kearney (Lake Street Dive) and Bartees Strange with class visits from guest singer/songwriters and music critics, this course is an introduction to the art of writing words for music, an art at the core of our literary tradition from the Beowulf poet through Lord Byron and Bessie Smith to Bob Dylan and the Notorious B.I.G. Composers, writers and performers will have the opportunity to work in small songwriting teams to respond to such emotionally charged themes as Gratitude, Loss, Protest, Desire, Joyousness, Remorse, and Defiance.

Led by Choreographer Kyle Marshall and Creative Director Edo Tastic, of dance company Kyle Marshall Choreography. This course will embrace an interdisciplinary approach to art making. Through movement, poetry and visual art, students will explore their individual and collective experiences of people living in the United States of America. Students will build their own choreographic structures, poetic works, and visual stories informed by American historical documents, iconic speeches and expansive poetry. The course will culminate in a final public multidisciplinary presentation with dance and speaking. All experience levels are welcome.