The University of Michigan’s Arts Initiative has announced the 2025 cohort of its Creative Careers Residency — a pioneering transitional program designed to support emerging creatives as they move from academic study into full-time, professional creative practice.
This year’s residents are Willie Cornish from the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, Abigail Lowe from the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design, and Sahara Sidi from LSA’s Helen Zell Writers’ Program.
The program is a core part of the Arts Initiative’s broader mission to make the arts central to life at U-M and the whole Michigan Arts ecosystem. Through cross-campus interdisciplinary collaborations, public engagement, workshops and strategic investment in artists, the Arts Initiative continues to champion creative careers for young professionals as vital to a thriving arts ecosystem.
Sahara Sidi, Master of Fine Arts graduate in LSA’s Zell Writers’ Program
Sahara SidiSidi is developing a collection of poems that revisit the intersection of music and poetry, paying homage to Mauritanian Iggawen and U.S. artists who have shaped her creative process. Drawing on ethnopoetic techniques, her project reimagines the lyrical form as a vessel for cultural preservation, collaboration and inciting radical empathy.
“I am so grateful for the opportunity to fully realize this project,” Sidi said. “Sometimes, poetry can be viewed as this torturous, solitary act, and it’s my hope to reinvigorate the performance of poetry with the logic of musical performance, reinvent the role of our audience, and foster a more collaborative approach to creative writing alongside this talented cohort.”
