Kelly Rowe

Kelly Rowe is a Senior at Millikin University. May of 2006 she plans to graduate with a BFA in Musical Theatre, and a Minor in Creative Writing. During her years at Millikin University, she creatively integrated her two subjects into a Senior collaboration project. By the end of Senior year, she put together a special "How-to" Musical Theatre Booklet, including the useful facts and information she gathered during her rehearsals and theatre classes. This collaboration was made possible through her Theatre experience as well as her Creative writing background. In addition, Kelly also teaches Dance at the Decatur YWCA, during her free nights in the community. She is a main choreographer and co-producer of the Spring 2006 Recital for the YWCA dance program. With her dance and theatre background, Kelly always finds her summer home back in Chicago. She teaches a two-week intensive kids-camp program. The program runs for 350 kids: ages 5-13. Kelly teaches Tap, Ballet, Jazz, Swing and Hip Hop in the program. Her ultimate goal is to move to New York City to pursue a Broadway theatre career after graduation. She feels she has the upper hand in her professional Theatre career, by including her writing background. With this benefit, her resumes and professional letters will be in great shape.

Poetics Statement

After attending many of the fine creative writing courses Millikin had to offer, I have found my sweet spot in Creative Nonfiction. I attended a course requiring us to read about 5 novels on Creative Nonfiction over the semester. Among these novels, David Sedaris was a favorite author of mine. His style of writing inspired me to create my own family novel. This writer inspired my best work. I was always told to write what I knew, and since my family life had such a huge impact on me, I decided to write a family memoir. This memoir includes stories of my unique past and my growth as time passed.

I also dabbled a little into poetry during my Junior year and suddenly it became my life. I had no idea I had all of this creativity in my soul just waiting to be written down, and explored through poems. I put together a portfolio of my greatest works. I decided to section them into the subject matters each poem fell. Most of my poems deal with my family, and my two younger siblings. Others involve my long-term relationship with my boyfriend. I also went through a food stage with my writing; all inspired by a choking accident. The sections represent my thoughts very well. I find that I am inspired by many things each day. I have always believed that everything can be a discovery... every moment, every person, every encounter. If you don't know me, you might think my work is random, but I assure you it comes from a very rooted, heavy place. I am a very sensitive person and I take many things to heart. If something affects me, I like to write a poem or story about it, then I can truly capture it to relive it—years later.

I am proud of the work I have done here at Millikin because of the personal place it comes from. I write what I care about. I cannot take myself out of my pieces because it wouldn't exist for me then. I grew and matured so much during these years and my writing morphed into serious works that I hold important to me.   What I find very unique about my writing, is that each work could stand strongly on its own. I did write an entire Family novel, and yet each chapter could be a potential story by its self.   This also holds true in my portfolio. Each section is clearly outlined, but each place comes from a unique, solo-background.