Nicole M. Young-Martin is a performer, poet, playwright, director, event producer/curator, and nonprofit professional with over 20 years of experience combined in these areas. Nicole has worked across various disciplines, including theatre, poetry, and classical music. Originally from Detroit, Michigan, Nicole currently resides in Northern Connecticut and works in Western Massachusetts.
Performance Poet. Playwright. Pop Culture Critic. Educator.
Poet / Writer / Editor
As a writer, Nicole fills and completes the spaces for those whose presence is absent or invisible in mainstream media, especially women of color.
Nicole’s poetry is autobiographical. She released her debut spoken word album, In/Put: Live from the Valley in 2019. It was recorded at CLICK Workspace in Northampton, MA in 2018. Proceeds from the album were used to create The Emerging Writer Fellowship, a program for emerging women and nonbinary writers of color through Straw Dog Writers Guild.
Nicole is the editor of the chapbook, Locating Me, which is the culmination of a 10-week writing workshop hosted by Attack Bear Press she facilitated in early 2020. Contributors include Ella Nathanael Alkiewicz, Miguel Bacho Cabezas, Ed Lubin, Romeo Romero, and Katalina Van Winkle.
Actor / Playwright
Nicole’s plays focus on the unique relationships that might develop between people if they listen to one another.
She trained with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario, Canada and Ping Chong and Company.
Her play, get (t)his!, received a 2009 James Baldwin Memorial Playwriting Award from the Five Colleges Multicultural Theater Committee and has since been produced in Michigan and New York City.
Nicole recently returned to the stage after an almost 20 year hiatus from acting in the role of Marian in Real Live Theatre‘s production of Harrison David Rivers’ When Last We Flew.
Performances &
Acknowledgements
Nicole has performed her poetry at venues across New England and Michigan, including Augusta Savage Gallery (UMass Fine Arts Center), Clark University, The Collected Poets’ Series at Mocha Maya’s (Shelburne Falls, MA), Luthier’s Co-op (Unbuttoned Series), Easthampton City Arts’ Cultural Chaos, Whitney Center for the Arts (Pittsfield, MA), Wistariahurst Museum and the inaugural Dwellings Arts Festival.
She has received grants from Easthampton City Arts, Assets for Artists, and Northampton Open Media. Her blog, CoCo’s Culture Corner, is an attempt to understand the world around her and how people like her fit in it. Through her writing, Nicole explores the gaps within human interaction as an attempt to prove that we can all get along and respect one another.
Education & Community
Nicole earned a Bachelor of Theatre Arts from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, a Master of Fine Arts in Theatre Management from Wayne State University, a Master of Arts in English from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership with a concentration in Higher Education Leadership and Organizational Studies at Bay Path University.
Nicole is on the board of directors for WAM Theatre. She is a member of Straw Dog Writers Guild and the Boston Alumnae Chapter of Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity along with regularly collaborating with Attack Bear Press. Nicole works in philanthropy, teaches composition and theatre at several universities in New England, and serves as the producer and host of Black Writers Read.
What’s Next?
Nicole is currently working on a memoir on the challenges of dating and several plays along with continuing her blog.