Nicole M. Young-Martin (she/her) considers her creative practice to be inter+multi+disciplinary where theatre, music, poetry, and live performance intersect informing a unique repertoire of work. Trained as a musician and actor, Nicole's gift for writing was discovered as an adult trying to make sense of life and belonging in rural New England. Autobiographical in nature, Nicole’s writing seeks to fill the spaces for women of color whose fair representations are absent in mainstream media. As a content creator and convener of people, she seeks to uplift and empower those from marginalized communities such as the many she belongs to including BIPOC, LGBTQIA+/Queer, femme and gender expansive, first generation college educated, and plus size/curvy. She is a recipient of several grants including a capacity building grant from the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts & Assets4Artists, an Artist Grant from Easthampton City Arts, and from Northampton Open Media.
Nicole is the editor of the recently released chapbook anthology, Locating Me, and serves as producer and host of the podcast, Black Writers Read. Her award-winning play, get (t)his!, has been produced in Michigan, New York City and Western Massachusetts. Nicole’s self-produced spoken word album, In/Put: Live from the Valley, was released in 2019. She has performed her poetry in over 20 venues across the Northeast and Midwest including for colleges, festivals, and opening for musicians.
A sought after events producer, editor, and fundraising consultant, Nicole is available to support individuals and organizations through any step of the process including event conception, curation and implementation; dramaturgy/script development; speech writing, editing, and advising; community relations and constituent engagement; program development; grantwriting; and, designing crowdfunding campaigns.
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 and a Master of Arts in English from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is currently a second-year student in the doctoral program in higher education leadership and organizational studies at Bay Path University. Originally from Detroit, Nicole has called New England “home” for over 14 years.
