Is there a poet in this hospital? Arts and humanities-informed health care
GREENVILLE, N.C. (02/19/2025) — East Carolina University’s annual Tag lecture, hosted by the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences Department of English, will welcome author, teacher and former ballet dancer Renée Nicholson to campus at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 26 in Joyner Library’s Faulkner Gallery. She will discuss the topic “Is there a poet in this hospital? Arts and humanities-informed health care.”
“I have known Nicholson for many years, meeting her at the West Virginia Writers Workshop just as she was making the life-changing transition from ballet to writing as a result of rheumatoid arthritis,” said John Hoppenthaler, professor in the Department of English. “I have met very few people indeed who have faced such disappointment and adversity in so productive and gritty a manner.”
While her performing career was cut short by the onset of arthritis, Nicholson splits her artistic pursuits between writing and dance with scholarship in narrative medicine. She recently retired from West Virginia University, where she was an associate professor and director of the humanities center and the programs for multi- and interdisciplinary studies. She also taught ballet at WVU and is a frequent guest instructor and coach.
Her students have been accepted and gone on to many intensives and companies, including American Ballet Theatre’s Collegiate Intensive, North Carolina Dance Theatre, West Virginia’s Governor’s School for the Arts and many others. She served on the board of directors of the nationally renowned Pittsburgh Youth Ballet (now Texture Ballet) and served on the West Virginia regional committee for the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre.
Nicholson studied English with an emphasis in creative writing at Butler University and received a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from West Virginia University. She holds a professional certificate in narrative medicine from Columbia University and she is an American Ballet Theatre certified teacher.
Her books include “Postscript,” “Fierce and Delicate: Essays on Dance and Illness,” and “Roundabout Directions to Lincoln Center.” She co-edited the award-winning anthology, “Bodies of Truth: Personal Narratives of Illness, Disability and Medicine” with Dinty W. Moore and Erin Murphy and served as a consulting writer for “Off Belay: One Last Great Adventure,” written by Jamie Shumway.
The Tag lecture is endowed through a generous gift from Dr. Ella Tag and is free and open to the public. Individuals requesting accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) should contact the ADA coordinator at least 48 hours before the event at 252-737-1018 or ada-coordinator@ecu.edu.
###
East Carolina University News Services
Howard House, 1001 E. Fifth Street
Greenville, NC 27858
ecunews@ecu.edu
Phone: 252-328-6481
https://news.ecu.edu