Dr. Almeder rides and writes to promote local artists and public transit

Roanoke College English professor, Dr. Melanie Almeder, is taking her art to the streets of downtown Roanoke through the city's Art by Bus Program. 

The program, in its second year, brings writing, painting and music to Roanoke public transit throughout March and April in an effort to celebrate local artistic efforts. It began as a collaboration between RIDE Solutions, the City of Roanoke Arts Commission and the Greater Roanoke Valley Transit Co. 

Over a two-month period, selected musicians perform while riding public transit, artists' work is featured on the exterior of buses and Almeder is documenting her experiences through written word. 

Almeder was selected from a competitive pool of candidates to be the first participant in the program's Transit Residency Project. 

As the transit resident, Almeder is riding all of the Roanoke bus routes, as well as some trolleys, to observe the people and communities in which she interacts and record her experiences. Almeder said that while she is spending March and April "riding and writing," she encourages others to join her efforts. 

"In this residency I thought it would be wonderful to ride on public transportation and write poems," she said. "It seemed like a luxury. And then I immediately thought it would be great to invite others also." 

Since beginning her residency, Almeder has invited students, Roanoke alumni and the general public to participate in her Art by Bus body of work. 

With help from her Roanoke College creative writing students, she posts prompts that anyone can respond to both online or at various dropboxes downtown.  

The Roanoke College Pathways Program is paying the bus fare for Almeder's poetry students, allowing them to join their professor on some of her bus routes. 

Almeder welcomes other poets and educators to participate as well. Maurice Ferguson '77, a poet, joined her on a route in late March. Also, Katrina Hill '02, a teacher at Roanoke's Community School, is allowing her middle school students to ride and write as well.

By the end of April, Almeder hopes to complete her own work in the form of poems and an essay as well as compile the work of other writers who submitted pieces to the project. 

Almeder emphasizes the necessity of healthy discussion and dialogue within a community in order to foster the arts and creativity, which is why she is passionate about her transit residency.

"If we want healthy arts in a community," she said, "we have to have the most extensive public transportation we can get because of the exchange between neighborhoods that it creates."


Follow Almeder's transit residency and writings here.

Published April 10, 2015

-By Hannah Cline '15