Pinning down Nicholas Michael Ravnikar can be a difficult task. Not only is Ravnikar a busy guy, often working on several projects at once, but his interests and talents are so wide-ranging that it is hard to find one word that aptly describes him.

Poet, filmmaker, teacher, philosopher - all of those and more apply to Ravnikar, who has been instrumental in creating arts/cultural programs for Racine's youth such as the Hotlines magazine project and the Film Seed program for young filmmakers.

His latest effort here was working with a group of high school students to produce a city-wide talent show designed to help curb truancy. The show was called "Rayscene From the Streets." Prior to that he led a poetry workshop with inmates at the Racine Youthful Offender Correctional Facility.

A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside with a bachelor's degree in English (he also studied at Chicago's Columbia College and Malcom X College), the 25-year-old Kenosha native is currently in Colorado, working on his master's thesis which investigates the applicability of cognitive science to the "minimal" poems of Aram Saroyan.

He expects to receive his masters of fine arts in writing from Boulder, Colo.-based Naropa University, a private liberal arts school that specializes in contemplative education, in December. Meanwhile, Ravnikar recently completed the graphic design and layout on a book called "Fast Forward," which is a collection of flash fictions (stories under 1,000 words) resulting from online collaboration between a bunch of grad students. For more about that, go to http://www.fastforwardpress.wordpress.com

Ravnikar, who plans to return to Racine in mid-July, shared some of his thoughts via e-mail.

What led you to the poetry workshop at the Racine Youthful Offender Correctional Facility, and what were your experiences like in that program?

I first found out about the opportunity from Lorna Hennig, the Racine Arts Council's executive director, who had been teaching art classes there for years. I haven't had the time to devote to another class there, but Lorna and I are planning to collaborate on a book-art program there this fall. I also hope to offer some seven- or eight-week workshops through the Racine YMCA this fall, focusing on writing, editing and publishing poetry, screenplays and short stories.

How many students were involved in your "Rayscene From the Streets" program and is this something that will continue next school year?

"Rayscene from the Streets" was a talent show organized by a group of eight youth from Case, Park and Horlick high schools. This was our first attempt at putting together a city-wide talent show and we had a really great event with fantastic dancers, singers and emcees who performed. We were able to give away $500 in gift certificates and I think that the youth who put the event together learned some lessons that we'll put into effect as we begin talking with the Truancy Committee about how to proceed.

I know I'm interested in trying to make these sorts of community events a regular part of our community, because the talents of our community's younger generations are definitely something we should be celebrating. And the more we do celebrate and praise those talents, the less opportunity I think there will be for the more lamentable aspects of youth culture that you see crop up in creativity's absence, such as violence and drug abuse.

It's actually kind of ironic that I've been working on these initiatives with the Truancy Committee, because as a high schooler I was chronically truant. My parents didn't think I would graduate high school.

What can you tell us about the documentary you are working on about the Quilts on Barns project?

"Quilts on Barns" is a step outside of my comfort zone. I've always been much more interested in the theoretical aspects of cinema; consequently most of the video projects in which I've worked in a directorial capacity have been much more experimental.

"Quilts on Barns" presented a really interesting opportunity to chronicle a pretty massive undertaking by the Racine Arts Council and Kathy Wilson, who really has been guiding this project from the get-go. My job is to capture this process on video, of Kathy managing and marketing this extensive county-wide art project and documenting these barn quilts as a social phenomenon.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Ravnikar, who is still formulating ideas for filming the documentary, said that "if there's anyone out there with a plane who would be willing to take me up and strap a camera to the wing, I would be really grateful."

ON THE WEB: More about Nicholas Ravnikar can be found at http://www.myspace.com/nicholasmichaelravnikar