FROM THE ARCHIVES. Nicholas Gulig (pictured above) grew up within Eau Claire's 1990s-2000s underground punk arts scene; today, the scene has been brought to life in episode three of PBS Wisconsin's "Welcome Poets" series. The complete series offers a look on the life and work of Lorine Niedecker, a 20th century Wisconsin poet, complemented by Gulig's story of reconnecting with his home state. (Photo by Kristen Harberg)

“The urge to be a maker will find a way, no matter what the context is,” Eau Claire native Nicholas Gulig, former Wisconsin State Poet Laureate, said of his hometown’s ever-evolving arts scene.

On Friday, Sept. 19, PBS Wisconsin shared chapter three of their ongoing visual six-part series, “Welcome Poets,” narrated by Gulig. Amidst the series’s introspective look on life and work of late 20th century Wisconsin poet Lorine Niedecker, Gulig had the chance to reflect on his eventual return to his home state — and the artistic community which profoundly influenced his life's work.

Though, Chippewa Valley residents past and present who were part of the late 1990s and early 2000s punk scene might have recognized some familiar faces — or even their own — embedded throughout chapter three.

The episode shares Gulig’s own retellings of the punk arts scenes and coming of age as a poet in Eau Claire, all at a time where Gulig witnessed the community feeling largely “solitary and insignificant.”

“In my memory, the streets downtown were always empty,” Gulig shared in the episode. “The world felt somewhere else.”

Gulig's recollections of Eau Claire early on in his life centered on a sense of detachment from the community and the state of Wisconsin at large. This distance may have stemmed from various factors including his intersectional identity, experiences as a second-generation immigrant, and even imaginary feelings of estrangement embedded into his everyday life.

"I came of age as an artist, and as a writer, surrounded by a group of people who valued (community). Lorine came of age as a writer as someone who was largely working without community." 

NICHOLAS GULIG

POET, NARRATOR

Amidst the abandoned landscapes of downtown Eau Claire, Gulig discovered the “worlds and words of poets” through quiet moments of reading poetry with his father, along with the help of a group of fellow punks and artists in his high school years – who redefined what it meant to be disconnected from Eau Claire’s culture at the time.

“This scene that I created together with my friends exists in large part because there wasn't anything there,” Gulig said. “It’s precisely because of that absence — the experience of something missing — that we had to make it ourselves.”

As his mutuals formed bands in basements and garages — and poetry readings were held in basements or upon downtown rooftops — an inherent freedom emerged in the act of making art, he shared.

Nicholas Gulig (pictured above) shared a piece of writing during a live reading in Eau Claire. (Photo by Kristen Harberg)

“For me, it was through the acts of making in conjunction that a new more vibrant community arose,” Gulig revealed in the episode. “The poems and music of my friends became the spaces in which the place where I was born began again to feel like home.”

Gulig's 2024 personal essay “On Poetry and Community” influenced much of the episode's narration, he said. Although Gulig serves as a central narrator for Niedecker's story and poetic expression in Wisconsin, he once doubted whether his own narrative would be featured in the series.

Viewers can thank the positive encouragement of Gulig’s longtime friend Colin Crowley, a PBS Wisconsin multimedia producer and witness to Eau Claire’s early arts scenes whilst attending college in Eau Claire, who emphasized the importance of Gulig's background and its contrast to the perspectives Niedecker had on creating art.

“I came of age as an artist, and as a writer, surrounded by a group of people who valued (community),” Gulig said. “Lorine came of age as a writer as someone who was largely working without community. Colin thought that spending some time thinking about (the two) would be interesting.”

Close friends of Gulig and Crowley — who were also a part of Eau Claire’s early underground scenes — contributed to the episode’s physical photographs, videos, and poetry and prose from zines.

The back inside cover of "Poems from the second city," along with a note from Gulig. "Special thanks to entire family and friends, the kids of Eau Claire to whom I owe the mad and brilliant years," it reads. (Photo by Bill Hogseth)

Kristen Harberg, Drew Christopherson, Bill Hogseth, and Riley Hartnett — with the addition of musical underscorings from Eau Claire’s Joe Westerlund and Trever Hagen — were all part of uncovering the time capsule which shaped Gulig’s story.

“The existence of all the people who were there — creating the energy of the moment from which we were all drawing and channeling into our endeavors in our own way — that energy was not self-created or self-referential,” Gulig said. “It was a co-created energy; that was clear to me throughout the making of this movie.”

Viewers will continue to uncover more of Gulig and Niedecker’s interwoven narratives in new episodes of “Welcome Poets,” released on Fridays at 8:30am through Oct. 10.

The third chapter of PBS Wisconsin’s “Welcome Poets” — which uncovers the stories of narrator Nicholas Gulig’s coming of age in Eau Claire — can be viewed at pbswisconsin.org/welcomepoets and on PBS Wisconsin's YouTube channel.