2021-PRESENT
My response to the events of January 6, SPARK!, has transformed into a non-profit, SPARK! Creative Lab. I’m stunned by the work and heart of the people who surround me, and honored that they’ve also taken ownership of this effort to bring us together. Come snoop around the website; better yet, become a donor and join the movement!
2020-2021
SPARK!
I’ve just launched SPARK!, an ensemble of 11 artists bringing cutting-edge, interdisciplinary performance to the heart of OKC. We create wildly innovative, site-specific happenings that elevate the history, culture and energy of each space we inhabit. Set in public parks & under-utilized public spaces, SPARK! transforms the relationship between performer, audience and place into a shared experience created by diverse communities for the collective community. COMING TO OKC AUGUST 2021! READ MORE HERE!
CREATIVE CAREERS OKLAHOMA
JANUARY, 2021
Fun fact: According to the Oklahoma Department of Education, 28% of Oklahoma schoolchildren have zero arts curriculum; without this vital piece of their education, not only do students lack robust learning, they also have no models for careers in the arts, which contribute $4.4 Billion annually to the state’s GDP. Our next creative leaders are out there. It’s up to us to help light their path. Enter Creative Careers Oklahoma, a collaboration between my company Maverick Arts, Creative Oklahoma and the Oklahoma Film + Music Office. Read more here!
DECEMBER, 2020
#MAGICTREESOKC
In October, Oklahoma was hit with a freak, early ice storm that downed tens of thousands of trees. The park near my home, Edgemere, which has been a source of refuge for the community during the pandemic, turned overnight into a desolate and depressing scene. In response (with a scrappy tip of the hat to Christo & Jean-Claude), I partnered with OKC artist Jarica Walsh to create #magictreesokc. In a nod to hope and renewal, the evening before the Winter Solstice, an intrepid gang of over 35 artists, neighbors and friends gently tied bows of multicolored ribbon around the trunks and broken branches of over 200 trees - 2500 feet of ribbon in total. The result was a week-long installation that transformed the visual landscape. All photos courtesy Ann C. Sherman.
NOVEMBER & SEPTEMBER, 2020
YOU ARE HERE
In September, 2020, I produced the first iteration of YOU ARE HERE, a 12-location, simultaneous, performance-on-demand event throughout Downtown OKC. Funded by #MicrOKC, a microgrant through Downtown OKC Initiatives and Urban Land Institute Oklahoma, 17 performing artists were given meaningful income to energize close to one square mile of Downtown and remind audiences of the intimacy and immediacy of live performance. A few weeks later, OKC’s Bricktown Partnership commissioned a second version, which took place in early November.
MAY 2020-PRESENT
Pandemic Street Art
Though I always left the visual art thing to Dad, I still love a good doodle. This began as a way to engage with my neighbors and combat the loneliness from extended isolation; it’s turned into a thing. I know so many people in my neighborhood now, and I want to give them sweet surprises to find around our park. You can find me on Instagram @wordsmiff405.
Channeling serendipity, the new powerhouse, Oklahoma Contemporary, has found a way to harness my classical training, narration and contemporary performance. I’m thrilled to join a huge cast of local and national readers, including OKC Mayor David Holt, Feist and Bebe Neuwirth, to bring to life this timeless tale of longing, adventure and obstacle. My portion, Book 22, aired August 29th.
JULY-AUGUST, 2020
LONELY ACTOR STORY HOUR
Narrating audiobooks is an amazing job - I took it out of the studio and into the to read some of my favorite stories to whoever wanted to listen. Everybody likes to share a nice story.
JULY, 2020
WE ARE VERY CLOSE
With Angelique Cormier
“We Are Very Close” is my contribution to the English version of “On Est Tout Près” a multidisciplinary project by my dear friend and colleague, Composer, Director and Performing Origami Artist Angélique Cormier. The original French version moved me so greatly that I urged Angelique to allow me to gather voices in English. She accepted, and the project was born again on our shores with voices from Oklahoma to NYC, LA, Australia and the UK.
The concept is simple: So many are alone in a time of uncertainty. Dozens of voices come together with soothing music to deliver messages of love and care. Please enjoy, and please share.
JULY, 2020
Village of Light and Hope
I lucked into a collaboration with Charles Martin, the magician behind Literati Press, and musician Michael Martin, to create a little story about The Paseo, OKC’s oldest arts district. Enjoy!
MAY, 2020
ROSES
WITH ANGÉLIQUE CORMIER
This is a short and sweet collaboration with my dear friend and colleague, Angélique Cormier, in Lyon, France. Ange and I have worked together for 15 years in the Soundpainting community, and recently launched our multidisciplinary group, Kollecti’F, an international poetic cabaret. She and I share a similar background and aesthetic, born from triumph over despair. I hope you enjoy. While you’re at it, follow her on Instagram @angelique.cormier. She’s magial.
APRIL, 2020
NATIONAL POETRY MONTH
OKLAHOMA CONTEMPORARY | BELONGING THERE, HERE
My contributions to Oklahoma Contemporary’s crowdsourced poem for National Poetry Month made it to the final cut. A few of my lines are in this powerful piece on belonging, a couple of them even making it to the title. I’m honored to have been included in this collaborative piece, picked and shaped by renowned Oklahoma poet Quaraysh Ali Lansana.
JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2020
KOLLECTI’F
International. Multidisciplinary. Collaboration.
INTRODUCING KOLLECTI’F
2020 began with such promise of travel, collaboration and exploration of the theatrical form. Our new performance group, Kollecti’F, launched in Geneva, Switzerland, during Human Rights Week, showcasing not only the power of diverse collaboration, but the inner workings of the female mind to over 500 students throughout the Geneva school system. Our residencies have been necessarily postponed, but we are invited to return to Geneva in 2022. Something to look forward to!
January-July 2020
O. GAIL POOLE’S SIDESHOW
Seven years after my father’s death and my assumption of the mantle as the owner of his entire life’s work of paintings and drawings, I helped bring into the world his first solo museum show at the Fred Jones, Jr. Museum of Art. We had a lecture and a soft opening to be prepare for the Vernissage; the pandemic had other plans. It was a beautiful, groundbreaking exhibit of over 60 of my father’s works of absurdism and human folly, more timely than he could’ve ever predicted. Please visit his website, ogailpoole.com, to learn more.