Literary & Social Practice Artist Invites a Chef, an Architect, an Aromatherapist, Musicians, Visual Artists and a new proximity-based technology to Create a Multi-Sensory Journey Inside Her Poem Close Reading
(Nashville, TN – June 1, 2015) On July 23, OZ Arts Nashville presents poet and social practice artist Stephanie Pruitt’s em·bod·i·ment: Poetry Through the Five Senses, as part of the contemporary arts center’s spotlight series, TNT. Pruitt is collaborating with a wide range of luminaries to create multi-sensory tour of the inside of her poem Close Reading, which she wrote for this program.
Close Reading
Ask questions both obvious and obscure.
Grow to appreciate the shadow and shine,
how most simmered pots of good vs. evil are an unseasoned soup.
Notice what is there and not. Notice patterns. Notice what you notice.
Embrace the barreling grasp of fear that can propel,
and the freedom of a blank page that can paralyze.
Know that scissoring backwards from the conclusion
can’t pinky promise an aha, but proves you’ve survived
the floats and falls & …ever after,
remembering The End is an invitation to begin.
Pruitt’s point of departure for Embodiment was a question: What would it be like to be immersed inside a poem? To create the work, she distributed Close Reading to more than twenty artists, asking them to interpret it through their various disciplines. Literature moves from the two-dimensional page and becomes an interactive experience for the audience to smell, hear, see, touch and taste. Her collaborators include chef Josh Habiger (Pinewood Social); aromatherapist Whitney Simpson (Exploring Peace); landscape architect Mike Kahnle; alt-classical ensemble Chatterbird; BKON’s iBeacon technology; recording artists Curtis Fields and Joy Styles; and more than 10 visual artists including Jamaal Sheats, Camilla Spadafino and James Threalkill.
em·bod·i·ment, which will fill OZ Arts’ 10,000 square-foot warehouse venue, offers a meditation upon the generative nature of art, and a uniquely rich exploration of how one creative expression often leads to a web of others. New original paintings will also be featured within this experiential installation including works by artists Carolyn Beehler, Erica Ciccarone, Vince Herrera, Joseph Love, Randy Purcell, Alice Shepherd and Betty Turner.
About Stephanie Pruitt
Stephanie Pruitt never learned that art and business can’t mix. She is equally comfortable in her studio and at boardroom tables, but never settles for business as usual at either. Pruitt is an award-winning, published poet and visual maker who has taught arts education and creative writing at Vanderbilt University, Sewanee Young Writers’ Conference, and as a visiting artist in over a hundred k-12 and community settings. Over the past 15 years, while maintaining her creative practice, she has run an event planning company, art gallery, publishing firm, and social science research center. Pruitt is the recipient of an Academy of American Poets Prize and, Essence Magazine named her one of their 40 Favorite Poets. These days, the native Nashvillian has opted out of the old 9 to 5 model and lets her creativity lead her. She is combining her backgrounds in marketing and entrepreneurship & fine art in order to help other explorers and dreamers do the same.
The ARTrepreneur and TEDx speaker curates Poems & Pancakes and created a line of poetry vending machines. She leads Mind Your Creative Business workshops and coaching sessions for organizations, artists, and thought leaders incorporating creativity as a professional strategy.
Pruitt is an active part of her local community as a Commissioner for the Metro Nashville Arts Commission, as well as serving on the board of directors for the Arts & Business Council of Greater Nashville. Stephanie has volunteered at Magdalene House and Thistle Farms for the past eleven years as a creative writing facilitator and former board member.
http://stephaniepruitt.com/
About OZ Arts Nashville
As the newest 501(c)3 contemporary arts institution in the midsouth region, OZ Arts’ particular style of programming has begun to transform the cultural landscape of Nashville. Utilizing the venue’s flexibility, OZ Arts presents the work of leading artists from around the world, offering an intimate context for performing and visual art programs that challenge and inspire a diverse range of curious audiences.
OZ Arts also serves as a catalyst for local creativity through a program called TNT (Thursday Night Things). TNT is a quarterly series of unexpected collaborations with Nashville-based artists from varying creative disciplines. OZ Arts’ “blank slate” provides a platform onto which these artists can create, develop and present a one-time-only event that would traditionally not be seen in a visual art gallery or theatre.
OZ Arts is located in the former C.A.O. cigar warehouse owned by Nashville’s Ozgener family. Their generosity provided the seed money that breathed new life into the column-free, 10,000 square-foot space nestled amidst artfully landscaped grounds.
http://www.ozartsnashville.org/
OZ Media Contacts
Nashville press, please contact Amy Atkinson at Amy Atkinson Communications, 615.305.8118 or amy@amyacommunications.com.
National press, please contact Blake Zidell at Blake Zidell & Associates, 718.643.9052 or blake@blakezidell.com.