OZ Arts Nashville and The Porch Will Present ART WIRE, An Inspired Evening Of Writing, This Month

Contemporary arts center OZ Arts Nashville today announced it will present Art Wire in collaboration with prominent literary nonprofit The Porch on July 20, 2021 at 7pm for a casual, free evening of reading and celebration in the OZ Arts Lounge. Throughout the evening, Art Wire Fellows will share a mix of poetry and prose inspired by the 2020-21 OZ Arts season.

Art Wire is an ongoing collaboration between OZ Arts and The Porch in which the Fellows, comprised of 6 teenagers and 5 adults, experience the OZ Arts season and respond to each presentation with original writing that is personal, playful and deeply engaged. The writers come from a variety of backgrounds and have been mentored through the writing process by Susannah Felts, co-founder of The Porch, and Joe Kane, director of The Porch's youth programs.

"The work of these writers captures their responses to a unique season of programming that included both virtual and live events and explored topics that reflected the intense year of change we all experienced," said Mark Murphy, OZ Arts Executive and Artistic Director. "We're delighted to host these talented writers and are grateful to The Porch team for helping them bring OZ's recent performances to life in this dynamic way."

Informed by and in response to OZ's presentations over the past year, the works highlight many literary genres, including poetry, prose, hybrid forms and spoken word. Featured writers include Nina Coyle, Brenna Feeney, Aloe Franke, Deidra Kelly, Joshua Moore, Andres Martinez, Nora Masters, Ella Neely, and Clay Steakley.

"Despite challenging circumstances, the 2020-21 OZ season gave this year's Art Write cohort abundant material to work with, catalyzing new creative exploration that often took these writers in surprising directions," said Felts, co-founder of The Porch. "Their resulting prose and poetry exhibit a fascinating interplay between personal history and the worlds encountered through filmed, livestreamed, and live performance-a perfect mash-up of real life and art."

Art Wire is a free event, but ticket reservations are encouraged with an optional "pay what you can" donation. Tickets can be reserved at https://ci.ovationtix.com/35222/production/1069348.

For more information about the partnership between OZ Arts and The Porch, visit https://artwire.ozartsnashville.org/.