A Deep Conversation With Artist And Creative Changemaker Nicole Poole

Jeff sits down with Nicole Poole as she shares very deeply about her life journey, about her work in the community that is making love cool again in Oklahoma City through SPARK! and her pandemic street art, about her evolution as a human being, an artist, and as a creative changemaker.To learn more about Nicole and her projects, visithttps://www.nicolepoole.comTo learn about SPARK!visithttps://www.sparklahoma.comABOUT NICOLEI am a broker of delightful disruption hell-bent on making love cool again.After a couple of decades in NYC and a few years in Paris, I have returned to Oklahoma, where I seek opportunities to connect with other curious humans, create art, and initiate projects for the common good.  My background is multidisciplinary collaboration, where generosity and authentic response transcend discipline, language and culture. Spending decades in creative spaces governed by “I don’t know - let’s be lost together” has taught me that curiosity in the face of uncertainty fosters deep connection, full expression and collective transformation. Process is the product, and the medium is, as always, the message. My personal journey of healing from Complex Trauma/C-PTSD is rooted in compassion, and I am uniquely able to create brave, safe spaces that nurture vulnerability, the surest path to risk, growth and innovation.  My primary tool in performance is Soundpainting, a universal sign language for live composition, powered by the offerings of the performers, sculpted in real time to highlight the immediacy of live performance and the power of improvisation.Maverick Arts, LLC is the arm of my work that incorporates my artistic expertise with my desire to advocate for cultural dialogue and experience. I partner with individuals, non-profits, governmental organizations, educational institutions and industry to provide dynamic initiatives powered by global creative experience, expansive social perspective and contemporary collaborative expertise. ABOUT SPARK!SPARK! is a daring and diverse new ensemble of acclaimed artists joining forces to bring cutting-edge, immersive performance to the heart of OKC. SPARK! harnesses collective creativity to ignite community healing and cohesion, rethinking how the arts engage with each other, and with the public."We need spaces to heal from the trauma of isolation, division, inequity and loss brought or revealed by the past year.Live performance is uniquely poised to foster belonging, meaning and unity. But to do so effectively, I believe we've gotta rethink and transcend both the idea of shared space and the transactional, passive entertainment we've become accustomed to. Throughout my career as a collaborative performing artist, I have seen, time and again, that creating a performance together, in a public space, has the power to activate  vibrant, light-hearted and radically inclusive engagement. In fact, studies have proven this - the evolutionary psychology concept of positivity resonance explains why our heartbeats synchronize when we gather: collaborative, shared co-experience of positive emotion is the most elemental building block of love. I feel called at this moment in our lives to share the expertise I've honed in NYC and Europe with my hometown of OKC. Intentionally applied radical collaboration can help us come together with curiosity, compassion, joy and play. That's what SPARK! is all about."Nicole Poole, Producing Artistic DirectorSPARK! joyfully merges dance, visual art, music, poetry and theatre into wildly unpredictable, one-of-a-kind happenings created with the public in pop-up locations accessible to the broader OKC community. Our events are free of charge and intended to reconnect us through active creativity, radical collaboration and shared humanity.<