Ciona Rouse can hardly believe OZ Arts Nashville has been around only half the time since she moved here from Atlanta. “It all feels like marrow to my long life in Nashville,” says the poet and educator who has called Nashville home for 25 years.
Ciona dove into the Ozgener family’s innovative performing arts center upon its 2013 debut, as an audience member, artist and advocate. She’s witnessed the Brave New Art of OZ’s creative calendar. She’s mentored creative writing fellows in OZ’s Art Wire collaboration with The Porch. She’s performed her own work. And she’s championed OZ Arts fundraisers, such as Conversations at OZ and Beyond Bourbon.
“OZ Arts Nashville elevates me as an artist with its consistent offerings of dynamic art and constant support of my poetic voice,” she says. “It’s always a ‘yes’ — and also a gift to then serve as a mentor for its interns or writing program, a voice for its work in fundraisers or messaging, or an emcee for programs like its pandemic work that brought a sense of togetherness while we were apart.”
Leave it to a poet to describe OZ’s ambitious program as “otherworldly and absolutely colloquial,” both expanding imaginations globally and focusing locally to support creativity. “Whether the performers come to OZ from South Africa or from South of Broadway, the shows are always dynamic, pushing us beyond our ideas of what’s possible,” she says. And Ciona wants more audiences to know the power and potential of those performances.
“The poetic artist soul in me probably delights just a little in being able to pass on the word as if I’m whispering about a secret speakeasy or a holy space that might change your life,” she says about a program that inspires 6,000 students annually through teaching artists and school performances. “The other half of me that wants the city to be known for the type of artistic bravery OZ commits to … [wants] to tell the whole world about what we get to witness.”
While OZ continues to elevate and celebrate Ciona’s artistic voice, she, in turn, continues to advocate for OZ’s programming — spreading the word about the Ozgener family’s legacy and creative director Mark Murphy’s innovation, with the eloquence and passion of a poet.
“This organization continues to remind everyone that art lies within everyone, pulsing just below the surface of our skin — even if only for those hours you’re seated in the OZ Arts space,” Ciona says. “That’s the Nashville I know and fell in love with 25 years ago — spilling open and willing to be transformed by someone’s creative vision.”
Dress: Lafayette 148 iris Cady gown (Gus Mayer)
Shoes: Model’s own
Earrings: Nickho Rey flat block earrings (Gus Mayer)
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