FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Nicole Poole | (917) 678-2786 | nicole@sparklahoma.org
Media Kit: https://bit.ly/DittyBops2025MediaKit
Veterans and Artists Unite on Stage at Oklahoma Contemporary
Ditty Bops 2025 brings stories of creativity,
courage, and belonging to life.
Oklahoma City, OK (October 14, 2025) — What happens when Veterans and artists create side by side? Ditty Bops 2025 answers with rhythm, movement, theater, film, and visual art, transforming stories of service and survival into one powerful performance.
The new production from SPARK! Creative Lab brings together sixteen collaborators, including four Veteran Artists performing their own original music, visual art, and theater. The work grew out of months of free creative workshops involving more than seventy Veterans, their families, and artists across Oklahoma City.
“What started as an unlikely pairing has become a true partnership,” says SPARK! Founder and Executive Director Nicole Poole. “Veterans and artists may come from different worlds, but they share the same creative drive to make meaning out of chaos. When they build together, they remind us that community is a creative act — and one our world needs more of.”
Performances run November 7–9 at Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center (11 NW 11th St., Oklahoma City).
Showtimes: Friday & Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Sunday’s matinee is followed by a talkback with the Veterans and artists of SPARK!
Tickets: $25 General Admission | $12.50 Veterans
Direct Ticket Link: https://okcontemp.ticketapp.org/portal/product/127
More Information: https://sparklahoma.org/ditty-bops
About SPARK! Creative Lab
Founded in 2021 by interdisciplinary artist and arts-and-health advocate Nicole Poole, SPARK! Creative Lab is an Oklahoma City–based nonprofit that employs the arts for individual and social well-being. The organization produces large-scale community collaborations that foster expression, connection, and belonging through performances, workshops, and creative engagement across the metro area. SPARK! has partnered with institutions such as Oklahoma Contemporary, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, the OKC Philharmonic, deadCenter Film Festival, RACE Dance Collective, and Capitol Hill High School, as well as grassroots groups and Veteran Service Organizations statewide. Its projects—including YIELD: We Belong to the Land (2021), Ditty Bops: The Art of Listening (2023), and its role as presenting partner for the Calderón Dance Festival—have reached more than 11,000 people and earned national recognition from the National Endowment for the Arts’ Creative Forces® Initiative, Mid-America Arts Alliance, and the Creative Change Coalition.
Supported by Creative Forces®, an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts, and Mid-America Arts Alliance, Ditty Bops 2025 invites audiences to move beyond “thank you for your service” and discover what belonging to a community can look like when creativity leads the way.
Press Inquiries, Photos, & Interview Requests:
nicole@sparklahoma.org | (917) 678-2786
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WORD OF MOUTH
Coverage of SPARK!’s celebration of community and connection for the opening of Scissortail Park’s Lower Park 9/23/22
THE WRITTEN WORD
OKC ARTIST COLLECTIVE SPARK! RAISING AWARENESS OF VETERANS’ CHALLENGES WITH ‘DITTY BOPS’ THE OKLAHOMAN
LIGHTING A SPARK! 405 BUSINESS
SPARKING CREATIVITY OKLAHOMA GAZETTE
HEALING THROUGH ART OTHERING & BELONGING INSTITUTE
MY ROLE IS TO LISTEN; MY ROLE IS TO YIELD OKLAHOMA CONTEMPORARY | NEW LIGHT
CREATIVITY BELONGS TO ALL OF US: AN INTERVIEW WITH NICOLE POOLE & JESSICA RAY MAKE OKLAHOMA WEIRDER
SPARK! GIVING IMMERSIVE POP-UP PERFORMANCES ACROSS OKLAHOMA CITY THE OKLAHOMAN
MEDIA APPEARANCES
LOOKING FOR VIDEOS OF PERFORMANCES, PEOPLE, AND DELIGHTFUL HIJINX? GO HERE!
Executive Director Nicole Poole and YIELD Co-Director Jessica Ray speak in-depth with MetroFamily Magazine: “Art connects us, restores us, and gives us skills and inspiration to move forward.”
