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

  • "The SPARK! project is activating our city and its public spaces in new and exciting ways. We are thrilled to support this innovative art form in OKC!"

    — Urban Land Institute Oklahoma

  • "SPARK! was like an electric breath of fresh air for my soul. I went in not knowing exactly what I was about to experience, and left knowing that I hope I can experience this for the rest of my life."

    — Zach Seat, OKC

  • "A contemporary take on the surrealist form of automatic writing except the text is written with the lines formed by the movement of bodies in space, with the rhythmic punctuation of dancing feet on the concrete, and sparkles on top!"

    — Carina Evangelista, Oklahoma Contemporary

  • "Scissortail strives to bring Oklahoma’s natural beauty to life and have SPARK! at the Loves Stage during Night Market was magic. You have something truly magical happening within your group!"

    — MIcayla Payne, Scissortail Park

Coverage of SPARK!’s celebration of community and connection for the opening of Scissortail Park’s Lower Park 9/23/22

THE WRITTEN WORD

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.”

Two women sitting and talking on a TV set during an interview, with a news ticker showing 'PORCH' and a digital clock in the background.