Performing Arts

Annual Survivor’s Art Show at Blue Spiral 1

Nikole Brown. Photo by Joli Livaudai

The 16th Annual Heart Works Survivors’ Art Show will be held Thursday, November 9, from 5 to 9 p.m. at Blue Spiral 1. Presented by Our VOICE, the show features music, poetry and dance performances beginning at 6 p.m. The visual art exhibit will remain on display for three weeks after the event. Our VOICE serves those Buncombe County residents affected by sexual assault and abuse by providing counseling, advocacy and education.

“Expressing trauma through conversation alone is not always enough to be able to communicate experiences to the broader community,” says artist Cara Hagan Gelber who is on the faculty at Appalachian State University in the department of theatre and dance and will participate in the show for the first time. “Art gives us a space to dialogue and to heal—together as a community.”

Poet Nikole Brown (Fanny Says) is among those who will share her words during the show’s opening night.  “A breath rising up in the throat is more than just an act of speaking,” she says. “It is a way to articulate your truth, and, quite literally, to write your way out. What Our VOICE is doing is necessary in this world, and I’m honored to lend any words I have found to the cause.”

To learn more about Our VOICE, visit ourvoicenc.org. Blue Spiral 1 is located at 38 Biltmore Avenue in Asheville. The show is free and open to the public.

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