Roll Call:
What’s your name? Nicole Shivers
Where are you from? Born in the Bay Area, raised in Vegas!
What do you do? So many things J but currently I’m a Museum Educator and Project Manager
Being Nosey:
Where does your interest in the arts come from? Which artist (whether visual, vocal, or performance) do you believe to be the most captivating or inspiring?
Wow great questions. I would have to give props to my parents who exposed us at an early age to Arts and Culture. My sister and I went to concerts, plays, and performing arts at an early age. My first recollection of an actual international performance was Ipi Tombi the South African musical at the Silver Bird Casino in Las Vegas in 1980.
Performance is both visual and vocal so its all inspiring to me.
What music have you been listening to recently?
I’ve been listening to a lot of Prince (yes I had Darling Nikki on my license plate when I was in high school). And I keep playing the remix to All the Way Up. Remy Ma yezzzzz!!
Do you think historical and cultural events influence the arts? Or do you think that art is the impetus behind historical and cultural movements.
You asked this question that obviously is a dissertation. But lets make it plain, Art and Culture are modes of movement. They’re not stagnant. So with movement comes change. Now we can go even further with change for whom? But will leave this for the pontificators. I consider myself a conduit for application, a doer. I can’t stand theory alone what’s the point.
Tell us a funny story from highschool.
Yes I attended Chaparral High School. I tried out for cheerleading in 9th grade. Didn’t practice. The routine was to the song Look out Weekend by Debbie Deb. I just got out their and adlibbed. Hilarious!! No I didn’t make it but the cheerleading coach said I should join the drama club. The shade of it all…hee hee!
What is your motto?
You know I had to look up the definition to make sure. Allah is with the Believer!
Tell us about the premier of your documentary Arts of the Monsoon. What was it like travelling to Oman and Zanzibar after your research? Was it as you had expected it would be?
We are excited to be presenting the public premiere on June 11. It appears we’ll have a full house. I can’t wait to lead a Q&A and to receive feedback. It’s necessary to hear from others when you have been so close to something. First, the film is part of a larger project I produced called Connecting the Gems of the Indian Ocean: From Oman to East Africa. The project focuses on the cultural connections between Oman and East Africa’s Swahili Coast.
Both places are remarkably beautiful. We shot the documentary in 19 days. It was hard work. We met incredible people and got to hear and witness wonderful stories. You know I didn’t know what to expect. I do remember saying before we left that I was going to go with the flow and be open to whatever came our way. There were some testy times but for the most part it was all good.
What was the hardest part about filming Arts of the Monsoon? What was the most rewarding part?
The hardest part was waiting to film with the proper light and just the daily grind. The most rewarding is that we achieved a beautiful noteworthy film that documents a connection between people and places that is not readily known. And I loved filming on a down ship at dawn in Zanzibar. Truly lovely!
You’re already an award winning producer, would you like to produce another film? What would it be about?
OMG I would love to do another film. But rather a documentary I would like to do a short narrative looking at growing up in Las Vegas in the 1980s.
What kind of performance art do you believe would best capture your life experiences? Would your life be portrayed as a Film Noire? Spanish Romance? Opera? Ballet? Or maybe something else entirely? Also who is the lead actor?
Hmm…it would be all of the above….they encompass dance, color, sound, pictures, love, suspense, words and fashion. I don’t know the person who could play me. She may still be waiting to be born. She may be in South Central LA, Biloxi, Morocco, Puerto Rico, around the corner, who knows….maybe I’ll meet her in a vision.
*Thanks for reading and make sure to stay tuned to Culture Out The Box, for more maddening things. Also follow us on twitter @CultureOTB and on instagram @CultureOTB.*
*Nicole can be reached for further questions and inquiries at shiversn@si.edu, and make sure to catch the screening of the documentary Arts of the Monsoon, this saturday June 11th, 2016 at the National Musuem of African Art @ 2pm.*
http://africa.si.edu/50years/oman/
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