Contemporary Reviews

This category is for reviews of contemporary art and music.


At the OZ Arts Website:

Burdens from a Distance

Carrying burdens: a universally accepted part of life and timely theme as the world shares a collective burden. Over the course of three years, speaking to hundreds of people from all walks of life, Jana Harper discovered the same underlying concerns we all share: “our loved ones, our futures, our planet, and of course, our health.” This Holding was created from the exploration of these burdens, portraying this portion of the human experience in a raw, beautiful, and thought-provoking way. During a period when many feel more alone than ever in their lives, Harper holds a fitting sentiment about herRead More

Oz Arts Presents

A Riotous Revelry: The 9th Annual Festival of Ghouls

Saturday the 28th of October was the 9th annual Festival of Ghouls at Oz Arts. The dark and spooky room was decorated like the bowels of hell, with a hugeRead More

An Annual Music City Event

The International Black Film Festival

Perhaps one of the greatest hidden treasures of Music City, the annual International Black Film Festival (IBFF), is held on the last weekend of September (the same weekend as theRead More

About Town

Nashville Film Festival

The Nashville Film Festival celebrated its 54th year this fall: six days of over 140 films; panel discussions and live performances; a competition; a conference; all held at eight differentRead More

At the Schermerhorn

With elegant “zapateados”, México en el Corazón makes the stage boards vibrate at the Schermerhorn

-Como acompañarse con mariachi, para hacer llorar a esa canción, que en el sur se toca con marimba y en el norte con acordeón- “México En La Piel,” José ManuelRead More

In The Counterculture:

Kindling Arts Festival 2023

Introduction Kindling Arts, self-described as “Nashville’s home for radically unique and independent artists,” had their 6th Annual Festival this July exploring the theme “Counterculture.” The 4-day performance festival featured 17Read More

Ides of March at Schermerhorn

Music City Review Goes to War (and Leaves the Funk in Peace)

The lights were already dimmed as I raced in after seeking my reserved parking space in an apparently nonexistent parking lot. The Latino singer was midway through the first verseRead More

This Mosquito Doesn’t Bite: Kid Koala at OzArts.

The opening night of OzArt’s The Storyville Mosquito featured a unique kind of immersive storytelling: a movie in three acts created live. The show was sold out, an additional showingRead More

Freedom Fighters: DakhaBrakha at OZ Arts

It felt like rare musical events I’ve actually experienced—the opening tour date of Talking Heads’ “Stop Making Sense” in Berkeley, Parliament Funkadelic’s “Mothership Connection” tour stop in Chapel Hill, NewRead More

OZ Arts presents

Compagnie Hervé Koubi

On Thursday February 2nd, OZ Arts Nashville opened their season with What the Day Owes to the Night, performed by the dance troupe Compagnie Hervé Koubi. The evening began withRead More

Theatre Nohgaku at the Frist

It was a misty gray afternoon, not cold, but comforting, a stay-inside kind of day, the kind of day you commonly see in the Japanese countryside, the kind of dayRead More