O, Miami, with the support of the Knight Foundation, brings poet, essayist, Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellowship recipient Anne Carson to the Moore Building in Miami’s Design District where she’ll perform two dance collaborations—Nox & Stacks—with Merce Cunningham Dance Company members Rashaun Mitchell and Jonah Bokaer.

Carson’s most recent collection, Nox, is a hit in the poetry world. This complex visual work defies the preconceived notion of what poetry is or can be. The unnumbered, accordion-folded pages are filled with original and found text, photographs, letters, pasted printouts, images and collages. A few years ago, Carson incorporated modern dance into her work, which, like dance, is visceral, dynamic and written for the body. Like the book, Nox is about the death of Carson’s grifter brother Michael. The performance will feature Carson reading both live and on a loop while Mitchell and fellow Cunningham dancer Silas Reiner bring Nox to life. Mitchell and Reiner have re-choregraphed Nox specifically for the Moore Building in Miami’s Design District, where it will be performed once and once only on April 7 at 7:00 p.m.

In contrast, Stacks, a work of ekphrastic poems based inspired by Peter Cole’s sculptures of stacked objects, takes place on a stage as Carson reads in a low, monotone voice. The dancers stack, restack and manipulate the cardboard boxes in what seems like an infinite number of ways. Bokaer choreographed Stacks to include both Cole’s sculptural work and Carson’s poems. The performance moves in a straight line as Carson reads the corresponding poems. Stacks also will be performed only once, on April 8 at 7:00 p.m. at the Moore Building.

Both pieces will be on sale (separately) at the reduced price of $20 each for a limited time. To purchase a ticket to NOX or to learn more, click here. To purchase a ticket to STACKS or learn more, click here. After the presale, the price will jump to $30. For more, go to www.omiami.org.