LA Artcore

About the artist

Founded in 2014, Typewriters Anonymous curates typewriter poets for hire and customized poetry installations for events. As LA Art Core’s current artist in residence, founder Phillip T. Nails offers Typewriter Tastings and organizes a diverse array of readings, performances and activtations. Learn more at www.typewritersanonymous.com Bios As the founding director of Typewriters Anonymous, Phillip T. Nails champions analog practice, creating spaces for connection through the tactile, communal experience of vintage manual typewriters. His initiation into poetry came early, sparked by a visit from Beat poets to his high school, an encounter that struck like a tuning fork and never stopped ringing. From that moment on, performance poetry became not just a calling, but a current he continues to ride. Decades later, Nails carries that Beat lineage forward with a distinctly embodied, interdisciplinary edge. His practice has been informed by studies with artists and visionaries including Brett Bevell, Tim Miller, Mary Overlie, and Guillermo Gómez-Peña, each leaving a trace in his expansive approach to voice, movement, and presence. His work lives at the intersection of poetry and performance, where language becomes an event and the body a conduit. Elisabeth Nails, co-founder of Typewriters Anonymous is a typewriter poet, social worker and program designer with more than 15 years of experience using the arts as a catalyst for healing, youth development, and cross-system collaboration. She leads Creative Wellbeing at the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, an award-winning initiative serving tens of thousands annually across child welfare, mental health, foster care, and justice systems settings. Her work centers on restorative practice, trauma-informed design, and partnerships that expand equitable access to healing-centered care.