Nevada Humanities Salon: Poetry of a Song
Sundance Books and Music, 121 California Avenue, Reno

This event happened on Friday, July 19, 2019 at 6 pm.

Lyrics can be poetic, and poetry can be lyrical, but what makes a song a poem? Have you ever considered the mechanics of a song? How it is composed and written? Join us as we grapple with these questions at The Salon: Poetry of a Song, on Friday, July 19, 2019 beginning at 6:00 pm at Sundance Books and Music in Reno. Moderated by Britt Curtis, Director of the Holland Project, we will welcome poets, writers, and musicians to talk about songwriting and the written word.

Light refreshments will be served. Guest panelists will include:

Britt Curtis, a Reno-native and University of Washington graduate, has worked for various arts and non-profit organizations, communications agencies, and music venues in Reno, Seattle, and Los Angeles. She co-founded the Holland Project in 2006 and is currently its executive director. Britt was named among the Reno Gazette-Journal’s “10 To Watch” in 2012 and the Young Professional Network’s “20 Under 40.” She currently sits on the Community Advisory Board for KNPB Channel 5, and is a co-founder and board member for KWNK Community Radio.

Watson Meyer is a musician living in Reno, Nevada. Originally from Grass Valley, California, he has been involved in various community and music projects for the past seven years. He currently plays with Pry, Bug Bath, and Blackstallion. In his spare time he volunteers at the Holland Project and hosts house shows there once a month. He also loves to bake bread.

Austin Pratt is an artist based in Reno, Nevada. His work exists primarily through a studio painting practice and as the frontman for the collective psych/punk outfit Spitting Image, which he co-founded in 2010. Pratt’s music, poetic writing (mainly via Spitting Image), and paintings reprocess fragmented images, textures, and patterns, and advocate for nuance and meaningful ambiguity. Pratt earned an MFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Tennessee and a BFA in Painting from the University of Nevada, Reno. He teaches drawing at the University of Nevada and is currently writing a new Spitting Image record.

Iain Watson is the founder and director of the Spoken Views Poetry Collective. Aside from writing and performing spoken word poetry, he has written and produced hip-hop music for over 20 years. Watson has brought the longest-running poetry open mic to northern Nevada, and he has helped organize many poetry/music events and helped start a youth a chapter of spoken word artists who have competed twice at a national level. Watson is involved in local theater, acting in 601 A.M. and Mattress of the Heart. Watson is currently working on a few poetry and self-produced hip-hop projects.

The Nevada Humanities Salon Series is held bi-monthly and features a panel discussion with topics relevant to the humanities in Nevada, as well as an audience Q & A session and light refreshments.