National Poetry Month: Austin Reeves performs "Thing Like Love"

Austin Reeves is a 19-year-old Flagstaff poet studying to become an English professor. Born in Washington state at the height of the grunge movement — and quality ’90s music, Reeves moved to Arizona when he was 7. Then he was moved back to Washington. Then he was moved back to Arizona.

Having lived in and around the Phoenix area for far too long, Reeves opted to attend college at Northern Arizona University — a wise choice, he thinks.

It was in Flagstaff that Reeves truly discovered poetry, having dabbled in it at times before. Joining up with the FlagSlam and Sedona Slam family in late 2011, Reeves placed second in the last slam of the Sedona Poetry Slam season and went on to compete in Sedona’s Poetry Grand Slam, narrowly missing out on making the first-ever Sedona National Poetry Slam Team. In 2013, Reeves is back for blood and doing his best to systematically *cough* remove his rivals from the competition.

So far, Reeves has already established himself as Flagstaff’s 2012-2013 Haiku Death Match Champion. Austin won Flagstaff’s 2012-2013 Haiku Death Match in his underwear. Real stuff.

Reeves takes the greater majority of his inspiration from national slam poets Buddy Wakefield and Anis Mojgani.

Reeves is a guitarist, singer and drummer for Tempe-based post-rock band Ursus Colossus, with whom he has recorded two full-length albums. He has also been recorded on a number of tracks for Phoenix-based alternative rock band The Upper Strata. Reeves finds his musical inspiration in the bloodline of his musically inclined family. He also tries his hand at visual art forms occasionally. Currently, Reeves is attempting to make his way back into skateboarding and to make a hobby of electronic music production with Ableton, a musical performance and production software.

Reeves believes in poetry, music and art always.

Like Austin Reeves and performance poetry? 

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