An Initiation at UNR
The first time I ever witnessed a spoken word poetry performance in person was in 2017, in one of my English classes at the University of Nevada, Reno. Under the harsh lights of a university classroom, a female student had come in to invite us to join Wolf Speaks UNR, a spoken word poetry club.
The poem she performed was from the point of view of Black mothers and their experiences in the United States. Her words gripped my heart, and tears welled up in my eyes. Each spoken word performance that I’ve seen since has touched me in the same way.
I didn’t know it then, but Wolf Speaks was associated with a larger organization called Spoken Views Collective. The next time I saw a performance would be at one of their events in November 2021.
The show was called Insomnia. It headlined the winner of Season 15 America’s Got Talent, Brandon Leake. Leake hosted a one man spoken word play with local poets as opening acts. These poets included SaMoura Horsley, a founding member of Wolf Speaks UNR; Jessie James Ziegler, an active member of the Spoken Views Collective, and Sana Sana, a local artist.
Each performer had their own topics that they spoke on. It ranged from growing up in the ever changing landscape of Northern Nevada to the experiences of people of color.
When a powerful line reached the audience, they would respond with snapping fingers or hums of appreciation. In the silent moments when a poet would pause, I could hear the sniffling of those moved to tears.
“I think it is healing,” Iain Watson, the founder and director of the Spoken Views Collective said in regards to spoken word. “When people share, I think it really opens up the idea that you’re not alone.”
Watson believes that sharing the vulnerabilities of your heart through poetry creates connections between the performer and their audience.
“Sometimes you get into those dark spaces [in your mind] and … you find the shame in yourself. … But when people talk about those things, you’re like ‘Geez, I went through the same exact thing, and that person’s talking about it,” Iain Watson, the founder and director of the Spoken Views Collective, said.
The very beginnings of the collective
The collective wasn’t even a thought in his mind when Watson, and his co-founder Tony Walker started planning an event called Spoken Views in 2006.
“We were like hip hop artists- mainly rapping, but we also had a deep love for spoken word poetry,” Watson said. Inspired by Def Poetry Jam, and noticing the missing poetry scene in Reno, they started planning.
The event was held at Se7en Tea House and Bar on the commercial floor of Arlington Towers in 2007. The business has since closed, but Watson still remembers it fondly.
“They kind of offered us to do an open-mic there, or like a little performance,” Watson recalled. The event featured a mixture of poetry and music that he and his friends performed.
The event went well. Watson and a group of friends involved in poetry started building the collective from there.
“We were just kind of feeling the community out,” Watson said. They went into other venues to perform, and eventually decided to start hosting open-mics in different venues.
After hosting a few open-mics, the collective found a permanent home at The Holland Project.
“I almost want to say [we ended up at The Holland] eight to nine years ago because again, Facebook reminds me of this stuff,” Watson laughed.
There was a time when Watson was doing everything for the collective. He was in charge of promoting, opening the doors, and closing down venues.
“Unfortunately, the other founder hasn’t been involved in the collective for quite a while,” Watson said. He defined it as a falling out, but was hesitant to go into details. “I was doing every single thing for a few years,” Watson explained. “Until some people in the collective started stepping up.”
Watson has come to realize that his aspirations are bigger than he can manage. As an elementary school teacher, and caretaker to his father, he is learning to take a step back.
“I really came to a realization that I can’t rely on the poets to do other jobs, you know; because ultimately they’re doing what they’re doing with our collective because they love poetry,” Watson elaborated.
A Revolving Door of Poets and New Ideas
Watson wants to print a quarterly zine for the collective, and he’s inspired by bigger poetry communities in Los Angeles. “The collective is, you know, it’s really weird,” Watson said. “It’s a very big revolving door.”
While Watson wants the collective to grow, there comes a point when powerful poets in the collective leave, or some only stay involved for a year. “I believe it kind of- in a way- hurts us a little bit,” Watson said. He believes that those poets could make a big impact in the community, if the collective could get them into more venues.
Despite this, Watson is happy to see members who have been there from the beginning and newer members that want to be more involved. The Spoken Views Collective is currently attempting to reach out to high school students. In the past, they’ve worked with students who went on to create Wolf Speaks at the university.
“I really love to see that … people grow and then kind of create their own little facet, you know; but still under the Spoken Views umbrella,” Watson said.
One of Watson’s goals for the youth program is to send students to one of the biggest poetry slam youth competitions: Brave New Voices. They were able to send six students to one of their competitions in Washington D.C. in 2016.
“We finally got Reno on the map to do that,” Watson said. It was a huge undertaking for the collective and required hard work and an enormous amount of fundraising. “I think it really opens up avenues for students,” Watson said. Many students that the collective has worked with continue to write and perform poetry.
Including Horsley, Ming Li Wu went to Washington D.C. in 2016. Wu has performed at a TEDx event in Reno and had their poetry featured by the Harvard Ethnic Studies Coalition.
“They find their voice and they find the people that are [like-minded]. It creates like a family, you know,” Watson said. “I always call this, a family; the collective, a family.”