Last Sunday of every month from 12pm - 1:30pm PT! Current 2026 dates are:

March 29th
April 26th
May 31st

This event will be held on zoom. Once you purchase a ticket, you'll receive a confirmation email, and the link will be emailed to you 24 hours before the workshop.

Poetry totally changed the way I write lyrics. It’s worth your time as a songwriter to lay the harmony and the melody aside sometimes and focus in on words - the rhythm of them, the echoing of sounds, the balance between style and meaning.

Typewriters totally changed the way I write poetry - I put in a solid five years of busking as a typewriter poet, and the difference in my lyric writing before and after that period is palpable. I attribute this mostly to three factors: time constraints, non-judgement, and volume.

In this 1.5 hour workshop I’ll be discussing ideas about writing I’ve gleaned from street poetry and how you can apply them to your creative process. I’ll also be discussing the relationship between poetry and music - or what’s often called “the music of poetry”. We’ll do a fair amount of writing, so make sure you have a paper and pen (or a typewriter).

We’ll talk about:

Creative blocks and how to overcome them
The power of time constraints and rapid-fire poems
the music of poetry and the poetry of music
Writing exercises for getting unstuck and practicing the various techniques of prosody

What you need:

something to write with
something to write on

About me

I’m a singer/songwriter, poet, and teacher with a background in jazz, bluegrass, americana, and rock. After attending Berklee College of Music in Boston for two years I dropped out and spent about six years busking, traveling, and generally avoiding responsibility. I settled in Austin for about five years, where I put in thousands of hours writing poetry for strangers with a typewriter on South Congress. Eventually I started the Typewriter Poets Collective, an arts collective and live poetry booking agency which now has branches in both Austin and the SF Bay Area. I now live in Woodacre, CA, where I play gigs and teach music online.

More information on Noaa

Poetry for Songwriters: Adapting the Lessons of Street Poetry

Poetry for Songwriters: Adapting the Lessons of Street Poetry