Family First: Musical Poetry with Curtis Lavon

In honor of National Poetry Month, for this month's Family First, participants will write poetry with a rhythmic undertone. We will discuss and practice the various ways music influences how we write poetry. During this 2-hour experience, novice and experienced writers alike will explore the following questions:

• How do we recognize poetic elements in the music we listen to daily?
• How do we combat writer's block?
• What makes poetry to music different from literary works of poetry that we know?

Family First is presented by Novant Health

Curtis Lavon Burton, known as Curtis Lavon, is an American poet from Columbia, SC. Lavon embarked on his creative journey as an artist shortly after 2011 when he suffered a series of heart attacks in Greenville, SC. He stated, "While I was in the hospital, I heard music, yet the room was either quiet or full of visitor chatter. And it was like I knew what I needed to do." In April 2016, Lavon released his premier poetic masterpiece entitled Lipservice. Lavon's second poetic project entitled Adlibs (2017) hit the Upstate South Carolina circuit in a frenzy after debuting his spoken word poetry at Coffee Underground's open mic. His follow up mixtape entitled Romans was released Spring 2018 on all major music platforms. In anticipation of releasing his first EP entitled Monogamy in collaboration with songstress and fiancé Shakira Mitchell, their first single Good Thing was released. Lavon is most noted for his storytelling ability and stage presence amongst southern poets. His music's melodic tones enable him to speak on love, faith, and redemption as a man of God.

Social media: @curtis_speaklife