‘STREET SORROWS’ ASU STUDENT AUSTIN DAVIS, MUSICIAN JOE ALLIE CREATE JAZZ POETRY EP ANNIKA TOMLIN • COLLEGE TIMES
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SU senior Austin Davis released a three-song jazz poetry EP with the guitar accompaniment of musician Joe Allie to all streaming services on July 30. “Originally I started writing these poems because I was experiencing a lot of difficult stuff,” says Davis, who called the collection “Street Sorrows.” “I was seeing a lot of violence. I was seeing a lot of pain and suffering,” Davis says. “I’ve been with people during heat strokes and overdoses and it’s hard. I started writing poetry as a coping mechanism I think.” Davis started his outreach program AZ Hugs for the Houseless through the Arizona Jews for Justice last March. Through his initiative, he and a group of volunteers regularly distribute water, food and other items to people in the homeless community. Proceeds from the sale of the album “Street Sorrows” will go directly to the initiative to help
continue the work that it does. “Our big focus of our project is trying to show people that they are not alone on the streets,” Davis says. “We go out and we have three to five community events every week and we service people in Phoenix, Tempe, Mesa and Apache Junction and all over the Valley. “We started out by bringing people these care packs and water bottles and masks, but it has grown from there.” Davis notes that he has given rides for people to see family members and to enter rehab as well as simply providing a shoulder to cry on. “We bring people special requests like musical instruments and art supplies, people’s favorite meals and their favorite food and stuff like that,” Davis says. “It’s just a huge community effort.” Davis and Allie previously collaborated at another show where Davis spoke his poetry and Allie companied with jazz music. “I think (jazz and poetry)
complement each other and I think jazz brings out the parts of poetry that you maybe wouldn’t have seen, and poetry brings out parts of jazz,” Davis says. “That’s how I was introduced to Joe and we just kind of had an awesome connection and really cool artistic chemistry during that show.” “Street Sorrows” will feature Allie
playing guitar, although the 15-year musician can also play drums, bass, piano and trumpet. “Jazz is just the most recent style I have studied,” Allie says. “I was a metalhead first and then picked up other styles along the way like funk, blues, country even bossa nova. “I will definitely be working with Austin again. This project happened
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