Nerd Nite Edmonton #78: Rocks ‘n Roll

When: Thursday, February 29, 2024, at 7:30 pm

Where: Backstage Theatre at Fringe Theatre Adventures

Fringe Theatre Arts Barn, 10330 84 Ave NW, Edmonton

It’s not every year that February 29th rolls around, so we’re doing something special for Nerd Nite #78. Roll on down to the Fringe Theatre to hear some talks that rock from geologists who are also poets and musicians, and rock out to some live music played by the very same speakers!

In his second book of poems, David Martin digs deep into an examination of the world using the lens of geology. With lyrically experimental poems expanding and retracting, this collection finds sonic and conceptual energy from the perspective of deep time and the geological forces that have shaped and continue to shape the Earth. Enacting seismic shifts, catastrophes, and erosions throughout the natural and cultural worlds, Martin’s poetic practice pushes forward to contend with the contemporary environmental changes and the structure of the Anthropocene that affect how we live in the twenty-first century. The collection veers from the Rocky Mountains and explorations of “fossilized” towns to family histories and myth-soaked theories, all while seeking a balance between disruptive poetic techniques and the centred lyrical voice.

David Martin works as a literacy instructor in Calgary and as an organizer for the Single Onion Poetry Series. His first collection, Tar Swan (NeWest Press, 2018), was a finalist for the Raymond Souster Award and the City of Calgary W. O. Mitchell Book Prize. David’s work has been awarded the CBC Poetry Prize, and has been shortlisted for prizes from FreeFall, Vallum, PRISM international, and the Alberta Magazine Awards. As well, he was named a “Writer to Watch” in 2023 by CBC Books. His latest collection, Kink Bands, was published by NeWest Press in September of 2023.

Mountains inspire us, challenge us, and confound us. As part of the Rocks and Roll Nerds Night I’ll be talking about my research in the Himalayas, the Canadian Rockies, and the Coast Ranges, and how Indigenous knowledge has helped changed my outlook on how we do science in the mountains.

Joseph Shea is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography, Earth, and Environmental Science at the University of Northern British Columbia and a musician with Trundled and The Ebbs. The central theme of his research is mountains, and he incorporates the theories and tools of a wide range of fields (remote sensing, glaciology, meteorology, climatology, hydrology, and geohazards) to investigate how mountains are responding – and will respond in the future – to climate change. These themes creep into his songwriting in surprising and unexpected ways. He is the lead investigator of the Mountain Snow Hydrology Lab (www.moshlab.org), a member of the Hidden Figures team exploring racism and erasure of BIPOC scholars in Canadian academic environments (www.hiddenfigurescanada.org), and a lead author of the recently published Canadian Mountain Assessment, which brought together Indigenous and scientific knowledge in a ground-breaking report on the status of mountain regions in Canada.

Floods are powerful events. They erode, move, and deposit massive amounts of sediment. A single event can sculpt landscapes in a matter of hours and repeated events can build entirely new landmasses over millennia. Because of this power, floods leave strong signatures in the geological record. Floods also heavily influence human livelihood. They can rejuvenate agricultural systems just as easily as they can destroy entire communities. Like their geological signatures, floods have left vivid impressions in our archaeological, historical, and artistic records. This talk will trace how floods have been interpreted in western scientific tradition and musical record over the past 2,000 years, with emphasis on the last two centuries. Among other stops, we will visit ice age floods of near biblical proportion near Fort McMurray, Alberta and the deluged Mississippi River valley of 1927.

Robin is an Assistant Professor at MacEwan University in Edmonton. He studies the Quaternary Period, the most recent division of the Geological Timescale (ca. 2.6 million years ago to today). He specializes in geomorphology, geospatial science and geoarchaeology. His research focuses on how processes associated with present day industrialization and climate change affect the preservation of heritage landscapes contained in the geological and archaeological records of western Canada. He has also run a semi-professional roots band called The Super 92 for over a decade.