SLC, UT | Pam Houston and The Montvales at Church & State

Name: SLC, UT | Pam Houston and The Montvales at Church & State
Start: 2024-10-21T18:30:00-06:00
End: 2024-10-21T20:30:00-06:00
Location: Church & State

Schedule

Mon Oct 21 2024 at 06:30 pm to 08:30 pm

UTC-06:00

Location

Church & State | Salt Lake City, UT

Join author Pam Houston and The Montvales musicians for an evening of story and song at Church & State in downtown Salt Lake City, UT, on Monday, October 21. Doors open at 6:30pm, show starts at 7! This event is FREE and all are welcome. Books will be available for purchase and 15% of proceeds will go towards Utah Abortion Fund.

As part of the Utah Book Festival's statewide programming and in partnership with Torrey House Press, this performance features intimate storytelling and music related to reproductive justice. Houston's latest nonfiction work "Without Exception" is a call for freedom by way of abortion rights. Written with equal parts candor and lyricism, Pam Houston illuminates the interconnected histories of abortion in the United States and in her own life during the decades when Roe v. Wade was the law of the land. Houston guides us through the shifting landscapes of politics, the law, and self-determination in a country where access to medical care and the power to determine your own destiny are increasingly—and once again—dependent on geography and circumstance.
Houston is also the author of Air Mail, Deep Creek, Contents May Have Shifted, and Cowboys Are My Weakness, among others. Houston teaches in the Creative Writing MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts Creative Writing MFA program, is a Professor of English at UC Davis, and cofounder and creative director of the literary nonprofit Writing By Writers. She lives at nine thousand feet above sea level near the headwaters of the Rio Grande.
Born and raised in Knoxville, TN, Sally Buice and Molly Rochelson of songwriter duo The Montvales spent much of their formative years busking amidst the Elvis impersonators and musical saw players of the town’s Market Square, honing their uniquely boisterous harmonies and driving, joyful sound. Eventually they graduated to playing indoors on the local Americana radio station, WDVX, and found community in old-time circles around town. A local fiddler’s dairy cows were among the first intrepid listeners of their early DIY recordings. After moving away for several years to seek their fortunes separately, Molly and Sally finally reunited in 2019 to write and record their first album, Heartbreak Summer Camp. The two now make their home in Cincinnati, OH, spending their days touring extensively and crafting intimate, storytelling-driven songs that explore the joys and perils of self-determination. Their new album, Born Strangers, is produced by Mike Eli LoPinto (producer and co-writer of Emily Nenni’s “On the Ranch”, guitarist for Chris Stapleton) and recorded in Sean Sullivan’s Tractor Shed Studio in Nashville. Tracks from the album have been featured by The Bluegrass Situation, Holler., The American Songwriter, The Bluegrass Standard, Twangville, and more. The twelve songs careen recklessly across the whole folk-country spectrum, showcasing The Montvales’ distinctive harmonies and building a sonic world just expansive and surprising enough to hold the wide-eyed existentialism of the stories and questions raised by the lyrics.
The 2024 Utah Humanities Book Festival marks 27 years of improving Utah communities through reading, literature, and conversations with authors and each other, and is offering over scores of partnered events in communities statewide. The Annual Utah Humanities Book Festival is Utah’s oldest and only statewide book festival and has become Utah’s signature literary event. Each year, the festival is a chance for book lovers of all types to enjoy some great, free-of-charge literary events at locations throughout Utah.
Torrey House Press publishes books at the intersection of the literary arts and environmental advocacy. THP authors explore the diversity of human experiences and relationships with place. THP books create conversations about issues that concern the American West, landscape, literature, and the future of our ever-changing planet, inspiring action toward a more just world.