Wednesday Night Poetry

08/31/2026

🎙️💫 This week, Wednesday September 2nd, at Wednesday Night Poetry at Kollective Coffee+Tea, I am proud to feature Arkadelphia award-winning poet, Shakespearean scholar, and professor emeritus of Henderson State University, Dr. John W. “Doc” Crawford. Open mic starts at 6:30pm. Doc will begin his feature set at 7:30pm, followed by another round of open mic. Admission is free and open to all ages. All are welcome. WNP will always be a safe space.

It’s Doc’s 90th Birthday!

⭐️ John W. "Doc" Crawford, professor emeritus of literature and language, Henderson State University. Earned degrees from Ouachita Baptist University, Drake University (Iowa), and Oklahoma State University, with further study at University of Colorado and Creative Writing Seminar of the University of Iowa. Winner of 3 Sybil Nash Awards from Poets Roundtable of Arkansas, Merit Award from PRA for promoting poetry in Arkansas and the region, Narrative Poetry Award (Georgia), Grand Poetry Award of International Poetry Society, Arkansas Haiku Prize. Nominated twice for Arkansas Poet Laureate. Many poetry publications in literary journals of various academic organizations. Poetry presentations at numerous literary and academic organizations of Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. Inducted into the Arkansas Writers Hall of Fame.

1,962 weeks in a row--Wednesday Night Poetry is the longest running consecutive weekly open mic series in the country, never missing a single week since February 1, 1989. 37 years!

08/23/2026

🎙️💫 This week, Wednesday August 26th, at Wednesday Night Poetry at Kollective Coffee+Tea, I am proud to feature California poet and author Linda Scheller. Open mic starts at 6:30pm. Linda will begin her feature set at 7:30pm, followed by another round of open mic. Admission is free and open to all ages. All are welcome. WNP will always be a safe space.

⭐️ Linda Scheller, a retired public elementary school teacher who lives in California's San Joaquin Valley, is the author of Fierce Light, Wind & Children, The Ghosts of 16 Larkin Street, and Laurels. She's a founding board member and current vice president of Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center and serves as letters chair for National League of American Pen Women's Modesto Branch. Her poetry, plays, and book reviews are published in Santa Fe Literary Review, Terrain, Hawaii Pacific Review, Plays, Sugar House Review, and elsewhere. For more information, please visit her website at lindascheller.com.

1,961 weeks in a row--Wednesday Night Poetry is the longest running consecutive weekly open mic series in the country, never missing a single week since February 1, 1989. 37 years!

08/19/2026

Tonight at Wednesday Night Poetry at Kollective Coffee+Tea, I’m thrilled to feature Mark Currey Music!

Little Rock singer-songwriter Mark Currey will be tonight's feature for Wednesday Night Poetry at Kollective Coffee+Tea, 110 Central Ave.

08/18/2026

🎙️💫 This week, Wednesday August 19th, at Wednesday Night Poetry at Kollective Coffee+Tea, I am proud to feature Little Rock singer-songwriter, storyteller, and 2026 CATALYZE fellow Mark Currey. Open mic starts at 6:30pm. Mark will begin his feature set at 7:30pm, followed by another round of open mic. Admission is free and open to all ages. All are welcome. WNP will always be a safe space.

⭐️ Mark Currey's roots run through North Texas and Southeast Arkansas. Storytelling is central to Currey’s writing, and his stories contain the joy, sadness, wisdom, and wonder of a songwriter looking back to find a way forward.

Mark was a finalist in the Texas Heritage Songwriters' Associations 2015 Texas Songwriter U Competition and a four-time nominee in the Arkansas Country Music Awards. He was a semi-finalist in the 2025 Songwriter Serenade competition.

Mark is a regular Songwriter in the Wild at the annual Antlers and Acorns: Boone Songwriters Festival which has also included acclaimed songwriters such as Rodney Crowell, Mary Gauthier, James McMurtry, Darrell Scott, and John Paul White.

Mark has shared the stage with artists such as Radney Foster, Billy Joe Shaver, Todd Snider, Chris Knight, Jack Ingram, American Aquarium, Wanda Jackson, Amanda Shires, David Olney, Charlie Robison, Amelia White, and Lilly Hiatt.

1,960 weeks in a row--Wednesday Night Poetry is the longest running consecutive weekly open mic series in the country, never missing a single week since February 1, 1989. 37 years!

08/16/2026

Celebrate the life and legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mary Oliver. Through more than 30 collections of poetry and essays, Oliver inspired generations with her reflections on nature, beauty, and love.

"American Masters – Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World” premieres Tue, Aug 25 at 9/8c.

08/13/2026

"To the Woman Crying Uncontrollably in the Next Stall" by Kim Addonizio.

If you ever woke in your dress at 4am ever
closed your legs to someone you loved opened
them for someone you didn’t moved against
a pillow in the dark stood miserably on a beach
seaweed clinging to your ankles paid
good money for a bad haircut backed away
from a mirror that wanted to kill you bled
into the back seat for lack of a tampon
if you swam across a river under rain sang
using a d***o for a microphone stayed up
to watch the moon eat the sun entire
ripped out the stitches in your heart
because why not if you think nothing &
no one can / listen I love you joy is coming

This poem appeared in Poetry Society of America.