Songwriter and poet Tommy Stanco will be this week's feature for Wednesday Night Poetry at Kollective Coffee+Tea, 110 Central Ave.
The weekly open mic session for all poets begins at 6:30 p.m. and Stanco will perform at 7 p.m., followed by another round of open mic. Admission is free and open to all ages.
A native of Dallas, Stanco, the youngest of nine children, began spouting poetry when he was 2 years old. In 1988, he launched a career as a children's entertainer touring Texas and Oklahoma libraries, schools, civic centers and auditoriums. His performances included poetry, playing guitar and singing as a solo act and with Dallas magician Dal Sanders. Stanco has performed with the Trix cereal rabbit, Osh-Kosh-B-Gosh children's clothing, the Dallas Museum of Art and Scottish Rites Hospital. He has taught acting, music, poetry and art classes to children as young as 5 for the Council for Adopted Children. He also presented Christmas shows at several senior homes and Alzheimer's units in the Dallas area.
In 1980, while a classical guitar major at Richland College, Allen Ginsberg chose Stanco to be part of his last two Dallas shows. He has also performed in avant-garde koans Victor Dada, Recent Civilization, Science Project and wrote music for the popular Dallas band Sky Blue. Stanco's poetry has been published in several Dallas literary magazines.
Stanco moved to Hot Springs a few years ago and has performed publicly at locations around town. He teaches classical guitar locally at Big Event Music and National Park College. This Wednesday night will be his fourth performance at WNP and he plans to present a mixture of poems and songs he has written over the years.
Email [email protected] for more information.
Entertainment on 07/17/2018