Hot Springs poet Neelix Barby will be featured today at Wednesday Night Poetry at Kollective Coffee+Tea, 110 Central Ave.
The regular open mic session for all poets, musicians, storytellers will begin at 6:30 p.m. Barby will begin their feature set at 7:30 p.m., followed by another round of open mic. Admission is free and open to all ages. Masks are recommended. All are welcome.
Born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Barby and their family lived there for 15 years until the family fell on hard times. "Those hard times caused us to be homeless for my first year of high school. In an effort to make a better life for herself and her daughter, my mother moved us from all we'd ever known. We stayed in Florida for a month with my mother's best-friend, Kelly, my other mother. We briefly lived in Georgia before moving to Texas, where we would live for the next four years. During this time, I met my now-fiancee, Vex," Barby said in a WNP news release.
"In the time I spent around my father I walked on eggshells and lived for the good moments. He brought me my love of 'Star Trek' and 'Lord of the Rings;' he also brought me PTSD and trauma that has taken me years to comprehend. I stopped seeing my father around 14 years old. I'm not fully healed from what I went through, but he no longer weighs over my every decision. I'm queer, I'm trans, I'm Jewish, and I'm free," Barby said.
"I wrote a little here and there in sixth and seventh grade, but eighth and ninth grade were where it truly took off. I joined an after-school poetry club and started attending every week. Then I discovered an open mic in Oklahoma City. I will be forever grateful to the people there for welcoming me with open arms. Gods, I was insufferable, but they nurtured and encouraged me to grow. I was young, queer, and struggling. Everyone there was at least six to 10 years older than me, if not more. I remember one man who I looked up to there. He loved comics; DC, Marvel, you name them. He wrote poems about comics and how they helped him through his struggles. Little did he know he was a superhero in my story, always encouraging me to keep writing," Barby said.
"My writing has grown and changed greatly over the years. I went from reading and admiring other poets to being admired. You have no idea how hard that is to say. My brain tells me my writing is worthless, yet people come up to me at Wednesday Night Poetry to tell me how phenomenal it is. I had someone tell me that they see me as a staple of WNP. I nearly cried right then and there. As for inspiration, it has changed a little, but for the most part it has remained the same. I started writing because of poets like the people at Button Poetry. I saw how they were able to express their trauma and move people with their words. Today, I still aim to move people while having a healthy way of coping. Even if I'm simply writing about the trees in autumn, I want someone to be able to take something from that," they said.
"Recently, I've written poems about struggling with perfectionism, working through relationship troubles, my disability and how it affects my ability to work, insomnia, and religious trauma. I write about what I feel, experience, and see. Oftentimes I feel my work isn't good enough. Then I read the piece at WNP and I'm humbled by the praise. My favorite poets are the poets at WNP -- Mau Correa, Dan Costello, Betty Brown, Sky Ezra Grey, all of them. They're all brilliant. Seriously, when Dan praises my work I am absolutely floored. The Mau enjoying something I wrote -- astonished. It's cheesy, I know, but they are some of the finest poets I've ever met. Not to mention Kai Coggin herself. What a poet extraordinaire -- she is a force of nature. I am eternally grateful to her for this opportunity to feature."
"I found WNP through a dear friend and fellow poet, Emeryn. I had known about it since May when we initially arrived in Hot Springs. My first night there I read two poems; I had found home. To me, WNP is not only a community but a family. Others have said it best when describing WNP as Wednesday Night Church and Therapy. WNP is truly a place of growth and safety. The poets that I have met at WNP have been some of the greatest people I have ever met. They encourage you to grow, support you in and out of your times of need, and write poetry that will simultaneously make you laugh and bring you to tears," Barby said.
"Neelix is a rare gem of a poet, like a romantic transcendentalist, an anachronism of a heart, so old and wise, yet writing in an 18-year-old body. They have had a lifetime's worth of experiences and have traveled a long road to finally arrive at a place where they can expressed themself fully and honestly. WNP is a safe space. Neelix's poems are memorable and powerful, deep and rich. This will be a special night," WNP Host Kai Coggin said in the release.
This week marks 1,766 consecutive Wednesdays of open mic poetry in downtown Hot Springs since Feb. 1, 1989. "WNP is the longest-running consecutive weekly open mic series in the country," the release said. Email [email protected] for more information.