Inspired by hunger for arts
Poetry
out the shelves.
“What’s great about Austin is that it’s full of people with the semicommon mind-set that it’s better to live somewhere where people are hungry for the arts,” Brown said.
He has lived here for only seven months but first was exposed to Austin’s creative culture in the 1990s, when he attended an Austin Poetry Slam performance. Still a regular event, Austin Poetry Slam is held every Tuesday at the Spider House Cafe, off Guadalupe Street.
It was at the poetry slam that he fell in love with Austin’s spirit, which he says is why a drivein like the Blue Starlite Mini Urban Drive-In can pop up and be successful, and why he selected Austin as the location of his poetry store, rather than another artistic city such as Portland, Ore., or Boulder, Colo.
As he gets to know Austin better on his motorcycle, he has found not just a variety of burgeoning art galleries but also lots of really great food.
Recently, he tried out Uncorked, a wine bar and tasting room on East Seventh Street, and marveled at its prices — “I ate Cornish game hen for $16!” — and its wine list, which strives to find just the right red or white for the particular taste buds of each customer. He’s also a fan of the butterscotch boudino at the Salty Sow, on Manor Road, and the beer selec- tion at the Black Star CoOp, off North Lamar Boulevard.
Of course, if there’s one Austin business he can’t say enough about, it’s his own. Right now containing only books published by Write Bloody, the shop, he said, is accessible for anyone, even for those who aren’t fans of poetry.
“A lot of people may not want to visit a poetry shop because they think they know what poetry is, but they will leave surprised. They will be able to find something to like,” Brown said.