Wednesday Night Poetry to feature Jonesboro poet
Poet Scott McDaniel will be this week’s feature for Wednesday Night Poetry at Kollective Coffee+Tea, 110 Central Ave. The regular open mic session for all poets will begin at 6:30 p.m. and McDaniel will perform at 7 p.m., followed by another open mic session. Admission is free and open to all ages.
McDaniel wrote his first poem in the sixth grade after visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. in 1989. He titled it “The Wall,” and he has been writing poetry ever since. “My cousin Miller Williams kept encouraging me to keep writing,” said McDaniel in a news release. Williams was the award-winning poet who read at President Clinton’s second inauguration and was one of the founders of the University of Arkansas Press. Since then McDaniel has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and published in numerous journals including Deep South Magazine, Oberon Poetry Magazine, and Common Ground Review.
A native of Jonesboro, McDaniel works as an estimate manager in his family’s commercial contracting business. “We build banks and office buildings and such,” said McDaniel. “I’m one of the people who figures out how much it’s going to cost to build something and how much we are going to make off it. I like my job. It’s really challenging.” He has a B.S. in psychology and sociology.
“I am not one of those poets who writes about death,” said McDaniel. “But I will write about hearing a voice mail from someone who died.” His poetry is heavily influenced by the music and culture of the Mississippi Delta. “My writing reflects the unique hues, quirks and broken promises of the modern south.”
Although McDaniel has read his poetry at numerous venues around the state, this will be his first performance at Wednesday Night Poetry. Besides Arkansas, he has performed at the Cornelia Street Café in Greenwich Village, N.Y., The Spinning Wheel Pub in County Cork, Ireland, and will appear at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City this summer.
Email budonfoot@yahoo.com for more information about Wednesday Night Poetry.