Wednesday Night Poetry to feature gallery owner, poet

Chris James, winner of the 2018 Best Poet and Best Author of the Year at Arkansas’ Black and Gifted Awards, 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 begins at 6:30 p.m. and James will perform at 7 p.m., followed by another open mic. Admission is free and open to all ages.

In 2016, James, who has been a member of the Arkansas Arts Council and numerous other arts advocacy organizations, was named a Visionary Arkansan 2016 by Arkansas Times for his efforts to improve the community through the arts. He owns the House of Arts in North Little Rock and founded Roots Arts Connection, which purchased houses in the inner city, renovated them and rented rooms to struggling artists for low rent. In turn, those artists agreed to use their art to improve the community, a news release said. The House of Arts also holds a weekly open mic poetry reading every Friday night at 9 p.m.

James has also been a speaker for the international organization TED which promotes discussion of improving the world through technology, entertainment and design. Those discussions are held in more than 110 different languages.

He first got into the arts as a spoken word artist but has since branched out into photography and playwriting, the release said. One of his newer plays, “Dear Black People,” will be presented April 21 at Mosaic Templers Cultural Center in Little Rock.

The first poem he can remember writing was in the seventh grade. “It was about a girl named Woogie,” James said in the release. “And I’ve been writing poetry ever since. Originally I thought I’d be a news reporter. And being a poet is kind of like being a reporter.”

What inspires James to write poetry is his “desire to talk about the struggles of working to get more out of life,” he said.

James will have books and CDs of his poetry available Wednesday night.

Email budonfoot@yahoo.com for more information about Wednesday Night Poetry.

Submitted photo OPEN MIC: Chris James, winner of the 2018 Best Poet and Best Author of the Year at Arkansas’ Black and Gifted Awards, will be this week’s feature for Wednesday Night Poetry at Kollective Coffee+Tea, 110 Central Ave. The regular open mic session for all...