February 6 will mark the 30th anniversary of Wednesday Night Poetry (WPN) in Hot Springs. Since the first one in 1989, not a single Wednesday has gone by without an open mic poetry reading somewhere downtown in the Spa City. It’s considered to be the longest running weekly poetry reading in America.
Currently held at Kollective Coffee + Tea, 110 Central Avenue, the first one took place at Giancarlo’s Grotto Restaurant in the lower level of Spencer’s Corner with more than 200 in attendance. Since then Wednesday Night Poetry has been in 14 different venues in historic downtown Hot Springs.
Not fire, flood, weather, holidays or venues closing have kept the weekly program from taking place. According to Bud Kenny, the founder and current host, the tradition has been kept alive by the poetry community.
“WNP is still going on in spite of me,” Kenny said in a press release. “I ran it for the first three years and decided that was enough. So Dr. Paul Tucker stepped in and kept it going for a while. Then someone else took it over, and then I had it again, and it has gone on like that for the past 30 years. I’ve lost track of how many people have been the host.”
Kenny, whose latest stint as host began June 2015, will hand the reins to Kai Coggin the night of the 30th anniversary. “It’s time for new blood to take control.”
Kenny credits the late Dr. Tucker, who passed away in 2017, as the person most tenacious about making sure Downtown Hot Springs had a poetry reading every Wednesday night. As an example of that tenacity, in a press release he cited the story of a Wednesday night in December 2013 when an ice storm had knocked out the power at Maxine’s where the readings were scheduled to be held.
“So Dr. Tucker got his wife Suzanne to stand in front of the door on the icy sidewalk while he read a few poems to her. He didn’t know at the same time Chuck Dodson, who was host of WNP then, had gathered a few poets together at the Brau Haus where they still had power. Now that’s what you call a real community effort!”
WNP came to be as the result of a dinner conversation Kenny had with the artist Benini, in 1988.
“He had only been in Hot Springs for a few weeks and was telling me about his vision for an arts community here. At one point he said, ‘We need to have a weekly poetry reading!’ I told him I write poetry and to let me know if he got one going. The next day I got a call from Giancarlo who owned the Grotto Restaurant. He said, ‘I hear you want to start a weekly poetry reading.’ So I guess you could say I got roped into it.” WNP was the first recurring art event in Hot Springs–before Gallery Walk and the Documentary Film Festival.
Over the past 30 years WNP has been the catalyst for other poetry events including the Arkansas Grand Slam. It began in 1997, and for 15 years offered the world’s largest cash prize for a performance poet.
Earlier in the 1990s it was the spring board for the Arkansas Celebration of the Arts in Poetry. For most of that decade the festival featured such noted poets as Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and the founder of slam poetry, Marc Smith. “It was Marc who declared WNP to be America’s longest running weekly poetry reading,” Kenny said.
Wednesday Night Poetry’s mission is to have a place for poets, song writers and story tellers to share their art. “It’s one thing to pour what you feel out on a page,” Kenny said. “But what makes that art complete is sharing it with someone. WNP is all about freedom of speech.”
Every Wednesday evening the program begins at 6:30 p.m. with an open mic session for all poets. Then at 7:00 p.m. a featured poet performs for 30 minutes followed by a second round of open mic. Kenny will be the featured poet on the 30th anniversary. For more information about Wednesday Night Poetry email budonfoot@yahoo.com or visit FB: Wednesday Night Poetry.
