Empty Step: Poetry & Spoken Word, Featuring W. Scott Hanna
Event Details
Join us for an evening of poetry and spoken word at 7pm Saturday, February 15, 2025 in The Gallery at Towngate Theatre!
Empty Step is a spoken word event that includes a featured poet and an open mic.
7pm February 15 at Towngate Theatre.
Admission is $5. Purchase tickets online or call 304-242-7700.
Sponsored by Main Street Bank.
Featured Poet for February 15
W. Scott Hanna is a professor of English at West Liberty University, where he teaches creative writing and literature. His poetry and creative nonfiction have been published in “Pine Mountain Sand and Gravel,” “Cleaver Magazine,” “Still: The Journal,” and others, as well as in the anthologies “Riparian: An Anthology of Ohio River Writing,” and “I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing: Ohio’s Appalachian Voices.” His poetry manuscript in progress is tentatively titled “The Only House on the Left.” He has served as the poetry editor of the “Northern Appalachia Review” since its inaugural volume in 2020 to the present. Born and raised in the Upper Ohio Valley, he currently lives in St. Clairsville, Ohio.
Open Mic
Those wishing to participate may bring any poetry or prose they would like to read.
About Empty Step: Poetry & Spoken Word
Take a mesmerizing journey with a featured poet. Listen to local actors bring stories to life through theatrical readings from selected plays. Most of all, explore the connections between spoken word and personal expression.
You can discover and develop your own voice, too. After the featured readings, an open mic session closes out the evening. Poets and storytellers, new and experienced, shy and bold, bring their poetry and prose and read aloud to the audience.
“Empty Step” was created by Towngate veterans Maribeth Thompson and the late Tom Stobart in the 1980s to give our local poets and actors an opportunity to have their works and voices be heard. The program was revitalized in recent years and is coordinated by C.J. Farnsworth.
Towngate Theatre is more than theater…
Towngate’s Second Season enhances Wheeling’s arts landscape with literary programming, spoken word performances, live music, improvisation and more. Programs often feature works by emerging and/or local authors, playwrights, songwriters, and poets.
