LOGOS welcomes two legendary “Blue Plate Poets” for an incendiary evening of poetry, performance, and conversation.
W. Joe Hoppe is a poet, professor, and maniacal mechanic. He is the author of two full-length books of poetry, Galvanized (2007) and Diamond-Plate (2012). He has published poetry in many journals including Analecta, Borderlands, Cider Press Review, Di*Verse*Cities, Nerve Cowboy, Utter, and The Blanton Museum of Art’s Poetry Project. He has hosted numerous poetry events at Austin’s Malvern Books, and teaches English and Creative Writing at Austin Community College. When he’s not writing poems or grading papers, he’s working on his customized ’51 Plymouth Cranbrook – which he has built lovingly from scratch.
Mike Henry has been a vital, virtuosic force in the Austin arts and culture scene for years. He was three-time co-director for The National Poetry Slam, toured with Austin’s infamous Asylum Street Spankers, and has been a part of the SXSW Music Conference for decades. Among the numerous projects and venues he has helped build, promote and program are Austin's iconic Electric Lounge, The North Door, as well as Las Vegas’ Downtown Project for urban revitalization project and the Emerge Impact + Music festival on the Las Vegas strip. Now based in Austin, Mike serves as an independent entertainment consultant for a roster of amazing clients in the creative community.
The Blue Plate Poets – composed of original members Pasha, Robert Lee (then Robert S.), Mike Henry, W. Joe Hoppe, and Marlys West – premiered as an Austin Poetry Supergroup in June 1993. Over the next three years, they were joined by Tammy Gomez, and moved to the Electric Lounge, opening for former Lounge fixture-made-good Hamell on Trial at Friday night shows. Each of the Blue Plate Poets infused varying levels of academic smarts and street wisdom with their own distinctive individual voices, and because of this, they shaped what is arguably the most successful run of any poetry group in Austin with respect to regular audiences and scene-wide reputation (adapted from the Austin Chronicle).