I first heard Mike Guinn at a 2019 Martin Luther King, Jr. poetry slam. His energy was magnetic, and I asked him to be a storyteller at Out of the Loop: True Stories about Life in Tyler and East Texas, for our November show. As seasoned as Mike is on the stage, it was his first time to tell a true, personal story. He did not disappoint. He mesmerized the crowd with a childhood tale that began one summer in his hometown, Jacksonville.
Since then, Mike has moved on to other projects. A social worker now living in the Dallas area, Mike has responded to the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the Black Lives Matter movement, by compiling and editing two anthologies, with voices from around the world.
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