Discover........Experience........Express
Our featured poet for November 2025 is Johnny Olson, based in Dallas.
He is a U.S. military vet (Marines), and a popular literary events producer.
His bio:
Johnny Olson was born on a brisk November day in 1970 in Chicago. He found his feet & cut his teeth in the blue-collared working class neighborhoods of his hometown. In 1988 he was reborn in MCRD San Diego, where he found himself the new title of United States Marine. After surviving the Gulf War, he hung up his BDUs & turned in his rifle to instead grab his pen & brush where he rediscovered his passion for writing & painting. In 1998 he found himself in Dallas, where what was supposed to be a brief stint in the South turned into over two decades… & counting.
In 1999, Johnny, with a couple of other mad cohorts, started Mad Swirl. This 'zine project has now evolved into a being all its own. After wearing too many hats, he now only wears a few at Mad Swirl: Chief Editor, Creative Director & Host at Mad Swirl's monthly Open Mic night & Mad Swirl's Quarterly podcast, "Inside the Eye."
Johnny’s work first appeared in print in 1996 in the now defunct Lip Magazine. Since then, his words & images have found their way onto a few online and printed zines thru the years. To name a few: Mad Swirl: Issues I-VI, The Best of Mad Swirl : 2017-2024, Haggard & Halloo, 10k Poets, PAO Productions: The Open Mic Project.
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2ND SUNDAY SPOKEN WORD
November 9...6-8 pm...$5
A SoundCulture production; hosted & curated by
Tammy Melody Gomez
House band music starts at 6pm with blues, folk, jazz: SAVANNA SONS
Please feel free to bring your original poetry, prose, stories, dramatic monologues, song lyrics, rants 'n' raves & anything else considered "literary arts."
2ND SATURDAY JAZZ
Johnny Case Trio
Nov 8, 2025...8 PM...$20
The recurring 2nd Saturday Jazz at Arts Fifth Avenue will feature the JOHNNY CASE TRIO November 8, 2025 for an evening of varied material. You can expect “real” jazz by dedicated artists.
Johnny Case, piano
Nathan Phelps, acoustic bass
Keith Wingate, drums
COMING EVENTS
Please note: our online Box Office closes 1 hour before show time, after that you may call 817-923-9500 to see if tickets are still available. Thank you.
1st SATURDAY FREE TAP CLASS
November 1...1-2 PM
Please call 817-923-9500 to reserve your place in class.
No shoes, no problem - we have shoes to loan in most sizes.
TAP! TAP! TAP!
ARTS FIFTH AVENUE
1628 5TH AVENUE
FORT WORTH, TX 76104
817-923-9500