Once a sleepy railroad town, the New Roanoke is hip, happening and surprisingly citified – home to a mix of creatives and entrepreneurs from all over the world … or right down the road. In each installment of our blog series, you’ll meet a new face who’ll share their spin on the Star City – their favorite places to eat, drink, mix, mingle or get inspired.
In this installment, we talked to writer, actor and musical artist Bryan Hancock, who also works as a community engagement assistant at Virginia Tech.
You might call Bryan Hancock a renaissance man – the kind who defies stereotypes by doing a little of everything, and doing it well.
“I love giving whatever’s inside of me and watching it flourish around me – I want to give whatever it is 110%,” says Bryan, a lifetime Roanoker who’s acted at Showtimers, performed improvisational comedy with Big Lick Conspiracy, and created music under the moniker Harvest Blaque. “The music we make is a mixture of hip-hop meets funk meets jazz, rock & roll. We’re just trying to do what we do.”
But it might be the impact of Bryan’s open-mic poetry show, Soul Sessions, that surprises him most.
“I’ll get real personal and tell you, essentially, I didn’t know what I was doing when I started,” says Bryan, who launched the event six years ago.
Right away, he saw poets seizing their moment on stage to process the death of a friend in the Virginia Tech shootings, come out of the closet, or simply share the mundane (and sometimes highly personal) details of their days. The vulnerability humbled him, he says.
“It’s been an amazing thing, watching people bare who they are to strangers, in poetic form… These things build bridges of empathy.”
The writer’s group has continued to grow, meeting regularly at the Taubman Museum, and this month, Soul Sessions Junior launches at Lucy Addison Middle School, creating “an evening of kid poets sharing their stories,” Bryan says.
Here, we asked this creative community-builder to share some of his favorite spots in the Star City.
Where do you love to eat?
BH: Hanu Truck! {Try the} Seoul Bird. It’s the most amazing thing – Korean barbecue. Taaza is my other favorite restaurant – take all my money! … Mac and Bob’s has the best sweet potato pancakes – I go for brunch sometimes – and Breadcraft has the best French toast I’ve ever had.
How about for a drink?
BH: I’m a coffee rat. For the coffee I go to Little Green Hive. When I was sick Sharon made this elixir she only makes for her kids, for me. It’s not even on the menu! … And Toya at Morning Brew is like my sister. She knows how I love my coffee: a little nutmeg in the bottom of it, a shot of caramel …
Where do you go to feel creative and inspired?
BH: I usually hop in my car, and I will drive up and down the Parkway… Then I’ll pull into one of those spots, pull out my pen and paper and just write whatever I’m feeling … I listen to Bach sometimes, or hip hop, or a beats CD.
Can you think of any best-kept secrets in our community … places and spaces other Roanokers may not have discovered yet?
BH: You can always catch a great show at the The Spot on Kirk… very diverse shows. If you can catch [mobile record shop and local concert presenter] The Bazaar, I love their vinyl… Vintage Vault is a great place to find records [also]. To me it’s a best-kept secret because there’s so much nostalgia there and so much fun. They have a great record shop in Lynchburg that I constantly frequent as well … Speakertree. It’s a fun destination off the beaten path.
Who in our community is currently inspiring you to hustle harder, creatively and otherwise?
BH: Ami Trowell [creative director at Big Lick Conspiracy and Theatre 3]. She has a unique sense of humor and she uses it to engage with people in a different way. Her theater is doing amazing work.
What advice do you have for others who want to build healthy community in Roanoke?
BH: If this is something you genuinely want to do, then don’t do it for a self-serving agenda. Do it because it’s your passion, and do it because you want to see things change. That is more essential, and different blessings will come with it that are bigger than you.
To see a list of Soul Sessions’ events, visit their Facebook page here.
Stay tuned for our next installment of Roanoke According to…!
About the Writer:
Ashley Wilson Fellers is a writer, educator, self-taught painter and contemplative photographer in Roanoke, Virginia. When she isn’t teaching writing at Virginia Western, she snaps photos of sidewalk cracks, rescues wet leaves from windshield wipers and leaves poems hidden under park benches. She has a Master of Fine Arts degree from Virginia Tech.
