Chris Kemp

Smoke swirls under ceiling fans as the gentle glow of blue and red neon reflects off patrons’ faces. Look up, and you’ll see the faces of those who have shared their musical talents there. Look down, and you’ll see an old, discolored wooden floor, riddled with peanut shells.

These are some of the images that inspired UW-Eau Claire English professor and poet Bruce Taylor’s prose on The Joynt, which will be featured at 7 p.m. tonight on Wisconsin Public Television.

The program, in which Taylor’s musings are paired with videographer Chuck France’s images of The Joynt, 322 Water St., is part of WPT’s month-long series of video poems about places in Wisconsin.

JoAnne Garrett, a producer at WPT, said the series was inspired by her own experiences on Wisconsin’s roads-less-traveled.

“I’ve been working in TV for 20 years,” Garrett said. “Oftentimes, we just have some gorgeous footage … and a wordsmith can turn images into gorgeous words, so I just had the idea, ‘why don’t we pair the two?’ ”

Joynt patron and Eau Claire senior Travis Frisinger said he sees why The Joynt was chosen as a location for a video poem.

“I’ve had some of the best conversations of my life here,” he said Monday while sitting over a pitcher of beer with three friends. “It’s a relaxed, social atmosphere.”

For Taylor, who was commissioned for the project by Garrett not knowing what location he would write about, the program presented some challenges, he said. While other poets asked to participate in the series had never been to their locations, Taylor said he has frequented The Joynt for about 30 years.

“Sometimes, you know it so well that you stop seeing it, I think,” he said.

But, he added, his knowledge of the stories and folklore surrounding the local watering hole also helped him to color his poetry. Such knowledge is evident in reference to his “third place.”

“Everybody has to have a third place,” Taylor writes. “You gotta have work. You gotta have home, and the other place.”

Taylor then writes, in the style of record liner notes, rules of The Joynt including: no light beer, no spitting in the sink and the boss (owner) is always right.

Bill Nolte, the boss at The Joynt since 1971, was contacted by Garrett and agreed to the WPT program last winter, and filming was done in January. Nolte said Garrett had told him a meadow was the original setting about which Taylor would write.

“He’s not a meadow kind of guy,” said Nolte, who has known Taylor for 30 years.

Garrett said she encountered many people around the state who have personal memories of The Joynt. The first time she visited the bar she knew it was an important part of Eau Claire history and culture.

“It was a treat, in part, because it opened my eyes to how much this place has meant to Eau Claire,” she said. “It’s really kind of a state treasure.”

When asked about his bar’s popularity and treasure-status, Nolte only said, “It’s almost as if you’re somewhere for a long time, a lot of people find their way to your door.”