When Thade Correa returned to the region after spending time teaching in Boston, he felt something was missing.

"This area didn't seem to have any venues for poets to come and read or a reading series of any kind," he said. "And I felt that it would be very interesting to have something like that here and to give a place for artists to go and support each other."

Correa will host the first-ever Poet's Salon Wednesday at Uncle Freddy's Gallery in Highland.

Raised in Hammond, Correa studied music, composition and literature at Indiana University in Bloomington.

Influenced by the likes of Ludwig Von Beethoven and Claude Debussy, he composed a piece performed for the Dalai Lama when he visited Bloomington last October.

Correa worked as an instructor at a K-8 school and also taught private piano lessons in Boston after graduation. He returned to the region this summer and plans to pursue masters degrees in fine arts with a concentration on poetry at Columbia College.

Noticing the lack in venues for aspiring and seasoned writers and songwriters to showcase past and present works in a likeminded environment, Correa found support from Uncle Freddy's founders Tom Torluemke and Linda Dorman.

For his first ever Poet's Salon, Correa is hoping writers and songwriters of all genres will feel welcome reciting past works as well as works in progress.

"I'm imagining that there's a lot of creative people out there that may not know where to go to to hear other people read (their works) and to meet other creative people like themselves," Correa said. "I don‘t want it to be performance based or an open mic night. This is more of an atmosphere of trying new things out and discussing them."

If Wednesday's salon is a success, Correa would like to see it evolve into a scheduled monthly happening at Uncle Freddy‘s for both participants and those simply curious.

"I hope that this will bring people together in a fertile space and broaden people's perspectives," he said.

"For people who aren't necessarily interested in art of any kind, I hope that they will come out and become interested in it, and open their minds to new things." Correa is encouraging interested participants in Wednesday's forum to e-mail him at thade.correa@gmail.com to sign up prior to Wednesday.