Colleen Smith, Managing Editor, CitiLife Magazine
Colleen has been going strong in the St. Petersburg press arena for a while now. As CitiLife Magazine Managing Editor, she has met and interviewed almost everyone, including the new Governor. She attended his Inauguration in Tallahassee and will be telling us all about it.
CitiLife Magazine is a colorful, glossy magazine dedicated to life in beautiful, downtown St. Petersburg and the lower Gulf Beaches. You can visit the website at www.citilifemagazine.com
Beaux Arts Connections
Colleen started reading poetry at Beaux Arts around 1970. She was a contestant in several of Tom's Arts contests, in photography, drawings, and poetry. Her attendance was on and off for a number of years.
Her friend, Ron Tarentino, performed a new song weekly in the late 90s, and won some of the song competitions. Unfortunately, he passed in autumn of 1998.
Another friend and off and on resident and performer, Peter Smith, won many songwriting competitions. His brother Michael also played there. Michael, considered by many to be the best English songwriter in the business, is also known for his imaginative steel-string accompaniments. He plays concert halls, house concerts, clubs and festivals all over the world.
Ted Wray was a regular Saturday open mic performer, in the late 1990s. He is another perennial acoustic player in restaurants and lounges around Tampa Bay.
Colleen started writing for the Boca Ciega High school paper. She was in journalism classes with Tim Caddell, then she was a stringer for the Pinellas Park Beacon when Billie Noakes was editor.
Jenny Neal's wedding was held at the little church at Heritage Park, where her Colleen's mom was a docent. She went with Ron Tarentino,Tom and a whole lot of other Beaux Artists.
Last summer Panama Red was at the big fundraiser for Tom and Beaux Arts at the Globe Coffee Lounge. Colleen went with her buddy Irma Wehle, who knew him as Danny Finley, before his Bethlehem Asylum days.
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Colleen studied art and drama in college and, after graduating, became a working actress and techie on the dinner theatre circuit that sprouted up around the Sunshine State in the 1970's and 80's, before the advent of the home entertainment centers and DVDs killed them. She continued her painting, theatre, music and photography as hobbies while working in the city libraries.
After several years of working together on artistic projects, Sterling Powell convinced Colleen to come work for him as his Managing Editor and she made the leap to publishing. Now working at it full time, she does it all. Writes, edits, shoots photos, designs and manages to keep it all going on schedule, still finds time to shoot for travel magazines.
I met Colleen at Tom's memorial show in October 2006, after conversing via email for a few months, and after I returned to California, Colleen agreed to co-author the Beaux Arts Book.
More (photos) by Colleen of the performers from the 2006 show.