The Clinton Arts Council presents First Thursday in Clinton on Aug. 5 from 6 to 9 p.m., rain or shine in downtown Clinton. The event is free and open to the public.

The main stage at the Fire Department, 35 East Main Street, Clinton, will feature acoustic rock artist Dave O’Donnell, poet Charles Coe, and musicians The Post Traumatic Jazz Disorder.

Coe is the author of three books of poetry: All Sins Forgiven: Poems for my Parents, Picnic on the Moon, and the just-released Memento Mori, all published by Leapfrog Press. He is also the author of Spin Cycles, a novella published by Gemma Media. He was selected as 2014 Boston Literary Light by the Associates of the Boston Public Library and is a former artist fellow at the St. Botolph Club in Boston. He was a 2017 artist-in-residence for the city of Boston, where he created an oral history project that focused on residents of Mission Hill.

He has served as poet-in-residence at Wheaton College and at the Chautauqua Institution in New York State and is an adjunct professor of English at Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island, and at Bay Path University in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, where he teaches in the MFA programs. He assistant editor for About Place and Multiplicity online literary journals, and serves on the editorial advisory board of Unitarian Universalist World Magazine.

The entertainment continues on satellite stages along East Main Street. In addition to galleries, shops, restaurants, pubs, and other local businesses, there will be musicians, street performers, art vendors, plein air painters, and more.

Fringe Modern and Retro, the Clinton Art Gallery, Grand Apizza, Scottish Dave’s Pub, Encore, Chip’s Pub, and Stem to Fern will offer First Thursday specials.

The goal is to make the event one of open doors, neighbors coming together, and music pouring onto the streets of our downtown.

First Thursday celebrations also are being planned in September and October.