the news

POETRYWORDOFMOUTH:
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Wednesday
Feb 25
5:30 p.m.
Columbia College Chicago’s Hokin Auditorium
623 S. Wabash Ave., Room 109
BRANDI HOMAN is the author of Hard Reds from Shearsman Books and the chapbook Two Kinds of Arson from dancing girl press. She received her MFA in Poetry from Columbia College Chicago and her MA from the University of Illinois at Chicago. The recipient of a Ragdale Foundation residency, Brandi is Editor-in-Chief of Switchback Books, a feminist press specializing in poetry by women. She writes professionally in advertising and is originally from Marshalltown, Iowa.
JAMES SHEA is the author of Star in the Eye, selected by Nick Flynn as the winner of the 2008 Fence Modern Poets Series. His poems have appeared in various journals, including American Letters and Commentary, Boston Review, Mrs. Maybe, and Verse. He currently teaches at Columbia College Chicago and DePaul University.
Sponsored by the Columbia College Chicago English Department, Creative Writing--Poetry Program http://www.colum.edu/academics/english_department
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Friday
Feb 27
7 – 9 pm
Molly Malone’s
7652 Madison
Forest Park
After Hours Contributors Open Mic
The new issue is here! And we’re celebrating with a contributors’ open mic. Come hungry and thirsty AND bring friends.
Contributors will receive their copy of the new magazine and the open mic will begin at 7:30. The open mic is limited to contributors to After Hours reading 3-5 minutes of their work. We will begin the reading with contributors to the new issue.
Molly Malone’s is easy to get to by car and there is plenty of parking. Located just west of DesPlaines Ave on Madison Street. Take the Eisenhower I-290 to Harlem Ave and go north to Madison, then go west about 1/2 mile to Molly’s.
By public transportation, take the Blue Line to DesPlaines Ave and then walk about 4 blocks north to Madison, then one more block west to Molly’s.
We hope to see you all there.
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Saturday
Feb 28
2:00-5:00 PM
Mercury Cafe
1505 W Chicago Ave
Special Mercury Café Anniversary Mega Reading featuring over 30 poets
Lee Berkson (2), Kevin Blanchard (2:05), Buddah 309 (2:10), Emily Calvo (2:15), Joe Carli (2:20), VITTORIO CARLI (2:25), Balthazar Castillo (2:30), Lynn Fitzgerald (2:35), Dennis Frederick (2:40), Chris Gallinari (2:45), Dave Gecic (2:50), Laural Graham (2:55), Lee Groban (3:00), Jessica Guzales , (3:05) TOM HenkEy (3:10), Tracey Jakubik (3:15), Rachel Javelanna (3:20), Caroline Johnson (3:25), Wayne Allen Jones (3:30), Donna Kiser (3:35), Janet Kuypers (3:40), Bradley Lastname (3:45), LIZ MARINO (3:50), Meg McCarville, (3:55) IxtaccihuaL Mechaca (4:00), Linda Monacelli (4:05), Charlie Neuman (4:10), Nyx (4:15), Donna Pecore (4:20), Denny Petropoulos (4:25), Sid YIDDISH (4:30) Nina Corwin (4:35) Jenene Ravelsloot (4:40) , Earline Strickland (4:45), Erin Teegarden (4:50), TOAST (4:55)
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Saturday
Feb 28
7:00 pm
Viaduct Theatre
3111 N. Western Ave
Last performance of The Art of Unbearable Sensations.
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Sunday
Mar 1
7:00 PM
Myopic Books
1564 N. Milwaukee Avenue, 2nd Floor
MYOPIC POETRY SERIES -- a weekly series of readings and occasional poets' talks
Jessica SAVITZ is a graduate from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and is the current Madeleine P. Plonsker writer in residence at Lake Forest College. Her first book of poems, Hunting is Painting, will be published by Lake Forest College Press/ & NOW Books in the summer of 2010. Her chapbook Fire is the Statue with the Young Face will be printed by Your Beeswax Press this year. Jessica loves poetry and music, especially the songs of Neil Young and Karrie Hopper. She likes to play piano while her dear husband, Michael, accompanies on the xylophone. She also likes to experiment with pairing her poems with the photography of Roxane Hopper and the paintings of Allison Hawkins.
Michael ROBINS is the author of The Next Settlement (UNT Press, 2007), which was selected for the Vassar Miller Prize. He is a contributing editor at Born Magazine http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://%28www.bornmagazine.org%29 and his work has recently appeared or is forthcoming in AGNI, Crazyhorse, A Handsome Journal, Ploughshares and elsewhere. He holds degrees from the University of Oregon and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
UPCOMING SCHEDULE
Sunday, March 15 - Garrett Brown & Special Guest
Sunday, April 5 - Oni Buchanan & Donna Stonecipher
Sunday, April 19 - Karen Leona Anderson & William Allegrezza
Sunday, April 26 – Arpine Grenier
Sunday, May 24 - Gus Anagnopolous & Carolyn Guinzio
Myopic Books -- 16 years of innovative poetry in Chicago
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Friday
Mar 6
7:30-9:30
St Paul’s Cultural Center
2215 W North Avenue
Dave Gecic presents Puddin’head Press Night
2+ blocks west of the Damon Blue Line stop
Street parking available
Beer, wine, soft drinks available @ cool-low prices
Free Admission
Donation Requested
The First Friday Poetry Series is a Poetry Green Zone
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Sunday
Mar 8
2:00 PM
Oak Park - Borders
1144 Lake St
Oak Park, IL
TallGrass member is Chicken Soup...contributor.
Chicken Soup for the Soul: Divorce & Recovery
Award-winning freelance writer Marcy Darin has published non-fiction in The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Parenting and Ms. Magazine. Her short stories have been published by Outrider Press. Darin's writing has won first-place awards from the National Federation of Press Women, and the Illinois Women's Press Association. She lives in Oak Park with her son, Aaron, and daughter, Aster , and three cats. Her oldest daughter, Abby, is a student at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts.
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Sunday, March 8th at 9 a.m. on channel 21
Monday, March 9th at 3 p.m. on channel 21
Thursday, March 12th at 8 a.m. on channel 19
Saturday, March 14 at 9 p.m. on channel 21
Watch the launch reading of A Writers’ Congress, Chicago Poets on Barack Obama’s Inauguration!
Talk about cool!
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Get Your Tickets Now for our Rotating Repertory:
The Changeling and Tallgrass Gothic on sale now!
Rehearsals are underway for our 5th anniversary Rotating Repertory of the Jacobean classic The Changeling, and its 20th century prairie riff Tallgrass Gothic.
For an inside look at this process, visit our artists blog to see design sketches and rehearsal photos-and to read what it's like behind the scenes.
Buy Tickets Now:
Our Special 5th Anniversary
Rotating Repertory
The Changeling
by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley
Directed by Rachel Walshe
Tallgrass Gothic
by Melanie Marnich
Directed by Jennifer Shook
March 12-April 12, 2009
at The West Stage of the
Raven Theatre Complex
Caffeine Theatre is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization.
All donations are tax-deductible.
Caffeine Theatre
P.O. Box 1904
Chicago, IL 60690
(312)409-4778
caffeinetheatre.com
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Sunday
Mar 15, 2009
3:00pm - 5:00pm
Old Town School of Folk Music
4544 N. Lincoln Ave.
Milly's (almost) All Kid Revue
One show only!
Starring
Barrel of Monkies
Nora O'Connor
Rock For Kids All Star Choir
Lola the Circus Dog
and much, much more!!!
Phone: 773-728-6000
Email: www.oldtownschool.org
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Friday
Mar 20
8:00pm - 10:00pm
The Horseshoe
4115 N. Lincoln Avenue
773.248.1366
booking@folkyou.org
Folk You!
The loosest, funnest & most existential singer-songwriter round-robin in Chicagoland! Inspired by round-robin nights held regularly in Nashville, Los Angeles and New York, Chicago-based singer-songwriter
Larry O. Dean started Folk You! in December 2001. Weary of standard acoustic showcases, Dean wanted something more intimate and at the same time, more varied.
Held the third Friday of every month, Folk You! presents a quartet of performers taking the stage simultaneously with naught but their guitars and songs. Interaction is encouraged but there is no script; performers may play and let the songs speak for themselves, or talk about how they came to write them. Backing is also provided on occasion by violist, Derek Walvoord.
Who performs at Folk You! ? Larry hosts and plays, joined by three others. The one throughline is the night must comprise songs that can be played nakedly and stand up alone. Obviously performers well-versed in folk-type solo acoustic situations are welcome, but Dean also encourages songwriters who tend to front electric combos to step out from their role as one of the band and let the songs be heard as they were written.
This month’s guests: CHRISTINE FLORES-COZZA, DAVE LYKINS & RICH MILLER
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Saturday
Mar 28
8 PM
St. Paul’s Church/Acme Art Works
2215 W. North Avenue
Join Us for Nelson Algren’s 100th Birthday Party!
100 years to the day after Nelson Algren’s birth – come celebrate the centennial of the author of such masterworks as Chicago: City on the Make, The Man with the Golden Arm and Never Come Morning in the West Town neighborhood where Algren lived and wrote.
The event is dedicated to Studs Terkel, one of the founders of the Nelson Algren Committee.
A highlight of the evening is the Algren Committee Awards, given to local artists and activists who demonstrate Algren’s ideal of “a conscience in touch with humanity.” This year’s honorees are
Denis Mueller - veteran documentary filmmaker
Ken Dunn - pioneering urban environmentalist, founder of the Resource Center;
Alma Washington - performer and union leader
Previous Algren Committee Award winner Don Rose will speak.
As always, the party will be a tribute to Algren’s work and life and a festival of poetry, music, art and media in the Algren vein.
Participants include poets
Gregorio Gomez
Dan Godston
Charlie Newman,
performance artist Sid Yiddish and company
Algren Committee member Alice Prus reads from the love letters of Simone de Beauvoir
British Algren scholar Josephine Guillfoyle discusses his work.
Algren confidant Art Shay presents never-published pictures from his vast archive
filmmaker Tom Palazzolo explores the lost world of Maxwell Street
photographer Dan Zamudio reveals Chicago’s after-hours neon wilderness.
Musicians include John Garvey and the Frankie Machine Blues Band.
And this year, several traditions return: the birthday cupcakes, prize drawing and closing salute of “Sto Lat” – “May you live a hundred years.” While Algren died in 1981, his legacy and spirit endure.
The Algren Committee was founded in 1989; founders and early members included the late Stu McCarrell, Warren Leming, Nina Gaspich, Alice Prus and Char Sandstrom. Current members include Hugh Iglarsh, Kurt Jacobsen and Charlie Newman.
When the Committee began, none of Algren’s books was in print; now, partly through its efforts, all of his major work is available. The Committee has placed a plaque on Algren’s former home in Wicker Park and dedicated a commemorative fountain at the triangle of Ashland, Division and Milwaukee.
The party is co-sponsored by the Near Northwest Arts Council and Acme Art Works. For more information, call (773) 235-4267 or check the Web site at www.nelsonalgren.org.
Admission is $10, $7 students and seniors, less if you’re broke.
Refreshments will be available.
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Pilcrow Lit Fest promotes writers and encourages reading by bringing authors, writers, poets, librarians, booksellers, and publishers from around the country together in support of small presses and independent media through small workshops, panel discussions, lectures and author readings.
http://www.pilcrowlitfest.com/
Sunday
May 17
6:30p
Opening Night Cocktails, location TBA
Monday
May 18
Special Evening Event, TBA
Tuesday
May 19
8p
The Cafe
5115 N. Lincoln Ave.
Susan T. Moss features
Now halfway through its second decade, The Cafe is a poets-first salon-style reading series, with all styles- page, stage, slam, hip=hop, experimental- welcome. Held every Tuesday in Chicago's Lincoln Square neighborhood and hosted by Charlie Newman.
Wednesday
May 20
7p
The Whistler
2421 N. Milwaukee Ave
Show 'N Tell Show
a bi-monthly event, where designers of all stripes get together to show their work and talk about design. That's it. No commercial pressure, or institutional big brothers watching. It's fun, and there is alcohol involved.
Hosted by Zach Dodson and Mike Renaud, with commentary by SpokesMom.
Thursday
May 21
10:30p
Strawdog
3829 N. Broadway
2nd Story
a hybrid performance event combining storytelling, wine, and music. A typical 2nd Story evening goes something like this: hang out with your friends and eat and drink and make merry. Four or five times during the night, the lights go down, a spotlight comes up on somebody and they tell a story.
Friday
May 22
Special Evening Event, TBA
Saturday
May 23
10a-5:45p
Trader Todd's (upstairs)
3216 N. Sheffield
Discussion panels & workshops
10a-5:45pMatilda's
3101 N. Sheffield
Discussion panels & workshops
Special Evening Event, TBA
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