The sixth annual Printers’ Ball, which this year takes as its theme “Print Loves Digital,” is an annual celebration of literary culture founded by Poetry magazine and other independent Chicago literary organizations. The Printers’ Ball is produced with the Center for Book & Paper Arts and the Student Affairs Offices of Columbia College Chicago.
Sixth Annual Printers’ Ball
The Ludington Building
Columbia College Chicago
1104 South Wabash Avenue
One block west of Michigan Avenue
Friday, July 30, 2010 6:00 PM to 11:00 PM
Free, all ages
In addition to featuring thousands of magazines, books, broadsides, and other takeaways available free of charge, the Printers’ Ball will showcase live readings, music, and performances and host letterpress, offset, silk-screening, rubber-stamping, and paper-making demonstrations. Christian Wiman, editor of Poetry magazine, will offer a welcome at the beginning of this year’s festivities.
Immediately following are descriptions of the events leading up to the Friday, July 30, Printers’ Ball. To learn more about the schedule of the Printers’ Ball itself, please scroll down.
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Printers’ Ball Lead-Up Events
Wednesday, July 1 to Friday, July 30
Chicago Underground Library’s Daily Blog-Down to the Printers’ Ball
In celebration of this year's Printers’ Ball theme, Print <3 Digital, Chicago Underground Library presents a daily online preview of the Printers’ Ball throughout the month of July. CUL editors, volunteers, and guest bloggers are working around the clock to bring readers a preview of what can be found and who can be met at the Ball, in addition to spotlighting relevant archives of small press and independent local media. CUL’s model borrows community-building principles from digital culture to strengthen and draw attention to local networks in print, proving that not only does Print <3 Digital, but Digital <3 Print, too.
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Wednesday, July 7, 8:30 PM
Thursday, July 8, 3:30 PM
Chic-A-Go-Go Show #679
CAN-TV Cable channel 19
Lil’ Ratso, the puppetronic host of Chicago’s dance show for kids of all ages, meets the Printers’ Ball! Combining classic TV entertainment with an original, quirky style, Chic-A-Go-Go creates a diverse TV world where people of all ages, colors, and backgrounds are linked together by their love of music and dance.
Saturday, July 10, 7:00 – 10:00 PM
Son of Science of Obscurity
Jupiter Outpost
1139 West Fulton Market
Free admission
Chicago Underground Library presents a celebration of literary experiments! It’s the return of the Science of Obscurity, the Chicago Underground Library’s annual lead-up event to the Printers’ Ball. Featuring new, unpublished, and in-progress works presented as science fair experiments, the night will also offer a public “book launch” via catapult, scientist speed dating, and digital readings to warm your hardened techie heart. Left and right brains come together for Print <3 Digital—everyone wins when the laws of physics and literature collide.
Date TBA: Watch Site for Release Date!
Printers’ Ball Art Book Release
www.printersball.org
A collaborative art book produced by the Center for Book & Paper Arts at Columbia College, the Chicago Printers’ Guild, and Poetry magazine will be released and ready for circulation. Twenty writers were paired with 20 printers to create a limited-edition (only 50 copies!), hand-printed art book. The book, a compilation of broadsides, features the work of Kathleen Judge, Steve Walters, Audrey Niffenegger, Ed Roberson, and others.
Dates TBA
Behind-the-Scenes Documentaries and Slideshows
http://www.flavorpill.com/chicago
Flavorpill.com will spotlight video documentaries on featured Printers’ Ball collaborations with Busy Beaver Button Co., Center for Book & Paper Arts at Columbia College Chicago, Chicago Printers’ Guild, Poetry magazine, Sonnenzimmer, and others.
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Printers’ Ball 2010 Schedule
Friday, July 30, 6:00 – 11:00 PM
Scheduled Events:
6:00 PM: Christian Wiman introduces Printers’ Ball 2010
6:00 – 9:00 PM: PRINTERESTING.ORG’s “COPY JAM!,” an interactive art print occurrence.
6:00 – 10:00 PM: Dave Tompkins, the author of How to Wreck a Nice Beach: The Vocoder from World War II to Hip-Hop, The Machine Speaks, dee-jays his vocoder playlist, with live vocoder and special guest
7:00 – 7:30 PM: “The Precession,” a digital poem and live performance of original writing and real-time data collection by Mark Jeffrey and Judd Morrissey
8:00 – 10:00 PM: The Show 'n Tell Show, hosted by Zach Dodson and Michael Renaud, with Studio Blue’s Cheryl Towler Weese, Edie Fake, and Isaac Tobin
10:00 – 11:00 PM: Live music by Icy Demons
Ongoing Events:
Printers’ Ball limited-edition Busy Beaver Buttons to the first 500 guests
Red-carpet interviews with Amy Guth, digital news editor for books at the Chicago Tribune and co-host of ChicagoNow Radio on WGN
Gapers Block traffic jam of Chicago lit sites
Gallery presentation of and reading from the Printers' Ball 2010 Art Book, with broadsides featuring the work of the Chicago Printers' Guild and local poets and writers
Book binding by Chicago Books to Women in Prison
DEUSEXPAGINA, a live experiment in literary quantum mechanics and wholly fabricated reviews of wholly fabricated books
Elevated Diction: poems performed live during your elevator ride between floors
The Gnoetry poetry-making machine
"Pandora's Star Box," a poem-film by Carrie Olivia Adams
Public Media Institute’s Mobile Screen-printing Cart
“Text Object,” a featured digital reading provided by Vanessa Place
Video gallery featuring Bound Off, contratiempo, Rattapalax, Switchback Books, and Wholphin DVD, plus metal type animation by students from the London College of Communication
Fresh Squeezed Poetry, poetry written to order by Illinois Arts Council award winners
Plus more with Anchor Graphics, Captain Carpenter, the students and alumni of Columbia College Chicago, and others
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