Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Dec 2 & 4: Vanessa Place + friends

Pilot Light:
The Green Lantern Press / Dear Navigator Conversation Series

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2nd
Vanessa Place & Jennifer Karmin

7:30-9:30pm
at The Green Lantern Gallery
2542 Chicago Avenue
free admission
http://thecorpselives.com

Of VANESSA PLACE and Robert Fitterman’s Notes on Conceptualisms, Mary Kelly said, “I learned more about the impact of conceptualism on artists and writers than I had from reading so-called canonical works on the subject.” Kenneth Goldsmith has called Place’s Statement of Facts “arguably the most challenging, complex and controversial literature being written today.” Place is also author of Dies: A Sentence, La Medusa, and The Guilt Project: Rape, Morality and Law, based on her work as an attorney representing indigent sex offenders on appeal. She is co-director of Les Figues Press, and a regular contributor to X-TRA Contemporary Art Quarterly. Her most recent work is available in French by éditions è®e, as Exposé des Faits and in English, by Blanc Press, as Statement of Facts.

JENNIFER KARMIN has published, performed, exhibited, taught, and experimented with language across the U.S., Japan, and Kenya. She curates the Red Rover Series and is co-founder of the public art group Anti Gravity Surprise. Her multidisciplinary projects have been presented at festivals, artist-run spaces, community centers, and on city streets. Aaaaaaaaaaalice, a text-sound epic, was published by Flim Forum Press in 2010. At home in Chicago, Jennifer teaches creative writing to immigrants at Truman College and works as a Poet-in-Residence for the public schools. She earned her MFA in the Writing Program at SAIC in 2001. More at, http://aaaaaaaaaaalice.blogspot.com

ABOUT PILOT LIGHT:
The writer creates many relationships: with oneself; with one’s intimate, immediate, and local communities; and with the writing community at-large (earth/space). Pilot Light brings together writers at varying stages of their career for conversations that cross and explore these different relationships. Emerging and established writers each read from their own work and then engage in a discussion that creates an intimate space across genre and career status.

Co-presented by Dear Navigator, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s literary magazine, and The Green Lantern Press. The series is curated by Elizabeth Metzger Sampson.

http://blogs.saic.edu/dearnavigator/category/fall2010

http://press.thegreenlantern.org


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Red Rover Series

{readings that play with reading}

Experiment #42:
Repeat Offender

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4th
7pm / doors lock 7:30

Featuring:
Vanessa Place

With collaborators:
Denise Dooley
Elizabeth Metzger Sampson
Fred Sasaki
Luis Humberto Valadez

at Outer Space Studio
1474 N. Milwaukee Ave
suggested donation $4

logistics --
near CTA Damen blue line
third floor walk up
not wheelchair accessible

This event is funded in part
by Poets & Writers, Inc.


VANESSA PLACE (see December 2 bio above).

DENISE DOOLEY lives in Rogers Park, Chicago. She reads and writes with the Next Objectivists workshop at Mess Hall. Her chapbook 'Drumptops' will be out this fall from Con/Crescent Press.

ELIZABETH METGER SAMPSON is a writer currently living in Chicago. She is the editor of Dear Navigator, an electronic magazine published by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

FRED SASAKI is associate editor of Poetry magazine, editor-at-large for the Chicagoan, and a conspirator with the Dil Pickle Club and Homeroom. He has new writing in Artifice, Iowa Review, MAKE, and other places.

LUIS HUMBERTO VALADEZ is a writer, musician, performer, and educator from Chicago Heights, IL. Born and raised in a tense environment riddled with violence, criminal activity, and desperation, he developed a perspective—further shaped in his experiences at Columbia College Chicago where he received his BA and Naropa University where he received an MFA—that fueled his first book ("what i'm on," 2009 University of Arizona Press). He currently works as AmeriCorps VISTA Supervisor for Chicago HOPES.

RED ROVER SERIES is curated by Laura Goldstein and Jennifer Karmin. Each event is designed as a reading experiment with participation by local, national, and international writers, artists, and performers. The series was founded in 2005 by Amina Cain and Jennifer Karmin.

Email ideas for reading experiments
to us at redroverseries@yahoogroups.com

The schedule for events is listed at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/redroverseries

Monday, November 29, 2010

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Nov 29: Lewis Carroll Coffeehouse

A LEWIS CARROLL COFFEEHOUSE
with performers, writers, composers & choreographers

featuring Jennifer Karmin
in a live collaboration with Kath Duffy & Dan Godston
performing from the text-sound epic
Aaaaaaaaaaalice

Monday, November 29th
7-8:30 pm

at the Storefront Theater
66 E. Randolph Street
free but reservations encouraged
312.742.8497 or http://www.dcatheater.org

presented by
Chicago DCA Theater
Chicago Opera Vanguard
& Caffeine Theatre

in conjunction with
Boojum! Nonsense, Truth, and Lewis Carroll
November 18-December 19, 2010
http://www.caffeinetheatre.com

JENNIFER KARMIN's text-sound epic, Aaaaaaaaaaalice, was published by Flim Forum Press in 2010. She curates the Red Rover Series and is co-founder of the public art group Anti Gravity Surprise. Her multidisciplinary projects have been presented at festivals, artist-run spaces, community centers, and on city streets across the U.S., Japan, and Kenya. A proud member of the Dusie Kollektiv, she is the author of the Dusie chapbook Evacuated: Disembodying Katrina. Walking Poem, a collaborative street project, is featured online at How2. In Chicago, Jennifer teaches creative writing to immigrants at Truman College and works as a Poet-in-Residence for the public schools.
http://aaaaaaaaaaalice.blogspot.com

KATH DUFFY is a writer who co-founded the public art group Anti Gravity Surprise in 2001 to forge alliances with other artists, activists, community groups, and the general public. Expanding on collaboration as political force, Kath initiated the organizing efforts of the Dill Pickle Food Coop in late 2005, and is currently serving her second three year term on the board of directors. Kathleen earns her keep as the Communications Organizer for the Campaign for Better Health Care and is a member of the concert production staff of the Old Town School of Folk Music.

DAN GODSTON teaches and lives in Chicago. His writings have appeared in Chase Park, After Hours, BlazeVOX, Versal, Beard of Bees, Drunken Boat, 580 Split, Kyoto Journal, Eratica, The Smoking Poet, Horse Less Review, Moria, Apparatus Magazine, EOAGH, Requited Journal, Sentinel Poetry, and other print publications and online journals. His poem "Mask to Skin to Blood to Heart to Bone and Back" was nominated by the editors of 580 Split for the Pushcart Prize. He also composes and performs music, and he works with the Borderbend Arts Collective to organize the annual Chicago Calling Arts Festival.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Kim Rosenfield and Karen Weiser


Sun, Nov 21, 2010 2:00 pm

Reading
Poetry Reading by Kim Rosenfield and Karen Weiser

Location: Swift Hall room 106, University of Chicago
Admission: free


Kim Rosenfield is a poet and psychotherapist. Rosenfield is the author of three books of genre/ blurring language; Good Morning-Midnight- (Roof Books 2001), which won Small Press Traffic's Book of the Year award in 2002, Tràma (Krupskaya 2004), and re: evolution (Les Figues Press 2008). "Rosenfield's part collage, part suede and suave therapeutic technique creates a "voice" that wavers, furtive yet spikily resonant in the amplified tick of the second hand, as the carnal "self" is further contaminated by the freezer-burn of a world run by patents, portents, and hawkish impatience, yet begs to extend its lease with the mirror stage. Read this book for its honey and ash, and sleep easier." Brian Kim Stefans



To Light Out (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2010) is Weiser's first full-length collection. "The poems in To Light Out enact a kind of mystical belief-call it a faith-that language is the means by which we conjure the self and its relationship with others. In Weiser's hands, poems are language illuminated by grace, and the world, in light of such sudden sight, becomes 'The distance into versions of itself / whose miles begin to resemble pale maps / old photographs with studied shadow / inside each female self / composed like a nineteenth century diorama / all heft and movement of hands.' The meditative variation at play in this ambitious collection shines forth brilliantly, at any hour of the day or night." Susan Howe

This event is funded in part by Poets and Writers, Inc.

Chicago's Literary Hall of Fame


Chicago's First Literary Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
When: Sat., Nov. 20, 6 p.m.
Price: $45
http://www.chicagoliteraryhof.org/


A big night is set for Chicago's first Literary Hall of Fame Induction honoring Nelson Algren, Gwendolyn Brooks, Studs Terkel, Saul Bellow, Richard Wright and Lorraine Hansberry. Relatives and close friends of the famous writers will be on hand to accept the awards. A diverse collection of Chicago's artistic community will join in the celebration. Chicago journalist and radio legend Rick Kogan will emcee. Marc Smith, founder of the poetry slam movement, will orchestrate the event.

Northeastern Illinois University Auditorium
Albany Park 3701 W. Bryn Mawr

Rhino Reads


Friday, November 19 · 6:00pm - 7:30pm
Location Bros. K - 500 Main St. - Evanston
Created By RHINO Poetry

More Info ANTHONY MADRID lives in Chicago. His poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in AGNI Online, Boston Review, Iowa Review, LIT, Now Culture, Forklift Ohio, Poetry, 6X6, The Cincinnati Review, and WEB CONJUNCTIONS. His manuscript is called THE 580 STROPHES.

CHAD SWEENEY is the author of three books of poetry, Parable of Hide and Seek (2010), Arranging the Blaze (2009) and An Architecture (2007), and five chapbooks, most re...cently The Lost Notebooks of Juan Sweeney (2010). He is co-translator, from the Farsi, of the Selected Poems of H.E. Sayeh (2011). Sweeney’s poems have appeared widely, including in Best American Poetry 2008, Verse Daily, New American Writing, Colorado Review, Black Warrior, Verse, Volt and American Poetry Review. He is coeditor of Parthenon West Review and editor of the anthology Days I Moved Through Ordinary Sounds (2009). Chad is a PhD candidate at Western Michigan University where he teaches poetry and serves as assistant editor of New Issues Press. He lives with his wife, poet Jennifer K. Sweeney and their son, Liam.See More

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Nov 20: Carlos Soto-Román & Johannes Göransson

This SATURDAY at Myopic Books:

7pm Saturday, November 20
Carlos Soto-Román & Johannes Göransson

THE MYOPIC POETRY SERIES
a weekly series of readings and occasional poets' talks

Myopic Books in Chicago
1564 N. Milwaukee Avenue, 2nd Floor
http://www.myopicbookstore.com/poetry.html

Carlos SOTO-ROMÁN was born in Valparaíso, Chile. He has published the books La Marcha de los Quiltros (The Mongrel's march,1999), Haiku Minero (Miner Haiku, 2007) and Cambio y Fuera (Over and Out, 2009). He has resided in Philadelphia since March 2009 and is a member of The New Philadelphia Poets (a group committed to expanding the spaces for poetry in Philadelphia) and also the editor of the new cooperative anthology of U.S. poetry, Elective Affinities.

Johannes GÖRANSSON was born in Sweden, but has lived around the US for several years. He is the author of: Dear Ra (Starcherone, 2008), Pilot (Fairy Tale Review Press, 2008) and A New Quarantine Will Take My Place (Apostrophe Books, 2007)—and the chapbook Majakovskij en tragedy (Dos Press, 2008). He is also the translator of: Collobert Orbital by Johan Jönsson, Gingerbread Monuments by Victor Johansson & Klara Kallstrom, Remainland: Selected Poems by Aase Berg and Ideals Clearance by Henry Parland. He is the co-editor of ACTION BOOKS and the online journal ACTION, YES.

UPCOMING
Thursday, December 2 – Johan Jönson, Sarah Riggs & Cole Swensen
Saturday, December 11 – Thax Douglas & Friends
Saturday, February 12 – Duriel Harris & Nick Demske

Myopic Books — 18 years of innovative poetry in Chicago
Contact curator Larry Sawyer for booking information and requests.
E-mail: milkmag@rcn.com

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

12.04 Swing State Janet Kuypers women's issues issues hour show



enjoy the hour-long show "stories from women"
Saturday, December 4th 2010 (12/04/10) 7:00 - 8:00 PM
at Swing State
(all ages hookah lounge)
19041 W. Grand Ave, Lake Villa, IL, 60046

Janet Kuypers is the starting performer with an hour-long slot of poetry and a short story with background music and videos in this evening of "Visual Nonsense". Enjoy original background music and readings from herself (and male reader John Yotko) as she reads about how women are viewed in society, issues such as rape and gender stereotyping, and even stalking in this eclectic evening of performance art.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Revolving Door Reading Series


Join us on Wednesday, 17 November!

Words! Music! Art! Drink Specials! FathomDJ!

Open Mic @ 7:30PM

Features @ 8PM

Randi Black is a recent alum of the graduate writing program at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. With three novels under her belt, she will soon enter library school at Dominican University. The original draft of Randi Black’s first novel, Miss World, was way too long - we're talking over 500 pages long - but it spawned a 1990s trilogy of novels drenched in the messy dregs of punk rock.

Diana Pando is a multi-genre writer from the south side of Chicago. Diana likes to flex her writing and advocacy skills to support the arts and nonprofits impacting Latina women and girls in under served communities. She is a founder of the Proyecto Latina Reading Series and webzine (www.proyectolatina.org). Along with the Proyecto Latina team she brings Latinas in the arts together once a month to tell their stories and supports their creative efforts by providing a safe space where they can share and express their creativity. Diana’s kryptonite includes: Writing Cupcakes, military history, coffee, and cumbias. Contact: Diana@proyectolatina.org or Twitter@dianapando

The Chicago Poetry Brothel




The Chicago Poetry Brothel is an organization that plans and carries out local events intended to propagate and promote public awareness of local poets and performers and their work. Successful Poetry Brothels currently exist in several cities including: New York, Los Angeles, and Barcelona, Spain, where they have had surprisingly wide-appeal to very diverse audiences. The Chicago Poetry Brothel is the youngest of these, having had its first event in the Summer of 2010. The Chicago Poetry Brothel performs at the House of Blues in the Foundation Room.

The Poetry Brothel is a troupe of poets and performers who play various roles that might be found in a late 19th Century Victorian brothel. During this romantic period of history, poetry writing and reading were much more of a common, intimate and personal activity than they are today; now poetry readings are encountered primarily in academic and coffee house settings, and as a result, the personal interplay between poets and their audience is minimal. The Poetry Brothel provides a venue in which visitors, or “patrons,” who may consider themselves neophytes to poetry, have the opportunity to experience poetry in an intimate and romantic environment through one-on-one poetry readings with professional poets.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Womanmade Gallery

Sunday, November 14 · 2:00pm - 4:00pm


WomanMade Gallery
685 N Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, IL

Girl, Please (Somewhere Over the Gender Spectrum)

Gender is a performance, an act that is perpetuated and maintained by societal norms and expectations, but how, and to what extent does it define us? This reading seeks to push and transcend the definition of gender while also exploring its relation to individual character amongst collective expectations.

Curated by Nina Corwin with poets Tristan Silverman, Kurt Heintz, Kristiana Colon, Anthony Madrid, Jakob VanLammeren and Arielle Greenberg.

Free admission and refreshments will be served.

CAFE CABARET NOVEMBER 19


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Poetry Off the Shelf

Poetry Off the Shelf:
Thomas Lynch: Bodies in Motion and at Rest

Sunday, November 14th
4pm.

Thorne Auditorium
Northwestern University School of Law
375 East Chicago Avenue
312.494.9509 or www.chicagohumanities.org

Tickets $5; free for students and teachers with ID
Tickets go on sale to Chicago Humanities Festival members on Tuesday, September 7, and to the general public on Monday, September 20

“There is nothing like the sight of a dead human body to assist the living in separating the good days from the bad ones. Of this truth I have some experience,” writes Thomas Lynch in Bodies in Motion and at Rest: On Metaphor and Mortality. Lynch is the author of three collections of poems and three books of essays. A book of stories, Apparition & Late Fictions, and a new collection of poems, Walking Papers, were published this year. His work has also appeared in The Atlantic, Granta, the New York Times, the Times of London, the New Yorker, and Paris Review. Lynch lives in Milford, Michigan, where he has been the funeral director since 1974, and in Moveen, County Clare, Ireland, where he keeps an ancestral cottage. In this program, Lynch reads from his work and reflects on his unusual perspective as poet and undertaker, and what this duality brings to his writing. After a reading, Lynch will be interviewed by the president of the Poetry Foundation, John Barr.

Palabra Pura

Palabra Pura with Luivette Resto and Carlos Cumpián


Date: Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Time: 7:30pm
Cost: Free
Location: Decima Musa, 1901 S. Loomis, Chicago

Join us for the last Palabra Pura of 2010, featuring Luivette Resto (Los Angeles) and Carlos Cumpián (Chicago).


Luivette Resto was born in Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico, but proudly raised in the Bronx. She received her BA in English Literature with a concentration in Latino Studies from Cornell University in 1999. In 2003, she completed her MFA in Creative Writing with a focus on poetry at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Her first book of poetry Unfinished Portrait was published in 2008 by Tia Chucha Press. Her book was named a finalist for the 2009 Paterson Poetry Prize. Currently, she lives in the Los Angeles area with her husband, José and their three children. Resto is an adjunct professor at Citrus College where she teaches English Literature and composition writing.

Carlos Cumpián is the author of four poetry books: Coyote Sun, Latino Rainbow, Armadillo Charm and his Fourteen Abriles: Poems has just been released. Cumpián has instructed poetry and creative writing workshops for three decades in schools and libraries all over Chicago and the Midwest.

Journal of Ordinary Thought

Release Reading of Journal of Ordinary Thought Fall 2010: “Water on Fire”
When: Mon., Nov. 15, 6:30 p.m.
Price: Free


The Neighborhood Writing Alliance invites you to the release reading of “Water on Fire,” our newest journal on the theme of “Our Environment,” with writing from nine of our weekly writing workshops. Writers published in this issue will read their pieces throughout the evening, and free copies of the Journal will be distributed!

Harold Washington Library, 8th Floor
Loop 400 S. State St.
chipublib.org/branch/details/library/harold-washington

Thursday, November 11, 2010

W4tb presents: The Extra Monday Show


Monday, Nov 29, 2010
Cafe Ballou, 939 N Western Ave.
7:30-9:00
Waiting 4 the Bus Fifth Monday Event
Premier of
Town Limits: Red Beaver Lake, Minnesota
THE PLAY
by Kristin LaTour..
.with Shelly Nation as the narrator, host,
Kristin LaTour as Cindy,
Al Golden as Gus
and Billy Paul as Derek.
If you've read the chapbook, come see it come alive as Nation takes you on a drive up to the Northern reaches of Minnesota where you'll sit with Cindy in her kitchen, walk around the football field with Derek, and do a little fishing and drinking with Gus. This is a one-night show!
All donations taken in will benefit the Greater Chicago Food Depository.

W4tB presents Open Mic at the Bus Stop

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Myopic Poetry Series

THE MYOPIC POETRY SERIES — a weekly series of readings and occasional poets' talks
Myopic Books in Chicago — All readings begin at 7:00 / 1564 N. Milwaukee Avenue, 2nd Floor

http://www.myopicbookstore.com/poetry.html

773.862.4882

Contact curator Larry Sawyer for booking information and requests.

E-mail: milkmag@rcn.com

This SATURDAY at Myopic Books:
7pm

Saturday, November 13 – Connor Stratman & Naomi Buck Palagi

Naomi Buck PALAGI loves shaping things; wood, fabric, sound, words. She has work published or forthcoming in journals such as The Spoon River Review, Moria, Blue Fifth Review, Otoliths, Wicked Alice and Blossombones, among others. Her chapbook, silver roof tantrum, is recently published by dancing girl press. She lives, works, writes, and loves in Northwest Indiana.

Connor STRATMAN currently lives and works in Chicago. His work has appeared in journals such as The Toronto Quarterly, Pinstripe Fedora, Leaf Garden, Counterexample Poetics, Otoliths, Scythe, and Ditch, among others. He currently edits the online poetry journal The Balloon. His first chapbook, invisible entrances, was published by Erbacce Press in 2010. The winner of the 2010 Erbacce Press Prize for Poetry, his first full-length book of poems, An Early Scratch, will be published in early 2011.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Danny's Reading Series



Danny's Tavern Reading Series
Wed., Nov. 10, 7:30 p.m.
1951 W. Dickens Ave.


The featured readers are poets Michael Earl Craig (Thin Kimono), Lisa Olstein (Lost Alphabet), and Joel Felix. 21+.

Little Red Leaves

Little Red Leaves Poetry Reading
When: Thu., Nov. 11, 7 p.m.
Phone: 312-475-8243
Price: Free
Enjoy stunning lines and verses as Open Books hosts a reading from contributors to Little Red Leaves, an online poetry journal. LRL publishes an annual online journal of poetry and boasts an author roster of some of the most diverse and talented writers around. Among the six performers are Snezana Zabic, a Croatian short story writer, Brian Mornar, whose style is described as “part poetics, part physical manifesto and essay” as well as Judith Goldman, Laura Goldstein, Tasha Marren and Ixta J. Rosa. With a line-up like this, every literary appetite is sure to be satiated.

Where: Open Books
RIVER NORTH 213 W. Institute Place
312-475-8243

Friday, November 5, 2010

12.07 the Cafe poetry open mic & feature



December 7, 8:30PM

The Cafe open mic

5115 N. Lincoln Ave.
$2 (plus donation for the feature)

The Cafe (5115 N. Lincoln Ave.) hosts a weekly poetry/performance art open mic (hosted by Janet Kuypers). December 7th has Judith Wiker as a feature, as well as an open mic. For info about the open mic and the 2010 schedule (or even the menu for the great food at the Cafe, because we have a collection of boos to choose from for anyone who orders food at the Cafe during the poetry evening), you can always check out http://www.chaoticarts.org/thecafe/.

11.30 the Cafe poetry open mic & feature


November 30, 8:30PM

The Cafe open mic

5115 N. Lincoln Ave.
$2 (plus donation for the feature)

The Cafe (5115 N. Lincoln Ave.) hosts a weekly poetry/performance art open mic (hosted by Janet Kuypers). November 30th has Bob Rashkow as a feature, as well as an open mic. For info about the open mic and the 2010 schedule (or even the menu for the great food at the Cafe, because we have a collection of boos to choose from for anyone who orders food at the Cafe during the poetry evening), you can always check out http://www.chaoticarts.org/thecafe/.

11.23 the Cafe poetry open mic & feature

November 23, 8:30PM

The Cafe open mic

5115 N. Lincoln Ave.
$2 (plus donation for the feature)

The Cafe (5115 N. Lincoln Ave.) hosts a weekly poetry/performance art open mic (hosted by Janet Kuypers). November 23rd has Molly Kat and Justin Vinokur as a feature, as well as an open mic. For info about the open mic and the 2010 schedule (or even the menu for the great food at the Cafe, because we have a collection of boos to choose from for anyone who orders food at the Cafe during the poetry evening), you can always check out http://www.chaoticarts.org/thecafe/.

11.16 the Cafe poetry open mic & feature


November 16, 8:30PM

The Cafe open mic

5115 N. Lincoln Ave.
$2 (plus donation for the feature)

The Cafe (5115 N. Lincoln Ave.) hosts a weekly poetry/performance art open mic (hosted by Janet Kuypers). November 16th has John Amen as a feature, as well as an open mic. For info about the open mic and the 2010 schedule (or even the menu for the great food at the Cafe, because we have a collection of boos to choose from for anyone who orders food at the Cafe during the poetry evening), you can always check out http://www.chaoticarts.org/thecafe/.

11.09 the Cafe poetry open mic & feature


November 9, 8:30PM

The Cafe open mic

5115 N. Lincoln Ave.
$2 (plus donation for the feature)

The Cafe (5115 N. Lincoln Ave.) hosts a weekly poetry/performance art open mic (hosted by Janet Kuypers). November 9th has Robin Fine as a feature, as well as an open mic. For info about the open mic and the 2010 schedule (or even the menu for the great food at the Cafe, because we have a collection of boos to choose from for anyone who orders food at the Cafe during the poetry evening), you can always check out http://www.chaoticarts.org/thecafe/.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Columbia College Reading Series


Columbia College Reading Series: Suzanne Buffam & Amy Gerstler
November 10, 2010 5:30pm
Hokin Hall, 623 S. Wabash Avenue, Room 109



SUZANNE BUFFAM is the author of two collections of poetry, Past Imperfect (House of Anansi, 2005) and The Irrationalist (Canarium Books/House of Anansi, 2010). She lives in Chicago and teaches at the University of Chicago.






AMY GERSTLER is a writer of poetry, nonfiction and journalism. Penguin published her most recent book of poems, Dearest Creature, in October 2009. Dearest Creature was a finalist for an LA Times Book Award and was named of one the New York Times notable books for 2009. Her previous twelve books include Ghost Girl, Medicine, Crown of Weeds, which won a California Book Award, Nerve Storm, and Bitter Angel, which won a National Book Critics Circle Award in poetry. She received a Durfee Foundation Artists Award in 2002. She is a member of the core faculty of the Bennington Writing Seminars MFA program at Bennington College in Vermont and she teaches in the graduate fine arts department at Art Center, College of Design in Pasadena, California, and in the Masters of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Poetry Off the Shelf: Seeing Things


Poetry Off the Shelf: Seeing Things
Naomi Shihab Nye
Fullerton Hall
Art Institute of Chicago
111 South Michigan Avenue
Free admission

Naomi Shihab Nye describes herself as a “wandering poet.” She has spent 35 years traveling the country and the world leading workshops and inspiring students of all ages. Nye was born to a Palestinian father and an American mother and grew up in St. Louis, Jerusalem, and San Antonio. Her numerous books of poetry include 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East, A Maze Me: Poems for Girls, Red Suitcase, Words Under the Words, Fuel, and You & Yours (a best-selling poetry book of 2006). Other works include seven prize-winning poetry anthologies for young readers, including This Same Sky, The Space Between Our Footsteps: Poems and Paintings from the Middle East, and What Have You Lost? Her collection of poems for young adults entitled Honeybee won the 2008 Arab American Book Award in the Children’s/Young Adult category.

Naomi Shihab Nye has received many awards for her work, and has held fellowships from the Lannan and Guggenheim Foundations as well as the Library of Congress. She is a regular columnist for Organica magazine and poetry editor for the Texas Observer. She has been featured on two PBS poetry specials, The Language of Life with Bill Moyers and The United States of Poetry, and also appeared on NOW with Bill Moyers. In January 2010 she was elected to the board of chancellors of the Academy of American Poets.

I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous,
or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular,
but because it never forgot what it could do.
—from “Famous”

Monday, November 1, 2010

Dept. of Cultural Affairs New Website Launch

Join us to celebrate the launch of two new literary web sites from the Dept. of Cultural Affairs

**Great prizes and givaways**


On Tuesday November 9, the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) will launch two websites to support Chicago's vibrant publishing and literary communities. CAR-Literary will be the newest section of Chicago Artists Resource, and ChicagoPublishes.com will be the online home of DCA’s Publishing Industry Programs.

ChicagoPublishes.com will showcase Chicago as a major yet distinct player in the world of publishing through regularly updated news, featured books and periodicals from the Chicago Publishers Gallery, and a comprehensive literary events calendar. A searchable database of all Chicago-area book and periodical publishers will be the first of its type to exist in the Chicago area. In addition, ChicagoPublishes.com will provide a full array of social media tools including Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.

CAR-Literary will provide a robust platform for community-contributed postings such as jobs; calls for submissions; an online forum for open dialogue; links to local and national resources; articles on professional practice; and Artist Stories, essays contributed by writers and publishers about their personal expertise and experiences. Created by artists for artists, CAR encourages cross-disciplinary collaboration.

Join us at the launch event:

Tuesday, November 9, 4 – 5:30 p.m.
The Chicago Cultural Center
78 East Washington St.

Admission is free but RSVPs are requested



Featuring:

•Performances by The Paper Machete, with Katie Watson and Lindsey Harrington as The History Girls, Jonathan Messinger of Featherproof Books, and The Paper Machete emcee, Christopher Piatt and Coya Paz.

•A bounty of giveaways and prizes generously donated by Chicago-area publishers and literary organizations, including new book releases, new magazine issues, t-shirts, and tote bags; and special door prizes including themed gift packs, concert tickets, and gift certificates. The first 100 guests to arrive will also receive a free copy of the GRANTA Chicago issue
•Website walk-throughs by fabulous CAR and Chicago Publishes staff and researchers

•Refreshments provided by Argo Tea

•Time for networking at a post-launch happy hour at the Park Grill, with literary-themed drink specials

Poetry and Prints Reading Series




Saturday, November 6, 2010
8 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Spudnik Press Cooperative
1821 W Hubbard, Suite 308
312-532-0304
http://www.spudnikpress.com/poetry-prints-reading-series/
$5 suggested donation to go poets and musician.



Our infrequent and sporadic reading-print-music series will be featuring poets, a musician, and artists from New York, San Francisco, and Chicago. Featured readers will be:


Eric Gelsinger from New York, co-founder of House Press and editor of the magazine Happy Generations.


Robin Demers from San Francisco, author of Two Red-Fingered Moons and Face of the Sea Lion, and founder of the All Poets Welcome Reading Series.

Luke Daly from Chicago, co-editor of the arrow as aarow chapbook series, and celebrating the release the book AV / AV in collaboration with Eric Unger.


Music by Helen Money (Alison Chesley), a Chicago based cellist and experimental musician.


Art by Jeremy Lundquist and Eric Unger.

As always, some drinks will be provided but you are encouraged to BYOB.

Contact: Angee Lennard angee@spudnikpress.com