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.