Friday Jan 6th:First Friday:Top Shelf Poets

7:30-10pm
Studio A
2941 W. Belmont
Now in a new venue
W4tB Presents:
First Friday:Top Shelf Poets
Live from Studio A
The Greatest Show On Earth That Exercises Hyperbole
featuring
Charlie Newman
Kurt Heintz
Scott DeKatch
Kristy Bowen
Todd Heldt

Monday Jan 2:W4tB presents Open Mic at the Bus Stop

W4tB presents Open Mic at the Bus Stop
Featuring-Sandra Santiago
Café Ballou
939 N. Western Ave
7:30(sign up)-10pm
Suggested theme-Love, Art, and Other Drugs

Dec 16: Requited Sound & Language Performance

REQUITED issue #6 release
Sound & Language Performance

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16th
8-11pm

READERS:
Dan Godston
Tim Jones-Yelvington
Jennifer Karmin

PERFORMERS:
Edward Breitweiser
Reed Esslinger
Ángel Faraldo
Katrina Schaag
Peter J Woods

at ENEMY
1550 N. Milwaukee Ave, 3rd floor
suggested donation $7

REQUITED issue #6 is almost here--just one more month. We will be hosting a series of multi-media and performative works attentive to language as sound curated by guest editor Ryan T Dunn.

Sound & Language Performance:
Consider the psychological and phenomenological aspects of the reception and manifestation of sound as a linguistic act, as a revisitable document, as an intangible moment on breath and a long distance transmittable gesture. Ponder the history of the textual document and its relationship with the relatively young sonic document. Encompass methods of transmission and reception, the notable and the mundane, the intentional and unintentional, public and private, seen and heard.

December 18, 3:00PM

The Cafe open mic
5115 N. Lincoln Ave.
$2 & 2 drink minimum (any drink, even bottled water or soda)
plus donation for the feature

The Cafe (5115 N. Lincoln Ave.) hosts a weekly poetry/performance art open mic (hosted by Janet Kuypers). On Sunday, December 18th, the Cafe has poetry in the LAST POETRY OPEN MIKE EVER AT THE CAFE!

Join me at the Cafe (5115 North Lincoln Ave.) Sunday afternoon (12/11/11 open mic starts ~ 3:00 - 3:30 PM) for great poetry in the FINAL GET-TOGETHER FOR POETRY READINGS AT THE CAFE!!! I am going to try to see if I can get some audio recordings of opera singer and frien...d Suzanne, possibly singing Christmas carols, to accompany Christmas-related poems of mine for the open mike, and what they hey, I may look through my archives at what I read BACK IN 1997 AT THIS VENUE, since this is the last time I get to read at Baci's establishment!!! It is wonderful of Baci to have supported this poetry open mike since December 1996 at both Cafe Aloha and the Cafe, AND I WANT EVERYONE WHO SUPPORTED THIS POETRY OPEN MIKE - OR SUPPORTED PREVIOUS HOSTS DAVID RUBIN OR CHARLIE NEWMAN - TO COME OUT FOR THIS LAST DAY F POETRY AT HE CAFE!!! I look forward to seeing everyone at the Cafe Sunday afternoon, for great poetry at the Cafe! -=- And HEY, John Yotko will have his guitar (for later in the evening), so I don't know, if anyone there wants any requests (even if it's of the original Janet/Warren song "What We Need In Life", or other stuff you've heard before), we *might* just be able to play a farewell song for this open mike location too! -=- The entire year listing for the 2011 schedule at the Cafe is on line, and the 2012 schedule at the NEW LOCATION - the artist-friendly space at Gallery Cabaret (2020 N. Oakley Ave. in Chicago - one block east of Western Avenue and one block north of Armitage, right near the Blue Line el stop and with tons of free parking) is now on line! The Cage Gallery poetry open mike in 2012 is now getting together EVERY ODD WEDNESDAY (the 1st, 3rd and sometimes 5 Wednesdays of every month). Check out the 2012 schedule for the Cafe Gallery (at Gallery Cabaret) at http://www.chaoticarts.org/thecafe/2012schedule.htm (one link away from the main page at http://www.chaoticarts.org/thecafe), because we we are now officially looking for 2012 features at Gallery Cabaret! -- Janet Kuypers thecafe@scars.tv The Cafe, 2010 (weekly open mic) 5115 North Lincoln Ave., Chicago http://www.chaoticarts.org/thecafe $2 cover & 2 drink min. (water, beer: any drink, + something for the feature) If you for any reason have difficulty sending emails to this address, you can (in emergencies only) send your questions/emails to Janet Kuypers through facebook (facebook dot com slash janetkuypers), or directly to janetkuypers at gmail dot com.

For info about the open mic and the 2011 schedule (or getting the chance to sign up for your OWN feature in 2012), you can always check out http://www.chaoticarts.org/thecafe/ for the weekly podcast, feature videos or future schedules. feature, following an open mic.

For info about the open mic and the 2011 schedule (or getting the chance to sign up for your OWN feature in 2012), you can always check out http://www.chaoticarts.org/thecafe/ for the regular podcast, feature videos or future schedules.

Dec 14: The Danny's Reading Series

The Danny's Reading Series
Wednesday, December 14
7:30pm

Featuring:
Adam Fell
Michelle Taransky
Aaron McCollough

at Danny's Tavern
1951 W. Dickens
21+ please bring ID
http://dannys.noslander.com

Adam Fell is the author of I AM NOT A PIONEER, published by H_NGM_N Books, and the chapbook Ten Keys to Being a Champion On and Off the Field (H_NGM_N, 2010). He is a graduate of UW-Madison & the Iowa Writers’ Workshop & teaches at Edgewood College in Madison, WI, where he co-curates the Monsters of Poetry reading series.

Michelle Taransky is Reviews Editor for Jacket2 and the author of "Barn Burned, Then," (Omnidawn 2009), selected by Marjorie Welish for the 2008 Omnidawn Poetry Prize. Taransky lives in Philadelphia where she works at Kelly Writers House and teaches writing and poetry at University of Pennsylvania. A chapbook, "No, I Will Be In The Woods" was just published by Brave Men Press.

Aaron McCollough is the author of five books of poetry. His fourth, NO GRAVE CAN HOLD MY BODY DOWN was just released by Ahsahta Press in September, and his fifth, UNDERLIGHT is forthcoming next fall from Ugly Duckling Press. His other books include LITTLE EASE, DOUBLE VENUS, and WELKIN. McCollough is the Librarian for English Language and Literature at the University of Michigan's Hatcher Graduate Library. He lives in Ann Arbor.

Saturday December 17th at Cafe Mestizo

3:00 - 5:00
Cafe Mestizo
1738 W 18th St
Cultural Urban Coffee House
Come to the seventeenth Café Mestizo POETRY reading!
Featuring POETRY by
Buddha 309...Waiting for the bus host
Scott DeKatch...Author of Talking About Reason
Plus open mic
and special guests

Monday Dec. 19th:W4tB presents:open mic at the bus stop with Jan Bottiglieri

Mon, Dec 19
7:30(sign up)-10pm
Cafe' Ballou
939 N Western
w4tb presents open mic at the Bus Stop
Featuring Jan Bottiglieri
Music Lyric Night
Teen Tragedy

Dec 5th:W4tB presents:open mic at the bus stop

W4tB little Christmas Extravaganza
Monday December 5th
Cafe Ballou
939 N Western Ave.
special Holiday open mic
7:30 sign up-10pm

Bring out your holiday poems
bring a special poem for inclusion in our own Weirdo version of Secret Santa
you may need:
a #2 pencil
a box of crayons
poems
dreams of sugar plums
one dredel
chocolate coins
poems
three ghosts
and either the True Meaning of Christmas or a Bah Humbug
oh...and poems

Dec 4: Vanessa Place

Sunday, December 4th
at 2pm

The Renaissance Society presents
a reading by Vanessa Place

Vanessa Place is a writer, a lawyer, and co-director of Les Figues Press. Her dual appointment as lawyer by day and experimental writer by whenever makes her a handful and a head-full. She is author of Dies: A Sentence (2006), La Medusa (2008), Notes on Conceptualisms, co-authored with Robert Fitterman (2009), and The Guilt Project: Rape, Morality and Law (2010).

at University of Chicago
1025 East 58th Street
Swift Hall, room 106, first floor
on the Main Quadrangle, directly east of Cobb Hall
FREE

http://www.renaissancesociety.org

Nov 30: Revolving Door Reading Series

Revolving Door Reading Series
Wednesday, November 30th

Featuring:
Derrick Weston Brown
Jennifer Karmin with collaborators
Kath Duffy, A D Jameson & Kenyatta Rogers

7:30pm open mic
8pm features

DERRICK WESTON BROWN has studied poetry under Dr. Tony Medina at Howard University and Cornelius Eady at American University, and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from American University. He is the auth…or of a chapbook, The Unscene (published in 2006), and his work has appeared in DrumVoices Review, The New Orleans Times-Picayune, Black Issues & Book Reviews, and the Cave Canem Poetry Anthologies of 2002 and 2003. He is a native of Charlotte, NC and currently resides in Mount Rainier, MD. He is a Cave Canem fellow and the poet-in-residence at Busboys & Poets bookstore and restaurant.

JENNIFER KARMIN is the author of the text-sound epic Aaaaaaaaaaalice (Flim Forum Press, 2010) and has poems forthcoming in the anthology I’ll Drown My Book: Conceptual Writing by Women (Les Figues Press, 2012). Her multidisciplinary projects have been presented at festivals, artist-run spaces, and on city streets across the U.S., Japan, and Kenya. She teaches in the Creative Writing program at Columbia College Chicago and at Truman College, where she works with immigrants as a community educator.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.

A D JAMESON is the author of two books: the prose collection Amazing Adult Fantasy (Mutable Sound, 2011), in which he tries to come to terms with having been raised on '80s pop culture, and the novel Giant Slugs (Lawrence and Gibson, 2011), an absurdist retelling of the Epic of Gilgamesh. He has taught classes at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Lake Forest College, DePaul University, Facets Multimedia, and StoryStudio Chicago. He is also the nonfiction / reviews editor of the online journal Requited. He recently became a PhD candidate at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a contributor at the blogs Big Other and HTMLGIANT.

KENYATTA ROGERS is a Cave Canem Fellow who received his MFA in Creative Writing Poetry from Columbia College Chicago. He is currently a member of the Chicago Poetry Brothel and instructor and tutor for the Chicago City Colleges and Columbia College Chicago as well as a Poet in Residence for the Hands on Stanzas program in Chicago. His work has been published or forthcoming in Vinyl, The Arsenic Lobster, Columbia Poetry Review, Court Green, and also featured in Word 4: Type+Image Exhibit. He was also nominated for a 2009 Illinois Arts Council Literacy Award for his poem Safety. http://unfukwithable.wordpress.com

REVOLVING DOOR READING SERIES is the Art District’s fashionable monthly reading series featuring poetry, cultural musings, and music spun by Fathom DJ. Every fourth Wednesday, we blend genres with poets, musicians, fictionists, artists and those in between. http://www.revolvingdr.com

W4tB tonight 11/21 with Bill Yarrow

Open mic
Cafe Ballou
939 N Western ave.
87:30 sign up-10pm

Nov 19-20: Chicago Book Expo 2011

CHICAGO BOOK EXPO 2011

NOVEMBER 19 & 20 in Uptown
Saturday: 10am-6pm
Sunday: 12pm-6pm

OVER 40 CHICAGO PRESSES!
A pop-up bookstore and literary extravaganza to introduce
Chicago publishers of fiction & poetry to Chicago readers
http://www.chicagowritershouse.org/presses.html

LOCATIONS:
Uptown Goldblatt's Building, 4720 N. Broadway
Uptown Broadway Building, 4701 N. Broadway

PANELS, WORKSHOPS, READINGS, PERFORMANCES & MORE:
http://www.chicagowritershouse.org/programming.html

FEATURING:
Davis Schneiderman, Jennifer Karmin, John Rich, Jonathan Messinger, Danielle Chapman, Joseph Altshuler, Jonny Thakkar, J. C. Gabel, Michael Kramer, Anupy Singla, Viktorija Todorovska, Terra Brockman, Bill Daley, Kathleen Rooney, Regin Igloria, Dave Pabellon & Tim Magner

SPECIAL EVENTS:
November 14-18: Preface Reading Series
November 19: Luis Humberto Valadez & Joan of Arc
http://www.chicagowritershouse.org/bookexpo2011.html

CHICAGO WRITERS HOUSE PROJECT:
The Writers House Project is an investigation into community. We seek to create a hub for literature, offer physical space for writers, and provide artist services and residencies. Our long-term ambition is to acquire a building. In the meantime, we are a mobile endeavor sponsoring programs throughout Chicago and collaborating with existing literary and arts organizations.
http://www.chicagowritershouse.org

The Friday on Tuesday Showcase

Tuesday, November 22 · 7:00pm - 10:00pm
TGI Friday's
7200 191st street
Tinley Park, IL
An all star line-up of poets invades TGI Friday for this showcase performance.

Hosted by Esteban Colon

With Musical Guests:
Three Piece and a Biscuit

Featuring:
Gregorio Gomez
Billy Tuggle
Charlie Newman
Robin Fine
Donna Vorreyer
La Pixie
Maxwell Baumbach
Kristin Latour
DeVonna
Karin Zink
Steve Nash
Buddha 309
G.P.A. "the Greatest Poet Alive" (the poetic Unsub)
. . . and more to be announced!

Nov 12: Artifice Release Party

Artifice is a nonprofit literary magazine devoted to prose and poetry “aware of its own artifice.” Based in Chicago, it has published work by such writers as Lance Olsen, Maureen Seaton, Blake Butler, Davis Schneiderman, and Molly Gaudry, among others. For more information or to order copies, visit www.artificemag.com.

Nov 11: The Human Micropoem @ Occupy Chicago

You are invited to participate in
THE HUMAN MICROPOEM

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11th @ 5pm
at Jackson & Lasalle (NE corner)
as part of Occupy Chicago
http://occupychi.org

Bring one poem 5 minutes in length to be read aloud
or just come & be part of the chorus -- all welcome!

The Human Micropoem is a call and response choral form utilizing the human microphone at the occupy movements to amplify the speaker's words by those listening. The speaker says a line and then everyone who can hear repeats it.

For more info email:
redroverseries@yahoogroups.com

12/11 poetry open mic at the Cafe, plus the Elizabeth Jacobson feature

December 11, 3:00PM

The Cafe open mic
5115 N. Lincoln Ave.
$2 & 2 drink minimum (any drink, even bottled water or soda)
plus donation for the feature

The Cafe (5115 N. Lincoln Ave.) hosts a weekly poetry/performance art open mic (hosted by Janet Kuypers). On Sunday, December 11th, the Cafe has poetry in the Elizabeth Jacobson feature, following an open mike.

For info about the open mic and the 2011 schedule (or getting the chance to sign up for your OWN feature in 2012), you can always check out http://www.chaoticarts.org/thecafe/ for the weekly podcast, feature videos or future schedules. feature, following an open mic.

For info about the open mic and the 2011 schedule (or getting the chance to sign up for your OWN feature in 2012), you can always check out http://www.chaoticarts.org/thecafe/ for the weekly podcast, feature videos or future schedules.

11/20 poetry open mic at the Cafe and the Janet Kuypers feature (with music from the HA!man of South Africa and blues musician John Yotko)

Sunday, November 20, 3:00PM

The Cafe open mic
5115 N. Lincoln Ave.
$2 & 2 drink minimum (any drink, even bottled water or soda)

The Cafe (5115 N. Lincoln Ave.) hosts a weekly poetry/performance art open mic (hosted by Janet Kuypers). On Sunday, November 2oth, the Cafe has Janet Kuypers as the feature with new poetry, accompanied by live blues music from John Yotko, as well as video and music from recent performances by the HA!man of South Africa, following an open mic. This should be a truly unique and interesting show, and I look forward to seeing everyone there!



Included in this feature is music from blues musician John Yotko, and also audio and video music from the HA!man of South Africa (since he was recently in town for his 2011 world tour). A number of brand new poems will be performed for this event (that were written for this feature); the video screen will be showing music and video throughout the feature, and (like her past Lake Villa video shows) there will even be a camera on Kuypers, broadcasting her on an additional 32" TV on stage.

Charlie Newman in the past has has said about Kuypers: "the always inventive, you-never-know-what-to-expect-cuz-she-gat-a-zillion-ideas JANET KUYPERS...our Poetess from the Edge of the World!" Usually calling her "Janet Kuypers, QUEEN OF MULTIMEDIA" (or even the "Czarina of Multimedia", Newman has even said her shows are a "poet show-stopper par excellence..."

For info about the open mic and the 2011 schedule, you can always check out the Cafe on line at http://www.chaoticarts.org/thecafe/ for the weekly podcast, feature videos or future schedules.

11/13 poetry open mic at the Cafe and the Andrea Witzke Slot feature

Sunday, November 13, 3:00PM

The Cafe open mic
5115 N. Lincoln Ave.
$2 & 2 drink minimum (any drink, even bottled water or soda)

The Cafe (5115 N. Lincoln Ave.) hosts a weekly poetry/performance art open mic (hosted by Janet Kuypers). On Sunday, November 13th, the Cafe has Andrea Witzke Slotas the feature, following an open mike. This should be a GREAT show, and I look forward to seeing everyone there!



For info about the open mic and the 2011 schedule (or getting the chance to sign up for your OWN feature you can always check out http://www.chaoticarts.org/thecafe/ for the weekly podcast, feature videos or future schedules. Details about the CALL for 2012 features is also available on line!

11/08 poetry open mic at the Cafe and the Judith Wiker feature

November 8, 8:30PM

The Cafe open mic
5115 N. Lincoln Ave.
$2 & 2 drink minimum (any drink, even bottled water or soda)

The Cafe (5115 N. Lincoln Ave.) hosts a weekly poetry/performance art open mic (hosted by Janet Kuypers). November 8th has Judith Wiker as the feature, following an open mic. This should be a GREAT show, and I look forward to seeing everyone there!

For info about the open mic and the 2011 schedule (or getting the chance to sign up for your OWN feature you can always check out http://www.chaoticarts.org/thecafe/ for the weekly podcast, feature videos or future schedules. Details about the CALL for 2012 features is also available on line!

Red Rover Series / Experiment #52

Red Rover Series
{readings that play with reading}

Experiment #52:
Full Court - Small Press Forum

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 6th
7pm / doors lock 7:30pm
**please note change from usual day**

Featuring:
Patrick Durgin
Johannes Göransson
Caroline Picard
Susan M. Schultz

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

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

PATRICK DURGIN is the author of Imitation Poems (Atticus / Finch, 2006), and The Route (with Jen Hofer, Atelos, 2007-8). His poets theater script PQRS will be his next book, due out in 2012. He is the editor of Hannah Weiner’s Open House and The Early and Clairvoyant Journals of Hannah Weiner. He is editor and publisher of Kenning Editions, and teaches critical theory, literature, and writing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Kenning Editions @ http://www.kenningeditions.com.

JOHANNES GÖRANSSON is the author of several books of poetry, most recently Entrance to a colonial pageant in which we all begin to intricate, and several books in translation, including works by Aase Berg, Henry Parland and Johan Jönson. He teaches at the University of Notre Dame, co-edits Action Books, and writes for the blog Montevidayo.com. Action Books @ http://www.actionbooks.org.

CAROLINE PICARD is a writer, artist and performer. Based in Chicago, she is the Senior Editor for the Green Lantern Press. Recent writing and comics have been published in/by art.ltd, Bad at Sports, Proximity Magazine, Seven Stories Press, Artifice Magazine, MAKE Magazine and Pinch. Her first collection of short stories, Psycho Dream Factory (Holon Press, 2011) was released concurrently with a limited edition energy drink, "Happiness Machines". She makes music/videos with Lady Rollins and manages The Paper Cave, an on-line bookstore curated with select work from independent presses around the world. The Green Lantern Press @ http://press.thegreenlantern.org.

SUSAN M. SCHULTZ has lived and taught in Hawai`i since 1990. Her books of poetry include Memory Cards & Adoption Papers (Potes & Poets, 2001), Dementia Blog (Singing Horse, 2008), and (at press now) Memory Cards: 2010-2011 Series. She's edited Tinfish Press since 1995 and blogs at http://tinfisheditor.blogspot.com on publishing, Alzheimer's, and much else. She's a lifelong fan of the St. Louis Cardinals. Tinfish Press @ http://tinfishpress.com.

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.

**UPCOMING**
Winter/Spring 2012 schedule, details TBA
Collaboration with Cuban writers at Links Hall, AWP showcase, cross-dressing event for "Men Undressed" & more!

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

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

W4tB presents:open mic at the bus stop with Lauren Ashleigh Hermann

7:30(sign up)-10pm
Cafe' Ballou
939 N Western
w4tb presents open mic
Featuring Lauren Ashleigh Hermann
suggested theme:Muses
Suggested prompt:Cold Muse Knife

Top Shelf poets presents:

St. Paul's Cultural Center
2215 W. North ave.
W4tB presents the First Friday Top Shelf Poets
Featuring the Molly Malone's All Stars
Maureen Flannery, Quraysh Ali Lansana, Marty McConnell, Charlie Newman and Charlie Rossiter.
hosted by: Nina Corwin and Al DeGenova
The show starts promptly a 7pm and runs until 8:45
This show is in real time, not poetry time.
Please plan accordingly.

W4tB presents: The extra Monday show, Oct 31st

7:30-10pm
Cafe Ballou
939 N western Ave
Chicago Il
The Extra Monday Show
Halloween open Mic
Suggested theme:Wear a costume it's Halloween
and bring your scariest poems

Oct 30: The Human Micropoem @ Occupy Chicago

You are invited to participate in
THE HUMAN MICROPOEM

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 30th @ 12:30pm
at Jackson & Lasalle (NE corner)
as part of Occupy Chicago
http://occupychi.org

Bring one poem 5 minutes in length to be read aloud
or just come & be part of the chorus -- all welcome!

The Human Micropoem is a call and response choral form utilizing the human microphone at the occupy movements to amplify the speaker's words by those listening. The speaker says a line and then everyone who can hear repeats it.

For more info email:
redroverseries@yahoogroups.com

The HA!man of South Africa 10/16/11 AIDS Awareness music show, Francois ...

The HA!man of South Africa 10/16/11 Chicago Seminary music show, Francoi...

Oct 18th at The Cafe

Tue, Oct 18
8:00-10:00 - open mic & feature
The Cafe
5115 N. Lincoln

Feature... Esteban Colon with Special Guest Bob Lawrence

Come to the Café open mic & regular feature show 50 Tuesdays/year. (We take the 1st Tuesday in Jan and the last Tuesday in Dec off.)
Info about the Cafe poetry & performance art open mic, and the 2010 schedule (and even the menu at the Cafe!) is always on line at
http://www.chaoticarts.org/thecafe/
For the full year of features, check out the 2010 schedule at
http://www.chaoticarts.org/thecafe/2010schedule.htm - which also have an email link if you are interested in a feature on one of the remaining open dates in 2011!
$2 cover (plus a donation for the feature) + 2 drink min. (any beverage...even bottles of water)
Host Janet Kuypers can always be reached at thecafe@scars.tv.

10/26 poetry open mic at the Cafe while the host is away... Enjoy the Kristin LaTour feature

October 25, 8:30PM

The Cafe open mic
5115 N. Lincoln Ave.
$2 & 2 drink minimum (any drink, even bottled water or soda)

The Cafe (5115 N. Lincoln Ave.) hosts a weekly poetry/performance art open mike. Now, the Cafe is normally hosted by Janet Kuypers, but due to out of town business, guest hosts Bob Rashkow and Michael Hoag will be fielding the space at the Cafe on October 25th. This "stripped" week at the Cafe (no microphone or amp and no video recording this week) has Kristin LaTour as the feature, following an open mic. This should be a great evening at the Cafe, so come and check out this never-seen-again one-of-a-kind performance!

For info about the open mic and the 2011 schedule (or getting the chance to sign up for your OWN feature you can always check out http://www.chaoticarts.org/thecafe/ for weekly podcasts, feature videos or future schedules. (No podcast will be recorded this week at the Cafe, but you can check out all other podcasts, since all past mp4 files are kept online for anyone to download whenever they want.)

October 17th at W4tB

W4tB presents:
open Mic at the Bus Stop
Cafe' Ballou
7:30(sign up)-10pm
suggested theme-Love and Death
featured poet: Joe Motisi

10/18 poetry open mic at the Cafe and Esteban Colon feature

October 18, 8:30PM

The Cafe open mic
5115 N. Lincoln Ave.
$2 & 2 drink minimum (any drink, even bottled water or soda)

The Cafe (5115 N. Lincoln Ave.) hosts a weekly poetry/performance art open mic (hosted by Janet Kuypers). October 18th has Esteban Colon (accompanied By Bob Lawrence) as the feature, following an open mic. I am SO looking forward to this evening at the Cafe (Esteban even tells me he has some special additions planned for his feature, so you'll have to come to the Cafe to see his performance!), so I look forward to seeing everyone there!

For info about the open mic and the 2011 schedule (or getting the chance to sign up for your OWN feature you can always check out http://www.chaoticarts.org/thecafe/ for weekly podcasts, feature videos or future schedules.

10/11 poetry open mic at the Cafe and open mike mini-feature night!

October 11, 8:30PM

The Cafe open mic
5115 N. Lincoln Ave.
$2 & 2 drink minimum (any drink, even bottled water or soda)

The Cafe (5115 N. Lincoln Ave.) hosts a weekly poetry/performance art open mic (hosted by Janet Kuypers). October 11th has mini-feature night for all open mike poets (Kristin LaTour was originally the feature, but she is out of state 10/11/11), so for the open mike, all poets can have up to a 10 minute mini-feature for their performance! I am really looking forward to this evening at the Cafe (since John and I just performed music with poetry at the Omniphonic Challenge in Chicago 10/07/11, and even though John is out of town, I *may* resurrect a poem or two from that set with pre-recorded John Yotko music) ,and I look forward to seeing everyone there!

For info about the open mic and the 2011 schedule (or getting the chance to sign up for your OWN feature you can always check out http://www.chaoticarts.org/thecafe/ for weekly podcasts, feature videos or future schedules.

Long Now & Then

“Long Now & Then” at Myopic Books
2011 Chicago Calling Arts Festival



Saturday, October 8 (7 p.m.)

2011 is the 15th anniversary of The Long Now. “Long Now and Then” includes poetry collaborations that creatively explore themes that pertain to time, nowness, eternity, the moment, etc. “Long Now and Then” participants and projects include:



Jen Besemer (Chicago) and Tim Armentrout (West Virginia)
Eric Elshtain (Chicago) and Gregory Fraser (Carrollton, GA)
Nick Demske (Racine, WI) and Dolly Lemke
Next Objectivists (Chicago)



free and open to the public



Myopic Books
1564 North Milwaukee Avenue
Chicago, IL 60622
phone: (773) 862-4882



The complete schedule of Chicago Calling events is available at http://www.borderbend.org/chicago-calling.html

Oct 7: The Dollhouse Reading Series

7:00pm - 10:00pm
Cafe Ballou
939 N Western Ave.
Chicago, Illinois
Chicago Calling
Participants include—
a project involving the munich_word_brigade (agent_k9, proto ee 163 in Munich, Germany); Zan Hoffman (Louisville, KY); chicago_word_brigade (granex_plubar_monocrostix, Teliyani_Dēvadūta); and Charlie Newman (Chicago)
Bob Rashkow (Chicago) and Orin Buck (New York)
Esteban Colon (Chicago) and Tony Renner (St. Louis, MO)
Susan Swanton (Tartu, Estonia) and Matt Barton (Chicago)
Buddha309 (Chicago) and Bill George (Dangerfield, TX)
Robin Fine (Chicago) and Oz Hardwic (London)
Wayne Allen Jones (Chicago) and Zack Kluckman (Albuquerque, NM)
Janet Kuypers (Chicago) and the HA!man (South Africa)
Jenene O. Ravesloot (Chicago) and Stephanie Miller (Atlanta, GA)
Charlie Rossiter (Chicago) and Tom Nicotera (Hartford, CT)
Chicago Calling is a multi-arts collaboration festival. During the 6th Annual Chicago Calling Arts Festival, people in Chicago work with people outside of Chicago — both here in the U.S. and abroad. These collaborations include a range of art forms, such as music, dance, film, literature, and intermedia — and they are prepared or improvised. Some Chicago Calling events involve live feeds between Chicago and other locations
Chicago Calling is an amazing event, and this year the Weirdos at W4tB are helping to curate. That mostly means that we are asking if people are interested in performing at our venue with their collaborator. Give us a yell if you have a cunning plan or if you need to be hooked up with an artistic partner,we might be able to direct you. Contact us at waiting4bus@gmail.com

W4tB presents: The extra Monday show, Oct 31st

Halloween open Mic
7:30-10pm
Cafe Ballou
939 N western Ave
Chicago Il
Suggested theme:Wear a costume it's Halloween
and bring your scariest poems

Top Shelf poets presents:

Fri, Oct 7
7:30-9:30pm
St Paul's Cultural Center
2215 w North Ave
First Friday
Top shelf Poets
The Omniphonic Challenge
(The Battle of the Poetry Bands)
Featuring
Omniphonic
Zootsuitbeatnick!
the Bob Lawrence X-perience
and The Second Axing

Red Rover Series / Experiment #51

Red Rover Series
{readings that play with reading}

Experiment #51:
X-Ref = Encyclopedia Vol. 2 F-K

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1st
5pm / doors lock 5:30pm
**please note change from usual time**

Featuring:
Samiya Bashir
Tisa Bryant
Gabrielle Civil
Carina Gia Farrero
Krista Franklin
A. Naomi Jackson
John Keene

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

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

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA PROJECT was founded in 2006, and is edited and published by Tisa Bryant, Miranda Mellis and Kate Schatz. The Encyclopedia Project is a hybrid publication that plays with the reference book, literary journal and arts catalogue, blending all into a hybrid series of cross-referenced hardcover volumes. Each book complicates categorical, genre and narrative expectations, while connecting seemingly disparate writers, artists and ideas within and among volumes. Encyclopedia Vol. 1 A-E was published to wide acclaim in 2006; Encyclopedia Vol. 2 F-K just launched new excitement in 2010. http://www.encyclopediaproject.org

SAMIYA BASHIR is the author of Gospel, finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and the 2009 Lambda Literary Award, and Where the Apple Falls, a Poetry Foundation bestseller and finalist for the 2005 Lambda Literary Award. Bashir is editor of Black Women’s Erotica 2 and co-editor, with Tony Medina and Quraysh Ali Lansana, of Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Social & Political Black Literature & Art. Bashir’s poetry, stories, articles and editorial work have been featured in numerous publications and granted several awards. For over a decade, Bashir worked as a social justice communications professional and was a founding organizer of Fire & Ink, a writer’s festival for LGBT writers of African descent. Most recently, she was owner and principal consultant of Lead Time Consulting, specializing in communications for non-profits and arts organizations. She currently lives amidst the Ann Arbor trees beneath which she teaches writing at the University of Michigan.

TISA BRYANT is the author of Unexplained Presence (Leon Works, 2007), a collection of hybrid essays on myth-making and black presences in film, literature and visual art. She is co-editor/founder of The Encyclopedia Project, and co-editor (with Ernest Hardy) of War Diaries, an anthology on black gay men’s desire and survival, published in 2010 by AIDS Project Los Angeles, and nominated for a LAMBDA Literary Award. Her work has recently appeared or is forthcoming in the journals 1913, Animal Shelter, Mandorla, Mixed Blood, Viz., in the ‘zine, Universal Remote: Meditations on the Absence of Michael Jackson, and the solo exhibits of visual artists Jaime Cortez, Wura-Natasha Ogunji, and filmmaker Cauleen Smith. A novel, The Curator, is forthcoming. She teaches at the California Institute of the Arts

GABRIELLE CIVIL is a black woman poet, conceptual and performance artist originally from Detroit, MI. Over the last ten years, she has premiered over twenty original performance works nationally (Minneapolis, Chicago, NYC) and internationally (Mexico, Puerto Rico, The Gambia).She is currently disseminating work from her 2008-2009 Fulbright Fellowship project “In and Out of Place: Making Black Feminist Performance Art in Mexico” and is circulating Swallow the Fish, her critical/creative text on race, body and performance art. She teaches at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, MN. The aim of all her work is to open up space.

CARINA GIA FARRERO, writer and interdisciplinary performer, received her BA from U.C. Berkeley, and her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is currently a PhD candidate in English at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee and a professor at the Illinois Institute of Art in Chicago. Her poems were most recently published or are forthcoming in Verse Daily, Arsenic Lobster, The Encyclopedia Project and Windy City Queer.

KRISTA FRANKLIN is a poet and visual artist from Dayton, OH who lives and works in Chicago. Her poetry and mixed medium collages have been published in lifestyle and literary journals such as Coon Bidness, Copper Nickel, RATTLE, Indiana Review, Ecotone, Clam and Callaloo, and in the anthologies Encyclopedia Vol. 2 F-K and Gathering Ground. Her visual art has been featured on the covers of award-winning books, and exhibited nationally in solo and group exhibitions. Franklin is a Cave Canem Fellow, a co-founder of 2nd Sun Salon, a community meeting space for writers, visual and performance artists, musicians and scholars, and a teaching artist for Young Chicago Authors, Neighborhood Writing Alliance, and numerous organizations in the city of Chicago.

A. NAOMI JACKSON was born and raised in Brooklyn by West Indian parents. She traveled to South Africa on a Fulbright scholarship, where she received an M.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town. A graduate of Williams College, her work has appeared in Coon Bidness, Encyclopedia, Obsidian, The Caribbean Writer, Sable, and Does Your Mama Know: An Anthology of Black Lesbian Writing. She has been a resident at Hedgebrook and received the Archie D. and Bertha H. Walker scholarship at the Fine Arts Work Center. She co-founded the Tongues Afire creative writing workshop in 2006 and is a current student in fiction at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

JOHN KEENE is a writer, translator and Associate Professor of English and African American Studies at Northwestern University. He has a B.A. from Harvard and an M.F.A. from New York University. He was a longtime member of the Dark Room Collective, an organization that from 1988 to 1998 celebrated and gave greater visibility to emerging and established writers of color. His first novel, Annotations, was published by New Directions in 1995. A new collection of poems entitled Seismosis, in collaboration with Christopher Stackkhouse, was published by 1913 Press in 2006.

THE CHICAGO CALLING ARTS FESTIVAL presents multi-disciplinary collaborations during Chicago Artists Month and collaborated with Red Rover Series on Experiment #51. For the 6th Annual Chicago Calling Arts Festival, people in the Chicago area will work with others outside of Chicago — both in the U.S. and abroad; these collaborations include a range of art forms, such as music, dance, film, literature, and intermedia — prepared or improvised. http://www.chicagocalling.org

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

Sept 23: Douglas Kearney

Harriet Reading Series

DOUGLAS KEARNEY

Friday, September 23 at 7:00 PM

at the Poetry Foundation
61 W. Superior Street
(Dearborn & Superior)

Free admission

The Harriet Reading Series features readings and presentations by “Craft Work” and “Open Door” writers from the Poetry Foundation’s blog, Harriet. “Craft Work” regularly features poets, editors, and translators writing in detail about their work, while “Open Door” reports on events and community organizations around the world. Poet, performer, librettist, and “Craft Work” contributor Douglas Kearney inaugurates this bi-monthly reading series.

Douglas Kearney’s poems touch on politics, African-American culture, and contemporary music, among other themes. He describes the nontraditional layout of his poems as “performative typography.” The author of Fear, Some and The Black Automaton, a finalist for the Pen Center USA Literary Award in poetry, Kearney teaches courses in African American poetry, opera, and myth at California Institute of the Arts. A reception will follow his reading.

Sept 24: Bad Date America

Red Rover Series
{readings that play with reading}

Experiment #50:
Bad Date America

A special event with
100 Thousand Poets for Change

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24th
7-9pm

Featuring:
Kaveh Adel
Barbara Barg
Jen Besemer
Dan Godston
Laura Goldstein
Ruth Goring
Ezzat Goushegir
Kurt Heintz
Marcy Rae Henry
Philip Jenks
Jennifer Karmin
Francesco Levato
Toni Asante Lightfoot
Monica Long
Anthony Madrid
Mario
Ario Mashayekhi
Charlie Newman
Ladan Osman
Roger Reeves
Timothy David Rey
Kenyatta Rogers
Jacob Saenz
Larry Sawyer
Don Share
Keli Stewart
Tony Trigilio
Lina ramona Vitkauskas

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

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

BAD DATE AMERICA is the Chicago event of 100 Thousand Poets for Change. In the spirit of community-building, guest curators Larry Sawyer and Lina ramona Vitkauskas are asking local poets to go on a hypothetical “date” with America. Has your relationship with America started to seem like a bad date? Check out -- http://baddateamerica.wordpress.com

100 THOUSAND POETS FOR CHANGE is a global initiative of poetry readings, political demonstrations, community picnics, awareness events, and parades that will take place in 450 cities across the planet on September 24, 2011 to promote serious social, environmental, and political change. More at -- http://www.100tpc.org

MESS HALL is a Chicago-based experimental cultural center and collaborated with Red Rover Series on Bad Date America. Mess Hall is a place where visual art, radical politics, creative urban planning, applied ecological design and other things intersect and inform each other. They host exhibitions, discussions, film screenings, brunchlucks (brunch + potluck), workshops, concerts, campaigns, meetings (both closed and open) and more. See -- http://messhall.org

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

Piano Rats

Praise for Piano Rats:

“The 44 pieces in Franki Elliott’s Piano Rats are like the best kind of chance meetings—weird and unsettling, specific and transformative. They are Frank O’Hara meets Ellen Kennedy, ‘first kiss’ meets ‘fuck off,’ ‘hell’ meets ‘rainstorm,’ poetry meets prose, narrative meets lyric, trailer park meets city street. But they are also entirely themselves, places where you ‘remember who you wanted to be.’”

~Kathleen Rooney, author of Oneiromance (an epithalamion), managing editor of Rose Metal Press.

“Piano Rats is an homage to being stuck between where you've been and where you still might go. It's just that you haven't quite figured out how to escape where you've been and frankly you have no idea what comes next. And it is this tension of stuckness in all its messy, druggy, sometimes hopeful, youthful confusion that lives here in these poems and explodes across these pages, all oozy and terribly electric.”

~Ben Tanzer, author of Most Likely You Go Your Way and I’ll Go Mine, 99 Problems, My Father's House, and You Can Make Him Like You, among others.

“In Piano Rats you will find a young women drowning in sadness, and not worried about how she can hide it. Franki Elliot exposes what most bury beneath layers of shallow conversations, bottles of alcohol, and innuendo. She will subtly make you love her and hate her in the matter of a few well placed lines.”

~Jason Behrands, managing editor of Orange Alert Press.

“From page one, Franki's honesty and ability to drop an F-Bomb won my heart. Here is a woman who is no stranger to love. She’s suffered its beauty, its jealousy, and its brutal end. Her poetry is like a mirror hanging on my wall, reflecting my own emotions and thoughts back at me. She makes me want to scream ‘Fuck You’ to every guy I dated who didn’t ‘get me’. She makes me want to get behind the pretty words people throw around, quit beating around the bush, and see things for what they really are. She creates a language of her own, breathing out lines like: ‘Love sometimes is just another word for jealousy’, and ‘We can't save ourselves from anything that's supposed to happen.’”

~Lori Hettler of The Next Best Book Club (TNBBC) Blog.

“Franki Elliot's Piano Rats contains the kind of writing that forces its way into your thoughts. Her poems tingle the senses as the clever use of words often will, but there is more. They leave behind a love bite and a bruise. They're only felt deeply -- that good, hard heartbreak and tragedy that's nothing if not funny and sad at the same time. Like learning to live a little and with what you've got.”

~Matt Rowan, founding editor of www.UntowardMag.com



About the Author:

Franki Elliot is a 27 year old Chicago author who often is referred to as a “female Charles Bukowski” or “JD Salinger with a skirt.” She self-published a first edition of Piano Rats in 2010 that quickly sold-out. Curbside Splendor picked it up in 2011 for a second edition. She can’t keep a secret. This is her first book.



About the Publisher:

Curbside Splendor publishes work online and in print, sells books by Chicago presses and authors on a periodic basis at the Logan Square Farmers Market, and presents literary events at various venues throughout Chicago. Piano Rats marks its fourth publication. Staff include Curbside Splendor Editor-in-Chief Victor David Giron as Publisher, Curbside Splendor Sr. Managing Editor Jacob S. Knabb as Editor, and Curbside Splendor Managing Editors Lauryn Allison Lewis and Leah Tallon. Visit Curbside Splendor on the Web at www.curbsidesplendor.com. For additional information, contact Victor David Giron at info@curbsidesplendor.com or at (312) 342-5935.


Publication Details

Publication date: October 15, 2011

Edition: 2

Imprint: Curbside Splendor Publishing

Trade Paperback

72 pages; 4.0″ x 6.0″; $10.00 USD

ISBN: 978-0-9834228-3-9

Publisher: Victor David Giron

Author: Franki Elliot

Editor: Jacob S. Knabb

Designer: Shawn Stucky (http://www.shawnstucky.com/)

Website: http://curbsidesplendor.com/index.php?id=206


Availability

Publisher Direct - http://curbsidesplendor.bigcartel.com/product/piano-rats
Amazon.com - Kindle
Independent bookstores TBA