Friday, February 26, 2010

Series A



Series A
Wed., March 3, 7 p.m.
Hyde Park Art Center
5020 S. Cornell Avenue
Chicago, IL


A reading series dedicated to experimental writing.

The featured readers for this edition are poets Michelle Taransky (Barn Burned, Then) and Anne Shaw (Undertow).

Michelle Taransky was born in Camden, New Jersey in 1981. A graduate of the University of Chicago & the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, she lives in Philadelphia and works at Kelly Writers House. Her poems have been published in journals including Denver Quarterly, VOLT, & Drunken Boat. With her father, architect Richard Taransky, she is the author of the chapbook The Plans Caution (Queue, 2007) and the full length collection Barn Burned, Then (Omnidawn).

Anne Shaw is the author of Undertow (Persea Books), winner of the 2006 Lexi Rudnitsky Poetry Prize. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in New American Writing, Court Green, Phoebe, 26, and numerous other journals. She teaches creative writing and lives in Milwaukee.

Tuesday Funk



Please join us on Tuesday, March 2nd for the third Tuesday Funk Reading of 2010.
Hopleaf Bar at 5148 N. Clark Street
Reading starts 7:30 PM.
Upstairs room opens 7:00 PM.
Come early to get a good seat.
Cash only at the bar upstairs.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

First Friday Classic Poetry Series



Friday, Mar 12

7:30-9:30

St Paul’s Cultural Center
2215 W North Avenue

The W4tB Gang Presents
Storyteller night

Dave Gecic

Brian Norton

Jasmine Neosh

and
Matt Barton
Will be Reading his character piece Soul Brother
The question is: Does Matt Barton get inside of other peoples' heads or do other people get inside of Matt Barton's head? Either way, meeting Soul Brother is like being stuck in an elevator with a talkative escapee from Reality Sanitarium. It's real . . . maybe not your real, but real. It's also intense. And claustrophobic. And a bit uncomfortable. Soul Brother lives and breathes and shares more about his life than you expect. Don't miss Soul Brother.
--CHARLIE NEWMAN

Inside the mind of Matt Barton is a doorway to skewed universal perspectives. Nothing illustrates this better than “Soul Brother.” Peppered with references to the 1970’s, it is an absolute tribute to what it was like to be a kid during a lost decade. A time when simple things still had complications and heroes were hard to find.
--DAVID (BUDDHA 309) HARGARTEN

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Lake Forest Literary Festival


The Lake Forest Literary Festival that will take place from Tuesday, March 2 through Thursday, March 4.

The events will be held in various locations on the College's Middle Campus. The entrance to Middle Campus is at the intersection of College and Sheridan Roads in Lake Forest. The public is invited to attend free of charge. Lake Forest College (IL) is accessible from Chicago via the Metra train.

Please call 847-234-3100 for more information.
or visit:
http://www.lakeforest.edu/academics/english/lflf2010/default.asp



**Tuesday, March 2, 2010**

4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Opening Panel Conceptual/Innovative/Unnamable
Shelley Jackson, Vanessa Place, Teresa Carmody, Lily Hoang, Gretchen E. Henderson
Meyer Auditorium

7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Reading/Performance
Teresa Carmody and Lily Hoang
Meyer Auditorium


**Wednesday, March 3, 2010**

4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Reading/Performance
Vanessa Place
Meyer Auditorium

8:00 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.
Keynote Reading/Performance
Shelley Jackson
Meyer Auditorium


**Thursday, March 4, 2010**

12:00 p.m. - 12:50 p.m.
On The Guilt Project: Rape, Morality and Law (Random House, 2010)
Vanessa Place
Meyer Auditorium

4:00 p.m - 5:00 p.m.
Reading/Performance
Angela Jackson and S.L. Wisenberg
Meyer Auditorium

7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Gretchen E. Henderson
The Madeleine P. Plonsker Emerging Writer’s Residency Prize winner 2010
Meyer Auditorium

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Switchback Books Housewarming / Release Party


Saturday, March 6th
7:30pm - 10:30pm
Fulton Street Collective
2000 W Fulton St.

You betcha we have a space at the Fulton Street Collective! We would like to invite all of you to join us in celebrating new spaces and new books. We are kicking off this new Switchback Books chapter with a housewarming and book release party.

Simone Muench, Lina ramona Vitkauskas, Carlo Matos, and our very own Brandi Homan

will be sharing from their new work. In addition to poetry, we will graciously provide beer and other various entertainments. Hope to see you there!

Simone Muench was raised in Louisiana and Arkansas and now lives in Chicago, IL. She is the author of The Air Lost in Breathing (Marianne Moore Prize for Poetry; Helicon Nine, 2000), Lampblack & Ash (Kathryn A. Morton Prize for Poetry; Sarabande, 2005), and Orange Crush (Sarabande, 2010). Her latest chapbooks are Orange Girl (dancing girl press, 2007) and Sonoluminescence written with Bill Allegrezza (Dusie Press, 2007). She also works collaboratively with Philip Jenks, writing a book of epistolary poems titled Little Visceral Carnival. She is a recipient of an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship, the 49th Parallel Award for Poetry, the PSA's Fine Lines Contest, the Charles Goodnow Award, the AWP Intro Journals Project Award, the Poetry Center's 9th Annual Juried Reading Award, the Frederick Stern Award for Teaching, and the PSA's Bright Lights/Big Verse Contest. She received her Ph.D from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and is director of the Writing Program at Lewis University where she teaches creative writing and film studies. Currently, she serves on the advisory board for Switchback Books and UniVerse: A United Nations of Poetry, and is an editor for Sharkforum.

Lina ramona Vitkauskas is a Lithuanian-American poet and short fiction writer who has authored three poetry books and chapbooks: Shooting Dead Films with Poets (Fractal Edge Press), Failed Star Spawns Planet/Star (dancing girl press), and THE RANGE OF YOUR AMAZING NOTHING (Ravenna Press). She is the 2009 recipient of The Poetry Center of Chicago’s 15th Annual Juried Reading award, judged by Brenda Hillman, and was nominated by Another Chicago Magazine for an Illinois Arts Council Award (in both poetry and fiction categories).

Carlo Matos is a poet, essayist and playwright. His poems have appeared in such publications as The Houston Literary Review, DIAGRAM, Radiant Turnstile, 63 Channels, and The Mad Hatters' Review. His essays and book reviews have appeared in Modern Drama, Kritikon Literarum, Puppetry Journal, The Explicator, and Origins of English Dramatic Modernism. He has also had readings and productions of his plays in cities across the country including New York, Chicago, Seattle, Minneapolis, Amherst (MA), Valdez (AK), Lawrence (KS) and L.A. He currently lives in Chicago, IL where he teaches English at the City Colleges of Chicago. His first book of poems, A School for Fishermen, is available from BrickHouse Books.

Brandi Homan was raised in Iowa but grew up in Chicago. She is the author of Hard Reds (Shearsman, 2008) and Bobcat Country (Shearsman, 2010). She earned her MFA in Poetry from Columbia College Chicago and is Editor-in-Chief of the feminist press Switchback Books.

Future Perfect Poetry + New Media Series

Thurs, March 4
7:30 PM
Katerina's
Street of Dreams
http://www.katerinas.com
1920 W. Irving Park Rd.
773-348-7592

Future Perfect Poetry + New Media Series
presents poets
Simone Muench
Parneshia Jones
Richard Fammerée with Saint Cloud

featuring poet-singer Carrie Ingrisano (bass, piano) w/ Christopher Greene (violin, electronica), Meg Thomas (exotic percussion) and Meg Lauterbach (cello, piano) will share new songs/poem-songs/contemporary (fusion/infusion lit rock) art songs

Future Perfect Poetry + New Media Series
will be recorded live for
Chicago Public Radio/Chicago Amplified & UniVerse of Poetry
Open to the public, $7 at the door.

Please share this invitation.

Richard Fammerée

http://fammeree.com/

Saint Cloud

http://www.saintcloud.co.uk/

Monday, February 22, 2010

Rec Room

wednesday, march 3, 2010
black rock bar
3614 n. damen
chicago, il
8:00 pm


City of Food
curated by Tricia Hersey-Patrick

Chicago. City of Big Shoulders. Chi Town. The Windy City. The Taste of Chicago. The Mecca of the Midwest. A magical place for food. From 5 Star Fine Dining to the best local eats. Harold's Chicken, deep dish pizza, Maxwell Street polishes, Garret's Popcorn, soul food galore, ethnic delights. We will give praise to the home cooked, wonderful treats that make Chicago internationally known for its cuisine. This rec room will feature writers who will leave you drooling for what we love most about great food. Join us as we celebrate our food memories. Lets eat!

W4tB presents Open Mic at the Bus Stop


7:30pm - 10:00pm

Cafe Ballou

939 N Western Ave.

Waiting 4 the Bus
Featuring Sid Yiddish

Hosted by Buddha 309 and the W4tB Poetry Collective.

Tremendous Java and good food

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz @ Quimby's


Monday, March 1st
7pm
Quimby's
1854 W North Ave


In recent interior with lit blog Orange Alert, poet Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz describes her latest book, Everything is Everything, as “an odd, tender, spastic, claustrophobic and bizarre-fact-riddled book that is trying to appreciate the journey instead of obsessing about the destination.” But she was also sure to add that “the book also contains a bizarre amount of poems about giraffes who have been trained to rape humans. But only because they really existed, and not because I’m a crazy sadist.”

“Sometimes you plod through the day, bumping into people, tripping over your own feet. But then there are those remarkable days when you move through the world as stealthily as ninja. The latter is how the poems move in this book. Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz spits in her hands, grabs the sledgehammer, swings it hard, and rings that bell in poem after poem after poem. Everything is Everything is a winning collection chock full of swift, honest, smart, funny, and even tender poems that go up to 11.” – Jennifer Knox, author of Drunk by Noon

Everything is Everything is Aptowicz’s first poetry collection to be published after her acclaimed non-fiction book, Words In Your Face: Words In Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam (Soft Skull Press, 2008). Cristin will be joined by several poets from the local Chicago Poetry Slam community, as well as her partner – poet and former surly Quimbys employee – Shappy Seasholtz, who will read from his most recent chapbook, This is All I Can Offer You.

For more info: http://www.aptowicz.com

Myopic Books 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: larrysawyerpoet@yahoo.com
This SUNDAY at Myopic Books
This SATURDAY at Myopic Books:


Saturday, February 20 - Michael Robbins & Daniel Borzutzky

Daniel BORZUTZKY's books include The Book of Interfering Bodies (Nightboat Books, forthcoming), The Ecstasy of Capitulation (BlazeVox, 2007), Arbitrary Tales (Triple Press, 2005), and the chapbooks One Size Fits All (Scantily Clad Press, 2009) and Failure in the Imagination (Bronze Skull Press, 2007). He is the translator of Song for his Disappeared Love by Raul Zurita (Action Books, forthcoming); Port Trakl by Jaime Luis Huenún (Action Books, 2008); and One Year and other stories by Juan Emar, which was published as a special issue of the Review of Contemporary Fiction. Journal publications include Fence; Chicago Review; TriQuarterly; Action, Yes; Conjunctions; Words Without Borders; Circumference; American Letters and Commentary; Mandorla; Denver Quarterly and many others.


Michael ROBBINS is a PhD candidate in the English Department at The University of Chicago. His poems have been published in The New Yorker, LIT, La Petite Zine, Court Green & elsewhere. His book reviews appear in London Review of Books, Poetry, Boston Review, & Chicago Review. He also writes about poetry, politics, & popular music at digitalemunction.com.





Sunday, February 21 - Dave Awl & Aldo Alvarez


Dave AWL is a writer and performer based in Chicago. He currently hosts a cabaret variety show called The Partly Dave Show. In 2002, Hope and Nonthings published his first book, What the Sea Means: Poems, Stories & Monologues 1987-2002. He is a ten-year veteran of Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind and The Neo-Futurists theater company. Back in the mid-90s, he founded the Pansy Kings performance series. He has appeared on the NPR show This American Life. He's also an occasional New Wave DJ who spent a couple of years spinning records on Sunday nights at Club Foot in Wicker Park. You can find Dave's blog at Ocelopotamus.com.

Aldo ALVAREZ was born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University and Ph.D. in English from Binghamton University. He is Executive Editor and Publisher of Blithe House Quarterly (http://www.blithe.com/), which was nominated for the GLAAD Media Award and named by Out magazine as "the central publishing arm of new queer fiction."





UPCOMING


Sunday, February 28 - Lisa Fishman & Jon Thompson

Sunday, March 7 - Jordan Stempleman & Michelle Taransky

Saturday, March 14 - Jamie Kazay

Wednesday, April 21 - Jerome Rothenberg

Saturday, April 24 - Sandra Doller & Ben Doller

Sunday, April 25 - Matvei Yankelevich

Sunday, May 2 - Connor Stratman

Saturday, May 15 - Brandon Downing & MacGregor Card



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


Myopic Books — 18 years of innovative poetry in Chicago

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

RHINO Reads!


RHINO Reads!
A Monthly Poetry Series


February 26, 2010
FRIDAY

Open Mike 6:00 - 6:30
Featured Poets 6:40 - 8:00

Brothers K
500 Main St.
Evanston, IL


INTERCHANGE: Poetry in Translation
Indonesian, Tagalog, Arabic, Chinese

Linda Kelsey was born and raised in Jordan and Lebanon where she developed a love of Arab culture. She now works with Arabic speaking families in the Chicago Public Schools.

Jennifer Hou Kwong/Jian Ping is a graduate student at the U of C, a translator, an experienced business consultant specializing in bridging cultural difference between East & West, and author of Mulberry Child, about her family’s struggle to survive China’s Cultural Revolution.

Sylvia Shirley Malinton was born in Jakarta, Indonesia. Her first book of poems, Bunga Anggrek untuk Mama is in its 7th printing. Among many honors, her poetry is part of Indonesia’s national curriculum for elementary school children. She works for the Indonesian Consulate General in Chicago.
Steven Schroeder is a professor at the U of C, and cofounder of Virtual Artists Collective (vacpoetry.org). His most recent book of poems is Six Stops South from Cherry Grove Collections.

Angela Narciso Torres grew up in Manila, Philippines. A graduate of the Warren Wilson MFA Program, her poems appear in many journals, including the Filipina anthology Going Home to a Landscape.

TallGrass Writers Guild


TallGrass Writers Guild
Tue., Feb. 23, 7:30 p.m.
Bourgeois Pig
738 W. Fullerton
$6

Poet Maureen Tolman Flannery is the featured reader at the open mike.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Orange Alert Reading Series


Orange Alert Reading Series
Sat., Feb. 20, 6 p.m.
The Whistler
2421 N. Milwaukee Ave.
773-227-3530

Orange Alert Press hosts readings by Tim Jones-Yelvington, Anne Valente, Brandon Will, Amanda Marbais, Charlie Nadler, and Michael Czyzniejewski. 21+.

Monday, February 15, 2010

UniVerse of Poetry


UniVerse of Poetry
www.universeofpoetry.org

welcomes Maryam Ala Amjadi representing Iran
http://www.universeofpoetry.org/iran.shtml

&


celebrates Haitian poets Davertige representing Haiti
http://www.universeofpoetry.org/haiti.shtml

&

Maggy De Coster representing Haiti
http://www.universeofpoetry.org/haiti_p2.shtml



UniVerse of Poetry initiates an opportunity for courageous, celebrated, international poets -- many of whom are refugees -- to be heard, read and studied. These poets often transcend hardship, isolation, and exile to write the enduring human story.

UniVerse embodies a celebration of poetry encouraging dialogue, compassion and peace. UniVerse is dedicated to featuring a laurelled poet from every nation in the world, regardless of territory, and to showcasing the work of poets working in exile and writing in endangered languages through public programs, free curricula and online publication. UniVerse is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization.

To enjoy a series of outstanding poetry programs, please visit the Universe of Poetry & Chicago Public Radio/Chicago Amplified Archive.

Please support UniVerse of Poetry.

Your donation helps give all nations, regardless of territory, a voice.

Yes, poetry can encourage spiritual refinement; spark intelligent, intuitive dialogues of compassion, mutual respect and peace; and help redress social injustice.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

W4tB presents the Poetry Wheel


Monday, Feb 15

7:30-10pm

Cafe Ballou

939 N. Western

Waiting 4 the Bus

Featuring Tom Roby & His Incredible Poetry Wheel!

Hosted by Buddha 309 and a whole slew of Jamokes

What is a poetry wheel? Tom Roby, the fellow who coined it, explains thus: "The Wheel starts with a kick-off poem by the lead poet. Then one of the other poets reads a poem that spins off the initial poem. The process continues, wending its way through unplanned creative waters, as the poets spontaneously create the group Poetry Wheel by improvising their selections as the performance progresses. Could it be a streak of road poems? Love lyrics? Every Wheel is different, so drop in and see what evolves!"

CPL presents Haki R. Madhubuti at Woodson Regional Library


Haki R. Madhubuti

Sat., Feb. 13, 1:30 p.m.

Makhubuti reads work from Liberation Narratives: New and Collected Poems, 1966-2009.

Woodson Regional Library
Pullman 9525 S. Halsted St.

Palabra Pura

Palabra Pura
Wed., Feb. 17, 7:30 p.m.
Décima Musa, 1901 S. Loomis, Chicago

Roberto Harrison and Elizabeth Marino read their work for this Guild Complex bilingual poetry series.

Roberto Harrison's most recent books include Os (subpress, 2006), Counter Daemons (Litmus, 2006), elemental song (Answer Tag Home Press, 2006), reflector (House Press, 2008), and Urracá (Achiote Seeds, 2009). He lives and works in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he hosts the Enemy Rumor reading series and publishes Bronze Skull Press chapbooks.

Elizabeth Marino's first chapbook, "Debris: Poems & Memoir" will go into a second printing this summer, with a new Pudd'inhead Press imprint.

4.06 the Café open mic & feature


April 6, 8:30PM

The Café
open mic

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

The Café (5115 N. Lincoln Ave.) hosts a weekly poetry/performance art open mic (hosted by Janet Kuypers). April 6th has Oren Wagner (w/ Steve Henn) as a feature, as well as an open mic. See the Café on line at http://www.chaoticarts.org/thecafe/ for info about the open mic and the 2010 schedule, and YouTube video links of the 2010 features.

3.30 the Café open mic & feature


March 30, 8:30PM

The Café open mic
5115 N. Lincoln Ave.
$2 cover
(plus donation for the feature)

The Café (5115 N. Lincoln Ave.) hosts a weekly poetry/performance art open mic (hosted by Janet Kuypers). March 30th has Sid Yiddish as a feature, as well as an open mic. See the Café on line at http://www.chaoticarts.org/thecafe/ for info about the open mic and the 2010 schedule, and YouTube video links of the 2010 features.

3.23 the Café open mic & feature


March 23, 8:30PM

The Café
open mic

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


The Café (5115 N. Lincoln Ave.) hosts a weekly poetry/performance art open mic (hosted by Janet Kuypers). March 23rd has Tom Roby as a feature, as well as an open mic. See the Café on line at http://www.chaoticarts.org/thecafe/ for info about the open mic and the 2010 schedule, and YouTube video links of the 2010 features.

3.16 the Café open mic & feature


March 16, 8:30PM

The Café open mic
5115 N. Lincoln Ave.
$2 cover
(plus donation for the feature)

The Café (5115 N. Lincoln Ave.) hosts a weekly poetry/performance art open mic (hosted by Janet Kuypers). March 16th has Jenene Ravesloot as a feature, as well as an open mic. See the Café on line at http://www.chaoticarts.org/thecafe/ for info about the open mic and the 2010 schedule, and YouTube video links of the 2010 features.

3.09 the Café open mic & feature


March 9, 8:30PM

The Café
open mic

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

The Café (5115 N. Lincoln Ave.) hosts a weekly poetry/performance art open mic (hosted by Janet Kuypers). March 9th has Dan Cleary as a feature, as well as an open mic. See the Café on line at http://www.chaoticarts.org/thecafe/ for info about the open mic and the 2010 schedule, and YouTube video links of the 2010 features.

3.02 the Café open mic & feature


March 2, 8:30PM

The Café open mic
5115 N. Lincoln Ave.
$2 (plus donation for the feature)

The Café (5115 N. Lincoln Ave.) hosts a weekly poetry/performance art open mic (hosted by Janet Kuypers). March 2nd has Tom Curry as a feature, as well as an open mic. See the Café on line at http://www.chaoticarts.org/thecafe/ for info about the open mic and the 2010 schedule, and YouTube video links of the 2010 features.

2.23 the Café open mic & feature


February 23, 8:30PM

The Café open mic
5115 N. Lincoln Ave.
$2 (plus donation for the feature)

The Café (5115 N. Lincoln Ave.) hosts a weekly poetry/performance art open mic (hosted by Janet Kuypers). February 23rd has Larry Janowski as a feature, as well as an open mic. See the Café on line at http://www.chaoticarts.org/thecafe/ for info about the open mic and the 2010 schedule, and YouTube video links of the 2010 features.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Poem Present


Thursday, February 11, 2010, 4:30 – 5:30pm
Social Sciences 201
University of Chicago, Social Science Research Building
Hyde Park 1126 E. 59th St.

Poem Present :
Pimone Triplett


Pimone Triplett is the author of The Price of Light (2005) and Ruining the Picture (1998). She has been the recipient of the Levis Poetry Prize and the Hazel Hall Poetry Prize. With Daniel Tobin, she is the co-editor of Poet's Work, Poet's Play, a collection of essays on craft by Warren Wilson MFA Program professors. Her MFA is from the University of Iowa.

THE NEW TENTACLE

THE NEW TENTACLE
literary uses for religious text: a reading

You are invited to an evening of work in response to religious texts (or to religion as text) -- from Gilgamesh to Buddha to Biblical woman to 18th century American hymns, watch the sacred and the profane mix and mingle before your very eyes for a one-time-only living room show overlooking Kedzie Boulevard in beautiful Logan Square, Chicago.

7pm Friday, February the 12th
free / donations accepted

2253 N. Kedzie Boulevard
Apartment #2 (buzzer: Murfin/Wooten/Bean)
btw Belden & Lyndale, s. of Fullerton
CTA Logan Square Blue Line

The evening's entertainments will include
the religo-linguistic stylings of:

HV Cramond
Daniel Godston
Nicholas Alexander Hayes
A D Jameson
Jennifer Karmin
Heather Momyer
Ira S. Murfin
Sherrie Weller
&
Alicia Jo Rabins
We are welcoming the Brooklyn-based poet & musician to town and celebrating the release of her her art-pop song cycle about Biblical women, Girls in Trouble. She is the violinist in klezmer-rock band Golem, and her album Girls in Trouble was released on Jdub Records in November 2009. Her poems have appeared in Boston Review, 6 x 6, Poems of Brooklyn (NYU Press) and Horse Poems (Everyman's Library).

Of her appearance at The New Tentacle she says,
"My performance will definitely involve live violin looping, singing about obscure Biblical women, and perhaps reading from an ongoing series of surreal instruction manuals."

http://www.myspace.com/girlsintroublemusic
http://www.lmcc.net/art/residencies/workspace/2009/session/alicia-rabins.html

The Play's the Thing: 400 Years of Shakespeare on Stage


The Play's the Thing: 400 Years of Shakespeare on Stage
February 16 - May 1, 2010
Donnelley Gallery
Newberry Library
60 W. Walton St.




People have produced, starred in, and enjoyed the spectacle of Shakespeare’s work on stage for more than four centuries. Explore a surprising variety of materials created by professional and amateur actors, producers, theaters, and newspapers to create and publicize the latest Shakespearean creations. Broadside advertisements, homemade programs, a nineteenth-century fund raising show book, and a hand-made manuscript prompt book from the early nineteenth century are just some of the objects on display.

Admission is free.

Admission & Hours
Admission to all exhibits at the Newberry Library is free and open to the public.
Galleries are open Monday, Friday, Saturday from 8:15 am - 5:00 pm, and Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, from 8:15 am - 7:30 pm. Holiday closings

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Janet Holmes & Jenny Mueller at Columbia College



Janet Holmes & Jenny Mueller
Wednesday, February 17th
5:30p.m.
Hokin Hall
623 South Wabash, Room 109


JANET HOLMES is author of five books of poetry, most recently THE MS OF MY KIN (Shearsman, 2009) and F2F (U Notre Dame, 2006). She is a founding faculty member of the MFA in Creative Writing at Boise State University, where she also edits Ahsahta Press, an all-poetry publisher.



JENNY MUELLER’s first book of poems is Bonneville, published by Elixir Press in 2007. A graduate of the University of Chicago, University of Utah, and the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, she currently lives in St. Louis and teaches at McKendree University, where she is an associate professor of English.



This event is free and open to the public.
For more information, call (312) 369-8819.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Poetry Center Juried Reading Contest Deadline Extended

Friday, Feb 26
Juried Reading Contest
Submission deadline extended!

New Postmark deadline: Friday, February 26, 2010
First prize: $1,500; Second prize: $500; Third prize: $250

Five finalists receive $50

The Poetry Center invites regional poets to submit their unpublished work for consideration in the 16th Annual Juried Reading. Eight finalists will have their poetry published in an e-book by Plastique Press as well as on the Poetry Center website, and all eight poets will be invited to read at an award ceremony in the spring.




Mark Nowak, Final Judge

A poet and labor activist heralded by Adrienne Rich for "regenerating the rich tradition of working-class literature," Mark Nowak regularly leads transnational poetry workshops between American and international trade unions. He is the author of Revenants and Shut Up Shut Down, a New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice and finalist for the Academy of American Poets' James Laughlin Award. A native of Buffalo, New York, he is now the Director of the Rose O'Neill Literary House at Washington College in Maryland.

The Juried Reading is open to all poets residing in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Poets may be unpublished or have published no more than one full-length book of poetry. All submissions are blind; the jury and the judge will have no access to identifying information about the submitting poets.

To submit, mail:

1. A cover sheet including your name, address, phone number, e-mail address and titles of poems submitted.

2. Four copies of a packet, independently stapled, of no more than five single-sided, typed pages of unpublished poetry. There is no restriction on the number of poems per page, but the packet should not exceed five pages. Your name should not appear on any of the pages containing poems.

3. 15 jury fee, check or money order made payable to "The Poetry Center." The contest is free for Poetry Center members.

Poems will be accepted by US mail only. Send poems to: 16th Annual Juried Reading, The Poetry Center of Chicago, 37 S. Wabash Avenue, Chicago, IL60603. E-mail and fax submissions will not be accepted. No phone calls please.

Visit the Poetry center website for for a list of the 2009 Juried Reading winners and a selection of their poetry.


New from Virtual Artists Collective


Ink on Snow, Elizabeth Raby
isbn 9780981989846
$15.00
order it here



What unites all the poems in Ink on Snow is the voice of someone brave enough to see closely both the painful and the beautiful--to ask what will satisfy and to trust the words to respond in the way we trust prayers to be answered: not with easy solutions or simple fixes, but with a recognition that what we are looking for will never reveal itself in the way we expect it to. So many of the poems are acts of witness by a speaker who is both detached and passionate, intimate and observant, conscious of her distance from things--tragedies, natural phenomenon, people--and determined to bridge this distance through the agency of a loving and courageous language, exploring the dark energies that inform her life and the world's and in doing so, illuminating our lives and hers.

Christopher Bursk, author of The First Inhabitants of Arcadia

Molly Malone's

Monday, Feb 8
7:00 -- open mic sign-up begins
7:30 -- open mic (5 minutes per reader)
9:00 -- featured reader

Molly Malone's Irish Pub
7652 Madison Street
Forest Park, IL
708-366-8073

The Molly Malone's Open Mic with your hosts Nina Corwin and Al DeGenova invites you to be part of one of the longest running and most highly respected open mics in the Chicago area.

Join us in a warm Molly Malone’s welcome for Steven Schroeder...


Steven Schroeder is the co-founder, with composer Clarice Assad, of the Virtual Artists Collective (a "virtual" gathering of musicians, poets, and visual artists), which has published five full-length poetry collections each year since it began in 2004. He teaches at the University of Chicago in Asian Classics and the Basic Program of Liberal Education for Adults and at Shenzhen University in China. He has published extensively in philosophy and religious studies, and has lectured and written on the relationship of poetry with philosophy -- and of both with religion. Steven received his Ph.D. in Ethics and Society from the University of Chicago in 1982.

Steven’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in After Hours, AmarilloBay, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, Concho River Review, the Christian Science Monitor, the Cresset, Druskininkai Poetic Fall 2005, Georgetown Review, the Journal of the American Medical Association, Karamu, Macao Closer, Mid-America Poetry Review, Poetry East, Poetry Macao, Rambunctious Review, Rhino, Shichao, Sichuan Literature, Texas Review, TriQuarterly and other literary journals. He has published two chapbooks, Theory of Cats and Revolutionary Patience, and four full-length collections, Fallen Prose, The Imperfection of the Eye, Six Stops South, and A Dim Sum of the Day Before.

$5 if you can, $3 if you can't

Poetry/fiction at Molly's is the second Monday of every month.

Feel free to forward this notice to your writing pals...we love new faces with new voices.

Tonight!: FUTURE PERFECT Poetry + New Media Series

7:30pm - 11:30pm

Katerina's Street of Dreams

[http://www.katerinas.com]

1920 W. Irving Park Rd.

SAINT CLOUD [http://saintcloud-theartband.com/] appears in concert featuring Richard Fammerée, poet, singer-songwriter, composer, (guitars, piano) [http://fammeree.com/]; poète-chanteuse Carrie Ingrisano (bass, piano) [http://www.myspace.com/carrieingrisano]; Paul Christopher Greene (production, violin, electronica); Meg Thomas (exotic percussion) and Victor Sanders (electric guitar, electronica). Saint Cloud will share new songs/poem-songs/contemporary (fusion/infusion lit rock) art songs.

FUTURE PERFECT Poetry + New Media Series

also presents poets

The editors of RHINO

http://www.rhinopoetry.org/

Virginia Bell

Sarah Carson

Helen Degen Cohen

Carol Eding

Adam Lizakowski

Deborah Rosen

Marcia Zuckerman

+

Richard Fammerée, Carrie Ingrisano & Saint Cloud

http://fammeree.com

http://saintcloud-theartband.com/

+

"Street Works: Windows and Walls." a projected exhibit of the exquisite, fine art photography of Susan Aurinko

http://www.aurinkophoto.com/

+

Ballerina Jeanette Aylward

&

Tango masters Stephan Pressling & Sabine Gourgue (just back from So. America!)

FUTURE PERFECT Poetry + New Media Series

will be recorded live for

Chicago Public Radio/Chicago Amplified & UniVerse of Poetry

http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/program_amp_archive.aspx?partnerID=33

Featured poets and poets in attendance are encouraged to bring their books & CDS for the "Perfect Book Shop." Artists retain all sales.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Silver Tongue Reading Series


SILVER TONGUE with [JASON BREDLE]
and students of Columbia College
When: Thursday, February 11th @7:00pm
Where: 731 S Plymouth Court



[SILVER TONGUE] is COLUMBIA COLLEGE'S student curated reading series features student's word based work. We're starting off this year with the theme, "Penny Dreadful" because it sounds cool, and has a cool story behind it. Read on:

For those unfamiliar, Vinegar Valentines and Penny Dreadfuls refer to insulting valentines and greeting cards meant to shock and offend that were popular back in the olden days.

FEATURED WRITER [JASON BREDLE] who is the author of three book and four chapter books of poetry, including The Book of Evil [Dream Horse Press, forthcoming] and Smiles of the Unstoppable [Magic Helicopter Press, forthcoming].

Newberry Library Seminars

Register Now for Winter/Spring 2010 Seminars:


# Shakespeare: Problem Plays, Sonnets, and Romances
Tuesdays, 5:45 – 7:45 pm
February 16 – April 20 (class will not meet March 30)
9 sessions, $190
Register Online

Shakespeare’s problem plays or dark comedies—All’s Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure, and Troilus and Cressida—raise challenging moral issues. The sonnets are among the greatest lyric poems in our language, and his dramatic romances—Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale, and The Tempest—are often interpreted as his most profound reflections on his life and art.

David Zesmer is Emeritus Professor of English at the Illinois Institute of Technology.


Vergil’s AeneidWednesdays, 5:45 – 7:45 pm
February 17 – April 7
8 sessions, $180
Register Online

We will examine Vergil’s Aeneid within the social, political, and literary context of first-century Rome. Class discussion will focus on Aeneas as an epic hero and the transformation he undergoes from Trojan refugee to King of Lavinium. We will pay special attention to how the poem raises questions about Aeneas’ heroic character and the glory of Rome.

Jill Connelly holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in classical languages and literature and has been teaching classics for over ten years.




* Emily Dickinson: Her Work and Her Self, Then and Now
Tuesdays, 2 – 4 pm
February 23 – May 4 (class will not meet March 23)
10 sessions, $200
Register Online

Though widely considered one of the greatest American poets, Emily Dickinson’s life and work continue to perplex as well as fascinate us. We will explore Dickinson’s poetry in form, content, and context, along with her contested biography, her sources and contemporaries, and her reappearance as a character in modern American drama and literature.

Jennifer Shook is an Illinois Humanities Council Road Scholar, Artistic Director of Caffeine Theatre (Chicago’s poetry theatre), and a faculty member at DePaul University.





# Pain, the Passage of Time, and Keats
Wednesdays, 5:45 – 7:45 pm
March 31 – April 28
5 sessions, $140
Register Online

In his poetry and for most of his short life, John Keats lamented the inevitable passage of time and the presence of human pain. Though he died at the age of twenty-five, he came to a reconciliation or acceptance of both in his later poetry. We will trace Keats’ presentation of those concerns in his poetry, including his sonnets and major odes, and in his letters.

William Dumbleton is Professor Emeritus of English, University at Albany, State University of New York. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.


To register and for a complete list of programming, visit:
http://www.newberry.org/programs/currentschedule.html

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Myopic Books Poetry Series



Sunday, Feb 7
7:00
Myopic Bookstore
1564 N. Milwaukee Avenue, 2nd Floor

Allyssa Wolf & Philip Jenks



Allyssa WOLF is the author of Vaudeville (Seismicity Editions, 2006), Sister (Cannibal Books, forthcoming), and a short tract called Night Fast (2009). She is the recipient of a Gertrude Stein Award For Innovative Writing, and her work was included in the 2001 Venice Biennale.

Philip JENKS teaches at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His poems have appeared in Chicago Review, Typo, Fence, Cultural Society, Canarium, LVNG, and elsewhere. Flood Editions published his first volume of poems in 2002, On the Cave You Live In and a second volume of poems, My First Painting will be ‘The Accuser’ was published by Zephyr Press (2005). He also published two chapbooks – The Elms Left Elm Street (Plane Bukt, 1994) and How Many of You Are You? (Dusie, 2006). He collaborates with Simone Muench, publishing Little Visceral Carnival (Cinemateque Press, 2009) and with Sasha Miljevic, publishing Distance, an ekphrastic hybrid of prose and poetry (Dutch Art Institute, 2009). He recently completed his third manuscript, Colony Collapse.




THE MYOPIC POETRY SERIES — a weekly series of readings and occasional poets' talks
Contact curator Larry Sawyer for booking information and requests.
E-mail: larrysawyerpoet@yahoo.com
http://www.facebook.com/l/42915;www.myopicbookstore.com/poetry.html

Myopic Books — 18 years of innovative poetry in Chicago
THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT OF THE MYOPIC POETRY SERIES

Monday, February 1, 2010

Funny Ha-Ha Loves You



Funny Ha Ha Loves You
Tuesday, February 9th

The Hideout
1354 W. Wabansia Ave.
6:30pm - 8:00pm

Chicago's beloved literary humor reading returns, featuring readings and performances by: Standup comic, homo, genius Cameron Esposito-Blogger; "Lessons from the Fat-o-Sphere" author Kate Harding; "The Order of Odd-Fish" author James Kennedy; writer, editor, and conspirator Fred Sasaki; Poet and "Spiking the Sucker Punch" author Robbie Q. Telfer; and Films by Steve Delahoyde. And your gracious host Claire Zulkey! $5 suggested donation. Proceeds benefit the Neighborhood Writing Alliance.

The Hideout
1354 W. Wabansia Ave.
Wicker Park/Bucktown

The Encyclopedia Show

Wednesday, Februray 5th
7:30pm - 9:00pm
Vittum Theatre
1012 N. Noble St
THE ENCYCLOPEDIA SHOW PRESENTS!

SERIES 2, VOLUME 6: EXPLORERS

Chicago, IL – Chicago Slam Works brings to you The Encyclopedia Show at the Vittum Theatre, 1012 N Noble St, on Wednesday, February 3 at 7:30 pm. Tickets $6 at the door. All ages. www.encyclopediashow.com

This Month – Series 2, Volume 6: Explorers

With music, poetry, visual art and spoken word on the topic: Explorers. Featuring contributors:

Dave Awl (Author of What the Sea Means)
Cin Salach (Slam Legend)
Derrick Brown (International Heart-throb, Founder of Write Bloody Press)
Bob Boone (Founder of Young Chicago Authors)
Stephen Meads (Bay Area Raconteur and Hooligan)
Greg Bee (BitterSingleGuy.com)
Brian Morrison (Animation Student)
The Brothers Dodson:
Zach Dodson (featherproof, Show ’n Tell Show)
Seth Dodson (1,2,3, Fag!, Glitter in the Gutter)
Raych Jackson (Louder Than a Bomb).

With hosts

Robbie Q Telfer (Author of Spiking the Sucker Punch)
Shanny Jean Maney (Author of Our Brave Faces Were Just Smiles)

and cast regulars:

Kurt Heintz (E-Poets.net)– Fact Checker
Aaron Enskat (Former Normal Slammaster)
Tim Stafford (HBO Def Poet)
Joel Chmara (HBO Def Poet)
Evan Chung (Musician) - House Band Leader "The Encartagans"
Emily Rose (Poetry Vet and House Manager) –as Jilted Emily Rose.

"We saw a hole in the Chicago poetry scene that Slam couldn't fill. I think a lot more can be done with the form than just competition."

-Robbie Q Telfer in TimeOut Chicago

About The Encyclopedia Show

The Encyclopedia Show, brought to you from the quirky minds of poets and producers Robbie Q Telfer and Shanny Jean Maney. The Encyclopedia Show showcases visual art, comedy, music and spoken word on a wide variety of subjects related to a chosen topic. Each month a new topic is picked at random from the encyclopedia and assignments are sent to a diverse group of writers, artists, poets and performers. Past contributors have included Bill Ayers, Marc Smith, Paul Sereno, Anis Mojgani, Idris Goodwin, Lisa Buscani, Cameron McGill, Kevin Coval, Derrick Brown, and Marty McConnell. For audio from previous shows and additional information, please visit www.encyclopediashow.com

The Encyclopedia Show draws its novice and notable talent from Chicago Area and National Artists in the Slam, Academic and Youth artists’ communities.

www.chicagoslamworks.com