Poetry Foundation’s October 2016 Events
Featuring poets of the past and poets and musicians of today
CHICAGO – This October, the Poetry Foundation celebrates books published this year and books published 100 years ago. Forrest Gander reads and discusses his translations of recently discovered Pablo Neruda poems and Quraysh Ali Lansana reads from his just- published children’s book, Gift from Greensboro. This year’s Poetry Day at the Harold Washington Library Center features David Nagler’s song cycle setting Carl Sandburg’s 1916 Chicago Poems to music. We also have readings from Joshua Weiner and Suzanne Buffam; a modular synthesizer piece by Thrill Jockey’s Sam Prekop during Open House Chicago, and more.
Our offsite events include our Pop-up Poetry Series at the Art Institute of Chicago and a talk on prisons and poetry at the Reva and David Logan Center. Be sure to also visit the Poetry Foundation Gallery for Pegasus and Mermaids.
Except when otherwise noted, the following events are free and open to the public on a first come, first served basis at the Poetry Foundation, 61 West Superior Street, Chicago. Recently added events are in bold. More information is available at poetryfoundation.org/events. Images are available upon request.
Poetry Foundation October 2016 Events
Poetry off the Shelf
Joshua Weiner & Suzanne Buffam
Wednesday, October 5, 7 pm
Joshua Weiner is the author of three books of poetry, including The Figure of a Man Being Swallowed by a Fish (2013). He is also the editor of At the Barriers: On the Poetry of Thom Gunn and is a professor of English at the University of Maryland. Suzanne Buffam is the author of three collections of poetry, most recently A Pillow Book (2016). Born and raised in Canada, she lives in Chicago and is currently visiting assistant professor of poetry at the University of Iowa.
Joshua Weiner & Suzanne Buffam
Wednesday, October 5, 7 pm
Joshua Weiner is the author of three books of poetry, including The Figure of a Man Being Swallowed by a Fish (2013). He is also the editor of At the Barriers: On the Poetry of Thom Gunn and is a professor of English at the University of Maryland. Suzanne Buffam is the author of three collections of poetry, most recently A Pillow Book (2016). Born and raised in Canada, she lives in Chicago and is currently visiting assistant professor of poetry at the University of Iowa.
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Pop-Up Poetry
Coya Paz
Wednesday, October 5, 12 pm
Wednesday, October 5, 12 pm
Art Institute of Chicago
111 South Michigan Avenue
Meet in Gallery 100
111 South Michigan Avenue
Meet in Gallery 100
Join us for a series of 30-minute lunchtime poetry readings in the African and Indian Art of the Americas galleries at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Coya Paz is a writer and director who was raised in Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, and the United States. She is the Artistic Director of Free Street Theater, a cofounder of the Proyecto Latina collective, and served as the founding co-Artistic Director of Teatro Luna for nine years. Coya is an associate professor in The Theatre School at DePaul University and holds a PhD in Performance Studies from Northwestern University. She is a regular commentator on race, politics, and pop culture for Vocalo.org.
Free for Art Institute of Chicago members or with museum admission. Visit poetryfoundation.org for additional listings. Cosponsored with the Art Institute of Chicago
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Celebration
Fuller Awards Celebrating Rosellen Brown
Thursday, October 6, 7 pm
A reception follows the program.
The Fuller Award is presented by the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame to a Chicago author who has made outstanding lifetime contributions to literature. Rosellen Brown will become the fourth recipient of the prestigious award, after Gene Wolfe, Harry Mark Petrakis, and Haki Madhubuti. A lineup of speakers from the literary community, including Reginald Gibbons, Alex Kotlowitz, Donna Seaman, Carol Anshaw, Susan Bielstein, Leigh Bienen, Janet Burroway, Bernardine Dohrn, Marv Hoffman, John Kersey, Britney Lipton, Mary Schmich, Judy Valente and Arne Weingart will give tributes to illuminate the depth of Brown’s work and its importance to Chicago and American letters.
Cosponsored with the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame and the Guild Literary Complex
Fuller Awards Celebrating Rosellen Brown
Thursday, October 6, 7 pm
A reception follows the program.
The Fuller Award is presented by the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame to a Chicago author who has made outstanding lifetime contributions to literature. Rosellen Brown will become the fourth recipient of the prestigious award, after Gene Wolfe, Harry Mark Petrakis, and Haki Madhubuti. A lineup of speakers from the literary community, including Reginald Gibbons, Alex Kotlowitz, Donna Seaman, Carol Anshaw, Susan Bielstein, Leigh Bienen, Janet Burroway, Bernardine Dohrn, Marv Hoffman, John Kersey, Britney Lipton, Mary Schmich, Judy Valente and Arne Weingart will give tributes to illuminate the depth of Brown’s work and its importance to Chicago and American letters.
Cosponsored with the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame and the Guild Literary Complex
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Poetry off the Shelf
French Connection 2016
Friday, October 7, 12 pm
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the relationship between Chicago and Paris, the Chicago Sister Cities Paris Committee invites Chicago Slam Works to showcase the work of Collective 129H, poets/performers Rouda, Neobled and Lyor. Together with Marc Smith, founder of the poetry slam, and Chicago Slam Works poets, they create a dynamic interpretive performance. The resulting poetic performance can be easily understood, in real time, by both French and English speakers.
French Connection 2016
Friday, October 7, 12 pm
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the relationship between Chicago and Paris, the Chicago Sister Cities Paris Committee invites Chicago Slam Works to showcase the work of Collective 129H, poets/performers Rouda, Neobled and Lyor. Together with Marc Smith, founder of the poetry slam, and Chicago Slam Works poets, they create a dynamic interpretive performance. The resulting poetic performance can be easily understood, in real time, by both French and English speakers.
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Poetry & Children
Quraysh Ali Lansana: A Gift from Greensboro
Saturday, October 8, 1:30 PM
Join us as we celebrate the release of Quraysh Ali Lansana’s new book for children, A Gift from Greensboro. The book, written for ages five and up, is at once an elegy, a celebration of the magic of childhood friendship and adventure, and a meditation on growing up in the wake of the sit-ins that ushered in the Civil Rights Movement.
Quraysh Ali Lansana: A Gift from Greensboro
Saturday, October 8, 1:30 PM
Join us as we celebrate the release of Quraysh Ali Lansana’s new book for children, A Gift from Greensboro. The book, written for ages five and up, is at once an elegy, a celebration of the magic of childhood friendship and adventure, and a meditation on growing up in the wake of the sit-ins that ushered in the Civil Rights Movement.
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Poetry off the Shelf
Lit & Luz Festival: Señal
Tuesday, October 11, 7 pm
The Lit & Luz Festival of Language, Literature, and Art presents “Señal Night” featuring three authors from the Señal chapbook series, published collaboratively by BOMB magazine, Libros Antena Books, and Ugly Duckling Presse. Readers include Pablo Katchadjian (Argentina), Florencia Castellano (Argentina), and Luis Felipe Fabre (Mexico), along with Lit & Luz invitee, Gabriela Jauregui (Mexico). This bilingual event will be presented in both Spanish and English.
Cosponsored with MAKE Literary Productions and the Lit & Luz Festival
Lit & Luz Festival: Señal
Tuesday, October 11, 7 pm
The Lit & Luz Festival of Language, Literature, and Art presents “Señal Night” featuring three authors from the Señal chapbook series, published collaboratively by BOMB magazine, Libros Antena Books, and Ugly Duckling Presse. Readers include Pablo Katchadjian (Argentina), Florencia Castellano (Argentina), and Luis Felipe Fabre (Mexico), along with Lit & Luz invitee, Gabriela Jauregui (Mexico). This bilingual event will be presented in both Spanish and English.
Cosponsored with MAKE Literary Productions and the Lit & Luz Festival
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Poetry off the Shelf
Friday, October 14, 7:00 PM
A reception follows the program.
Northwestern University’s Global and Local Poets in Conversation brings premier international and local poets together to build broad conversations about poetry as a powerful and relevant art form across an array of world communities and U.S. cultural margins. At this evening event, 2016 featured poets TJ Dema from Botswana and Mayda Del Valle from Chicago read their own work and introduce teen poets who read poetry crafted in workshops with Global and Local Poets in Conversation.
The program is a projected multi-year partnership between Northwestern’s Poetry and Poetics Colloquium, its Program in Comparative Literary Studies, The Poetry Foundation, and Youth and Opportunity United (Y.O.U.), in Evanston.
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Open House Chicago
Featuring Sam Prekop
Saturday and Sunday, October 15 & 16, 10 am–5 pm
1:30 pm modular synthesizer performance by Sam Prekop
The Poetry Foundation celebrates Open House Chicago, an annual festival weekend that provides an opportunity for people to explore Chicago’s rich architecture, culture, and history by visiting featured sites and neighborhoods in an open-ended format that encourages self-guided exploration. At 1:30 PM, Sam Prekop from the bands The Sea and Cake and Shrimp Boat will perform a modular synthesizer piece to showcase the acoustics of the performance space.
Saturday and Sunday, October 15 & 16, 10 am–5 pm
1:30 pm modular synthesizer performance by Sam Prekop
The Poetry Foundation celebrates Open House Chicago, an annual festival weekend that provides an opportunity for people to explore Chicago’s rich architecture, culture, and history by visiting featured sites and neighborhoods in an open-ended format that encourages self-guided exploration. At 1:30 PM, Sam Prekop from the bands The Sea and Cake and Shrimp Boat will perform a modular synthesizer piece to showcase the acoustics of the performance space.
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The Open Door Readings
Lewis University’s Simone Muench & Deirdre McCormick with
Lake Forest College’s Joshua Corey & Simone Parker
Tuesday, October 18, 7 pm
The Open Door series presents work from Chicago’s new and emerging poets and highlights the area’s outstanding writing programs. Each hour-long event features readings by two Chicagoland writing program instructors accompanied by a current or recent student.
Lewis University’s Simone Muench & Deirdre McCormick with
Lake Forest College’s Joshua Corey & Simone Parker
Tuesday, October 18, 7 pm
The Open Door series presents work from Chicago’s new and emerging poets and highlights the area’s outstanding writing programs. Each hour-long event features readings by two Chicagoland writing program instructors accompanied by a current or recent student.
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Pop-Up Poetry
Elise Paschen
Wednesday, October 5, 12 pm
Wednesday, October 5, 12 pm
Art Institute of Chicago
111 South Michigan Avenue
Meet in Gallery 100
111 South Michigan Avenue
Meet in Gallery 100
Join us for a series of 30-minute lunchtime poetry readings in the African and Indian Art of the Americas galleries at the Art Institute of Chicago. Elise Paschen is the author of Bestiary, Infidelities (winner of the Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize), and Houses: Coasts. Her poems have been published in numerous anthologies and magazines, including The New Yorker and Poetry magazine. Co-editor of Poetry Speaks and Poetry in Motion, she teaches in the MFA Writing Program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her forthcoming book of poetry, The Nightlife, will be published in spring 2017.
Free for Art Institute of Chicago members or with museum admission. Visit poetryfoundation.org for additional listings. Cosponsored with the Art Institute of Chicago
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Poetry off the Shelf
Then Come Back: The Lost Neruda Poems with
Forrest Gander & Rocío Ferreira
Tuesday, October 25, 7 pm
Pablo Neruda’s lost poems, originally composed on napkins, playbills, receipts, and notebooks, were recently discovered in his archive to the delight of readers and scholars. Copper Canyon Press has now published a volume of the poems, translated into English by award-winning poet Forrest Gander and presented along with the Spanish text and full-color reproductions of handwritten poems. Gander joins Latin Americanist Rocío Ferreira, associate professor and Spanish program director in the Department of Modern Languages at DePaul University, for a bilingual presentation of the Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet.
Cosponsored with Copper Canyon Press
Then Come Back: The Lost Neruda Poems with
Forrest Gander & Rocío Ferreira
Tuesday, October 25, 7 pm
Pablo Neruda’s lost poems, originally composed on napkins, playbills, receipts, and notebooks, were recently discovered in his archive to the delight of readers and scholars. Copper Canyon Press has now published a volume of the poems, translated into English by award-winning poet Forrest Gander and presented along with the Spanish text and full-color reproductions of handwritten poems. Gander joins Latin Americanist Rocío Ferreira, associate professor and Spanish program director in the Department of Modern Languages at DePaul University, for a bilingual presentation of the Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet.
Cosponsored with Copper Canyon Press
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Poetry Day
David Nagler & Friends: “Carl Sandburg’s Chicago Poems”
Thursday, October 27, 6 pm
Cindy Pritzker Auditorium
Harold Washington Library Center
400 South State Street
Doors open at 5 pm
Carl Sandburg’s Chicago Poems is a new musical project from singer/composer David Nagler, a song cycle that sets Sandburg’s poetry to music in an assortment of styles. The concert will feature 16 songs performed by an 11-person ensemble, along with guest vocalists hailing from or associated with Chicago. The evening will be an ambitious and energetic musical performance, and a celebration of Sandburg’s important collection, published 100 years ago.
Cosponsored with the Chicago Public Library
David Nagler & Friends: “Carl Sandburg’s Chicago Poems”
Thursday, October 27, 6 pm
Cindy Pritzker Auditorium
Harold Washington Library Center
400 South State Street
Doors open at 5 pm
Carl Sandburg’s Chicago Poems is a new musical project from singer/composer David Nagler, a song cycle that sets Sandburg’s poetry to music in an assortment of styles. The concert will feature 16 songs performed by an 11-person ensemble, along with guest vocalists hailing from or associated with Chicago. The evening will be an ambitious and energetic musical performance, and a celebration of Sandburg’s important collection, published 100 years ago.
Cosponsored with the Chicago Public Library
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Conversation
Alison Flowers & Reginald Dwayne Betts: “Doing Time, Lost Time”
Sunday, October 30, 2:30 pm
Film Screening Room 201
Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts
915 East 60 Street
The United States locks up more people, per capita, than any other country in the world, but the experience of doing time—and making up for lost time upon release from prison—is widely misunderstood. In her book Exoneree Diaries: The Fight for Innocence, Independence, and Identity, investigative journalist Alison Flowers follows four wrongly convicted men and women as they are released back into the world. She is joined by poet Reginald Dwayne Betts, whose memoir A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Survival, Learning, and Coming of Age in Prison chronicled his eight-year stint as an adult offender after committing a carjacking at age sixteen.
Alison Flowers & Reginald Dwayne Betts: “Doing Time, Lost Time”
Sunday, October 30, 2:30 pm
Film Screening Room 201
Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts
915 East 60 Street
The United States locks up more people, per capita, than any other country in the world, but the experience of doing time—and making up for lost time upon release from prison—is widely misunderstood. In her book Exoneree Diaries: The Fight for Innocence, Independence, and Identity, investigative journalist Alison Flowers follows four wrongly convicted men and women as they are released back into the world. She is joined by poet Reginald Dwayne Betts, whose memoir A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Survival, Learning, and Coming of Age in Prison chronicled his eight-year stint as an adult offender after committing a carjacking at age sixteen.
Presented in partnership with Chicago Humanities Festival
Tickets to the 2016 Chicago Humanities Festival go on sale to CHF members on Tuesday, September 20, and to the general public on Tuesday, September 27.
The full schedule of all programs is available at chicagohumanities.org/speed
Tickets to the 2016 Chicago Humanities Festival go on sale to CHF members on Tuesday, September 20, and to the general public on Tuesday, September 27.
The full schedule of all programs is available at chicagohumanities.org/speed
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About the Poetry Foundation
The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine, is an independent literary organization committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. It exists to discover and celebrate the best poetry and to place it before the largest possible audience. The Poetry Foundation seeks to be a leader in shaping a receptive climate for poetry by developing new audiences, creating new avenues for delivery, and encouraging new kinds of poetry through innovative literary prizes and programs. For more information, please visit poetryfoundation.org.
About Poetry Magazine
Founded in Chicago by Harriet Monroe in 1912, Poetry is the oldest monthly devoted to verse in the English-speaking world. Monroe’s “Open Door” policy, set forth in Volume 1 of the magazine, remains the most succinct statement of Poetry’s mission: to print the best poetry written today, in whatever style, genre or approach. The magazine established its reputation early by publishing the first important poems of TS Eliot, Ezra Pound, Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, H.D., William Carlos Williams, Carl Sandburg and other now-classic authors. In succeeding decades it has presented— often for the first time— works by virtually every major contemporary poet.
Founded in Chicago by Harriet Monroe in 1912, Poetry is the oldest monthly devoted to verse in the English-speaking world. Monroe’s “Open Door” policy, set forth in Volume 1 of the magazine, remains the most succinct statement of Poetry’s mission: to print the best poetry written today, in whatever style, genre or approach. The magazine established its reputation early by publishing the first important poems of TS Eliot, Ezra Pound, Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, H.D., William Carlos Williams, Carl Sandburg and other now-classic authors. In succeeding decades it has presented— often for the first time— works by virtually every major contemporary poet.
Follow the Poetry Foundation and Poetry on Facebook at facebook.com/poetryfoundation or on Twitter @PoetryFound.
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