Mental Graffiti with Jon Sands

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Monday, November 16, 8 PM is officially slam time in Chicago. The Mental Graffiti spoken word show has been around for a long time. It started out in the 90s at a place called the Mad Bar, moved to The Note on Milwaukee Ave, and eventually found its home at the Funky Buddha Lounge's Butterfly Social Club at 722 W. Grand, where it takes place on the third Monday of every month. Some of the top performance poets in the city battle it out for $20, mystery prizes and a chance to represent Chicago at the National Poetry Slam in the fall. There is also an open mic (sign up at 7:30) and featured artists, so you can either participate or sit back and relax.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO.
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Two Rhino Events In November

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There will be two events sponsored by Rhino Magazine in November. On Friday, November 20, fro 6 to 7:30 PM, at Brother K at 500 Main Street in Evanston, the "Rhino Reads" series will present an open mic with featured poets Susan Slaviero and Kathleen Kirk.
Then, on Sunday, November 22nd, from 1:30 to 4:30 PM, the Rhino Poetry Workshops continue at the Evanston Public Library, Church & Orrington, Room 108. This month's workshop leader is award winning poet Martha Vertreace.

CLICK HERE FOR ALL THE DETAILS
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Looking South at Woman Made Gallery


On Sunday, November 8, 2009, I was one of the lucky ones who attended Woman Made Gallery's presentation of Looking South, a poetry reading that examined "South" as landscape, memory, and culture through music, food and language, along the themes of displacement, migration and borderlands. Nina Corwin has been curating some really exciting programs for this gallery, and this event was no exception.

CLICK HERE for the entire report.

BIG TABLE / BIG BUCKS

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Dear Chicago Poetry Scene,

Normally I would just let this type of thing slide, but since the Poetry Center of Chicago has encouraged the development of a fluff site through Kristy Bowen that is hell bent on doing nothing but promoting the nepotism that is plaguing our poetry scene, I think it is more important than ever that Chicago has a voice that is not afraid to set things straight once in a while.

AND I DO THAT RIGHT HERE
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LIterature at The Cultural Center

Click on the poster to view a larger image:



. . . AND CLICK HERE FOR THE POETRY GOSSIP, PSYCHE!!!

Homolatte at Tweet

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On Tuesday, November 17, 2009, Big Chicks’ Tweet, 5024 N. Sheridan, will present featured performances by Goldie Goldbloom, birthday girl Ellen Rosner and Kay Barrett, during Homolatte, a bi-monthly, all-ages, queer music and spoken word open mic series that happens from 7:30 to 10:30 PM on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of every month. There is free parking in back (through alley); pass the hat for the artists.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CLICK HERE

War & Peace at Th!nkArt

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On Thursday, November 12, 2009, Th!nkArt International Gallery & Policy Salon, 1530 N. Paulina Suite F, will present themed readings by Stella Vinitchi Radulescu and Emily Calvo as part of the opening exhibition and reception for War & Peace, featuring new paintings and works on paper by David Gista, Dave Sheehan, and Todd Narbey. The opening runs from 5 to 9 PM and the exhibition will then run through December 31st. According to the press release: "The dance between Sheehan's brilliantly colored and textured canvasses of toy soldiers surrounding boxers juxtaposed with the ambiguous imagery of writings and icons in Gista's papers and Narbey's underlying vision of war and peace provide us a platform to consider whether or not we will ever give peace a chance."

CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS
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Open Books Grand Opening

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On the weekend of Saturday and Sunday, November 21 and 22, from 10 AM until 7 PM, there will be an Open Books Grand Opening that promises "literary fun for all ages." Celebrating the opening of their flagship bookstore location at 213 W Institute Pl. (one block north of Chicago Ave off Wells Street), Open Books will host two days of free author events, story time, puppet shows and much more. Sales from books during the weekend will help fund their literacy programs for adults and children that take place above the bookstore in their new classroom settings. " Come experience the joy of reading and writing like you never have before and give back to the community at the same time, all at Open Books."

New Ukrainian Voices

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On Saturday, November 7, 2009, at 7 PM. The Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, 2320 West Chicago Ave, will present a program called "New Voices" featuring Ukrainian American Writers, including Sonya Arko, Petrusia Duncan, and Katie Zapoluch. Irene Zabytko will be the keynote speaker for this free event.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION
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Two Events at Women and Children First

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CLICK HERE FOR INFO ON TWO WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST READINGS

Triple Blak at Jeffrey Pub

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On November 17, POWWOW Tuesdays will present a performance by Triple Blak. Triple Blak (aka Oscar T. Lester) has performed his poetry across the country, sharing the stage with such artists as Musiq Soul Child, The Last Poets, and Malcolm Jamaal Warner. Blak has performed at the House of Blues, Dance Africa Chicago, and Second City Theater. He was a first place winner on Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry competition, was featured in Plugged Magazine as Poet of the Month, was selected to perform in the Neo Soul Concert Series, and he also won a Black Theater Alliance Award and was nominated to receive a Chicago Music Award. His work can be heard on Malik Yusef’s CD, The Great Chicago Fire.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO
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New Venue: Bon Bon's



Join us for a NIGHT OF BEDLAM POETRY in Bucktown.
Tuesday, November 3rd, 8-10 pm. (Sign up begins at 7pm).

Featured Readers:
SkbRok, Teddy Marino, Scandls, Georg Garrett, p.s. Jonathan, and Special Guests

Bon Bon Sandwiches:
2333 W. North Ave (one block east of Western) Chicago, IL 60647. 773-278-5800

QUICKIES


There will be no poetry at The Innertown Pub, 1935 W Thomas, on Tuesday, November 10 at 7:30 PM. Instead, Mary Hamilton and Lindsay Hunter (voted by ChicagoPoetry.com as the coolest ladies of the lit-scene) will be back to host another round of Quickies!
Quickies is a showcase for very short prose. Each reader has five minutes to read a complete work. No poetry. No excerpts. No cheating. Thems are the rules. It happens on the second Tuesday of the month.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE ABOUT QUICKIES
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Chicago Poetry Gossip Rocks!

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Wow, I could have sworn that David Hargarten agreed to a general truce with ChicagoPoetry.com. So why is he still going on about the “green zone, dude.” In case you didn’t know, the poetry “green zone” basically means, CJ Laity is not invited. The Waiting 4 The Bus folks try to make it out as something else, but just ask them the very simple question: is CJ Laity invited to “green zone” events? It’s some kind of sick, fascist power trip. What Hargarten is basically saying is, “See, I can ban you from a reading that features your friends.” What it also means is that you will never get listed or reviewed from me during a “green zone” event. It’s really rather sick and childish. Hargarten started up his “green zone” in protest of the Chicago Poetry Neutral Zone (ChicagoPoetry.net), of which about 800 poets and poetry organizations are members. He did this because he was pissed that ChicagoPoetry helped start up a myspace page after he started up a myspace page. Good Lord! It’s a myspace page! Are we in Junior High or something. I only explain this just in case you wonder why I don’t list events from the “green zone,” dude. Here are some readings that I’m not banned from simply for expressing an opinion:

On Thursday, November 19, 2009, there will be an Even Deadlier --http://www.7deadlies.com -- Book Launch Party featuring author Frances Hwang and hosted by The Great Books Foundation, from 7 to 9 PM at The Book Cellar, 4736 N. Lincoln Ave. Come and join the editors in celebrating the sequel to The Seven Deadly Sins Sampler, including 14 short stories that spark reflection on the ancient concept of sin. Hwang is the author of the short story collection Transparency and has held fellowships at the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing and at Colgate University; she was the recipient of the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2008. She graduated with a master in fine arts in creative writing at the University of Montana and has taught English at Saint Mary’s College in Indiana.

On Wednesday, November 18, Columbia College Ferguson Theater, 600 South Michigan, will present Sandra Lim and Cecily Parks at 5:30 PM. Sandra Lim’s Loveliest Grotesque (Kore Press) was published in 2006 and her poetry has appeared in American Letters & Commentary, Denver Quarterly, Boston Review, and other journals. Cecily Parks’ Field Folly Snow (University of Georgia Press) was a finalist for the Norma Farber Prize and the her poems and reviews have appeared in Boston Review, Kenyon Review, Octopus, Tin House, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Yale Review, and elsewhere.

There is word on two new poetry open mics. Keep your eye on the Rockbox, 2624 N. Lincoln Ave, possibly the first Monday of every month, with the first one happening on November 2, 9 PM, hosted by Joe Bly. Joe says, “We are making sure this isn't going to be your typical open mic. On top of having fantastic featured readers every month, we are asking readers to bring their own work as well as pieces by their favorite artists to share." The first featured readers come from the best feminist press in Chicago, Switchback Books.

Also, Vito Carli is attempting to keep the defunct Mercury Café momentum going with something happening in a “storefront” at 3609 W. Wrightwood. The first one happens on October 30 and features Lee Groban, Elizabeth Harper and others. He is thinking of doing a bi-monthly show there, whatever “there” is.

There will be yet another Granta Chicago Issue Reading on Wednesday, November 4, at 7:30 PM, at Barnes & Noble,1441 W. Webster. I think it’s hilarious that Chicago’s “experimental” poets are whining about how none of them got featured in Granta. Hopefully that will be a wake-up call to them that they are no more important than any of the other poets in Chicago.

Check out The BIG Read at:

http://neabigread.org/application_process.php

On Saturday, November 21, there will be a free workshop at the Beverly Library, 1962 W. 95th Street, 2:30 PM. Rachel Javellana will lead a workshop where participants will experiment with the endless ways of writing their own 'how-to' poems, taking the reader through steps (how to do something) and/or moving through physical space (how to get somewhere). The workshop will look at a variety of examples that deliver their message using the form of directions.

This has been CJ Laity, reporting the poetry news for ya'.

October 30: Corpo Illicioto presents La Pocha Nostra at Columbia College

La Pocha Nostra Performance and Artist Residency

SPECIAL PERFORMANCE:
Corpo Illicito: The Post-Human Society #69
Friday, October 30, 2009. 7:00pm. FREE.
Columbia College Chicago, 618 S. Michigan, 2nd Floor

Join us for a debut performance by members of La Pocha Nostra, the acclaimed Mexican-American “trans-disciplinary organization” and 2009-2010 Critical Encounters Artists-in-Residence. “Corpo Illicito” is the third in the group’s Mapa-Corpo series and will feature Guillermo Gomez-Pena, Violeta Luna and Roberto Sifuentes. The new piece tackles this historic moment of reinvention by looking into the past and attempting to prognosticate a possible future without resorting to quick fixes and false hopes. Using performance bodies as sites for political reinvention and poetic prophesying, La Pocha Nostra explores both the legacy of fear of the Other, the criminalization of the brown body inherited by the Bush administration, and the emerging culture of hope, imagination and faith that has developed in response to the former world order.

Encyclopedia Show presents The Zodiac

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On Wednesday, November 4, 2009, at 7:30 PM, The Encyclopedia Show returns to the Chopin Theatre, 1543 W Division. This showcase of performance art that covers a specific theme from the encyclopedia every month is currently sponsored by Chicago Slam Works (also sponsor of the 2009 Printers Row Lit Fest Poetry Tent) and it is now in its second season. This month’s theme is “The Zodiac” (not to be confused with the serial killer; that was last month). and performances will include music, poetry, visual art and spoken word from film star Amber Rose, Anne Elizabeth Moore from Best American Comics, Young Chicago Authors’ Toni Asante Lightfoot, DePaul Professor Eric Mata, Bay Area poetry slammer Laura Yes Yes (photo from chariscircle.org), playwright Caitlin Parrish, Jill Summers of Silvertongue, Susie Kirkwood of CallingAllMonkeys.com, Louder Than A Bomb finalist John Ryan and songwriter Diana Lawrence.

This rip-roaring adventure will be hosted by a gang of wordslingers, including Robbie Q Telfer, Shanny Jean Maney, Kurt Heintz, Aaron Enskat, Tim Stafford, Joel Chmara, Mike Slefinger, Evan Chung and Emily Rose. There is a $6 cover and all ages are welcome.

Guild Complex, Now and The Future

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I just got back from the Paul Martinez Pompa book release party at Cafe Estrella and it was a gas. The place was so packed some people couldn't find a chair. The food looked really fancy and delicious. I had an order of sweet potato fries and they were soaked in some type of honey. Yummy. Here's a photo I took of Paul signing his book and another one of the mega-crowd.

While I was hanging out with some Chicago Poetry old schoolers, I had a bit of a chat with Mike Puican and he assured me that the Guild Complex is busy considering candidates for the position of Executive Director, with an announcement to be made most likely some time in December. Kurt Heintz was there and I am well aware that he is on the Guild's board. I would like to invite him to consider using the Guild's new beginning as an opportunity for the two of us to allow the water that has passed under the bridge to be forgotten. I for one have grown tired of the invisible wall that exists between us.

Here is some unrelated information about a very exciting upcoming Guild Complex event. (Well, it's actually sort of related since the first ever Palabra Pura featured reader was none-other than Paul Martinez Pompa.)

On Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 7:30 PM, the Guild Complex will be hosting another free Palabra Pura event at Décima Musa, 1901 S. Loomis. Palabra Pura is a long running bilingual poetry series hosted by Johanny Vasquez Paz. The featured poets this all ages event include Rita María Martínez and Luis Tubens.

Rita María Martínez is the author of the poetry collection, Jane-in-the-Box (March Street Press, 2008). She is a graduate of Florida International University’s MFA Creative Writing Program. Martínez’s work has appeared in Gulf Stream, Ploughshares, Gargoyle, Diamgram, MiPoesias, and Tigertail, and Caña Quemada: Contemporary Cuban Poetry in English and Spanish (Simon & Schuster). Martínez is an Academic Services Writing Tutor at Nova Southeastern University.

Luis Tubens is a Chicago born poet and photographer who has based his art on the experiences of living in the inner city. He produces cultural events on the themes of gentrification, ethic unity, workers rights, and gang violence. Luis or “Logan Lou” is the host of The Beat Gallery radio show on Radioarte WRTE

Three Fabulous Women Read on November 5

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On Thursday, November 5, 2009, at 7 PM, Women & Children First, 5233 N Clark, will welcome three remarkable women for a very special reading: Terese Svoboda, Maureen Seaton and Gina Frangello.


Terese Svoboda will be reading from her fifth poetry collection, Weapons Grade as well as her new story collection, Trailer Girl. The New York Times calls Trailer Girl “a book of genuine grace and beauty.” Maureen Seaton will be reading from her newest poetry collection, Cave of the Yellow Volkswagen. And Gina Frangello will be reading from her novel My Sister’s Continent and her forthcoming story collection Slut Lullabies. This one of a kind event is free and open to the public.