R.S.V.P. HERE TO ATTEND OR CONTRIBUTE to Collaborate - the Guild Literary Complex's first annual benefit.

The Guild Literary Complex invites you to join us for our first annual benefit Tuesday, September 28, 2010, 6:30–9pm. The event will include drinks, appetizers, conversation, plus a behind-the-scenes preview of The Interrupters – a film collaboration by Guild Board Member and award-winning journalist Alex Kotlowitz (There Are No Children Here) and award-winning filmmaker Steve James (Hoop Dreams).

(Chronological order, updated periodically)

We like to spread the word about other literary experiences around town, the country or the internet. Some of them are from dear partners of ours, some from other folks you might be interested in:

Friends,

I’d like to share two recent examples of outstanding Guild Complex events—the July 21 Palabra Pura Special Event and last Wednesday's BYOP (Bring Your Own People). Both are examples of the Guild Complex’s unique programming. Both featured a fascinating exchange of poetry and dialog that does not occur often around the city.

As you may know, the Guild holds its monthly Palabra Pura readings at bar/restaurant/community center Decima Musa, now celebrating its 28th year in Pilsen. Well we're excited to report that the space - and its formidable owner Rosario Rabiela - were recently profiled in the Chicago Journal.

You can read about her journey - and the history of culture and community literally covering DM's walls - at http://www.chicagojournal.com/News/In-The-Paper/03-10-2010/Pilsen's_muse

Hear Carolyn Rodgers read her poem “A Possible World” (Guild Literary Complex, October 2009)

     Photo credit: University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

     Holms Troelstrup is currently the Sutherland Fellow in Poetry at Illinois State University and will be completing her Master's in Creative Writing this May.

Maybe you know the feeling: you’re cooking a dish for some friends and family, and you’ve finished all the chopping and slicing, measuring and pouring - all the ingredients are assembled and now it’s time to see what happens. You lift the lid or pull open the oven door. You sniff, prick, stir. And then you taste – just a little bit, just the corner, just enough to check how it’s coming along...

If you’re anything like me, that’s the moment of truth: even before the dish is done you can tell if it’s going to be a success. There’s something about the way the flavors work together when it’s right – it’s surprising, even magical. You can taste it and find yourself smiling (ever-so-humbly) and thinking “Not bad! I think we’re onto something…” Well imagine the Guild Complex, in its kitchen, taking that first taste, with that same smile. We’re cooking up some new dishes and we can’t wait to see what you think.

Sure, there was one strange new ingredient (Iron Chef, anyone?)… I first became a Guild fan back in 2004, when the Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Awards triple-dog-dared me into performing one of my own poems in front of an audience – something I’d never done despite being an experienced performer and avid writer. I got more involved in the Guild over the next six years, and my appreciation of both the organization and the art it promoted continued to grow. It even inspired me to find more ways to bring my arts and branding backgrounds to help other organizations around the city. Then this January, I joined the Guild as its new Managing Director, thrilled to bring these backgrounds to its proud history and exciting future-in-the-making. (And I’m eternally grateful to Ellen Wadey, the Guild Board and other Guild partners for diving into this transition process with such enthusiasm and generosity.) I’ve taken up the Guild’s mission to continue fostering conversation between, and among, writers, audiences and literary works. We’ll keep doing it through our programs and events, as well as through other activities in the Guild community.

But enough about me. All of the Guild’s supporters – its audiences, artists and partners - make it what it is. Some of the ingredients have changed, and new ones may yet be added, but the Guild is still a tasty dish we look forward to sharing with you. Let’s dig in!

Kimberly Dixon

Managing Director

Enjoy the award-winning poem by Stephanie Gentry-Fernandez:

Poem About My Rights

To June Jordan

Even tonight I know better than to park too far from the party in East Oakland

Because of the fear that comes from walking anywhere at night alone

Or with my girlfriend.

And in spite of what you think

East Oakland is not the point.

It doesn't matter if it's East Oakland or Boystown or the South Side or Mexico City

or Egypt or Fiji or Timbuktu

Well, it’s time for me to get back on my soapbox. And, at least this year I can look like I’m biting the hand that’s trying to give me a pat on the back versus chewing sour grapes (which could have been the complaint lodged at me last year.) Newcity released its Lit 50 list or “Who really books in Chicago” this week. I’m back on the list, and possibly at the highest rank I’ve ever received, but I have to say that it feels like I’ve just been nominated to my junior high’s badminton hall of fame.

I’ll warn you up front; I’ve got a bee in my bonnet. It’s Printers Row weekend as I write this, and so it’s also the release of the Lit 50 list from New City. I’ve always had – and continue to have – great respect for New City. In many ways I feel that we’re colleagues in the world of independent efforts – members of the Don Quixote Club – so I was particularly disappointed when I scanned the Lit 50 list this year and didn’t see the kind of attention to the many layers of Chicago’s literary arena that I’ve seen on the list in the past. I’ll be transparent and say that I didn’t make the list this year, though I have in the past. I suppose some people will relegate this commentary to sour grapes. That’s not the case, but I understand that my assertion may be looked at skeptically, and I’m willing to face that critique.

My embarrassment is that I didn’t write this commentary when I was on the list, but there is the intoxication of being invited to the party. You get to be one of the cool kids, and you look around to see who else is there. My cause for embarrassment is that I should have been more tuned in to who wasn’t on the list all along. There are so many people doing amazing literary work in this city. The Guild Complex mission states, “We look at literary culture and ask ‘what’s missing?” So, I’m looking at the Lit 50 list, asking “who’s missing?” and offering my list of candidates.

The Lit 50 list didn’t have a single representative from one of Chicago’s established grassroots reading series. In a city that has so many venues hopping with literary performance on a nightly basis, I was a bit taken aback. The list – which was compiled by Tom Lynch and Reilly Nelson – seemed to focus primarily on publishing – though that has not been…nor do I think it is now…the way that Chicago has ever defined literature. And given that publishing itself is in such flux, it seems strange to cling to that standard as writers themselves are learning to be more entrepreneurial and experimental in the way that they bring themselves and their work to public attention. Publishing is absolutely an admirable achievement – and you’ll never hear me say it doesn’t matter. Bottom line, it does.

I want to be clear that I don’t have any gripes about the people selected for the list. They are all people of achievement and deserve every bit of recognition that they receive. I don’t have any personal issue with Mr. Lynch or Mr. Nelson – and I don’t presume to know what guidelines they chose or were given to form the list. My gripe is with the way that literature has been defined by this year’s list for the general reader who might not know that literary culture is about more than books.

As the bees buzzed in my bonnet this afternoon, the question of the Chicago aesthetic came to mind – a question that surfaces among writers and artists on a regular basis. Chicago has always been a working town. (The #1 writer on the Lit 50 list – Studs Terkel – would agree with me, I think.) So, I was surprised that literature was defined primarily by the book, the product of publishing, and not by the creation, performance or distribution of literature. I can’t agree that the literary culture of any city is only built by the books that it brings into print. If that were so, then Chicago would have the aesthetic of New York City, which we don’t. (I remember being on a panel with Aleksandar Hemon for WBEZ a few years back. When Steve Edwards asked Aleksandar why he didn’t move to NYC where being a writer was so much easier, Sasha replied, “Because when you believe in something, you stay and fight for it.” (My paraphrase).

When I think of Chicago, I think about how we’re as impressed with masterful short order cooks as we are by Sorbonne trained executive chefs. We tout the cruel fate of the Cubs – and before their Series win, the White Sox – because they have continued to play baseball for nearly a century without winning a World Series. Fans have kept coming to the parks the whole time. We love them for their love of the game. We love them for their trying. If it were just about the wins – getting the books in print – then we’d be Yankees fans.

The following list is a work in progress. I’m sure there are many names that I’m missing that I’ll want to add as I think of them. I’ve also chosen to put them in alphabetical order rather than numeric. Writing is already a dog-eat-dog world, to ask artists to consider who is above and below them is too deflating to the already fragile muse in my opinion.

The Guild Complex’s Alternative Lit List:.

After Hours Press/Al De Genova: afterhourspress.com