Born Woke: 30 years of Guild Literary Complex – Programming Ahead of the Times
4pm
Towner Fellows’ Lounge, Newberry Library
Join us for a talk featuring the Guild Literary Complex’s rich archive, exhibiting its groundbreaking impact on literary programming across Chicago communities. The discussion will feature Guild collaborators and curators Kurt Heintz, Marci Merola, and Lew Rosenbaum.
Kurt Heintz co-founded the Guild’s Poetry Video Festival, and founded the e-poets network (e-poets.net) which includes the Book of Voices. The Book of Voices (voices.e-poets.net) holds recordings of literally hundreds of poets and, in a decade long partnership with Woman Made Gallery, has built one of the largest audible collections of female writers in the Midwest.
Marci Merola is a local writer and poet who served as a board member, volunteer and groupie of the Guild Complex for many years. She was director of the Advocacy Office at the American Library Association for the past 10 years.
Lew Rosenbaum is a founder of the Guild Literary Complex, and edits and publishes the Chicago Labor & Arts Notes e-mail newsletter. He has been employed as a garment worker, printer, social worker, and history teacher, but for most of his life he has been a bookseller, first at the path-breaking Midnight Special Books in Santa Monica, CA, then at the legendary Guild Books in Chicago. He writes on education and independent politics for The People’s Tribune newspaper.
The Newberry Colloquium is a weekly opportunity for the Newberry community to come together and learn about research or projects being conducted by our staff, fellows, scholars-in-residence, and other invited speakers. Colloquium events are open to the Newberry community and the general public. Colloquia topics usually relate to the Newberry’s collection, and presentations are intended for a non-specialist audience.
Unless otherwise noted, the colloquium convenes on Wednesday afternoons in Towner Fellows’ Lounge on the 2nd floor of the Newberry. Refreshments are served at 3:30 pm, with the talk beginning at 4 pm. A brief discussion follows each presentation. No reservations are required in order to attend.
THE GUILD’S 30TH ANNIVERSARY PARTY
The Guild hosted an evening celebrating the Guild’s first 30 years, and looking forward to the next 30. Important voices from the Guild’s past introduced the Guild’s 30 Writers to Watch in 2019 and beyond. We saw old friends & made some new ones, while enjoying music, hors d’oeuvres, and an-end-of night raffle featuring unique artifacts from the Guild’s archives.
Click for full bios + photos.
Tara Betts, poetry, nonfiction, scholarship
Kimberly Dixon-Mays, poetry, plays
Raul Dorantes, poetry, plays, fiction
Emily Thornton Calvo, poetry, memoir
Michael Fischer, nonfiction
kwabena foli, poetry
Ricardo Gamboa, plays, television, scholarship
Jan-Henry Gray, poetry, storytelling
Ames Hawkins, nonfiction, scholarship
Tsehaye Geralyn Hébert, plays, poetry, nonfiction
Timothy J. Hillegonds, nonfiction
Nate Marshall, poetry
John McCarthy, poetry
Patricia Ann McNair, fiction, nonfiction
Ciara Darnise Miller, poetry, scholarship
Faisal Mohyuddin, poetry
Cheswayo Mphanza, poetry
Nikki Patin, poetry, music
Frances de Pontes Peebles, fiction
Ruben Quesada, poetry, translation
Christine Rice, fiction, nonfiction
Jennifer Roche, poetry
Kenyatta Rogers, poetry
J. Howard Rosier, fiction, criticism
Natania Rosenfeld, poetry, fiction, nonfiction, scholarship
Mojdeh Stoakley, poetry, music
Rachel Swearingen, fiction
Naomi Washer, poetry, nonfiction, translation
Valerie Wallace, poetry
Jeremy T. Wilson, fiction