Click here to buy tickets! The Guild Complex is re-imagining the 1920s through music, song, comedy, and dance in our sixth annual benefit, Wink & Whisper: A 1920s LGBT Cabaret. Emceed by Tamale Sepp, this year’s benefit will celebrate the vibrant spirit and culture of a 1920s LGBT community with a fusion of talented performers,...
Please note this month's Palabra Pura is taking place at a special location: the Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center (4048 W Armitage Ave). Three fearless and unique feminine voices with Chicago roots come together for an evening of poetic expressions. Inner and outside landscapes, light, sounds and ultimately, words transmit each artist’s expressions. Arica Hilton,...
Tickets available at door (advance sales have ended). Reverend Billy & The Stop Shopping Choir is a radical performance community based in New York City, and they are coming to Chicago to march, sing, and activate our community with a special live performance—ONE NIGHT ONLY. Tickets at door are suggested donation of $12 for...
June 7, 2015 marks the Third Annual BrooksDay and promises to be an exciting continuation of The Guild Literary Complex’s signature event with nonstop readings and performances this year in a new location: the stunning Reva and David Logan Arts Center located on the University of Chicago’s Campus, 915 East 60th Street, Chicago, Illinois 60637....
Founder of Tia Chucha Press and L.A. Poet Laureate Luis Rodriguez returns to Chicago for a special reading event sponsored by Poets & Writers, Inc. This program takes place at the Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center located at 4048 W. Armitage. There will be an open mic! Arrive early to sign up. Admission...
Performers Adam Gottlieb and Angelina Llongueras use their original music, poetry and experience as activists, here and in Spain, to pursue the question: Does English matter? For English expression in Latino/a cultural and political communities, when does the implied "Spanish Only" remain empowering, and when does the English-dominant Latino/a activist need to transgress? This month's...
For featured authors Diego Báez and Amy Sayre Baptista, violence inhabits their lives and what they write about. This is a violence that divides our culture and us; this is a colonization of our identity as a man, as a woman, and as a Latina/o. What does it mean to be Latina/o? These poets sing...
Update: Congratulations to the winner, Javon J. Smith! After the first four rounds, the finalists were chosen by the live audience—no easy task—and included Aja Zakiya Hall, Cassandra McGovern, Javon J. Smith, and Sam Herschel Wein. Javon won with his dynamic performance of the poem "Nig(g)ot." Javon J. Smith, an educator at Perspectives/IIT Math &...
It's our annual summer programming break! We’ll be taking some time away to regroup through the month of August. Keep an eye out for our Fall Preview, which will contain information on programming and events for September-November 2015!
According to this month's curator, Emilio Maldonado, challenging each other and the status quo is the responsibility of the committed artist, and he has programmed author/activists Aricka Foreman, Christina Obregon, and Raina Wodatch, and to engage the theme Who stands with us? "During this current wave of open aggression and hostility it is important to...
Experiment #89: Fight the Power SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26th7pm / doors lock 7:30pm A special event with 100 Thousand Poets for Changehttp://www.100tpcmedia.org On September 26, 2015, many poets around the world will make their voices heard. To declare the change they'd like to see most in the U.S. and throughout the international community, events are being staged worldwide as...
This reading draws inspiration from the work of the featured writers, each of them exploring themes of loneliness, longing, and love. There is desire, and there is dread. There is even decency. Using personal stories, fiction, and fairy tales, authors Keith Ecker, Jac Jamc and Cecilia Pinto—three of the Guild’s 25 Writers to Watch—will navigate...
More information on October's Palabra Pura will be available late summer 2015.
Curated by Cynthia Pelayo October 21 @ 7:30 PM - 9:00 PM $5 | La Bruquena Restaurant, 2726 W. Division in Humboldt Park This month’s curator, Cynthia Pelayo, provides the Guild Literary Complex with our October theme of Memory and Ghosts, featuring readings by Diana Pando, Adriana Galvan. Pelayo explains the theme this way: “historically, autumn has...
SAVE THE DATE: Reginald Gibbons' Library of First Editions Book Auction Available Starting November 4th Reginald Gibbons is a poet, fiction writer, translator, educator, critic, the former editor of TriQuarterly magazine and National Book Award finalist. Over the years, Reginald has acquired first editions through his many friendships and literary acquaintances. His collection of first edition, many of them signed, will...
Annual Prose Awards Event November 12, 7:30 – 9:30 p.m., Chopin Theater Every fall, the Guild Literary Complex acknowledges emerging and established prose writers via a judged competition and recognition event at the historic Chopin Theatre in Chicago. Three semi-finalists in both fiction and non-fiction will read their work at our annual Prose Awards...
PALABRA PURA: NOSSA AMÉRICA NOVEMBER 18 @ 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm | $5 La Bruquena Restaurant, 2726 W. Division in Humboldt Park The last Palabra Pura for 2015 features the theme “Nossa América,” with readings by Rodrigo Garcia Lopes, Jack Martínez and AKaiser. November’s curator Patricia Anzini quotes American poet Walt Whitman as...
The Guild Literary Complex is pleased to kick off the 11th season of PALABRA PURA returning with “One Poet / One Poem”. Come join in the fun 11 years in the making. This year's season will feature 2016 Guest Palabra Pura curators and past readers some telling of plans for the year ahead and others...
Palabra Pura March 16, 2016 7:30 - 9:00 pm “Turnt in Relevant Opacity” Curated by Ricardo Gamboa Current events ranging from cover-ups of police shootings and growing social inequalities further underline just how dark or “opaque” times have become for some of us in this city. These injustices are exasperated when it comes to mainstream...
Pegasus Theatre has a special deal this weekend just for Guild Literary Complex fans: This weekend, Pegasus Theatre presents sneak peak readings of RUTHERFORD’S TRAVELS, a spellbinding tale based on the beloved book MIDDLE PASSAGE. Told through Rutherford Calhoun’s 1830s log entries, The newly freed Illinois youth has migrated south to New Orleans seeking fortune,...
RANE Flyer, Jpeg Guild Literary Complex, Chicago Literary Hall of Fame, After Hours Press, and the Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center invite you to join us for an evening celebrating the life and work of iconic Chicago poet Rane Arroyo. Readings and remembrances for the night will include performances by: • Rey Andujar • Eduardo...
Welcome to Chicago's newest DIY underground hip-hop event. On the last Thursday of the month (August and December excluded) the Guild Literary Complex hosts an a cappella hip-hop series with a diy/underground flair. Partnering with Artist AWK and Iron Heart Productions theRAPY 101 is featuring local and national spoken word talent, spin-artists, DJs, and one...
The 4th Annual BrooksDay is right around the corner, and to pique your interest the Guild Literary Complex in conjunction with the Museum of Contemporary Art is hosting a preview night of artists who represent the broad scope of the BrooksDay legacy and vision. Showcasing their own work, artists who are part of the BrooksDay...
Palabra Pura with Miguel López Lemus of Lobo Estepario Press presents: Palabra Pura as part of the Guild Literary Complex Una noche bohemia. A bohemian night. Poetry, song, music, storytelling Cuento, poesía, música, canción Sponsored by Pandora lobo estepario productions press. We are mixing it up a bit this month and will have a group...
Thursday May 26, 2016. Wicker Park Chicago Guild Literary Complex Presents: Where Margins Meet 5:30 - 7:30 PM Artist Talk with Danny Alexander, Volumes Bookcafe 7:30 Door, 8:00 - 9:45 PM RAP 101, Iridium Clothing Danny Alexander, the author of Real Love, No Drama: The Music of Mary J. Blige will be sitting in with...
Welcome to the 4th Annual BrooksDay, a day long celebration of Gwendolyn Brooks Tuesday, June 7, 2016, Time: 10:00 am until 6:00 pm Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E Washington St., Chicago, IL 60602. Our annual celebration of Gwendolyn Brooks is back, this year at the Chicago Cultural Center. Special features, amazing readers and all things...
The GUILD LITERARY COMPLEX is set to party with you on June 22nd 6:00 - 9:00 PM at Filament theatre. Come celebrate nearly 30 years of the Guild's legacy in Chicago as we look to our next 30. Performances, music, fun, food and drink will round out a night with some of your favorite Chicago...
The Guild’s annual One Poet/One Poem event starts the year off by looking back. Past Palabra Pura performers are invited to return and share a single poem or other 3-minute piece, painting a portrait in snapshots of our ongoing bi-lingual reading series and all of the styles, voices, and communities it includes.
A Newberry Colloquium Wednesday, October 2, 2019 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...
A reading and panel featuring formerly incarcerated writers, and writers who teach in prisons, sharing their work and their perspectives on writing in prison, writing outside of prison, and writing about prison from both inside and out. Presented in partnership with UChicago Arts & Public Life + Chicago Torture Justice Memorials in connection with the exhibition Still Here:...