• Chicago Literary Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

    The new Chicago Literary Hall of Fame class of  Hamlin Garland, Eunice Tietjens, and E. Donald Two Rivers will be inducted at a ceremony featuring a lineup that includes William J. Bowe, Melissa Bradshaw, Carlos Cumpián, Jesse Raber, and Dorene Wiese. Two Rivers's daughter, Annabelle Broeffle, and Garland's great grandson, Christopher Harper, will be on hand to accept the CLHOF statues. A reception will follow the...

    Free
  • National Poetry Month Event @ Blanc Gallery

    Blanc Gallery 4445 South King Drive, Chicago, Illinois

    For National Poetry Month, the Guild Complex offers a special program featuring the newly minted Indiana State poet Laureate Curtis Crisler, alongside the current Illinois Poet Laureate and the most prolific Miss Angela Jackson.   The program will also feature special performances from the Write It Down! Collective. BIOS: Curtis L. Crisler was born and raised...

    Free
  • WORKSHOP | Walking the Middle Path: Using Hoodoo to Tell Your Story

    Green Line Performing Arts Center 329 E. Garfield Boulevard, Chicago, IL, United States

    If your goal is to get over that writer's block and finally tell your story--hoodoo can help! Participants will walk away with a basic understanding of how to read tarot, how to pull information from oracles, astrology, and herbs in relation to their creative writing project, and how to respectfully engage hoodoo practices when running...

  • Spirits, Spirituality, & Craft | Reading & Panel

    Green Line Performing Arts Center 329 E. Garfield Boulevard, Chicago, IL, United States

    As writers, celebrating culture through our work is as easy as sitting across the table from grandma. That ancestral influence is undeniable, but for some it is more intentional. It can be the circulatory process that streams through the work that is produced. Whether baptized in holy water or animal sacrifice - Christianity, Voodun, Santeria...

  • Elsewhere: An Elegy Book Release Event with Faisal Mohyuddin

    Haymarket House 800 W. Buena Ave., Chicago, Illinois

    Join us for poetry and stories of the collective breath held by a grieving world and to celebrate Elsewhere: An Elegy with author Faisal Mohyuddin.  "Faisal Mohyuddin’s Elsewhere: An Elegy is a memory palace of rooms filled with riversongs and baited fishhooks, where longing transforms into birds. This is a moving collection which touches on faith, grief, and fatherhood. It is...

    Free
  • Feria del Libro

    El español está vivito y coleando en Estados Unidos; incluso, el país ha escalado a la cuarta posición con mayor número de hispanohablantes en el mundo. Se habla ampliamente en el ámbito público y privado, y no solamente por la comunidad latina. Con más de 42 millones de hablantes, el español es el segundo idioma...

  • Slam Diáspora @ Feria del Libro

    Ida Noyes Hall | University of Chicago 1212 E. 59th St., Chicago, Illinois

    ¡EN PERSONA! @ The Pub, Ida Noyes Hall (1212 E. 59th Street) 9pm Puertas AbrenComienza 9:30pm MCs: Crystal Vance y Luis Tubens Requisitos:Preparar 2 poemas de 3 minutos cada unoPoemas deben ser 75% en Español Más información sobre Feria del Libro

  • What Came After: An Evening of Poetry with Christopher Stewart and John McCarthy

    Haymarket House 800 W. Buena Ave., Chicago, Illinois

    Christopher Stewart's latest book, What Came After is a poetic walk through grief, memory, and mental illness from a child perspective to adult understanding. It peers at life through the stain of poverty in the Midwest. In discussion with the author is John McCarthy, whose 2019 book, Scared Violent like Horses, offers a complementary perspective on childhood masculinity...

  • American Writers Festival

    Harold Washington Library 400 S. State St., Chicago

    At the American Writers Festival, there’s more than just book talk. Get ready for fun, community-driven activities for visitors of all ages. There’s so much to explore, from book signings to arts & crafts to special photo ops and more! The American Writers Festival, co-presented by the American Writers Museum and Chicago Public Library, is an...

    Free
  • A Celebration of AAPI Writers

    Haymarket House 800 W. Buena Ave., Chicago, Illinois

    Join the Guild Complex, RHINO Poetry, Kundiman, and Luya Poetry for a celebration of Asian American Pacific Islander month with an evening of poetry readings from AAPI poets.  ***We ask that all in-person attendees wear masks in the event space during the program for the health and well-being of the speaker and other guests. We will have a reception afterwards with...

  • Who Loves the Sun | Chicago Book Launch and Celebration

    Haymarket House 800 W. Buena Ave., Chicago, Illinois

    Join author Fulla Abdul-Jabbar in conversation with Mika Yamamoto for a celebration of her new book, Who Loves the Sun, with performances from Samara Huggins and Sonnenzimmer.  Who Loves the Sun begins as a study of the scientific poster, in an attempt to understand the object and the people who make them. Eventually focus strays from this subject to explore how the...

  • Exhibit B at Pilsen Community Books

    Pilsen Community Books 1102 W 18th St., Chicago, Illinois, United States

    Fulla Abudul-Jabbar, Ignatius Valentine Aloysius, Tamara Mattews and Nat Holtzmann will be joining Exhibit B at Pilsen Community Books for an evening of readings and community.

  • Slam Diáspora Encuentro Nacional 2024: Mayo/Primera Ronda

    COMENZAMOS! Ciclo oficial de Slam Diaspora— 30 de Mayo, 8pm hora chicago ✨🔥✨ Registracion abierta a cualquier poeta de reside en territorio EEUU! http://bit.ly.com/mayoslam24 Slam Diaspora es un colectivo que busca unir a poetas de la diáspora latinoamericana con poetas en latinoamérica usando el slam como nuestro punto de encuentro. que viva la poesía viva!

  • Girl Work: Book Launch w/ Zefyr Lisowski

    Pilsen

    Join us for the book launch of Girl Work (Noemi, 2024) with author Zefyr Lisowski, featuring performances from Kemi Alabi, Donna "Dante" Marie Gary, and Robin Reid Drake, hosted by Alanis Zoë Castillo Caref.

    Free
  • Transvengence: Pride Edition

    Clash on Clark 4416 N. Clark St., Chicago, Illinois

    June 2024: Transvengence, Pride Month – Turn Up! Edition Featuring Jack and Lynzo the Heartthrob, with your host, Joss Barton. Open mic starts at 7:30pm. Learn more about Transvengence here. Lynzo The Heartthrob is a born & bred Chicagoan; an exotic dancer with a background in ballet, modern, and African dance teachings. Emceeing/producing Black LGBTQIA...

    Free
  • A Map of My Want | Book Launch and Celebration with Faylita Hicks

    Haymarket House 800 W. Buena Ave., Chicago, Illinois

    A Map of My Want follows a nonbinary femme on their long walk home from a rural county jail as they contemplate how threesomes, quantum mechanics, beaches and nature hikes led them to an epic journey of sexual liberation.An offspring of Audre Lorde’s seminal essay “Uses of the Erotic,” Hicks’s A Map of My Want follows a nonbinary...

    Free – $25
  • Chicago Literary Hall of Fame Fuller Award: Patricia Smith

    The Poetry Foundation 61 W Superior St, Chicago, United States

    Co-presented with the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame, American Writers Museum, and Guild Literary Complex, the ceremony will present Chicago poet Patricia Smith with the Fuller Award for her lifetime contributions to literature. Chicago Poet Laureate avery r. young will lead a lineup of presenters that includes Nora Brooks Blakely, Reginald Gibbons, Poetry Out Loud National Champion Niveah Glover, Adrian Matejka,  Marc Smith, and Jamila Woods. Lynne...

    Free
  • Palabra Pura: One Poet, One Poem

    La Bruquena Restaurant 2726 W. Division, Chicago, IL, United States

    Palabra Pura presents ONE POET, ONE POEM  Join the Guild Literary Complex July 17th for our annual Palabra Pura: One Poet, One Poem @ La Bruquena! All poets are welcome to the stage to perform a poem, whether it be in English or Spanish, or both. See old friends and meet new ones, enjoy delicious...

  • Self-Care as Resistance: Ekphrastic Poetry Reading @ Epiphany Center for the Arts

    Caring for ourselves helps us to be more present in the world. Becoming aware of those areas where we might need additional support and asking for help can be scary but, in the end, it is what makes us stronger. The Guild Complex presents five writers who words help tell their stories of finding strength while battling...

  • Chicago House Music: Culture + Community

    Co-Prosperity 3219 S Morgan St., Chicago, Illinois

    Reading and panel discussion with book author, Marguerite L. Harrold along with Khari B, Discopoet, Founder of The Debauchery Ball and veteran House music DJ Michael Ikechukwu Ezebuku. Including a...

  • Exhibit B: The Poets Platform

    Co-Prosperity 3219 S Morgan St., Chicago, Illinois

    Exhibit B will be joined by artists using the Democratic Party platform as a prompt. We are proud to be part of DEMOCRAZY FEST going on from Aug 8-18th at...

  • Ananda Lima & Daniel Borzutzky In Conversation

    Pilsen Community Books 1102 W 18th St., Chicago, Illinois, United States

    A special conversation and reading with award-winning authors Ananda Lima and Daniel Borzutzky about their latest releases, moderated by poet Alex Wells Shapiro.

  • Transvengence | September 2024

    Clash on Clark 4416 N. Clark St., Chicago, Illinois

    September's Transvengence features Aza Greenlee with your host, Joss Barton. Doors open and open mic sign-up begins at 7pm. Aza Greenlee is a body artist and co-conspirator at No Nation...

  • Printers Row Lit Fest: Exhibit B

    Printers Row Lit Festival Dearborn and Polk Streets, Chicago, United States

    Christian Aldana, Lindsay Hunter, Jessica Nirvana Ram, and Dan "Sully" Sullivan join Exhibit B for a special reading at the Midwest's largest literary festival, Printers' Row Lit Festival! Printers Row...

    Free
  • Printers Row Lit Fest | Annie Allen — Now: A Conversation

    Printers Row Lit Festival Dearborn and Polk Streets, Chicago, United States

    As its 75th anniversary approaches, Nora Brooks Blakely (Brooks Permissions) and Reginald Gibbons (Northwestern University) discuss the modern relevance and contemporary ideas from Gwendolyn Brooks' Pulitzer Prize-wining book Annie Allen....

    Free
  • Slam Diáspora En Vivo

    18th Street Casa de Cultura 2057 West 18th Street, Chicago, IL, United States

    6:30-- Doors open/Sign Up7:00-- Slam Starts8:30-- Open Mic9:00-- ¡ADIOS! ¡Abierto a poetas de todos estilos y edades!Desde quien apenas esta empezando a escribir, a quienes llevan décadas escribiendo-- todos están...

  • A Performance Happening 3 @ Alma Art & Interiors

    ALMA Art and Interiors 3636 S Iron St, Chicago, United States

    Join us for a special night of artistic brilliance with "A PERFORMANCE HAPPENING " at ALMA Art and Interiors. We are thrilled to host this event, bringing together an all-star...

  • CLHoF Fuller Award: Alex Kotlowitz

    Chopin Theatre 1543 West Division Street, Chicago, IL, United States

    Registration is now open. On September 24, Alex Kotlowitz will become the 17th recipient of the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame’s Fuller Award for his lifetime achievements. The ceremony will be free and...

  • ECOS Pop-up Gallery Readings with Guild Literary Complex

    National Museum of Mexican Art 1852 W 19th St., Chicago, Illinois, United States

    This event is part of ECOS: A Chicago Latine Poetry Festival, which celebrates Chicago's relationship with and influence on Latine poetry. Sponsored by the Poetry Foundation, the festival features free,...