The Guild’s “good for you” year-end party has returned! This year, after much celebration of our 25th anniversary, we look forward to the future. We plan to celebrate with music, libation, and the best company in Chicago: YOU. Also, a very special guest will be joining us: Marcel Proust. Best known for his recollections of...
In response to the hangover from colonialism still lingering in the United States, a new literary space has been carved out where historically marginalized bodies, narratives and histories finally have their say; it has been named “Latino/a literature”. What happens, though, when some of the loudest voices inhabiting that space reproduce the very conditions they...
The Guild will be dark for the month of December. We'll be announcing 2015 programming soon...See you next year!
The Guild Literary Complex is pleased to kick off the 10th season of PALABRA PURA with “One Poet / One Poem”. Don't let the name fool you—there will be fiction stories too!2015 guest curators reveal their plans and past readers share a poem (or short story) during this annual party celebrating poetry and fiction in...
Chicago is a complicated place, a city where senseless acts of violence and random acts of kindness happen every day, where some can dare to dream and others dream of escaping their nightmares. Luis Tubens and young poets from Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos High School will lead us in an exploration of the urban realities...
As part of the Guild's 25th anniversary last year, we highlighted 25 Chicago area Writers to Watch. This year, we program all of them—starting now! "Uncharted" features readings by Eric Charles May, Coya Paz, Roger Reeves, and Kathleen Rooney. The theme is an open field for the imagination, but expect to hear stories about adventure,...
In September 2014, the Guild Literary Complex sent five Chicago writers to the 2014 Kapittel International Festival of Literature and Freedom of Speech in Stavanger, Norway. NOW, for the first time since their return, the authors will give a special reading of creative work inspired by the trip and lead a community dialogue on free...
Sharing California roots, a love of poetry, and a feminist devotion to their mothers, Tijuana native Brian Martin and L.A. native Arturo “Tootie” Alvarez blend English and Spanish to pay homage to their mothers. From a mother’s reminder to always use condoms to her struggle to raise her family on her own to the demoralizing beauty...
For this Applied Words event, we ask our featured artists to give us a dose of health-connected stories of the body and/or mind. Tonight's line-up includes two "Writers to Watch," Rey Andújar and Megan Stielstra, along with special guests Andrew Huff and Samantha Irby. And to make the program more body related, we have partnered...
Saint Teresa of Jesús held a special, privileged place for books during her life. Not only did she consider books important for her work as a writer, but also as a reader. Saint Teresa mainly wrote prose and her most popular poems are those that reflect her mysticism. In this special event, Instituto Cervantes, contratiempo,...
The Guild Complex continues a new reading platform to foreground Asian / American authors and themes. Curated by Dipika Mukherjee, this spring's program—The Alphabet of Distant Harbours—features Toni Nealie, Zhou Sivan, and Angela Narciso Torres. “The Alphabet of Distant Harbours'” will bring together writers who explore the suppression as well as expression of identity in...
This month's Palabra Pura is curated by Daniel Borzutzky, who believes that this month's performers, Duriel E. Harris and Rodrigo Toscano, are two of our present moment's most innovative, most dynamic and powerful and surprising poets and performers. "For these two artists, no distinction can be made between their poetics and their performativity. They write...
The Guild Literary Complex joins the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and other partners in a symposium launch event tonight to honor and discuss the legacy of the Wall of Respect. The Wall of Respect and People’s Art Since 1967 is a symposium (April 17-18) that launches a two-year critical conversation on the...
In a city—let alone a world—of vast geographies, identities, experience and more, how do we understand our place? Using personal stories, our guest authors will navigate the territory of belonging in a special Applied Words program that highlights two of the Guild's 25 Writers to Watch, Rebecca Kling and Sahar Mustafah, and includes José Ángel...
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...