Archive by Author

Rae, Sarah A. 2023

Monday, August 28, 2023
Poetry @ the Green with Sarah A. Rae
320 S. Canal

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Women. That’s what he wants. Women of all
shapes and sizes. Mexican and American. Maybe
even Polish, like the blond upstairs.
He wants them at his funeral, crying their eyes
out, so he can look down on them and smile and laugh
and remember and feel proud that he’s kept them
coming back for more. Coming back, for the parts
of his body they say they like the most. His eyes for
Maria la Amarillo. His chest, La Metiche Americana
de la vecindad. His hair, Sherry la Americana
de Michigan con the black Trans Am. Pilar la vieja,
para todo, for all his body.

– Sarah A. Rae, “What he really wants”

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Watch Sarah A. Rae read the poetry of Guadalupe Ángela:

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Danner, Atena O. 2023

Monday, August 21, 2023
Poetry @ the Green with Atena O. Danner
320 S. Canal

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I didn’t come here to tell you I love my kids.
I came here to suck and spit venom.
Have you ever looked down to see an arrow of your own making
sticking out of your chest? That’s the job.

– Atena O. Danner, “Convergence”

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Listen to this podcast episode with Atena O. Danner:

My grandmother was so tired
that my mother was born tired.
My Mama’s so tired
that I’m tired right now. And I see
my children getting tired,
so it’s time to put this to bed.

– Atena O. Danner, “Generational Wealth”

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More info on Atena O. Danner⇒

Rogers, Brittany 2023

Wednesday, August 16, 2023
Blue Hour Reading Series with Brittany Rogers and Maggie Queeney
Haymarket House

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After Zoe Saldana defends playing Nina Simone in her biopic by saying “For so many years, nobody knew who the [fuck] she was. She is essential to our American history. As a woman first, and only then as everything else.”

I looked at my Aunt Sarah skin;
my stay out the sun-
You already an eclipse- face.
Body an automatic rejection letter
erasure waiting to happen.

– Brittany Rogers, “Black Girl Sips Tea with Nina Simone”

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Watch Brittany Rogers’ 2023 reading with Maggie Queeney at the Chicago Poetry Center:

Brittany Rogers begins at 42:40 minutes.

I birth a child, and the wet wound never closes.
My mother diagnoses postpartum casually
as if saying – mail is here, and your name is on it.
Explains the drilling is nothing I asked for, overripe nerves happen sometimes.

– Brittany Rogers, “Pantoum for Postpartum”

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Listen to Brittany Rogers read her poem, “The Year ‘Caught Out There’ Became My Theme Song”:

Visit Brittany Rogers’ website⇒

Queeney, Maggie 2016; 2023

Wednesday, September 14, 2016
with Toby Altman
City Lit Books
Wednesday, August 16, 2023
Blue Hour Reading Series with Maggie Queeney and Brittany Rogers
Haymarket House

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laurel tree, limbs bent and twined into crown heifer     bank of marsh reeds,
handful lashed into pipes, song in another breath     a clutch of conifers, weeping

– Maggie Queeney, “Metamorphosis: The Female Into”

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Watch Maggie Queeney’s 2023 reading with Brittany Rogers at the Chicago Poetry Center:

Maggie Queeney begins at 21:50 minutes.

more than the men, even. The ones who looked
like I looked. Who called my name in a voice
I could not identify from my own on recordings.

– Maggie Queeney, “The Women”

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Listen to Maggie Queeney’s interview on the Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast:

Visit Maggie Queeney’s website⇒

Chandler, Alyx 2023

Monday, August 7, 2023
Poetry @ the Green with Alyx Chandler
320 S. Canal

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The debate of the nipple lasts for weeks.
Drags out across the countryside. Becomes a third eye.
Get rid of it, mom says. Keep it, grandpa says.

Tattoo it into a bouquet, wildflowers galore. The first piece.

Adding artwork is easy. I let them press into my skin
like a jogged memory. Let the mountain form a mountain

– Alyx Chandler, “Inheritance”

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I try to be brave
in my body
but who can with

family like humidity
everyone sweating
out their egos

– Alyx Chandler, “Curses”

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More info on Alyx Chandler⇒

Wong, Jane 2023

Friday, July 14, 2023
Summer Poetry Party featuring Jane Wong
Haymarket House

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My grandmother said it was going to be long—as long as you can hold your lineage—depending on how long you can hold your tongue—as long as your tongue can wrap around the pit—of some stolen stone fruit—as long as you can hide your pitter-patter face—glued in sun-split splinters—lengthening shadows as long as your face—longing to be mirrored back—back to your daughter your mother your grandmother—freckle by freckle—furnished forever across—the long loaming haul—

– Jane Wong, “The Long Labors”

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Watch Jane Wong’s 2023 reading at the Chicago Poetry Center:

Jane Wong begins at 49:52 minutes.

Check out Jane Wong’s work in “The Poetics of Haunting in Asian American Poetry,” a digital humanities project:

http://poeticsofhaunting.com/

I was waiting for something
to arrive. I didn’t know what.
Something buoyed, something
sun knocked. I placed my palms
up, little pads of butter, expecting.
All day, nothing. Longer than
that. My hair grew, fell out,
grew. Outside my window, I felt
the flick of a tail in September
wind. A bobcat sauntered across
the grass before me, the black tip
of its tail a pencil I’d like to sharpen.

– Jane Wong, “The Waiting”

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Watch musician Audrey Nuna read Jane Wong’s poem “I Put on My Fur Coat” for The New York Times Style Magazine:

Video: Read T a Poem | Audrey Nuna

The singer and rapper reads the poem “I Put on My Fur Coat” (2021) by Jane Wong.

Visit Jane Wong’s website⇒