Watch “Alignment Poem” by Tanae B:
Listen to this recording of “Versions of love” by Tanae B:
Watch Tanae B. discuss her book Joy & Contradictions:
We fear from afar
The brutal waste of war
The extravagant arrogance of power.
We rage at the rage of men
Who refuse to see you, or rather,
Choose to see through you and thereby
Refuse to see themselves.
– Hila Ratzabi, “We See You: For Ukraine”
Watch Hila Ratzabi’s 2022 reading with Faylita Hicks at the Chicago Poetry Center:
Hila Ratzabi begins at 42:51 minutes.
When I heard the explosions I was watching TV
after putting the kids to bed. There was nothing on
and I didn’t feel like checking the news,
dear God, because how could I want
to hear, over and over again,
the same story. While falling asleep
my son said, “I have so many stories
in my pocket to tell you.” Someone’s son,
another one, is dead. All his stories
folded up inside the quiet earth.
– Hila Ratzabi, “Prayer for Solomon Teka”
Watch Hila Ratzabi perform at the Bowery Poetry Club:
Read Oak Park Public Library’s Feature on Hila Ratzabi:
Poet Hila Ratzabi is exploring the big questions & speaking for Earth
By Kristen Romanowski, Staff Writer & Editor Hila Ratzabi became a poet at age 7. As a New York City kid growing up in Queens, she was composing poems
The highway swells like tide and I lie awake, willing
dozens of wheels to swerve loose of the pile-up
I know is coming, always comes, when I am away,
being Black and bothered.
– Faylita Hicks, “ASMR Sleepcast: The Night After Being Released from the Rural County Jail”
Watch Faylita Hicks’ 2022 reading with Hila Ratzabi at the Chicago Poetry Center:
Faylita Hicks begins at 8:17 minutes.
You should know this city
thirsts for copper-
tinged sediment & meat
fresh from the workers
of the dying farms & fields.
Sick without a steady flux
of salt-leaking star-beaten
bodies, this city turns
in on itself & chews
on my sisters
– Faylita Hicks, “Before Moving to Austin”
Watch Faylita Hicks perform at The Tobin:
Read Faylita Hicks’ interview with The Rumpus:
A Time and a Place: Talking with Faylita Hicks – The Rumpus
Faylita Hicks discusses her debut poetry collection, HOODWITCH.
In this world there is
Sweetness
Like mangos
Like “let me cook for you”
Like a helping hand
Like the hug you never want to end
Like the look that reads love
Like what you’re about to find
between your lovers thighs
Like the spoon full of sugar
that makes the world go round
– Sabrina Pastard, “Sweetness”
Watch Sabrina Pastard’s MFA gallery showcase:
We rareley saw the sun together
we were a part of the night
mosiquitos and
deep conversations
of just silly questions
of another story
of our sanity
the only yellow we know
is the glow of the street lights
– Sabrina Pastard, “Yellow”
Watch Michelle Shafer’s performance of her song “Never Blue” at Poetry @ the Green:
Check out Michelle Shafer’s latest album Scattered Light:
Read this review of Michelle Shafer’s song “Stranger”:
Michelle Shafer Releases “Stranger”
The first couple of bars in any track as essential to setting up a mood, and Michelle Shafer doesn’t come into her new single “Stranger” with any degree of hesitance at all. With her voice as the centerpiece of the music, she creates a melodic bedrock for this single that sprawls across the whole of…
This is what joy looks like:
palm to palm, radiant, mga kasama.
Sing like every tomorrow is infinite,
each one of us a river, a rush, a dream.
Palm to palm, radiant, mga kasama
smile wide and drink sunlight.
Each one of us a river, a rush, a dream
unfurling into a monumental sea.
– Christian Aldana, “Pantoum for 2032”
Watch Christian Aldana’s performance for Filipino American History Month:
Luya Set – Chris, Gilary & Lorenze from Caroline Olsen on Vimeo.
They will come to the door in broad daylight. Because they can.
When the sun is high and shining, and Chicago summer feels like it will never end
They will wait in the street.
They will knock.
– Christian Aldana, “Know Your Rights When ICE Comes to Your Door”
My father used to take me across time,
It came with us when we took the bus from Guadaliajara to Michoacán where
I sought scorpions, I hunted them, like I hunted ghosts
I was 4.
– Melissa Castro Almandina, “Because I Taught Myself How to Read English”
Trapped monarchs die inside
Before they become dust
It is cruel to see a monarch in
A cage, winged flesh ripped
In the name of nationalism
In keeping the wings white
What a cruel vision
To see fluttering dreams
Encased.
– Melissa Castro Almandina, “Children of the Dead”
Check out this book review of “The Breakbeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNext,” featuring poetry by Melissa Castro Almandina:
“The Breakbeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNext” Celebrates Latinx Community and Future-Building
“Writing, for me, is a way of reimagining that which I’ve experienced and creating something new. It’s a way of future-building. It’s a way of taking back agency. Each time I do this in my writing, I think it makes me a little more free.”
Watch Del Marie’s music video for her song “Black Wallstreet”:
Read this interview with Del Marie:
Del Marie: locked down, but not out – Chicago Reader
The rapper-dancer-performance poet rolls with the pandemic punches.
Watch Del Marie perform “Nobody Said, A Dedication to Black Boys in the Rough”:
Organ pipes tower over the city like a cathedral
Humming through with the click clack of El tracks
Whistling winds whisper through, Wabash
Spilling secrets like Goose Island root beer overflowing in Buckingham Fountain
Flooding the streets like flames from the Fire
– Caillouet Chirskira, “Dusable’s Home”
Watch Caillouet Chirskira perform “Fall In Love With Yourself”:
as i begin to compose this “thing”
note that it will change between now and it’s conclusion
if there is a conclusion
this began as an idea-
an idea to collect and creatively organize my thoughts;
– Justus Pugh, “afrotranscendental: a meditation”
Watch to this visual conversation with Justus Pugh:
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