Archive / 2010-2019

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Phillips, Xan 2019

Friday, April 26 2019
Blue Hour Reading Series with Xan Phillips and Jan-Henry Gray and mai c. doan
Women & Children First Bookstore

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There is nothing left for us to forge in Oberlin, and still we remain, Edmonia a sentient rock, swallowing her own feet in want of motion. We fit on this twin sized bed only by entanglement. We survive here by the brine of our brutish blood.

– Xan Phillips, “Edmonia Lewis and I Weather the Storm”

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Watch Xan Phillips’s 2020 reading of excerpts from their debut poetry collection, Hull, on YouTube with Poets House:

to partake in a gender, to do so as a participant, and to fashion one’s self a living process of gender is like casting a net of postures, adornment objects, and grooming techniques into a future tense. where have I gone, and who have I built to take my place? I’ve always been unsuccessful at it. the tossing of it. I throw rocks ahead of me and predict where they will land.

– Xan Phillips, “Nativity”

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Watch this video from Poetry Foundation with Xan Phillips.

More info on Xan Phillips⇒

Accola, Rosie 2019

Friday, September 20 2019
Blue Hour Reading Series with Rosie Accola and Jessica Mascarenhas
Space Oddities in Humboldt Park

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The porch is heavy with old rain
and i am heavy too.
I am stronger than u give me credit for
My heart’s 2 big for my body
and my body wants to fight me everyday.

– Rosie Accola, “My mom never let me go to warped tour”

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Read Rosie Accola’s story, Tell Me I’m Made of Velvet, on Bullshit Lit:

Tell Me I’m Made of Velvet

Conflicting entities
silk thrift store camisoles purchased on balmy summer days
when family vacations and size-five shoes still fit.
The cashier gave me $3 off because
it looks good on you
That was the first time I realized
that maybe I was pretty enough
to get something I’d actually want
instead of mute boys with longboards/acne/shy smiles.

– Rosie Accola, “17 (An Edge or a Precipice)”

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More info on Rosie Accola⇒

Betts, Tara 2019

Thursday, August 29 2019
Blue Hour Reading Series with Tara Betts and avery r. young
Chicago Water Taxi (Loop to Chinatown’s Ping Tom Park)

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Think about the air invisible as it uncurls
a wave of toxins. Think about how its fingertips
trace the skin as a baton falls on the flesh
merely seconds later. Think about how heavy
metals brown the water and we are told to drink.

– Tara Betts, “Think, Think”

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Listen to this reading by Tara Betts at Volumes Bookcafe in Chicago:

If you be the needle
I be the LP.
If you be the buffed wall,
I be the Krylon.
If you be the backspin,
I be the break.
If you be the head nod,
I be the bass line.

– Tara Betts, “Hip Hop Analogies”

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Watch Tara Betts’s 2013 discussion with Terrence Hayes for HoCoPoLitSo:

More info on Tara Betts⇒

Grass, Berry 2019

Saturday, October 12 2019
Blue Hour Reading Series with Berry Grass and Raych Jackson
The Whistler

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Let’s get to the point, like water does, rushing to fill all the spaces: this is about liquidity. What fills the spaces isn’t whether or not I am your daughter but whether or not I can afford to be your daughter. There are costs involved.

– Berry Grass, “Accountability”

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Read Berry Grass’s 2019 interview with The University of Arizona Poetry Center:

An Interview with Berry Grass

Berry Grass’ new book, Hall of Waters is out from The Operating System. The book looks at the town of Excelsior Springs, Missouri through the lens of transness, deconstructing the settler colonialism of the Midwest, and a series of meditations on the work of one of Excelsior Spring’s most famous residents, Donald Judd.

“The waters of Excelsior Springs, MO, are sold only in bottles bearing copyright labels; never in cans, jugs or kegs. They are bottled by a process which does not permit them to come in contact with the air from the time they leave the spring until the corks are pulled; all medicinal properties are therefore retained practically unchanged.”

– Berry Grass, “TRUE OR FALSE”

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More info on Berry Grass⇒

Jackson, Raych 2019

Saturday, October 12 2019
Blue Hour Reading Series with Raych Jackson and Berry Grass
The Whistler

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Your hands have no more worth than tree stumps at harvest.
Don’t sit on my porch while I make myself useful.
Braid secrets in scalps on summer days for my sisters.
Secure every strand of gossip with tight rubber bands of value.
What possessed you to ever grow your nails so long?
How can you have history without braids?

– Raych Jackson, “A sestina for a black girl who does not know how to braid hair”

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Watch Raych Jackson’s 2019 reading of her poem, Church Girl Learns to Pray Again, with Button Poetry:

When my stomach protested, my momma would bring ginger ale.
Without ice in the cup, she’d pray over bubbling ginger ale.
It’s the medicine & the communion. The lone drink & the chaser. You’re balanced on that high-string ginger ale.

– Raych Jackson, “for Ginger Ale”

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Watch Raych Jackson perform her poem My Mom Doesn’t Like My Haircut with Button Poetry:

More info on Raych Jackson⇒

Rogers, Kenyatta 2014; 2023

Wednesday, October 15, 2014
with Hannah Gamble
Chicago Cultural Center
Wednesday, October 18, 2023
Blue Hour Reading Series with Kenyatta Rogers and Marcy Rae Henry
Haymarket House

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I had a dream
that I read a poem
to a woman
and cried
at how beautiful
it was

and she cried
at how beautiful
that was
and I thought
how even my
thoughts are
a problem.

– Kenyatta Rogers, “The Most Beautifullest Thing”

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Watch Kenyatta Rogers’ 2023 reading with Marcy Rae Henry at the Chicago Poetry Center:

Kenyatta Rogers begins at 19:28 minutes.

I never missed that $60,
I could spend it easily.
I can take the stairs,
I have fingers and can use buttons.
Before lightning there should be thunder
and if there’s not, it’s still ok.

– Kenyatta Rogers, “Bruce Banner #3”

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Listen to Kenyatta Rogers, with Hannah Gamble, read for the Poetry Center of Chicago’s Six Points Reading Series:

Listen to Kenyatta Rogers read “Carpet Bomb”:

More info on Kenyatta Rogers⇒

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⇒

Mascarenhas, Jessica 2019

Friday, September 20, 2019
Six Points Reading Series with Jessica Mascarenhas and Rosie Accola
Space Oddities in Humboldt Park

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Read Gertrude aka Jessica Mascarenhas’ feature on Lake Shore Dive bar:

Spotlight On: Gertrude aka Jessica Mascarenhas, poet and comedian

Poet and comedian Gertrude (Jessica Mascarenhas) will pull on your heartstrings with beautiful prose tangled in rich metaphors and vulnerability, then splash you with a cold dose of punchy wit and honesty. Laughter is her love language and something she seeks human connection with. Her work is funny, fresh, and smart.

Watch Jessica Mascarenhas read her poetry:

Commencement 2020 – Poetry Winner Jessica Mascarenhas from Columbia College Chicago on Vimeo.

Read Gertrude aka Jessica Mascarenhas’ interview with Voyage Chicago:

http://voyagechicago.com/interview/check-jessica-aka-gertrude-mascarenhass-artwork/

More info on Jessica Mascarenhas⇒

Gamble, Hannah 2014; 2021

Wednesday, October 15, 2014
with Kenyatta Rogers
Chicago Cultural Center
Wednesday, October 20, 2021
Reading Series with Hannah Gamble and Mayda Del Valle
Zoom

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Hello, poet. I read your book again today,
and with Houston finally being
what I want it to be (windy
and piled with the bodies of pumpkins)
I have to say I felt
alone. Alone is a proud
and quiet feeling where I am everything
and everything is a cluster of four pumpkin-colored
leaves on a tree still green in October.

– Hannah Gamble, “Neighborhood Beautification”

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Watch Hannah Gamble’s 2021 reading with Mayda Del Valle at the Chicago Poetry Center:

Hannah Gamble begins at 6:05 minutes.

Read Hannah Gamble’s Interview with Ghost City Press:

Hannah Gamble – Ghost City Press

Hannah Gamble, interviewed by Blake Wallin One of my favorite things about Your Invitation to a Modest Breakfast is how conceptually rich the poems are yet how the reader is forced to find contexts for them at the same time. What were your influences while writing your first bo

Listen to Hannah Gamble, with Kenyatta Rodgers, read for the Poetry Center of Chicago’s Six Points Reading Series:

Hannah Gamble begins reading at 20:42 minutes.

A little ways above the hands
the mouths spoke together
but for two
different reasons,
like the music was behaving
but the orchestra was broken.

– Hannah Gamble, “It Was Alive, Though Differently”

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More info on Hannah Gamble⇒

Mendoza, Jonathan 2019

Friday, November 15, 2019
Six Points Reading Series with Meg Day and Jonathan Mendoza
The Whistler

Watch Jonathan Mendoza perform his poem “For Quiet Boys”:

You ask me for my name,
and I say, “It’s pronounced Mendoza,”
and again, the Spaniard spits it out my throat,
pats me on the tongue,
tells me I have been a good subject,
and again, I have traded this empire
for my former one.

            – Jonathan Mendoza, “Onomástico”

Continue reading this poem⇒

Watch Jonathan Mendoza perform his poem “Brown Boy, White Boy”:


More info on Jonathan Mendoza⇒

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