Archive / C…

RSS feed for this section

Chandler, Alyx 2023

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

bw+elbow

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”

Continue reading this poem⇒

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

family like humidity
everyone sweating
out their egos

– Alyx Chandler, “Curses”

Continue reading this poem⇒

More info on Alyx Chandler⇒

Caillouet, Chirskira 2022

Tuesday, August 16, 2022
Poetry @ the Green with Caillouet Chirskira
320 S. Canal

bw+elbow

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”

Continue reading this poem⇒

Watch Caillouet Chirskira perform “Fall In Love With Yourself”:

Clark, Davon 2019

Friday, May 17, 2019
Six Points Reading Series with Davon Clark and Gabriel Ojeda-Sague
Pilsen Community Books

 

 

I heard we got the city doing front flips // where every father/mayor/rapper jump ship // and I
heard they all wanted us to tumble down, anyway // to let our streets fall over into themselves //
inside the city line and through the alleys // in a flood of cement // and that crazy kid’s croons //
I heard he used to sing about us in autotune // how our rowhomes would jazz the boulevard into a
keyboard // how our grandparents and their grandparents knew joy like we know it // that is,
almost // that is, like someone always had their hands covering the sun over it // // that is, like it’s
all there is

              – Davon Clark, “On Chances”

Continue reading this poem⇒

Watch Davon Clark perform his poem “Bustelo”:

Davon Clark – Bustelo

Become a Member for exclusive perks and videos: https://bit.ly/ButtonMember Davon Clark, performing at Rustbelt 2017 in Minneapolis, MN. Want to choose which videos run on Button: https://bit.ly/ButtonCurator About Button: Button Poetry is committed to developing a coherent and effective system of production, distribution, promotion and fundraising for spoken word and performance poetry.

Praise the glowing yellow sign
in the distance.
Praise how slow it comes.
Praise how fast it goes.
Praise be to going.
Praise be upon the dozens of us
that are all going somewhere
But to nowhere near the same somewhere.

              – Davon Clark, “Praise to the Bus Ride”

Continue reading this poem⇒

Watch Davon Clark perform his poem “Sunset”:

Davon Clark – “Sunset” @WANPOETRY (CUPSI 2016)

Subscribe for more great poetry videos: http://bit.ly/WANPoetrySubscribe Social Media with us! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wanpoetry Instagram: https://instagram.com/wanpoetry/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/WANPoetry Tumblr: https://wanpoetry.tumblr.com Website: https://www.wanpoetry.com Davon Clark performing “Sunset” at the Blanton Museum of Art. Check out Davon on Twitter!

More info on Davon Clark⇒

Chhabra, Suman 2019

Wednesday, February 6, 2019
Six Points Reading Series with Suman Chhabra and Faisal Mohyuddin
Bookends & Beginnings

 

 

Why don’t I just say how much I own and how much I do not? It’s a tilling of the soil over my head to make beautiful what others see. So my box of marigolds sits nicely next to theirs. Meanwhile I’m wondering where the marigolds’ roots are. Tapping and pulling tight together from each of body’s corners until body is thin as a rubber band rolled around itself, double strand of DNA.

              – Suman Chhabra, “one apple can feed a hundred”

Continue reading this poem⇒

the moon begins her waiting for us at 4 pm
I acknowledge, say hello moon!
I sacralize, hello Chandrama! Purnima!
her names the same as the aunties who grasp my face with both of their hands
no ma, don’t cry

              – Suman Chhabra, “Orbit”

Continue reading this poem⇒

More info on Suman Chhabra⇒

Crowley, Maggie 2017

Thursday, March 30, 2017
with Danielle Rosen and Carris Adams (performed as Patricia Rose)
Museum of Contemporary Photography

 

 

View some of Maggie Crowley’s work here:

http://www.maggiecrowley.info/analog-1/

Read this interview with Maggie Crowley from VoyageChicago:

http://voyagechicago.com/interview/meet-maggie-crowley-produce-model-gallery-pilsen/

Watch Maggie Crowley perform for the Chicago Poetry Center as a member of Patricia Rose:

Poetry Reading: Maria Barnas and Danielle Rosen

The poets will be reading in response to the current exhibition on view, Viviane Sassen: UMBRA. Maria Barnas is a Dutch writer, poet and artist whose work centers on the myriad ways description can shape reality. Barnas wrote a series of poems to accompany UMBRA, which she will recite during this event.

More info on Maggie Crowley⇒

Cross, Vida 2017

Thursday, Aug 31, 2017
Poetry in the Parks with Aaron Coleman

 

 

Read this interview with Vida Cross from Awst Press:

Interview with Vida Cross – Awst Press

After last week’s debut of poet Vida Cross’s book, BRONZEVILLE AT NIGHT: 1949, Liz Blood chatted with Cross about the influences on her work including painter Archibald J. Motley, writer Langston Hughes, and living in Chicago. They discussed bringing writing, music, and painting together, d

Watch Vida Cross read here:

https://vimeo.com/152918611

More info on Vida Cross⇒

Coleman, Aaron 2017

Thursday, Aug 31, 2017
Poetry in the Parks with Vida Cross

 

 

 I am made of what I am afraid to remember. Come tell me more
about what I was—about the brothers, mind-ancient now, fleeing
Mississippi with spilled moon ready in their eyes. 

              – Aaron Coleman, “Very Many Hands”

Continue reading this poem⇒

Read this interview with Aaron Coleman from Cave Canem:

DOGBYTES interview: Aaron Coleman

A Cave Canem Fellow and Fulbright Scholar from Metro-Detroit, Aaron Coleman is the winner of the Tupelo Quarterly Poetry Contest, The Cincinnati Review Schiff Award, and the American Literary Translator Association’s Jansen Memorial Fellowship. His chapbook, St. Trigger, won the 2015 Button Poetry Prize, and his work can be found in Apogee, Boston Review, Fence, New York Times Magazine, and elsewhere.

Faith, let me be rootless, fluent
as pain and change-slick water. I am you and falling through
darkness in my mind, soft spill of dying fireflies, impatient
in this body, this brink, scheme, see: in here I can’t look back. 

– Aaron Coleman, “To Whom— To What— Do I Belong”

Continue reading this poem⇒

Watch Aaron Coleman read here:

Aaron Coleman – On Acquiescence

No Description

More info on Aaron Coleman⇒

Cruz, J. Jerome 2016

Wednesday, October 26, 2016
with Justin Boening
Innertown Pub

In the almond fields
rabbits make a matinee
of their coupling. Love,
my brother says, is in the hare.
We pick apples & pears until
the day is capped with the slow
hum of dusk.

– J. Jerome Cruz, “Pastoral”

Continue reading this poem⇒

At church Maria only sang along
with hymns that sent ascension
or grace. Once, in fifth grade,
she mucked up the sign her mother
hung in the kitchen. Too Much of a God
Thing Loses Its Novelty.

– J. Jerome Cruz, “Suadades”

Continue reading this poem⇒

More info on J. Jerome Cruz⇒