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Tubens, Luis 2022; 2023

Tuesday, August 9, 2022
Poetry @ the Green with Luis Tubens (aka Logan Lu)
320 S. Canal
Monday, May 15, 2023
Poetry @ the Green with Luis Tubens (aka Logan Lu)
320 S. Canal

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The surrounding sound of shattering glass
The air, thick with angst
A chorus of hopeful chants
Sent electric shocks that shook State street.

– Luis Tubens, “Brown Solidarity for Black Lives”

Continue reading this poem⇒

Watch Logan Lu read his poem, “Abuela’s Kitchen”:

Watch Logan Lu perform his poem, “Phone Call”:

More info on Luis Tubens⇒

Tardi, Mark 2017

Wednesday, Oct 4, 2017
with Nina Corwin
57th Street Books

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some spindle of the sun
empirically facted
deafening skin
open and afterwards

              – Mark Tardi, “series 2”

Continue reading this poem⇒

Read this interview with Mark Tardi:

12 or 20 (second series) questions with Mark Tardi

Mark Tardi is from Chicago. He is the author of the books Euclid Shudders and the newly released Airport music . He also has an essay in …

As ridiculous as writing a postcard to her cat
these were bodies like mismatched socks
a kind of furniture
no more holdable than the wind 

– Mark Tardi, from “Attribution Error”

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Watch Mark Tardi read here:

More info on Mark Tardi⇒

Tran, Vu 2017

Wednesday, February 1, 2017
with RJ Eldridge and Tara Stringfellow
City Lit Books

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After a minute, he came back and handed me the phone.
The line was silent.
“Yes,” I said.
“You. Robert Ruen.” It was a declaration, not a question—an older man’s voice, loud and somehow childish, the accent unmistakably Vietnamese. “Say something to me.”

– Vu Tran, “Dragonfish”

Continue reading this excerpt⇒

Read this interview with Vu Tran from Bloom:

Q&A with Vu Tran

“With a novel, the end felt so far off, always beyond the horizon, and that was a terrifying feeling. Eventually, I had to teach myself to be okay with that, to turn the uncertainty and fear into a productive state of mind.”

Our first night at sea, you cried for your father. You buried your face in my lap and clenched a fist to your ear as if to shut out my voice. I reminded you that we had to leave home and he could not make the trip with us. He would catch up with us soon. But you kept shaking your head. I couldn’t tell if I was failing to comfort you or if you were already, at four years old, refusing to believe in lies. You turned away from me, so alone in your distress that I no longer wanted to console you. I had never been able to anyway. Only he could soothe you. But why was I, even now, not enough? Did you imagine that I too would die without him?

– Vu Tran, “Dragonfish”

Continue reading this excerpt⇒

Read this essay by Vu Tran from LitHub:

Vu Tran: The Uncertain Memories of a Four-Year-Old Refugee

When I tell someone about my refugee experience, a story I’ve told countless times, I’m always aware that I have no real memory of it. At some point it’ll feel as though I’m describing the plot poi…

Watch Vu Trans’s Lecture “Noir and Refugee Experience” at University of Chicago:

More info on Vu Tran⇒

Thompson, Kush 2016

Thursday, June 30, 2016
with H. Melt
Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art
Friday, March 25, 2016
with Ben Clark 
Comfort Station Logan Square

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This, we tiptoe.
This, we flower in euphemism.
The street has swallowed itself into border. Into railroad track.
This, where the bus line ends.

– Kush Thompson, “This, Here”

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Watch Kush Thompson’s feature on ChiTeen Lit Fest:

the hand I use for nothing, butterflied
open in a veiled room. she walks to the end
of my palm and says she sees no children
and so many.

– Kush Thompson, “Witch’s Milk”

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Watch Kush Thompson’s TEDxWindyCity talk:

More info on Kush Thompson⇒

Tate, Marvin 1999

she wants to reclaim her body
change it back to its original shape
like when she danced, you know she use
to dance, in the middle of a drum circle

– Marvin Tate, “Blue eggs for a blue poet”

Broadside of "Blue eggs for a blue poet" by Marvin Tate

Broadside of “Blue eggs for a blue poet” by Marvin Tate

Buy this broadside in the Mixed Bag series⇒

Read this article about Marvin Tate from the Chicago Tribune:

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I am the dark and ominous tower
your greenless, infertile backyard
the unsightly vista that you view
each morning, from your high rise
curtainless, kitchenette windows.

– Marvin Tate, “A Bruised Mood Over the Cabrini Green Projects”

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Watch Marvin Tate recite his poem, “My Life to the Present,” on Def Jam Poetry:

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More info on Marvin Tate⇒

Talarico, Ross 1979

Friday, December 14, 1979
with Elizabeth Libby

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This crack
Runs up the wall, continues
Through the upstairs window,
Splits the sky.
It has divided the statue.
It is a ripple in water.
I try not to go on
But it cuts through my voice
And my words break
And settle, unevenly, on the page;
It is the margin of a poem.

– Ross Talarico, “The Perfect Flaw”

Continue reading this poem⇒

Read this review of Ross Talarico’s novel, Sled Run:

http://www.thecoastnews.com/2013/03/22/thievery-and-charity-in-ross-talaricos-newest-novel-sled-run/

More info on Ross Talarico⇒

Turow, Scott 1997; 1999

Wednesday, January 29, 1997
Tuesday, December 7, 1999

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Watch Scott Turow read some of his work:

Read this interview with Scott Turow from BookPage:

Scott Turow

Write what you know. While writers are told that every day, a writer’s work is naturally that much better if what they know is pretty cool stuff. In Scott Turow’s latest book, Personal Injuries, the best-selling legal thriller writer takes what he knows his personal experience as a prosecutor in a major judicial corruption probe […]

Watch Scott Turow discuss how his political views influence his work:

More info on Scott Turow ⇒

Turner, Brian 2007

Wednesday, November 11, 2007
with Bruce Weigl

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If you hear gunfire on a Thursday afternoon,
it could be for a wedding, or it could be for you.
Always enter a home with your right foot;
the left is for cemeteries and unclean places.

– Brian Turner, “What Every Soldier Should Know”

Continue reading this poem ⇒

Watch Brian Turner read some of his poetry:

If a body is what you want
then here is bone and gristle and flesh.
Here is the clavicle-snapped wish,
the aorta’s opened valves, the leap
thought makes at the synaptic gap.

– Brian Turner, “Here, Bullet”

Continue reading this poem⇒

Audio recording of the Poetry Center Reading Series featuring Tom Raworth, Diane di Prima, Kimiko Hahn, Eugene Gloria, Patricia Smith, Luis Rodriguez, Robert Bly, Brian Turner, Bruce Weigl, Tyehimba Jess, A. Van Jordan, Arielle Greenberg, Billy Corgan, Franz Wright, Czeslaw Milosz, Louise Glück, and Alicia Ostriker.

Audio recording of the Poetry Center Reading Series featuring Tom Raworth, Diane di Prima, Kimiko Hahn, Eugene Gloria, Patricia Smith, Luis Rodriguez, Robert Bly, Brian Turner, Bruce Weigl, Tyehimba Jess, A. Van Jordan, Arielle Greenberg, Billy Corgan, Franz Wright, Czeslaw Milosz, Louise Glück, and Alicia Ostriker.

Buy this audio recording featuring Brian Turner⇒

It begins simply with a fist, white-knuckled
and tight, glossy with sweat. With two eyes
in a rearview mirror watching for a convoy.
The radio a soundtrack that adrenaline has
pushed into silence, replacing it with a heartbeat,
his thumb trembling over the button.

– Brian Turner, “2000 lbs.”

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Watch Brian Turner discuss his experiences and influences for his poetry:

More info on Brian Turner ⇒