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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⇒

Mascarenhas, Jessica 2019

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

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The pain is there. It has already happened. I might as well try to make something out of it.

– Jessica Mascarenhas, 2020 interview with Lakeshore Dive Bar

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Listen to Jessica Mascarenhas’s 2020 reading of her poem Praise to the Daily Commute:

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

For more info on Jessica Mascarenas, visit her linktree @jessicamascar

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⇒

young, avery r. 2019

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

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liquor heavy | backseat | cognac chevy | him a fine-fin(d)
hammerin kin(d) | three round(s) after midnight | two mo(re) befo(re) sun shine(d)
so much fo(r) dat innocence of mine | sho nuff gorilla(d) dat thrill(r) dat firs(t) time

– avery r. young, from “dem time(s) when aunt esther use(d) skinRite complexion correckor to look like Josephine Baker &/or Elizabeth”

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Watch avery r. young’s conversation with WGN News on being named Chicago’s first ever poet laureate:

1. He reminded me of the character Willis Jackson from the TV show Diff’rent Strokes. This prompted me to reimagine a dark narrative of a Willis who would be bullied for having all of blk Harlem caked on him inside his new Manhattan boarding school. In front of a studio audience who wouldn’t laugh.

– avery r. young, “from “peestain”

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Listen to avery r. young read his poem fo(r) east garfield:

More info on avery r. young⇒

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⇒

Johnson, Denis

The traveling salesmen fed me pills that made the lining of my veins feel scraped out, my jaw ached… I knew every raindrop by its name, I sensed everything before it happened. Like I knew a certain oldsmobile would stop even before it slowed, and by the sweet voices of the family inside, I knew we’d have an accident in the rain. I didn’t care. They said they’d take me all the way.

– Denis Johnson, “Jesus’ Son”

Listen to Denis Johnson’s reading at the Poetry Center of Chicago:

Read this interview with Denis Johnson in the Yale Literary Magazine:

http://yalelitmag.com/denis-johnson-interview/

Watch the trailer for the movie version of Denis Johnson’s book Jesus’ Son:

Jesus’ Son – Trailer

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More info on Denis Johnson⇒

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