poetry EVENT - CHICAGO - This Week

CELEBRATION The Poetry Foundation Book Launch Thursday, October 29, 6:00 PM Poetry Foundation 61 West Superior Street Free admission, space is limited Join us for a celebration of The Poetry Foundation with remarks by Foundation architect John Ronan and editor Kevin Alter. Published by the Center for American Architecture and Design at the School of Architecture at The University of Texas at Austin, The Poetry Foundationwas edited by Kevin Alter and Wilfried Wang and includes essays by Kevin Alter, John Barr, John Ronan, Wilfried Wang, and Raymund Ryan. Books are available for sale at the event.   POETRY OFF THE SHELF Rae Armantrout Saturday, October 31, 10:30 AM Poetry Foundation 61 West Superior Street Tickets available at chicagohumanitiesfestival.org. Rae Armantrout is a founding member of the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E movement, a group of poets that emerged from the late-1960s San Francisco scene. She won a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Critics Circle Award for her book Versed (2009). Now she visits Chicago to celebrate her latest volume, Itself (2015).   POETRY OFF THE SHELF Claudia Rankine: "An American Lyric" Saturday, October 31, 2:00 PM Northwestern University School of Law Thorne Auditorium 375 East Chicago Avenue Tickets available at chicagohumanitiesfestival.org. Claudia Rankine’s Citizen (2014) is an indictment of contemporary times. Using a poetic frame, the poet uncovers an insidious racism embedded in the everyday – from the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, to the lecture halls of the ivory tower. As Rankine’s observations move from bewilderment to disappointment to quiet ire, Citizen leaves readers unsettled, moved, and changed with every page.   POETRY ON STAGE Claudia Rankine’sCitizen: Poetry in Performance Saturday, October 31, 7:30 PM Museum of Contemporary Art Edlis Neeson Theater 220 East Chicago Avenue Tickets available at chicagohumanitiesfestival.org. As the country continues to reel from unending stories of police brutality and violence, hip-hop historian Jeff Chang(Can’t Stop Won’t Stop), jazz musician David Boykin, sound artist Christine Hume, scholar Lauren Berlant, and poetRoger Reeves, among others join Claudia Rankine for a powerful performance that reflects on race in the United States today.   YOUNG PEOPLE'S POET LAUREATE Jacqueline Woodson:Brown Girl Dreaming Sunday, November 1, 2:00 PM First United Methodist Church 77 West Washington Street Tickets available for free at chicagohumanitiesfestival.org. Jacqueline Woodson takes to the stage for a conversation about her life and influences. Brown Girl Dreaming (2014), Woodson’s memoir in verse, is a rich, poignant description of life as a black child in the 1960s. Her memoir has won both a National Book Award for Young People and the Newbery Honor. In 2015, Woodson was named the Young People’s Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation.