Poetry in the Public Forum: Dana Gioia
Monday, April 4, 6:00 p.m.
The Union League Club
65 West Jackson Boulevard, Chicago.
Admission is free, but reservations are required. Space is limited. For tickets call The Civic & Arts Foundation at 312.435.5961.

Poet, critic, and best-selling anthologist, Dana Gioia will speak on "Poetry in the Public Forum." One of America's leading men of letters, Gioia is internationally recognized for his role in reviving rhyme, meter, and narrative in contemporary poetry. An influential critic, he has combined populist ideals and high standards to bring poetry to a broader audience.

Poetry on Stage: Murder in the Cathedral
T.S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral
All performances start at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets are $20.00 for general admission and $10.00 for seniors and students. For reservations call (312) 787.7070.

"Poetry on Stage" is a new series of dramatic readings designed to bring well-known, but rarely performed, verse plays to new audiences.

Monday, April 4
Old Saint Patrick's Church
700 W. Adams Street

Tuesday, April 5
Rockefeller Memorial Chapel
5850 S. Woodlawn Avenue

Wednesday, April 6
The Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago
Michigan Avenue at Delaware

Thursday, April 7
Saint Pauls United Church of Christ
2335 N. Orchard Street

Friday, April 8
St. Chrysostom's Episcopal Church
1424 N. Dearborn Avenue

Jeff Award-winning actor Nicholas Rudall, in the role of Thomas Becket, will be joined by a cast of eleven leading Chicago actors. Bernard Sahlins, legendary co-founder of The Second City, directs. Murder in the Cathedral deals with the conflict between Henry II and Thomas Becket, his one-time chancellor and drinking buddy. Henry, seeking to control the church and its revenues, appointed Becket as Archbishop of Canterbury. But once in his new office Becket fought for the church's autonomy, a move that he knew would enrage Henry and lead to disaster. For its soaring poetry and dramatic excitement, Murder in the Cathedral is considered to be Eliot's finest dramatic work.

Subsequent productions, at venues to be announced, will include Seamus Heaney's new version of Antigone entitled The Burial at Thebes, Molière's The School for Husbands, and Archibald MacLeish's JB.

National Poetry Recitation Contest Chicago Finals
Monday, April 11, 6:00 p.m.
Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier
Admission is free, but seating is limited and reservations are required. For reservations, please call The Poetry Foundation at (312) 787.7070.

The Poetry Foundation, and After School Matters, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, will hold the Chicago finals of the National Poetry Recitation Contest on Monday, April 11. The final round of the competition will begin at 6:00 p.m. at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier. The Grand Prize is $1,000. The Chicago-area finals are part of a pilot program that the Foundation plans to implement nationally in 2006.

Poetry Off the Shelf: Kevin Young
Tuesday, April 19, 6:00 p.m.
The Newberry Library
60 West Walton Street in Chicago.
Admission is free. For further information, please call The Poetry Foundation at (312) 787-7070.

In celebration of National Poetry Month, the poet and essayist Kevin Young will read from his new collection, Black Maria, a film noir in verse. Sponsored by The Poetry Foundation, this is the sixth in a series of "Poetry Off the Shelf" readings and conversations. The program regularly makes recent contributors to Poetry magazine available to discuss essential themes in their work and answer audience questions.

Kevin Young's reading is co-sponsored by the Academy of American Poets as part of its 10 Years/10 Cities reading series to mark the 10th Anniversary of National Poetry Month.

"Poetry Off the Shelf" is a new reading series designed to spring poetry from the classroom and help restore it to its rightful place in the world at large. The program intends to help broaden and deepen the audience for poetry by demystifying it and showing its central place in the larger culture. Poetry can enrich anyone's life and is in turn enriched by a broad and diverse readership.

Poetry on Stage: A New Series of Dramatic Readings of Verse Plays Presents
The U.S. Premiere of
The Burial at Thebes
A riveting new version of Sophocles' Antigone by Seamus Heaney
Staged Reading Directed by Bernard Sahlins
September 18, 19, 20 at 7:30 pm
Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier, 800 East Grand Avenue, Chicago

Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney's new telling of Sophocles' Antigone explores the dangers of pride and absolute belief regardless of personal, political and moral consequences. Heaney's poetry updates the eternal struggles between the individual and the state, between conscience and society and between divine law and human law. Bernard Sahlins, legendary co-founder of The Second City, directs a brilliant cast of Chicago's finest professionals in this U.S. theatrical premiere. Each performance will be followed by a discussion of the play led by Chicago Tribune former chief theater critic Richard Christiansen.
Tickets:
$20 general admission/$15 seniors and students
Chicago Shakespeare Box Office 312.595.5600 or chicagoshakes.com
Read the press release >>

Poetry Off the Shelf
The Poetry Foundation and the Art Institute of Chicago Present
Billy Collins, U.S. Poet Laureate 2001 - 2003
Monday, October 17, at 6:00 pm
Fullerton Hall at the Art Institute, 111 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago

America's most popular poet Billy Collins introduces his new book, The Trouble with Poetry and Other Poems. No poet since Robert Frost has managed to earn such high critical acclaim while retaining broad popular appeal. His work has appeared in Poetry, New Yorker, Paris Review, and American Scholar. A booksigning follows.
Tickets go on sale September 1
Reserved seating: $15 / $10 AIC members
Art Institute Tickets (312) 575-8000 Mention code EAIJ1017

Poetry Off the Shelf
The Poetry Foundation and The Modernist Studies Association at Loyola University Chicago present
Kay Ryan
Thursday, November 3, 5:30 - 7:00 pm reading followed by a reception
5th Floor, Chicago Marriott, 540 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago

Kay Ryan is the author of six books of poetry including The Niagara River (Grove Press, 2005), Say Uncle, (Grove Press, 2000), Elephant Rocks, (Grove Press, 1996), Flamingo Watching, (Copper Beech Press, 1994), Strangely Marked Metal, (Copper Beech Press, 1985) and Dragon Acts to Dragon Ends, (Taylor Street Press, 1983). Ryan's poems have been included in a variety of anthologies including 100 Great Poets of the English Language and The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry, and have been repeatedly selected for The Best American Poetry series as well as The Pushcart Prize anthologies. Her work was also chosen for The Best of the Best American Poetry, 1988-1997. Ryan's poetry is widely represented in distinguished periodicals including Poetry, The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, The Yale Review, and The Paris Review.

Kay Ryan has received fellowships from the Ingram Merrill Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation. She was awarded the 2004 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize from The Poetry Foundation. She has also received the Maurice English Poetry Award and the Union League Poetry Prize from Poetry magazine. She was included on Entertainment Weekly's 2001 "It List."

Ryan was born and educated in California where she continues to live. She has ridden her bicycle across the United States.

This Poetry Off the Shelf event is also a featured program at The Modernist Studies Association Annual Conference sponsored by Loyola University Chicago. Admission is free, but reservations are required. Please call the Poetry Foundation office at (312) 787-7070.

With support from the Poetry Foundation the Chicago Humanities Festival Presents

Edward Hirsch: Roots and Wings
Saturday, November 5, 10:30 - 11:30 am
Fullerton Auditorium at the Art Institute of Chicago, 111 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago

The award-winning poet and director of the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation discusses with Northwestern University faculty member and poet Averill Curdy the need for roots and the urge for flight in poetry.
Tickets are $5 in advance and $6 at the door
Tickets go on sale September 6. Call (312) 494-9509 or visit www.chfestival.org

Lawrence Joseph & Stuart Dybek: The Time and Place of the Poem
Saturday, November 5, 12:30 - 1:30 pm
Fullerton Auditorium at the Art Institute of Chicago, 111 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago

These prominent poets explore, in readings from their work, how a poem imagines and recreates different times and places.
Tickets are $5 in advance and $6 at the door
Tickets go on sale September 6. Call (312) 494-9509 or visit www.chfestival.org

Panel: A Home for Poetry
Saturday, November 5, 2:30 - 3:30 pm
Fullerton Auditorium at the Art institute of Chicago, 111 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago
This reading and discussion will explore poetry's place in American culture. With Poetry magazine editor Christian Wiman, poet and critic Christina Pugh, and Poetry Foundation president and poet John Barr.
Tickets are $5 in advance and $6 at the door
Tickets go on sale September 6. Call (312) 494-9509 or visit www.chfestival.org

John Hollander: What You Mean by Home
Sunday, November 13, 3:00 - 4:00 pm
Chicago Sinai Congregation, 15 West Delaware, Chicago

The award-winning poet and critic reads from his work and discusses poetry about home (and the absence of home) with the Poetry Foundation's Programs Director Stephen Young. Hollander is the author of 18 books of poetry, most recently Picture Window, as well as five books of criticism.
Tickets are $5 in advance and $6 at the door
Tickets go on sale September 6. Call (312) 494-9509 or visit www.chfestival.org

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Poetry on Stage
10 Brecht Poems
November 10 - 12 at 8:00 pm
November 13 at 3:00 pm
Theater Building Chicago, 1225 W. Belmont, Chicago

In the dark times will there also be singing?
Yes there will also be singing about the dark times.
—Bertolt Brecht motto

A Chicago Debut!

Actors Tannis Kowalchuk (NaCl Theatre) and Leese Walker (Strike Anywhere) make use of their extensive training in physical theatre, music, visual art, and storytelling to bring to life 10 poems by Bertolt Brecht, the renowned German playwright and social critic. Kowalchuk and Walker, the creators for the show, use satire and a variety of performance styles to examine the horrors of war, the importance of solidarity and the need for dissent. Aside from tight vocal harmonies, precise movement, and powerful text, the performance also features hand-painted slides and shadow puppets created by the pair. Recently featured on NPR, 10 Brecht Poems toured to the Goethe Institut in Washington DC following an extended run at NYC's Brecht Forum in March-April 2003. The piece has been presented at Bowery Poetry Club and several colleges including Trinity College, Penn State, SUNY and New York University, and was featured at the 2003 KO Festival of Performance, the 2002 and 2003 Catskill Festivals of New Theatre.
Tickets
Reserved seating: $15 / $10 students and seniors
To purchase tickets call the Theatre Building Chicago Box Office (773) 327-5252

The 50th Anniversary of Poetry Day
Featuring Derek Walcott
Wednesday, November 16 at 6:00 pm
Fullerton Hall, The Art Institute of Chicago, 111 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago

1992 Nobel Prize winner "for a poetic oeuvre of great luminosity, sustained by historical vision, the outcome of a multicultural commitment," Derek Walcott will read selected and new poems at this year's Poetry Day celebration. In addition to the Nobel Prize, Mr. Walcott has received a MacArthur Society of Literature Award, the Queen's Medal for Poetry and is an honorary member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.

Inaugurated by Robert Frost in 1955, Poetry Day is now among the most distinguished poetry reading series in the country, having presented T. S. Eliot, Elizabeth Bishop, Carl Sandburg, W. H. Auden, Anne Sexton, John Ashbery, James Merrill, Adrienne Rich, Gwendolyn Brooks, Rita Dove, Billy Collins, Seamus Heaney, and U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser.
$10 / $5 students and seniors
To reserve your seat call The Poetry Foundation at (312) 787-7070