Poet Kevin Coval Featured in Rush Hour Concert Series

CHICAGO — The Poetry Foundation is pleased to present with the Rush Hour Concert Series a free performance featuring poet Kevin Coval, accompanied by acclaimed pianist James Giles. Studs Terkel said, “In Kevin Coval’s voice is our hope for a new world of peace, grace, and beauty.” The event marks the fourth year of collaboration between the Poetry Foundation and the Rush Hour Concert Series in presenting programs combining poetry and music. 

What: Everyday People: Poems of Kevin Coval and Music of George Gershwin and Charles Ives, with pianist James Giles

When: Tuesday, June 23, 5:45 PM

Where: Rush Hour Concert Series, St. James Cathedral, 65 East Huron Street (at Wabash Avenue)

Admission is free. Doors open at 5:15 PM.

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Kevin Coval is the author of everyday people (EM Press, 2008) and slingshots (a hip-hop poetica) (EM Press, 2005), named a Book of the Year finalist by the American Library Association. Coval’s poems have appeared in The Spoken Word Revolution and The Spoken Word Revolution: Redux (Source Books), Chicago Tribune, Chicago Reporter, Crab Orchard Review, Rattle, 2nd Ave Poetry, Drunken Boat, and other periodicals and journals. Coval writes for the Huffington Post and can be heard regularly on National Public Radio in Chicago. Founder of Louder Than a Bomb: The Chicago Teen Poetry Festival, Coval is poet-in-residence at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum at the University of Illinois–Chicago; is poet-in-residence at the University of Chicago’s Newberger Hillel Center; and teaches at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago.

James Giles regularly performs to acclaim in important musical centers in America and Europe. He recently completed a tour of China and played at Warsaw’s Chopin Academy of Music, and has appeared as a soloist with the symphony orchestras of Bangor, Boise, Evanston, and Fresno. Dr. Giles is on the piano faculty at Northwestern University.

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About the Poetry Foundation
The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine and one of the largest literary organizations in the world, exists to discover and celebrate the best poetry and to place it before the largest possible audience. The Poetry Foundation seeks to be a leader in shaping a receptive climate for poetry by developing new audiences, creating new avenues for delivery, and encouraging new kinds of poetry through innovative literary prizes and programs. For more information, please visit www.poetryfoundation.org.

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