The Chicago Tribune hosted the largest literary festival in the Midwest over the weekend. I had the pleasure of hosting the Arts and Poetry Tent. We had several readings that moved audiences. Here are some amateur photos of the event.
Saturday morning started with Angela Jackson reading from her first book in 17 years, It Seems Like A Mighty Long Time. Soulful, intelligent, passionate, and filled with wisdom and wit, Jackson was a delight to have.
The mystic Paul Breslin read from his new book, Between My Eye and the Light. Spiritual and on point, Paul began his reading by talking about the madness of the world post-9/11.
Editor of poetry at Northwestern Press, and poet of her long-awaited first book Vessel, Parneshia Jones was cool, clever, and open. "I want to get personal, raise your hand if you remember your first kiss. Good, now raise your hand if you remember your first French kiss …" inquired Jones of the audience.
Daniel Wolff flew in from the East Coast for his book tour supporting his collection, The Names of Birds. He read every poem twice, with a small description in the interior. It was a metaphysical call and response.
Also dropping into the Chicago Tribune Arts and Poetry Tent from her book tour, actress and poet Amber Tamblyn . Amber read from her latest collection, Dark Sparkler and was interviewed on stage by Megan Stielstra, author of Once I Was Cool. Amber's book includes poems about child stars who died, Hollywood at large, and features art by David Lynch, Marilyn Manson, and other notables. During the interview, the actress/poet thoughtfully commented, "When people ask what I do, I tell them I get professionally rejected. I've been acting since I was 11, and I didn't take a break until I was 26. I had success, I had failure, but it is always going forward. So I tell people, they don't see all of the rejections behind it." Amber filled the poetry tent, sold out of books, and had to make a flight for a reading in Calgary.
And closing the weekend with what has become a tradition over the last three years, author of Wine for a Shotgun, Marty McConnell performed her exceptionally acute and piercing poems.
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Another fine weekend of poetry at her best.