Small Altars Book Launch and Reading with Keli + Stewart Conversation with Andrea Change

Free event, in-person at Heaven Gallery
Saturday, September 28th 7–9PM
Refreshments will be served
Mask required

Join us for the book launch of SMALL ALTARS, the debut poetry collection of author Keli Stewart on August 28, 2021 7–9PM at Heaven Gallery. Keli will read from her latest work followed by a literary conversation with Andrea Change, Executive Director, Guild Literary Complex.

Keli Stewart, is a writer, arts advocate and educator. A Chicago native, Westside born and raised, her writing has appeared in Quiddity, Meridians, Warpland, Hip Mama, On Becoming, Calyx and other journals and publications. Keli received artist fellowships from Hedgebrook, where she was awarded the 2010 Adrienne Reiner Hochstadt Award, and the Augusta Savage Gallery Arts International Residency Program. An alum of the Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation and Callaloo Summer Writing Workshops, Keli’s writing was selected first place in the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award from the Illinois Center of the Book, chosen by Illinois poet laureate Kevin Stein. In 2017, Keli established Westside Arts House, an arts and cultural space, selected as part of the Alliance of Artists Communities Emerging Program Institute. She is also Founder and Artistic Director for the Front Porch Arts Center, where her chosen work as a community artist and advocate for the cultural arts on the Westside has taken root and continues to flourish.
She received her BA in Fiction Writing from Columbia College and an MFA in Poetry from Chicago State University, Most recently, Keli has been selected as one of the 2021-2022 School of the Art Institute of Chicago Tower Artist Residencies. Small Altars from Bronzeville Books (2021) is her most recent poetry collection. Previous collection Womanish Poems (2007). Keli lives in the Austin community with her two sons.

A hometown girl, born and raised in Chicago. Andrea Change is a poet, writer and a part of the Chicago poetry community for over 20 years. A graduate from Northwestern University. Much of her work is inspired by her adventures growing up in a large family and living in the big city. Her work has been published in a number of poetry magazines, journals and included in such poetry anthologies from Tia Chucha Press as Powerlines and Stray Bullets. Her poetry was also included in the 2001 Steppenwolf Theatre production, Words on Fire. She is mother of one son, Phillip, and Sasha, the dog. Still an active member of the poetry and arts community, she currently resides in Rogers Park.

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Tags: Andrea Change, Chicago, Heaven Gallery, Keli Stewart, Small Altars, West Town