Poetry @ The Green at 320 continues for the summer season this July!

The Chicago Poetry Center and The Green at 320 S. Canal are proud to reintroduce this free, weekly reading and open mic series co-curated by CPC’s Poets in Residence Tarnynon Onumonu and Timothy David Rey.

Join us on Monday nights in July at 6:00 pm in this beautiful setting to hear outstanding featured poets perform their work in this partnership between Chicago Poetry Center and The Green at 320 S. Canal. After every poetry performance, there will be an open mic for any individual that would like to share poetry of their own!

ABOUT JULY’S FEATURED PERFORMERS:
July 10: Stephanie Liang is a Chinese-American poet whose work explores grief, family, identity, and longing. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Rainy Day Magazine, Runestone, and Masks. When she’s not writing (or thinking about writing), you can find her exploring new places, trying new foods, or playing music. Stephanie is originally from Kansas but now resides in Chicago.

July 17: Alanis Zoe Castillo Caref is a writer-poet activist-artist from Chicago. She received her BA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Communication and Creative Writing. Alanis was a finalist for the 2021 Undergraduate Creative Writing Awards and won second place in The Hip Hop Workshop 2022 Spoken-Word/Poetry Competition. She also has poetry published in The Fashion Network magazine. Alanis has performed at Story Lab Chicago, Do Not Submit, Slam Diáspora, and Exhibit B. Currently, she is the Marketing Coordinator at Guild Literary Complex.

July 24: Ron is a first generation Mexican-American, from Chicago, who used to live up north, but has spent almost a decade living on the South Side. They dropped out of college to work on their poetry and have been writing for as long as they can remember. Their writings include doodling poems on the sides of notebooks, and just writing wherever and whenever they can. Their poems focus on mental health and have themes of nature throughout. Ron has been to multiple open mics all over the city and is in a poetry band that plays at Marquette park on the Southside. They didn’t start taking poetry seriously until last Spring but prides themselves on sharing a poem a day across social media platforms.

July 31: Olivia Scheidler (she/her) has been a high school educator for 10 years. Her poetry students have done way cooler things than her, but she has performed at the MOTH, South Side Story Slam and many a friends’ backyard. For fans of sad folk songs, moon picnics, and fun facts.

ABOUT THE CO-CURATORS:
Tarnynon (Ty-yuh-nuh) Onumonu is an artist and licensed Paraprofessional born and raised in the Jeffery Manor neighborhood on the southeast side of Chicago and is extremely proud of and humbled by her SouthSide citizenship and West African lineage. In 2017, she took second place in the Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Awards and represented Chicago on the Lethal Poetry Team at the 2018 National Poetry Slam. She has been a Poet in Residence at the Chicago Poetry Center since January of 2019 and has been featured in Newcity Magazine and South Side Weekly.

Timothy David Rey is a writer/performer who works in poetry, plays, and monologue (both fictional and autobiographical). He teaches creative writing and performance throughout the city of Chicago and its suburbs. He is a 2015 Semi-Finalist for the Guild Literary Complex’s Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Poetry Award, and one of the winners of Project Exploration (The Poetry Center of Chicago 2004). He is the co-founder of the LBGT Solo Performance Showcase, Solo Homo (2002-2011). Timothy’s plays and performance pieces have been seen and heard at venues throughout Chicago as well as out of state and in Panama.

ABOUT THE LOCATION:
The Green at 320 is a public park located in the West Loop and will be host to many family-friendly activities and events this summer!

The Green at 320 is located behind the building at 320 S. Canal, 1 block west of the river. The main staired entrance to the park is on the corner of Clinton and Van Buren with an ADA-accessible ramp off of Clinton. The park is located 1 block north of the Clinton Blue Line Stop. Please find more detailed transit and location information at https://320southcanal.com/.

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