Fourth Annual Lit & Luz Festival Brings Acclaimed Mexican Authors and Artists to Chicago or a Week-long Series of Events

MAKE Literary Production’s Lit & Luz Festival of Language, Literature, and Art, now in its fourth year, is a cultural exchange between writers and visual artists from Mexico City and Chicago. The festival runs October 17- 21st and takes place at venues and universities throughout Chicago, with the finale, a “Live Magazine Show,” presented at Co-Prosperity Sphere in Bridgeport. Here, collaborative teams debut their multi-media creations at this celebratory event.

This year’s festival theme, “Belonging,” asks participants and audience to consider what makes us part of a community, a city, a country?

The festival boasts a stellar line-up of Mexican writers and artists, including Cristina Rivera Garza, two time-winner of the prestigious Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz Prize, as the Writer in Residence; Sexto Piso founding editor and The Zero-Sum Game author, Eduardo Rabasa; the poet and author of he novel Formol, Carla Faesler; 2015 Premio Mauricio Achar award winner Aura Xilonen, and world-renowned visual artist, Amalia Pica. We’ll also be joined by Lit & Luz co-director and novelist Brenda Lozano, recently name as a top Latin American writer under 40.

A unique feature of the Lit & Luz Festival are collaborations between the Mexico and Chicago participants. In the months leading to the festival, participants team up to learn about each others’ practice and work, and together, create a 10-minute-or-less piece or presentation which debuts at the festival’s finale. This work is then re-staged at Mexico City’s Museo Tamayo in February 2018.

We’re proud to announce the 2017 Chicago participants include sculptor and performance artist, Danny Giles; The Grip of It author Jac Jemc; poet and Director of National Programs for Louder Than A Bomb Youth Poetry Festival, Nate Marshall; writer, director, and Free Street Theater Artistic Director, Coya Paz; and poet, novelist, and essayist, Erika L. Sánchez; and multimedia artist and performer, Selina Trepp.

Beginning with an opening reception on October 17th at the newly opened Ace Hotel Chicago the festival will present over ten free readings and conversations at venues including the Northwestern University, University of Chicago, ACRE, Sector 2337, Wright College, Loyola University, and more. The finale at Co-Prosperity Sphere is a ticketed event that also serves as a fundraiser.

Sponsors include Ace Hotel Chicago, Northwestern University’s Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Ace Hotel Chicago, the Consulate General of Mexico, Wilbur Wright College, the Katz Center for Mexican Studies at the University of Chicago, Roosevelt University, DoVA at University of Chicago, ACRE, Sector 2337, Lagunitas Brewing, Loyola University Chicago, SACRED, Seminary Co-op, and more

Media sponsors: Vocalo, The Reader, and contratiempo

This project is supported in large part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

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Tags: Amalia Pica. t Brenda Lozano, Carla Faesler; Aura Xilonen, Chicago, Coya Paz, Cristina Rivera Garza; Sexto Piso, Danny Giles, Erika L. Sánchez, Jac Jemc, Lit & Luz Festival 2017, Nate Marshall, Rabasa, Selina Trepp