Poetry Readings & Open Mic

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

Join us on certain Monday nights in May at 6:00 p.m. 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 MAY’S FEATURED PERFORMERS:
May 1: Christie Valentin-Bati is suburban kid now mostly grown up with an MFA from Columbia College. She is an interdisciplinary poet and artist who’s creative work and pedagogy emphasizes the quotidian as the bulk of life resides in the ordinary. Her work has received honorable mention in the 2022 and 2021 Academy of American Poet’s Poetry Contest, has been commissioned by the ACLU of Illinois, and exhibited in Porous Gallery Davis Street Drawing Room. More of her work can be found at @christie.vbati or https://bit.ly/christievb.

May 8: Kim Chayeb is the Two-Spirit (they/them) founder/CEO of Wild Tongues as well as a multi-disciplinary artist, holistic healer, activist, and educator originally from San Diego, California via Indian Trail, North Carolina. Lines of poetry Kim loves from Mayan poem “In Lak’ech”: Tú eres mi otro yo. You are my other me. Si te hago daño a ti, If I do harm to you, Me hago daño a mi mismo. I do harm to myself. Si te amo y respeto, If I love and respect you, Me amo y respeto yo. I love and respect myself. Kim graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and their spoken word poetry and conceptual performance art experiences explore themes of Environmental Justice, Indigenous Sovereignty, Anti-Racism and Science/Spirituality. Kim’s superpower is clarity: clairaudience, clairsentience, clairvoyance and claircognizance. Kim has performed at Steppenwolf Theatre, Pilsen Fest, Citlalín Gallery, Steep Theatre’s The Boxcar, DePaul University, Saint Xavier University, at Chicago’s Navy pier during Thawalls (fundraiser hosted by Links Hall and Threewalls), Gallery 400, MCA Chicago, OPEN Center for the Arts, Hairpin Arts Center, and the Chicago Artists Coalition. They have been a guest on 91.1 Vocalo Radio, WZRD Radio, and Que4 Radio, as well as a visiting artist and speaker at the Universidad de San Francisco in Ecuador, South America. Kim is currently passing the creative torch to future generations as a high school Theater Arts Teacher in their Pilsen community.

May 15: Luis Tubens, a.k.a “Logan Lu”, was born in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood and raised in Logan Square. In 2014, he earned a B.A. in Communications, media and theater from Northeastern Illinois University. He is the 2017 Artists in Residence at Oak Park Public Library. Luis has performed poetry across the United States including with the GUILD COMPLEX, Tia Chucha Press, and the National Museum of Mexican Art. He has toured Mexico City in 2016 and 2018 presenting his work at the acclaimed “Show Socrates MX” (2016) and the National Book Fair of Leon GTO (2018) and featured in Puerto Rico at “Poets Passage” and “Gathering of Cities” at Libros AC (2019). He has also held workshops for the residents of the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center and students in the Chicago Public Schools. On stage, he has opened for notable acts including Saul Williams and Calle 13. He is the author of Stone Eagle (2017) published by Bobbin Lace Press, Chicago. Currently, Luis is the resident poet for ESSO Afrojam Funkbeat (2016 Best New Band and Best International Music Act, Chicago Reader) and represented Chicago in the 2014 and 2018 National Poetry Slam.

May 22: Teresa Dzieglewicz is a poet, educator, and lover of rivers. She is a Poet-in-Residence with Chicago Poetry Center, part of the founding team of Mni Wichoni Nakicizin Wounspe (Defenders of the Water School) on Standing Rock Reservation, and an Associate Editor with RHINO Poetry Journal. She also volunteers with several Chicago River restoration projects. Her first book, Something Small of How to See a River, was selected by Tyehimba Jess for Tupelo Press’s Dorset Prize and is forthcoming in 2023. Her first children’s book, co-written with Kimimila Locke, is forthcoming in 2025 from Chronicle Books. She has won a Pushcart Prize, Best New Poets, the Palette Poetry Prize, the Jake Adam York Auburn Witness Prize, and the Gingko Prize for Ecopoetry. Her work has been supported with fellowships from the Elizabeth George Foundation, Community of Writers at Tahoe, Brooklyn Poets, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, and NY Mills Arts Retreat. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Georgia Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Prairie Schooner, Pleiades, and elsewhere.

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. Her “Darker Girl Manifesto” Broadside was on exhibition with the Center for Book Arts in the summer of 2021 and in April of 2022, she was commissioned by the environmental justice organization, the NRDC for National Poetry Month 2022. Her EP, “Brown Liquor on a Slow Sip” is available and streaming on all platforms as she compiles her first poetry collection.

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. Timothy’s writing has appeared in magazines and journals including ’60 Inches From Center,’ and ‘After Hours: The Chicago Journal of Writing & Art.’ ‘His book of poetry and performance, Little Victories, was published in 2012 by NewTown Writers Press. Timothy has performed at Steppenwolf Theater (Lookout Series), New York City’s International Fringe Festival as well as The Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts.