For our 20th International Invitational and the first reading in our new Pilsen gallery, we lined up a group of well-loved poets from Chicago, NY and LA: Toni Asante Lightfoot, Marty McConnell, Marilyn Nelson, Angela Narciso Torres, and Lina Ramona Vitkauskas.
While most WMG readings are organized around the theme of the concurrent art exhibit, this reading was an open celebration of women writers. These poets have made their mark on the uneven playing field of arts and genders; they offered poetry in a variety of styles, voices and themes.
(Image from left to right: Marilyn Nelson, Toni Asante Lightfoot, Angela Narciso Torres, Marty McConnell, and Lina Ramona Vitkauskas posing in front of Jan Brandt’s installation.)
Woman Made Gallery hosts literary events that coincide with each of our juried group exhibitions. The current poetry series is curated by Nina Corwin. Kurt Eric Heintz is WMG’s Audio Recordist, and Angela Narciso Torres is WMG’s Publicity Coordinator. Thank you to WMG’s Literary Team and all Poets.
Nina Corwin is the author of two books of poetry, The Uncertainty of Maps and Conversations With Friendly Demons and Tainted Saints. Her work has appeared in ACM, Forklift OH, Hotel Amerika, New Ohio Review, Southern Poetry Review, Verse and has been nominated for the Pushcart prize. Corwin is an Advisory Editor for Fifth Wednesday Journal and curates readings at Woman Made Gallery in Chicago where she co-edited Inhabiting the Body: A Collection of Poetry and Art By Women. She has read and performed her work across the country, at times set with musical or choreographic compositions. In daylight hours, she is a psychotherapist known for her work on behalf of victims of violence.
Angela Narciso Torres’s poetry collection, Blood Orange, won the Willow Books Award. Her work appears in Nimrod, Spoon River Poetry Review, Colorado Review, and other journals. A graduate of Warren Wilson MFA Program and Harvard Graduate School of Education, she has received fellowships from Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Illinois Arts Council, and Ragdale Foundation. Born in Brooklyn and raised in Manila, she is a poetry editor for RHINO, a reader for New England Review, and a publicity coordinator for Woman Made Gallery Literary Events.
Kurt Heintz once taught computer graphics programming at Columbia College, and worked as an independent web developer. He’s since become the lead video director at Britannica. Heintz is known for his poetry videos, begun in the early 1990s. He also videoconferenced his colleagues’ poetry in the late 1990s — years before Skype and the iPhone. He was a technical advisor to the Electronic Literature Organization in its earliest years, and is the video content editor for Another Chicago Magazine.
For an archive of past readings visit: http://voices.e-poets.net/WMG recorded by Kurt Heintz.
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All events are free and open to the public. Donations are always welcome and appreciated: http://womanmade.org/donate
Woman Made Gallery
2150 S Canalport #4A-3
Chicago, IL 60608
312-738-0400
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Gallery Hours: Thurs–Fri noon–6p.m. | Sat–Sun noon–4p.m. | Admission: Free
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Woman Made Gallery is supported in part by grants from The Arts Work Fund; The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events; The Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation; The Efroymson Family Fund, a CICF Fund; The Illinois Arts Council Agency; The MacArthur Funds for Arts and Culture at The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation; The Joyce Foundation; a major anonymous donor; and the generosity of its members and contributors.