Come (OUT) As You Are Poetry Night
Event Date: Friday, June 20, 2025 | 6–8PM
Location: 1332 S. Halsted St., Chicago, IL 60607
Join us at Woman Made Gallery on June 20 at 6PM for an evening of powerful poetry, bold stories, and radical visibility. Come (Out) As You Are is a Pride Month celebration of queer joy, identity, and self-expression, featuring eight poets and writers sharing up to ten minutes of original work. This is a space to honor the many ways we come out, show up, and speak our truths. Free and open to the public—come celebrate with us!
Hosted by Jae Green and Le’Trice Buckingham
Past Event
Jamie Wendt: Book Launch & Signing
Event Date: Sunday, May 4, 2025 | 2–3:30PM
Location: 1332 S. Halsted St., Chicago, IL 60607
Join us for the launch of Laughing in Yiddish by Jamie Wendt, a collection of persona and ekphrastic poems that explore the lives of Jewish women in Russia’s Pale of Settlement and their journey to Chicago. Through vivid character portrayals, the poems delve into themes of immigration, assimilation, and the struggle to maintain cultural traditions. Laughing in Yiddish offers a heartfelt reflection on Jewish heritage and the longing for connection to spiritual ancestors.
Event is FREE and OPEN to the public.
About the Author: Jamie Wendt is the author of the poetry collection Laughing in Yiddish (Broadstone Books, March 2025), which was a finalist for the 2022 Philip Levine Prize in Poetry. Her first book, Fruit of the Earth (Main Street Rag, 2018), won the 2019 National Federation of Press Women Book Award in Poetry. Her poems and essays have been published and are forthcoming in various literary journals and anthologies, including Feminine Rising, Catamaran, Green Mountains Review, Lilith, Jet Fuel Review, the Forward, Clockhouse, Consequence, Minyan Magazine, and others. She contributes book reviews to the Jewish Book Council. She won third prize in the 2024 Reuben Rose Poetry Competition and won second prize for the 2024 Holloway Free Verse Award through the Illinois State Poetry Society. Wendt holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Nebraska Omaha. She lives in Chicago with her husband and two kids.
Follow her online at https://jamie-wendt.com or on Instagram @jamiewendtpoet
WMG’s Literary Events Curator
Jae Green – WMG Literary Events Curator Jae Green is connected to Woman Made Gallery since its early days when the organization was located at its first location in Ravenswood Manor on Chicago’s northwest side. Jae is a visual artist, writer and published poet. She serves since 2020 on WMG’s Board of Directors and is also part of WMG’s Program Committee. In celebration of Woman Made Gallery’s 30th Anniversary she co-juried the Generations group exhibition in 2022 together with Gallery Coordinator, Marisa Miles.
WMG’s Former Literary Team
Nina Corwin Much gratitude goes to Nina Corwin and her years of service as WMG’s Literary Events Curator until Covid prevented us from planning any public events. Nina is a published poet, Founding Editor for Fifth Wednesday Journal and psychotherapist/advocate for victims of sexual assault. She 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 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.
Jennifer Steele Thank you Jennifer Steele for your service as WMG Literary Events Outreach Coordinator for several years. She is a published poet and educator and serves as Partnerships Coordinator for Teen Services at Chicago Public Library. She served as co-founder and co-curator of the Revolving Door Reading Series. Her work has appeared in Another Chicago Magazine, Callaloo Journal, Columbia Poetry Review, Warpland Journal, So To Speak, and others, and is a Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop fellow. She has taught creative writing and digital media arts across Chicago since 2008 and has collaborated with numerous youth organizations and cultural institutions, designing innovative arts programming.
Kurt Eric Heintz We are grateful to Kurt Eric Heintz who served as WMG’s Literary Events Audio Recordist through 2019. Kurt 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. Kurt is known for his poetry videos, begun in the early 1990’s. He also video-conferenced his colleagues’ poetry in the late 1990’s — 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.
Thank you Angela Narciso Torres, for your wonderful work and support for WMG and our past Literary Program!
Woman Made Gallery is supported in part by grants from The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events; The Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation; The Illinois Arts Council Agency; the Arts Midwest GIG Fund, a program of Arts Midwest that is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional contributions from the Illinois Arts Council Agency; the Puffin Foundation; a major anonymous donor; and the generosity of its members and contributors.