Sunday, September 12, 2010

La Lotería: Thursday Night Reading!



Live! Free! One Night Only!

Yep. This Thursday I'll be part of a multi-poet extravaganza at the Center for Book and Paper Arts in Chicago. Come and check it out! The format is something I've seen take off in London, and increasingly in the United States: a themed reading, where each poet contributes a new poem as part of an overall design (one poet per song from The Dark Side of The Moon, or what have you). Our theme is La Lotería, a kind of Mexican Tarot deck. Each poet gets one card (mine, "La Bandera," depicts a flag — sort of a touchy subject, really, especially when it's not the flag of your own country).

The event takes place from 6:00pm - 8:30pm at the Center for Book & Paper Arts on the second floor of 1104 South Wabash. Poetry magazine's own Fred Sasaki presides, and Scotland's very own Roddy Lumsden anchors the bill of readers.

The visuals should be great, too (and not just because I may wear my Winnipeg Jets shirt), since the space contains the exhibit "Mano/Mundo/Corazón: Artists Interpret La Lotería."

Here are the poets and their cards:

Roddy Lumsden (La Corona)
Michael Robbins (La Palma)
Patricia Barber (El Paraguas)
Lisa Fishman (El Valiente)
Jackye Pope (Las Jaras)
Kimberly Dixon (La Escalera)
Jacob Saenz (La Sirena)
Erin Teegarden (La Rosa)
Melissa Severin (La Mano)
Danielle Chapman (La Estrella)
Carrie Olivia Adams (El Arbol)
Raúl Dorantes (El Nopal)
Jorge Montiel (El Diablito)
Johanny Vázquez Paz (El Bailarín)
Jorge García de la Fé (El Gallo)
Marcopolo Soto (La Campana)
Verónica Lucuy Alandia (El Alacrán)
Santiago Weksler (El Pescado)
Don Share (La Bota)
Simone Muench (La Calavera)
Anna Wilson (El Corazon)
Eric Bourland (El Mundo)
Judith Goldman (El Soldado)
John Beer (La Araña)
Robert Archambeau (La Bandera)

Check it out! Then stick around and buy me a few drinks. I promise not to moan about the fate of the Winnipeg Jets.