Past Events

All are welcome to a monthly book group moderated by library staff. In June, we will read and discuss Blacks by Gwendolyn Brooks. Registration is required for this event. To allow...

All are welcome to a poetry discussion and creative writing workshop, “Poetry as Apocalypse,” created and led by Giulia Ottavia Frattini.

All are welcome to a poetry discussion and creative writing workshop led by Maggie Queeney. In celebration of Gwendolyn Brooks’s 106th birthday—known as “Brooks Day” in Chicago, we will read...

All are welcome to a poetry discussion and creative writing workshop led by Maggie Queeney. In this session, we focus on the line, an organizing feature that shapes a poem’s...

Join us for a reading with CM Burroughs, Camille Roy, and Syd Staiti at PO Box Collective.

All are welcome to a monthly book group moderated by library staff. In May, we will read and discuss Tiger Girl by Pascale Petit. Registration is required for this event. To...

Join us for a panel about Gwendolyn Brooks’s book Blacks and her legacy in Chicago and beyond.

All are welcome to a poetry discussion and creative writing workshop, “Writing Into Your Family Archive Through Poetry,”  created and led by L. Renée. We all have inheritances. For some of...

All are welcome to a poetry discussion and creative writing workshop led by Maggie Queeney. In this session, we focus on the Golden Shovel, a form created by the poet...

Join us in celebrating Miss Brooks’s legacy through this remount of Manual Cinema’s No Blue Memories!

Educators, sign up to bring your classroom to Manual Cinema’s No Blue Memories in May!

Join us for an Open Door reading with Gregg Bordowitz, Asia Calcagno, Terri Kapsalis, and Ugochi Nwaogwugwu.

All are welcome to a poetry discussion and creative writing workshop led by Maggie Queeney. In this session, we focus on the image, the sensual description evoking the physical world,...

All are welcome to a poetry discussion and creative writing workshop, “Spatial Poetry Workshop,” created and led by Hua Xi. The Spatial Poetry workshop will teach participants about the historical context...

All are welcome to a monthly book group moderated by library staff. In April, we will read and discuss Ask the Brindled by No‘u Revilla.  Registration is required for this event....

Join us for a reading celebrating new book releases by Poetry Foundation staff and friends: Adrian Matejka, Maggie Queeney, Charif Shanahan, and Patricia Smith.

To complement Chicago’s collective reading of Blacks, there will be several free events and opportunities to learn about Ms. Brooks’s life and legacy. 

All are welcome to a poetry discussion and creative writing workshop led by Maggie Queeney. In this special process session, we will explore the role of questions and questioning in...

Join us for a virtual reading celebrating the Forms & Features poets.

Join us for a reading and conversation with Renee Gladman, Eileen Myles, and Simone White, celebrating their new book releases.