- BY: Poetry Center
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Application Open: March 10 – 31, 2025 Please click here for Board Application Form The Chicago Poetry Center is excited to announce an open call for new board members. We are seeking individuals with […]
- BY: Rinnah Shaw
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Are you looking for a way to collect and organize your poems into a manuscript that might one day be published as a chapbook or full-length collection of poetry? Join the Chicago Poetry Center […]
- BY: Poetry Center
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Letter sent by CPC Executive Director to all board, staff, and Poets in Residence on Monday, February 3, 2025: As news mounts of organizations changing their values or language due to pressure from the […]
- BY: Poetry Center
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From February through June of 2025, the Chicago Poetry Center is offering free online Critical Conversations: Anti-Racism sessions open to all. Drawing on CPC’s decades of workshop facilitation, Critical Conversations use poetry as a […]
- BY: Leslie Reese
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In our recent sessions, Swift 2nd graders were counting down the hours before spring break began! We read “Ode to My Shoes” by Francisco X. Alarcón, and talked about giving non-human things – like […]
- BY: Mayda del Valle
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This week we had in indoor snowball fight! Well, sort of. We used a fabulous lesson plan by fellow CPC poet-in-residence Fulamusu Bangara where students write down responses to winter-inspired writing prompts on different […]
- BY: Joy Young
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For our 11th week of poetry, O-School students shared their thoughts about Spring Break. Usually during Spring Break, people take vacations or stay at home for self-care and rest. A few students mentioned how […]
- BY: Russell Price
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This week the young vikings explored cinematic approaches to poetry. They read “Please Refrain from Talking During the Movie” by Robert Polito and “Movie” by Eileen Myles. It was the toughest week to narrow […]
- BY: Claire Scott
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The Chicago Poetry Center presents BLUE HOUR, a free monthly in-person reading series and generative writing workshop at Haymarket House, 800 W. Buena. Our April featured readers are Ayokunle Falomo and Viola Lee. The […]
- BY: Cai Sherley
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Alice Walker’s poem “Calling All Grand Mothers”, inspired Lawndale to make their own calls this week. The theme was Calls To Action, bringing people together to make things happen. After having students brainstorm all […]
- BY: Ola Faleti
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Colors, colors, colors. There are many poems, songs, and paintings devoted to particular colors and how they show up in our lives. So during out 14th session with Waters 7th graders, we explored colors. […]
- BY: Ola Faleti
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Last week, Waters 6th graders read and wrote self-portrait poems. First, students drew a “cartoon” self portrait of themselves, some of them in human form and some in the form of a different creature. […]
- BY: Timothy David Rey
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Students read Langston Hughes’ poem, ‘Motto,’ and then wrote their short poems using modern slang. “Motto” by Langston Hughes I play it cool And dig all jive That’s the reason I stay alive. My […]
- BY: Madison Mae Parker
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In Social Justice High School last week, we read Jane Wong’s “After Preparing the Altar the Ghosts Feasts Feverishly.” We discussed the layered meaning of food, cultures, and how this was reflected in the […]
- BY: Noel Quinones
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There are some realizations you can only come to by reflecting on your past. This is what the 8th graders of Clinton did as we explored our childhoods with the Aimee Nezhukumatathil poem “When […]
- BY: Noel Quinones
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There are some realizations you can only come to by reflecting on your past. This is what the 7th graders of Clinton did as we explored our childhoods with the Aimee Nezhukumatathil poem “When […]
- BY: Teresa Dzieglewicz
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In Ms Reed’s class, we wrote poems that make wishes! We talked about how we could write with our five senses and all of the different types of wishes we can make. We had […]
- BY: Josie Levin
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This week in class we read “My earliest memory is telling myself stories without” by Diane Seuss and expanded on some of the history of poetic forms we started with odes. We discussed how […]
- BY: Madison Mae Parker
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This last week at Henry, we looked at Ayokunle Falomo’s “#BlackBoyJoy” poem. We learned about personification as a further expansion of metaphors and imagery. Check out some of our poems from this week! Mrs. […]
- BY: Leslie Reese
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Today Swift 2nd graders talked about (1) things they know how to do well; (2) the recipes they know how to cook; (3) and how to give someone expert instructions. We passed around different […]
- BY: Cai Sherley
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Two weeks ago, before illness took this poet away from the 4th floor of Hyde Park High School, we all sat around a table in Ms. Gholston’s art room and discussed magic. How would […]
- BY: Cai Sherley
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After being ill last week, I could not have been more excited to return to Lawndale this week, which was all about reimagining the past and revitalizing our power, our magic. After a game […]
- BY: Josie Levin
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This week in class we read “Everyone who happens to live where” by Kimberly Alidio. We talked about our names, what they meant in the past and what they might mean in the future. […]
- BY: Joy Young
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For our 10th session of poetry, O-School students explore their sense of humor. There’s usually a misconception about poetry, that it has to be serious all the time. But the great thing about poetry […]
- BY: Ola Faleti
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For this 13th week with Waters 7th graders, we explored the self-portrait poem. How do we paint ourselves? Mary Jo Bang’s self portrait poem paints a pretty odd, confusing version of herself. We talked […]
- BY: Ola Faleti
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For our lucky 13th poetry session with Waters 6th graders, we talked about instructions – why does one give them? What makes for good ones? We opened with an activity where a few students […]
- BY: Madison Mae Parker
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For our fifth week at Henry, we looked at Elizabeth Acevedo’s “Rat Ode.” We learned about odes, imagery, and word bubbles (or word maps), and how useful word bubbles can be to our pre-writing […]
- BY: Timothy David Rey
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Students participated in a short meditation and breathing exercise. I read them. I Close My Eyes by David Ignatow. After the meditation, they were asked to write whatever came to mind. Classwork was conducted […]
- BY: Teresa Dzieglewicz
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In Ms. Reed’s class, we wrote poems about food! We thought about how food can be connected with memory and people we love. We read a poem from Kwame Alexander about fried chicken and […]
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“Writing poetry makes me feel like I can see myself, like I can see my reflection, but not in a mirror, in the world. I write and I know I can be reflected.”
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