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 February featured readers are Elizabeth Strauss Friedman & Faisal Mohyuddin.
The Blue Hour reading includes a brief open mic followed by two featured poets from Chicago and beyond. The open mic includes five readers drawn lottery-style from a hat that goes out at 7:15. The reading starts promptly at 7:30. Each open mic poet reads one poem or for three minutes, whichever comes first.
The name comes from a line by Chicago poet Li-Young Lee, from a section of “The City in Which I Love You”: I wait in a blue hour and faraway noise of hammering, and on a page, a poem begun, something about to be dispersed, something about to come into being.
EVENT DETAILS FOR MARCH 19:
- Workshop (registration required) begins promptly at 6 p.m., ends at 7 p.m.
- Open mic sign-up begins at 7:15.
- Reading (registration recommended but not required) begins at 7:30, followed by community gathering time.
- Reading registration is free; the workshop is a sliding scale with a suggested donation of $10.
- Register for the workshop here.
- Get your free ticket for the reading here.
- Livestream is available here.
ABOUT THE READING:
The Blue Hour reading features readings by two poets from Chicago and beyond, preceded by a five-person lottery-style open mic and followed by a community gathering time.
ABOUT THE WORKSHOP:
The Blue Hour generative writing workshop is suitable for writers and poetry fans of all levels. We begin by discussing a poem, and then Marty guides the group through individual writing on an exploratory prompt that draws on themes from the poem.
ABOUT THE SPACE:
Accessibility, Health, & Safety:
– All restrooms at Haymarket House are gender-neutral, including single-user and stalled restrooms.
– Each event includes ASL interpretation. Haymarket House is ADA-compliant and fully wheelchair-accessible; email curator@poetrycenter.org to ensure ramp access and any other accessibility needs.
– Masks are strongly encouraged for all indoor events, and the space has a professional air filtration system.
MARCH FEATURES:
Sarah Ghazal Ali is the author of Theophanies (Alice James Books, 2024), selected as the Editors’ Choice for the 2022 Alice James Award. She holds an MFA in poetry from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and is an Assistant Professor of English at Macalester College. Winner of The Sewanee Review Poetry Prize, her poems and essays have been published in The American Poetry Review, The Kenyon Review, the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day series, Best New Poets, and elsewhere. A Stadler and Kundiman Fellow, Sarah serves as the poetry editor for West Branch and lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
R.A. Villanueva is the author of “A Holy Dread,” winner of the 2024 Alice James Award, and “Reliquaria” (University of Nebraska Press, 2014), winner of the Prairie Schooner Book Prize. New work has been featured by the Academy of American Poets and National Public Radio—and his writing appears widely in international publications such as Poetry London and The Poetry Review. His honors include commendations from the Forward Prizes, and fellowships from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and the Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts. Born in New Jersey, he lives in Brooklyn.
ABOUT THE HOST:
Marty McConnell is a poet, educator, and healer based in Chicago. She is the author of When They Say You Can’t Go Home Again, What They Mean is You Were Never There, winner of the 2017 Michael Waters Poetry Prize; her first full-length collection, wine for a shotgun, received the Silver Medal in the Independent Publishers Awards and was a finalist for both the Audre Lorde Award and a Lambda Literary Award. Her first nonfiction book, Gathering Voices: Creating a Community-Based Poetry Workshop, is available through YesYes Books. She is the co-creator and co-editor of Underbelly, a website focused on the art and magic of poetry revision. An MFA graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, her work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including Best American Poetry, Southern Humanities Review, Gulf Coast, and Indiana Review.
To learn more about the series and history, go here.
