Category: readings

  • Kevin Coval Performs Poetry From L-Vis Lives!: Racemusic Poems

    Spoken-word poet Kevin Coval, co-founder and Artistic Director of Louder Than a Bomb: The Chicago Youth Poetry Festival, will perform at Quimby’s in support of his third collection of poetry L-vis Lives! Racemusic Poems (Haymarket Books, September).

    Coval, who has been hailed as “a new glowing voice in the world of literature” by Studs Terkel, explores the dynamic intersection of race and culture in America today with “L-vis,” an imagined persona and pastiche of artists who have used and misused Black music. In Coval’s poetic novella, L-vis’s story is equal parts autobiography and forgotten and re-imagined history. We see shades of Elvis Presley, the Beastie Boys, and Eminem, and meet some of history’s more obscure “whiteboy” heroes and antiheroes. A free audio preview of L-vis Lives!, with poems read by Coval and beats by Coolout Chris, can be heard here: http://bit.ly/oXSIxZ
    “This book is bold, brave and morally messy – twelve rounds of knock-down, drag-out shadowboxing against a shapeshifter. The dark humor, intellectual fervor, and emotional rigor Coval brings to bear animates these pieces, turns caricatures to characters…”
    —Adam Mansbach, author, Go the F**k to Sleep

    For performance, interview, and review requests, contact: Jon Kurinsky, Haymarket Books, jon@haymarketbooks.org

    Wed, Oct 12th, 7pm

    from hero to most
    i am a hero
    to most. the great hope
    of something other.
    a complex back-story.
    something other than
    the business of my father.
    bland’s antonym.
    jim crow’s black sheep.
    the forgotten son
    left to rise in the darkness
    among the dis
    carded in the wild
    of working class, single
    mother hoods.

  • Todd Dills and Friends Celebrate All Hands On: THE2NDHAND After 10 on 10/3

    THE2NDHAND’s founding editor, Todd Dills, joins contributors to launch the mag’s 10th-anniversary anthology: All Hands On: THE2NDHAND After 10

    THE2NDHAND began its life as an 11-by-17-inch block of black text on white paper peppered variously with photo-illustrations, comics, line drawings and distributed in storefronts first in Chicago, then in an ever-growing list of cities around the U.S. New writing, simply, has been its focus since editor and publisher Todd Dills (author of the novel Sons of the Rapture) founded it in 2000—a small format its physicality, but a loud mouth and a big heart its most important parts.

    “And without Quimby’s, where we began hosting readings shortly after we launched,” says Dills, “we would never have built the community of writers and readers we now enjoy.”

    After a successful Kickstarter campaign raised funds to print the book, All Hands On: THE2NDHAND after 10 arrived in August to lay down the best of the mag’s 10+ years of publishing writing by the budding insurgents of the American lit landscape—and others, no doubt. True to form, the book begins with a section of new, as-yet unpublished work, and follows with sections devoted to some of its best repeat writers, including those on the program for this event.

    Joining Nashville, Tenn.-based Dills at this event them are Time Out Chicago books editor and Featherproof Books publisher Jonathan Messinger (Hiding Out) and longtime THE2NDHAND contributors and Chicago residents Kate Duva and Jill Summers. For more about the book, as well as the writers, visit the2ndhand.com/THE2NDHANDTXT/books

  • Quimby's in Time Out Chicago!

    Two events we’re involved with are in this week’s Critics’ picks in Time Out Chicago! We’ll be selling Anders Nilson’s Big Questions anthology off-site at his release event at Lula Café on Tues, Aug 30th 7pm, and Carrie McGath reads from So Sorry to See You Go here at Quimby’s on Sat, Aug 27th, 7pm.

    Thanks to Carrie McGath for pointing this out to us!

  • Carrie McGath Reads From So Sorry to See You Go

    Carrie McGath’s first collection of poems, Small Murders, was released in 2006 from New Issues Poetry and Prose. Ward-Eighty-One and The Chase are her self-published, limited-edition collections released in 2008 and 2009, respectively. Her newest self-published chapbook, So Sorry to See You Go is in a limited 50-edition run with the cover design by Bailey Romaine. The poems are inspired by Carrie’s thesis research at the Newberry Library about the presence of the circus in the Midwest. Carrie grew up in Youngstown, Ohio. Youngstown’s strange persona remains with Carrie, along with her dark Irish ancestral roots seeped in secrets, illness, and superstition. Carrie currently lives in Chicago where she is a poet, visual artist and art writer for Chicago Art Magazine She also contributes to Art:21 Blog’s “Open Enrollment” column. Her blog dollwork.org is devoted to film, literature, art, and other nooks of culture where dolls appear.  She lives with her sweet and spoiled cats, Seamus and Hortense.

    “Juxtaposing imagery of fractured delicacy, birds’ wings, eggshells and doll’s heads, with uncompromising hardness of gun barrels and wooden chests, she captures an uncanny world where a semblance of normality veils overripe fantasies and violence.”    ~~ Aisha Motiani, Milwaukee’s Shepherd Express

    For more info: carriemcgath.com

  • Cindy Crabb Reads From The Encyclopedia of Doris 9/3

    Cindy Crabb has been writing the influential, internationally distributed, autobiographical-feminist zine Doris since the early ‘90’s. Her new book, The Encyclopedia of Doris, brings together the last 10 years of zines and a ton of new writing as well. In it, she explores subjects like consent, feminism, abortion, death, self-image, creativity, shyness, queer identity, addiction, punk and anarchism. Crabb is the editor of the zines Support and Learning Good Consent. She lives in South-East Ohio with her miniature horses, plays in the punk band Snarlas, and is a sexual abuse survivor advocate.

    “…zines are a space where third wave feminist theory is emerging, and many scholars don’t recognize this because they don’t read zines.  They should read Doris.”     –Alison Piepmeier, Author of Girl Zines: Making Media, Doing Feminism

     

    Cindy Crabb’s work has been featured in such places as: The Utne Reader, Maximum Rock and Roll, and Cometbus. Her work has also been in such anthologies as We Don’t Need Another Wave: Dispatches from the Next Generation of Feminists; Experiencing Abortion: A Weaving of Women’s Word; and A Girls Guide to Taking Over the World: Writing From the Girl Zine Revolution. Her diaries and papers are housed at the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe. She has spoken at colleges, libraries and community centers across the country.

    For more info: dorisdorisdoris.com/

    Sat, Sep 3rd, 7pm

  • Christopher Boucher reads from How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive with Adam Levin (The Instructions) 8/24

    By the time Christopher Boucher reaches Chicago he will have driven nearly 3,000 miles across America in his 1972 Volkswagen Beetle, reading from How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive, playing the novel’s theme-song on his banjo, and reading to people, roadsigns, potholes, old barns, paramedics, flowers and railroad tracks. “I see this tour as a natural extension of the book,” he says. “The novel was written in a whimsical, playful style, but it was inspired by…my father, and the sense of wonder that he instilled in me.  That sense of wonder propelled every sentence in the book, and I want it to fuel the tour as well.”

    In How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive Christopher Boucher has created a zany literary universe, a place where metaphors shift beneath your feet, familiar words assume new meanings, objects talk, trees attack, and time actually is money. Modeled on the cult classic 1969 hippie handbook of the same name, How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive is an astonishing tour-de-force that calls to mind the off-kilter comedy and inspired fabulism of Richard Brautigan, Kurt Vonnegut, and George Saunders. The prose summersaults, but the book also tackles some of life’s biggest questions: How do you cope with losing a parent? What’s the secret to raising a child? How do you keep love alive? How do you get your car to start?

    “Writing to save your life—and your 1971 Volkswagen—is at the heart of this wildly imaginative debut… Readers are in for a fresh, memorable ride with this inventive ‘collage of loss’”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

    “A new, exuberant novel-world. Goofiness and grief are in perfect harmony in this impressive, moving debut.”—Sam Lipsyte

    Also joining the bill is Chicago author Adam Levin, author of The Instructions (McSweeney’s).

    More info: mhpbooks.com vwalive.com theboucher.com mcsweeneys.net

    Wed, August 24th, 7pm

  • Cassie J. Sneider Reads From Fine Fine Music with Dave Roche and Danny ‘Ratso’ Rathbun 7/23

    FINE FINE MUSIC is a collection of stories about the other side of rock and roll and coming of age in the land that time forgot. Lake Ronkonkoma is stuck in 1981, an alcoholic blackout of unnatually tan people waxing their Camaros to Foreigner on cassette and knowing the words to every Billy Joel song whether you want to or not. From an internship making Seamonkey costumes, a childhood fear of My Buddy dolls, and a heartbreaking crush on Aerosmith, funny lady Cassie J. Sneider delivers her tales of growing up in a land of fist-pumping Snookies with the antagonistic wit of a record store clerk.

    Cassie J. Sneider grew up in the murky depths of Lake Ronkonkoma, New York, a town with a haunted lake, a trailer park, and a record store. She put 240,000 miles on a Toyota Echo doing readings all over the country. Cassie J. Sneider collects 8-tracks and new friends. You can catch her on the Sister Spit 2012 national tour. For more info: cassiejsneider.blogspot.com

    Dave Roche is the zinester behind such titles as On Subbing and About My Disappearance. He is a Quimby’s favorite.

    And now, one more name has been added! It’s Danny “Ratso” Rathbun, who writes about openly and honestly about failed relationships, drugs and depression, but always with a wink and a smile. He runs a number of tongue and cheek columns like, ‘Drunken Letters to Abstract Concepts’, ‘Copyrighted Material Used Without Permission’, and ‘Punk rock trading cards’, that have drawn comparisons to Mad Magazine. Ratso’s work has been printed in over twenty different newspapers around Virginia, including The Virginia Gazette, The Williamsburg-Yorktown Daily, and others.  He is a regular contributor to Grassroots magazine, and the Commonwealth Times.  He publishes the zine Don’t Tread on Me, regularly performs standup comedy and gives readings across the state of Virginia, and is currently on a nationwide tour, doing readings across the country. For more info:  dtmzine.blogspot.com

    Sat, July 23rd, 7pm

  • Heather Augustyn Reads From Ska: An Oral History 7/9

    Ska: An Oral History, with a foreword by Cedella Marley, is the story of ska music, told through the words and narratives of those who invented it. In Jamaica, and later in England, this music defined the culture and social conditions of the people. Through the words of their songs, the uplifting rhythm of their vivacious tunes, and the character and skill of each musician, ska music was the foundation for musical forms and the musicians that evolved. Hearing first-hand the stories of these tumultuous times, these creative times, the story of ska music is finally told by those who were there.

    Heather Augustyn spent over a decade interviewing ska artists and musicians and researching the music and culture of Jamaica and England. Included in her book are never-before heard words from such greats as The Skatalites’ Doreen Schaeffer, Roland Alphonso, Lloyd Brevett, Lloyd Knibb, and Lester Sterling; Derrick Morgan and Patsy (Millicent Todd); Lyn Taitt; Laurel Aitken; Toots Hibbert; Millie Small; Alex Hughes (Judge Dread); The Specials’ Roddy Byers (Roddy Radiation); The Beat’s Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger; The Selecter’s Pauline Black; Lee “Kix” Thompson of Madness; Buster Bloodvessel of Bad Manners; Fishbone’s Dr. Madd Vibe (Angelo Moore); The Mighty Mighty Bosstones’ Dicky Barrett; Bucket of The Toasters; Tony Kanal of No Doubt; as well as many others.

    Augustyn has been a correspondent for The Times of Northwest Indiana, the state’s second largest newspaper, since 2004. She is also contributing editor for Shore Magazine. She has written for a variety of national publications, such as The Village Voice, In These Times, The Humanist, and World Watch Magazine. She was the last person to interview legendary novelist Kurt Vonnegut before his death in 2007. She lives in Chesterton, Ind. with her husband, Ron, and their two boys.

    For more info about Heather Augustyn see skabook.com

    Sat, July 9th, 7pm

  • Jon “Metalion” Kristiansen and Tara G. Warrior Discuss METALION: The Slayer Mag Diaries 7/8

    Quimby’s welcomes Jon “Metalion” Kristiansen and Tara G. Warrior as they discuss METALION: The Slayer Mag Diaries.

    For 25 years, Norway’s Slayer Mag published the gospel of extreme underground metal, combining eye-ripping graphics, brutally honest writing, and relentless offbeat humor. Part anthology, part memoir, and part visual archive, METALION: The Slayer Mag Diaries (Bazillion Points Books, 2011) is a weighty 744-page tour through this underworld, and Quimby’s welcomes author Jon Kristiansen from Sarpsborg, Norway, for a discussion with the book’s editor, newly-minted Chicago resident Tara G. Warrior. Kristiansen’s life story has taken him from alienated outsider to central figure in Norwegian black metal to party beast to world-weary survivor. The pair will recount some of the hilarious and the tragic episodes contained in the book, and discuss a dedication to self-publishing spawned from the darkest excesses of metal.

    Friday, July 8th, 7pm

    Bazillion Points Books has posted a preview video of the upcoming “METALION: The Slayer Mag Diaries” book. The one-minute clip can be viewed at this location:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb9cBqOKS1o

  • Orderly Disorder: Zinester Librarians in Circulation Tour featuring the Fly Away Zine Mobile 7/6

    If librarians in roving vehicles makes you think of bookmobiles parked on corners of dusty country roads, think again. Come listen to librarians read from their various zine projects when they roll into town as part of a nine-city zine-reading tour kicked off at the American Library Association’s Annual Conference in New Orleans and wrapping up at the Zine Librarian (un)Conference in Milwaukee. The Fly Away Zine Mobile, a traveling library focused on zines and other forms of DIY publishing, will be present to help spread the zine love!

    Tour participants are Jenna Freedman (Lower East Side Librarian and Barnard Zine Collection); Jami Sailor (Your Secretary and Archiving the Underground); John Stevens (Dilettantes and Heartless Manipulators and Blue Floral Gusset); Celia Perez (I Dreamed I Was Assertive and Atlas of Childhood); and Debbie Rasmussen, former publisher of Bitch: Feminist Response to Popular Culture, with her latest project the Fly Away Zine Mobile.

    Wed, July 6th, 7pm


     Click here for more info.