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Marjane SatrapiSaturday October 28th 7PMfree
 
In her acclaimed Persepolis books and in Embroideries, Marjane Satrapi rendered the events of her life and times in a uniquely captivating and powerful voice and vision. Now in Chicken with Plums she turns that same keen eye and ear to the heartrending story of her great-uncle, a celebrated Iranian musician who gave up his life for music and love.
 
We are in Tehran in 1958, and Nasser Ali Khan, one of Iran?s most revered tar players, discovers that his beloved instrument is irreparably damaged. Though he tries, he cannot find one to replace it, one whose sound speaks to him with the same power and passion with which his music speaks to others. In despair, he takes to his bed, renouncing the world and all its pleasures, closing the door on the demands and love of his wife and his four children. Over the course of the week that follows, his family and close friends attempt to change his mind, but Nasser Ali slips further and further into his own reveries: flashbacks and flash-forwards (with unexpected appearances by the likes of the Angel of Death and Sophia Loren) from his own childhood through his children?s futures. And as the pieces of his story slowly fall into place, we begin to understand the profundity of his decision to give up life.
 
Marjane Satrapi brings what has become her signature humor, insight, and generosity to this emotional tale of life and death, and the courage and passion both require of us. The poignant story of one man, it is also a story of stunning universality?and an altogether luminous work.
 
Marjane Satrapi was born in 1969 in Rasht, Iran. She grew up in Tehran, where she studied at the Lycee Francais before leaving for Vienna and then going to Strasbourg to study illustration. She currently lives in Paris, where she is at work on the sequel to Persepolis and where her illustrations appear regularly in newspapers and magazines. She is also the author of several children’s books.

Chicago Calling Event Wednesday October 25th 8PM
With Mars Gamba-Adissa Caulton, Pamela Osbey, Xianggang Delight
 
This event will combine poetry readings and music, with a focus on the Gulf Coast since Hurricane Katrina. This event will be part of Chicago Calling: A 24-Hour Arts Festival. For more info, please see www.chicagocalling.org.
 
Mars Gamba-Adissa Caulton hit the open mic poetry scene in Chicago in the early 90’s, reading mangled manifestos and timid tirades at Anotha Level @ Lit X, the weekly gathering in the basement with the leaky toilet and the best performance poets in town working out their craft. Having been a political activist since 1983, Mars quickly learned the true power of the Spoken Word: to Teach, to Unite, to Inspire and to Incite.
 
Pamela Osbey is an accomplished vocalist, poet, and freelance writer. She is a powerful spoken word artist with a mission to uplift and empower women and people of color. She has appeared in well-read texts, such as sisterfriends.com, Ebonylove.net, Rhapsody Publishing, The Nubian Chronicles, and the Daughters of Eve Network.
 
Xianggang Delight is a Chicago-based musical group that has been performing regularly since summer 2001. Their aim is to synthesize the following two elements: the post-global economic and social theories of Saskia Sassen and the rock group The Who’s musical output from 1965.

Bon Voyage Mr. Dills Event
Monday October 23rd 7PM
 
Todd Dills is the editor of THE2NDHAND, often referred to as \”the single most important literary vessel in all of Chicago, maybe the world.\” His new novel, Sons of the Rapture, is out now from Featherproof Books.
 
This will be an event for his new book and some surprise all-star second hand contributors will be reading to.

Saturday October 21st 8PMJoseph Suglia reads fromWATCH OUT
 
Joseph Suglia earned a Ph.D. in Comparative Literary Studies from Northwestern University. He is a literary critic and writer of what he calls “excessive fiction.” He claims that WATCH OUT is his greatest achievement as a writer.
 
WATCH OUT is the story of Jonathan Barrows, a man who falls in love with himself—literally. He is sexually attracted to his own body, carries out an erotic relationship with a blow-up doll, and takes pleasure in rejecting the advances of his many admirers. Eventually, he assassinates the world’s most celebrated pop diva, Britney Spears.”You strange creatures,” Barrows declares, “You are nothing more to Me than a meal at the fast-food restaurant of life.” But who will end up being devoured?
 

NOT AT QUIMBYS!!!! But we’re selling books there.
Thursday, October 19th, 6:30PMThe Best American Comics Book Release Partyslideshow / booksigning / panel / partyAt the Hideout with Editors Harvey Pekar and Anne E. Moore!Plus local Chicago contributors Ivan Brunetti, Anders Nilsen and Lilli Carre!The Hideout is located at 1354 W Wabansia, Chicago IL 60622.For more info: www.hideoutchicago.com

Perpetual Motion Roadshow #37 FeaturingElliot Harmon, Ocho, and Dave Fried at Quimby?s!Saturday, October 14th, 7:00 PMFREE
 
Perpetual Motion Roadshow #37 featuring: recovering slam poet ELLIOT HARMON from San Francisco! irreverent guitarist OCHO from Minnesota! zine-making punk DAVE FRIED from Chicago!
 
Elliot Harmon is a poet and, more sporadically, an actor, a Musician, a playwright, a teacher, a graduate student, and a director. He grew up in South Dakota and developed national recognition through the Omaha poetry-slam scene. Since then, he’s been featured at numerous readings and slams across the Western U.S. His allusions to Brecht and Chekhov (not to mention his San Francisco street address) do little to hide his true country-boy poetic sensibilities. His backpack includes several copies of his two chapbooks, Luke, Don’t Settle! and Summer of the Pterodactyl, and his CD, But You Don’t Understand. harmon.idiolexicon.com
 
Ocho has been performing original songs for almost ten years. His songs reflect a mind that’s upbeat, thoughtful, irreverent, frustrated, and inspired. They give the listener something to laugh at, like the futility of survival in the modern world, and the lack of answers to important life questions: “What’s our ultimate purpose?” and “How can I make money without really DOING anything?” At 16, he unwittingly started a punk-rock scene in a rural South Dakota town that still thrives. He recently received his Master’s degree in counseling psychology. His latest CD, “GoriillaBuddha,” explores the stupidity and healing power of that science. www.myspace.com/ocho
 
Dave Fried has lived in Chicago, Illinois for the past nine years. His favorite things in life include (in some order of importance): eating tacos, riding bikes, d-beat punk, and bowling. He’ll most likely want to try the regional food in your area. He made his first zine in 1994 after reading about Riot Grrrl, making the connection between punk and zines. He writes the queerpunk perzine Black Carrot and helps fill the void with Grilled Tuna Tape distro. If you ever want to get his blood moving, put on some Finnish Hardcore, offer a coffee and take him bowling.

John Gall author of Sayonara Home Run!Saturday, October 7th, 7:00 PM
Author of Sayonara Home Run! The art of the Japanese Baseball Card John Gall, is the art director for Vintage/Anchor Books. His award-winning designs have been recognized by the AIGA, Art Directors Club, Print, Graphis, and ID Magazine, and are featured in several design surveys. His writing, on topics ranging from the history of Grove Press to contemporary skateboard graphics, has appeared in Print and Critique.
 
Sayonara Home Run! introduces curious fans to Japan\’s national pastime through the lens of the country\’s playfully beautiful baseball cards. A fascinating text traces the roots and cross-cultural history of the Japanese game, while hundreds of illustrations showcase gorgeous vintage cards. Woven throughout are profiles of key Japanese players, features on important U.S. team tours of Japan (with Japanese cards of players such as Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio), and insights into the social history of the cards. Including primers on Japanese player nicknames and baseball terms, and the fine points of the Japanese game, Sayonara Home Run! is a must-have for anyone interested in baseball, Japan, or this unique chapter in popular design.
 
This will be a book signing with free vintage, totally authentic, Japanese baseball card giveaway. Snacks and refreshments will be provided too.

A plain old reading with Brian Costello, David Frank and Jonathan MessingerTuesday, October 4th, 7:00 PM
 
Brian Costello is the author of the novel “The Enchanters vs. Sprawlburg Springs.” His writing has been featured in the Chicago Reader, New City, the2ndhand, Bridge Magazine, and other publications. He is the host of America’s First and Only Live Talk Show: “The Brian Costello Show with Brian Costello.” He is an adjunct professor in the Fiction Writing Department of Columbia College Chicago.
 
After getting clean off heroin almost two years ago, David Frank has used his experiences as a neurotic junky as the focus of the zine “Rocks and Blows.” David graduated from DePaul with a BA in Sociology, and has been published in the “Journal of Ordinary Thought” & “the2ndhand.” He is currently working on his first novel.
 
Jonathan Messinger is the books editor of Time Out Chicago. He is also the founder and co-host of The Dollar Store Show, a literary and comedy series featuring performers inspired by junk purchased from a dollar store. He is co-publisher of Featherproof Books, a Chicago-based small press publishing full-length fiction and downloadable mini-books. His fiction has appeared in numerous local and national literary magazines,
most recently in Resonance, Rainbow Curve and Awake!, a forthcoming anthology from Soft Skull Press.

Van Gogh?s Ear presents an evening of PoetrySaturday, September 23rd, 6:00 PM
 
This is a poetry reading by four contributors to Van Gogh\’s Ear, an international literary journal based in Paris (www.frenchcx.com/press) and released annually. The four poets reading will be: Marc Smith, Robin Metz, Larry Sawyer and Lina Vitkausas.
 
MARC SMITH (www.slampapi.com), single handedly reignited performance poetry as a popular art form by bringing to the poetry community a new style of presentation that has given birth to a literary movement known as Poetry Slam. Evolving as a poet, Smith found a home in 1987 at the Green Mill Tavern for his own unique style of performance poetry, and Poetry Slam was born. Since then performance poetry has spread throughout the country to more than 150 American cities and each year teams compete in the National Poetry Slam.
 
ROBIN METZ has published poetry and fiction in The Paris Review, International Poetry Review, Visions International, Epoch, Other Voices, Rosebud, Abiko Quarterly, New Welsh Review, The Wolf and numerous other US and international journals. His book Unbidden Angel was awarded the Rainer Maria Rilke International Poetry Prize and selected as one of one of twenty-five recommended books for the Clinton White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Health.
 
LARRY SAWYER has escaped from the display case. His bathtub overflows with gardenias and his poetry and critical reviews have been published in Jacket, Exquisite Corpse, Shampoo, The Prague Literary Review, NY Arts, Skanky Possum, Big Bridge, Tabacaria, and elsewhere. In his spare time he is the editor of the online literary magazine, milk (www.milkmag.org).
 
LINA RAMONA VITKAUSKAS is a Lithuanian-American poet and short fiction writer with an M.A. in Creative Writing from Wright State University. She is the co-editor of the online literary magazine, milk (www.milkmag.org), with editor, poet, and critic Larry Sawyer. Vitkauskas? work has appeared in numerous publications, including: The Prague Literary Review; The Chicago Review; Yalla; Bridges; and In Posse Review Multi-Ethnic Anthology. Her most recent chapbook is Shooting Dead Films with Poets. She lives in Chicago, Illinois.

Amy Guth author ofThree Fallen WomenThursday, September 21st, 8:00 PMFREE
 
Amy Guth will be reading from THREE FALLEN WOMEN (published by So New Media).
 
Guth’s violent and shimmering debut novel is the story of three women caught in the vortex of breaking down. For Helen,a painter reawakening after a long period of self-destruction, peace is the choice between the love of her life and her new-found freedom. For Carmen, addiction will define the final throes of her broken heart. And for Frieda, the perfect housewife, catharsis is defined by sex and murder.
 
THREE FALLEN WOMEN unapologetically weaves graphic adventure with heartbreak and sweetness to fashion a new brand of fiction. Equal parts feminist battle cry, anti-love story, and twisted metamorphosis, this is a novel that refuses conventional storytelling and lands a hard suckerpunch in the gut of the patriarchy.
 
Amy G?th has written about sex, racism, hate crimes, art, blaxploitation and cult films for The Believer, Monkeybicycle, and Four Magazine, among others. She currently writes a monthly socio-feminist column called ?Elethromaniac? for OutCry Magazine. You can read her sarcastic rantings and vague questions to nobody in particular on her blog: www.bigmouthindeedstrikesagain.blogspot.com.
 
She has garnered a solid reputation in indie-lit circles as a consistently dynamic and entertaining live performer. Her readings are nothing short of performance art spectacles, including audience participation, props, and a punk rock energy that always attracts a large and enthusiastic crowd.
 
More details can be found at www.guthagogo.com.