- BY: Poetry Center
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On Wednesday June 18, join the Chicago Poetry Center for our annual summer celebration! In line with CPC’s anti-censorship roots and wrapping up our 50th anniversary year, the headlining poet for our 2025 Summer […]
- BY: Poetry Center
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Poetry @ The Green at 320 returns for summer 2025! The Chicago Poetry Center and The Green at 320 S. Canal are proud to reintroduce this free, weekly reading and open mic series co-curated […]
- 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: Poetry Center
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The Chicago Poetry Center presents BLUE HOUR, a free, public monthly in-person reading series and generative writing workshop. Each event takes place at Haymarket House (800 W. Buena) and features two readers from Chicago […]
- BY: Cai Sherley
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This past Thursday was bittersweet, as it marked the final session of Hyde Park’s 2025 poetry club. The poets were presented with a chapbook, full of their favorite poems written over the year. The […]
- BY: Teresa Dzieglewicz
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We had our final poetry party today. It was so hard to say goodbye but we had so much fun! We passed out our final poetry books that we’ve been working so hard on […]
- BY: Joy Young
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This week was the 10th and final poetry session for Twain 5th graders for the school year. Since, I know the 5th graders are fantastic artists, to celebrate our last day we explored concrete […]
- BY: Joy Young
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This week for our 10th and last day of our residency, we celebrated with color. Together we read and discussed the poem “What You Need for Painting,” by Raymond Carter, based on a letter […]
- BY: Teresa Dzieglewicz
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Today, I made a visit to Swift to work with small groups on their revisions for their final poems in our poetry books. We had a great time being able to work in a […]
- BY: Teresa Dzieglewicz
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Today we started working toward our final poetry books! We got to choose a poem that we love to continue working on. We talked together about our goals, including using shorter lines to make […]
- BY: Madison Mae Parker
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For our last session at Smyser, we broke into groups to create performance pieces based off our poems! Each poet contributed one poem to the group. Every group had to include the following in […]
- BY: Joy Young
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O-School students celebrated the last day of our residency this week. Together we ate delicious Dum Dum suckers, while each group created Ars Poetica poems, poems that describe the art of writing poetry. I […]
- BY: Madison Mae Parker
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This week at Smyser, we spent time editing and revising our poems! We talked about how with most things, you have to keep doing it to get better: soccer practice, theater rehearsals, returning to […]
- BY: Joy Young
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For their 9th week of poetry, Twain 6th graders revised and completed their past poems from our residency. Together we read the poem “The Blank Page” by Chetana Kamath. In her poem Kamath is […]
- BY: Madison Mae Parker
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For our final week at Henry Elementary, poets took to the stage and shared their work with their fellow 7th graders! Check out these photos from our last session as these brave poets snapped […]
- BY: Noel Quinones
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The first step to building empathy is putting ourselves in the experiences of another, especially if that other can’t speak. The 7th graders of Nettlehorst asked themselves what inanimate objects, animals, or fictional characters […]
- BY: Noel Quinones
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All the best poets know that a writer is not judged by their writing alone, but by their ability to rewrite. The 8th graders of Clinton reflected on the power of revision as we […]
- BY: Noel Quinones
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All the best poets know that a writer is not judged by their writing alone, but by their ability to rewrite. The 7th graders of Clinton reflected on the power of revision as we […]
- BY: Timothy David Rey
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Students made the old-school paper game called a ‘Cootie Catcher,’, which is a form of origami used in children’s games. Parts of the catcher are labeled with words that serve as options for a […]
- BY: Joy Young
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Twain 5th graders are so close to the end of our poetry residency. For week nine, students prepared to reach the finish line. Together we read the poem ” “The Finish Line,” by Laura […]
- BY: Leslie Reese
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Today, Brennemann 2nd Graders in Ms. Richter‘s class worked collaboratively to create a recipe for how to cook a poem: “How to Cook a Wonderful Poem”by the Class First: get pencils, papers, and erasersfrom […]
- BY: Leslie Reese
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On the last day of our 2nd grade poetry residency at Swift – we looked at Carl Sandburg‘s poem “Pencils,” in which I omitted a number of words and lines. Students came up with […]
- BY: Leslie Reese
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For our last session, Brennemann 5th graders talked about the different ways that “freedom” is experienced as they move from being younger to older. They talked about not having homework, chores, or responsibilities, and […]
- BY: Leslie Reese
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To bring our terrific 6-week poetry residency with 2nd graders to a close, we talked about (1) things that poetry is: “many things that inspire people;” “imaginative;” “an art;” “its own world;” “art & […]
- BY: Madison Mae Parker
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At our final week at Social Justice, we explored how to make zines and the deep and rich community that zine culture creates. We shared both digital and in-person communities around zine making from […]
- BY: Noel Quinones
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Metaphors allow us to transform ourselves, if just for a moment. The 7th graders of Nettelhorst asked themselves what they could become after we read “The Delight Song of Tsoai-talee” by N. Scott Momaday. […]
- BY: Cai Sherley
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During our most recent workshop, Hyde Park began our session by attempting to fill in a map of the United States. This sparked a discussion about what it means to be part of a […]
- BY: Noel Quinones
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We all have sounds we adore and sounds that make us cringe. The 7th graders of Nettelhorst asked themselves what these sounds were for them before we read “Sweet Like a Crow” by Michael […]
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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.”
-Oscar S.
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“Writing poetry is like your best friend.”
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