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 CPC Poets in Residence Joy Young and Timothy David Rey.
This summer, join us on Monday nights at 6 p.m. to hear featured poets share their work in this partnership between Chicago Poetry Center and The Green at 320 S. Canal (aka The Green at 320). After every reading, stick around for the open mic to share your own poems, stories, songs, and more!
We’ll be at The Green every Monday starting in June through the end of September. Check this webpage or our Instagram for weekly updates on featured readers.
CPC believes poetry should be enjoyed by all. If you’d like to request an ASL interpreter at Poetry @ the Green, please email timothy@poetrycenter.org two weeks before the event date.
SUMMER 2025 FEATURED PERFORMERS:
June 2nd, Kandice Head: Kandice Head is a poet, spoken word artist, essayist, and storyteller from Chicago whose work explores identity, liberation, and legacy. She is the author of A Black Girl’s Symphony in Poetry & Prose, a self-published collection released at age 26. Written with young Black readers in mind, the book celebrates wholeness and self-actualization. Since its 2020 release, it has sold over 200 copies, appeared in five bookstores, and was featured in NBCLX’s 2021 Black History Month series, as well as the 2023 Chicago Black Women’s Expo’s Literary Café. Kandice has also facilitated workshops with middle school students, helping them connect the collection’s themes to their own stories and voices. Kandice currently works full time as Director of Marketing and Communications at Chicago Foundation for Women and sits on the board of the Chicago Poetry Center, where she supports anti-racism initiatives and communications work. As a small business owner, she offers book coaching and narrative consulting for writers, poets, and aspiring authors, helping others shape their stories with clarity and resonance. She holds a Bachelor of Journalism in Strategic Communication from the University of Missouri. Whether building bold brands, writing toward freedom, or creating space for others to share their truth, Kandice believes in storytelling as a tool for transformation. In her downtime, she finds joy in world travel, revisiting the magic of Harry Potter, and keeping Cowboy Carter on repeat. You can find her work at kandicewrites.com
June 9th, Cai Sherley: Cai Sherley (he/him) is a Black trans poet-educator with roots in Boston, MA. Cai is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, with work published in Best New Poets 2022, swamp pink, Peach Mag, and My Loves: A Digital Anthology of Queer Love Poems from Ghost City Press. His poetry focuses on excavating Black trans masculine histories, and has been supported by The Watering Hole, Brooklyn Poets, Tin House, and the LAMBDA Emerging Writers Retreat. He now serves as a Poet in Residence at the Chicago Poetry Center. @crsed_poet everywhere.
June 16th, Myron Stokes: His work appears in RHINO, Margie, Encore, and the Ellen LaForge Poetry Journal. He won the 2023 Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic competition and the 2012 Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Winning Writers Poetry Competition. He’s a member of the Illinois State Poetry Society and Poets and Patrons.
June 23rd, Alyx Chandler: Alyx Chandler (she/her) is a poet from the South who received her MFA in poetry at the University of Montana, where she was a Richard Hugo Fellow and taught composition and poetry. She is a Poet in Residence at Chicago Poetry Center, facilitates workshops for incarcerated youth with Free Verse Writing Project, and teaches at National Louis University. Her poetry can be found in the Southern Poetry Anthology, EPOCH, Greensboro Review, and elsewhere at alyxchandler.com.
June 30th, Robin Reid: Robin Reid Drake (they/she) is an interdisciplinary poet, horror writer and educator from Greensboro, NC. Their writing has been published in journals & anthologies including Foglifter, DREGINALD, and Poetry Magazine. Drake is currently a Program Manager with 826CHI and teaches in the Early College Program at SAIC, where they earned their MFA. Their poetry embodies familiar tropes of horror cinema and fiction to reckon with an inheritance of American monstrosity.
July 14th, Barrie Cole: Barrie Cole has written more than 15 plays, numerous monologues, essays, and hybrid works. In 2024, after a critically acclaimed festival of five of her plays was produced by two theater companies, she decided it was time to focus primarily on poetry which has always been her most cherished art form. Her 1st book of poems, “Lacquer is a Thrilling Word” will be published in the Spring of 2026 by Finishing Line Press.
July 23rd, Virginia Bell: Bell’s latest poetry collection is Lifting Child from the Ground, Turning Around (Glass Lyre Press 2025). She is Co-Editor of the forthcoming anthology The Overturning (Erratics Books, an imprint of Hypertext, 2025), and Co-Editor of RHINO Poetry. Bell’s previous work includes From the Belly (Sibling Rivalry Press 2012), NELLE Magazine’s Nonfiction Prize in 2020 for the personal essay, “Chicken,” and Honorable Mention in the 2019 RiverSedge Poetry Prize, judged by José Antonio Rodríguez. Her work has appeared in Mid-Atlantic Review, New City Magazine, Five Points, Denver Quarterly, SWWIM, EAP: The Magazine, Hypertext, The Night Heron Barks, Kettle Blue Review, Fifth Wednesday Journal, Rogue Agent, Gargoyle, Cider Press Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, Poet Lore, The Nervous Breakdown, The Keats Letters Project, Blue Fifth Review, Voltage Poetry, and other journals and anthologies. Bell has a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and teaches at Loyola University Chicago and DePaul University.
July 28th, Sam Herschel Wein: Sam Herschel Wein (he/they) is a lollygagging plum of a poet who specializes in perpetual frolicking. They have an MFA from the University of Tennessee and were the recipient of a 2022 Pushcart Prize. Their third chapbook, Butt Stuff Flower Bush, is out now with Porkbelly Press. He co-founded and edits Underblong Journal. They have recent work in Poetry Northwest, The Los Angeles Review, and Puerto del Sol, among others.
August 4th, Zachary Cahill: Zachary Cahill is an artist who lives in Chicago. He has published two books of poetry, Unicorn Death Moon Day Planner (2023) and Unicorn Death Moon Paris Guide Book (2024); a novel, The Black Flame of Paradise (2018); and a graphic novel, Unicorn Death Road Trip Buddy Movie (2021).
August 11th, Stuti Sharma: Stuti Sharma is a poet and stand up comic. They were an inaugural 23-24 Tin House Reading fellow & resident in Portland, have work in the Undocupoets’ Here to Stay by Harper Perennial, and a chapbook titled Syrup (2021). They also run a comedy show with only working class comedians called Blue Collar Comedy. She is a line cook in Chicago. Stuti got her MFA from the public library but is going back to finish her bachelor’s degree and get some letters so y’all can’t tell her NOTHINNN
**CANCELED DUE TO WEATHER** August 18th, Nat Martinez-White: Nat Martinez-White (they/she/he) is a lesbian poet/artist/theatermaker/person from Grand Rapids, MI. Some of their work can be found in Polygon, Current Affairs, and strewn across various unfinished notebooks. Nat is also a former Art Wire Fellow, and New South Young Playwright. Their work explores lesbian identity, ecology, and the relationship between humans and their landscapes. He holds a BA in Environmental Anthropology and Cinema & Media Arts from Vanderbilt University.
August 25th, Noel Quinones: Noel Quiñones is an Emmy award-winning Nuyorican writer, educator, and speaker from the Bronx, represented by Campuspeak. Noel’s work has appeared in POETRY, Boston Review, Poem-a-Day, The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNEXT Anthology, High Museum of Art, and Michigan Quarterly Review, winning their 2025 Jesmyn Ward Fiction Prize. They are a graduate of the University of Mississippi M.F.A. program, the Watering Hole, and CantoMundo. Noel currently teaches writing at Odessa College and is too hype for their debut poetry collection, Orange, forthcoming with CavanKerry Press in 2026.
ABOUT THE CURATORS:
Joy Young is a Chicago-based poet and educator, who holds a BA in Fiction from Columbia College Chicago and MA in Writing and Publishing from DePaul University. Her work has appeared in the literary journals Poetry East and Lunch Ticket, as well as an collaborative art therapy project at the InnerSpace Studio of Homan Square and LOCUS: VIII Gallery Showcase at The Martin. When she’s not teaching, you can usually find her at open mics and performance arts venues.
Timothy David Rey is a writer/performer who works in poetry, plays, and monologue (both fictional and autobiographical). He teaches creative writing and performance throughout the city of Chicago and its suburbs. He is a 2015 Semi-Finalist for the Guild Literary Complex’s Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Poetry Award, and one of the winners of Project Exploration (The Poetry Center of Chicago 2004). He is the co-founder of the LBGT Solo Performance Showcase, Solo Homo (2002-2011). Timothy’s plays and performance pieces have been seen and heard at venues throughout Chicago as well as out of state and in Panama. Timothy’s writing has appeared in magazines and journals including 60 Inches From Center, and After Hours: The Chicago Journal of Writing & Art. His book of poetry and performance, Little Victories, was published in 2012 by NewTown Writers Press. Timothy has performed at Steppenwolf Theater (Lookout Series), New York City’s International Fringe Festival as well as The Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts.
ABOUT THE LOCATION:
The Green is a public park located in the West Loop and will be host to many family-friendly activities and events this summer!
The Green at 320 is located behind the building at 320 S. Canal, 1 block west of the river. The main staired entrance to the park is on the corner of Clinton and Van Buren with an ADA-accessible ramp off of Clinton. The park is located 1 block north of the Clinton Blue Line Stop. Please find more detailed transit and location information here.
CPC believes poetry should be enjoyed by all. The park is ADA compliant and features smooth, level pathways, accessible seating areas, and barrier-free entry points to ensure ease of navigation for individuals using wheelchairs, mobility devices, or strollers. ASL Interpretation and other accommodations can be provided upon request. Please send any accommodations requests or questions to timothy@poetrycenter.org
