About the Reading
Each event includes a brief open mic followed by two featured poets. Pre-registration is free and recommended. The open mic includes five readers drawn lottery-style from a hat that goes out at 7:15pm. The reading starts promptly at 7:30pm. Each open mic poet reads one poem or for three minutes, whichever comes first.
About The Workshop
The Blue Hour generative writing workshop is suitable for writers and poetry fans of all levels. We will discuss a poem together, then Marty will guide the group through individual writing on an exploratory prompt that draws on themes from the poem.
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 with any other accessibility needs.
- Masks are currently strongly encouraged for all indoor events, and the space is equipped with a professional air filtration system.
A NOTE ON PARKING: Limited free and paid street parking is available near Haymarket House. The parking lot at Disney Magnet School is relatively close and is a paid lot; there are also locations nearby available through SpotHero.
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 web site 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.
Learn more about the series and history >
Featured Readers
Ellie Black is a Visiting Assistant Professor in English–Creative Writing at Hendrix College. She received both a PhD in Creative Writing (emphasis in memoir/autotheory) and an MFA in poetry from the University of Mississippi. A 2026 Gregory Djanikian Scholar and a finalist for the 2025 Disquiet Prize in Poetry, her work has been published in or is forthcoming from Bennington Review, The Adroit Journal, Sixth Finch, The Common, Washington Square Review, The Drift, and elsewhere. Her debut collection, REVELATOR, received the 2026 APR/Honickman First Book Prize.
Nick Martino is the author of Scrap Book (Alice James Books, 2026), winner of the 2024 Alice James Editors’ Choice Award. His poems are published or forthcoming from Ploughshares, The Kenyon Review, Best New Poets, Gulf Coast, Poetry Daily, and The Southern Review, among others. He has received support and fellowships from Sewanee Writers Conference, The Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, and Community of Writers. A finalist for the 2024 Sewanee Review Poetry Prize, he holds an MFA from the University of California, Irvine where he received the Excellence in Poetry Prize. He lives in LA.