~ POETRY by Jane Wong and a showcase of CPC Poets in Residence including Alyx Chandler, Ola Faleti, Luz Magdaleno Flores, Lisa Low, Maya Odim, C. Russell Price, Luis Tubens, and Christie Valentin-Bati
~ TUNES by DJ Ryan, the Person
~ CHILLING with community — drinks, light snacks, indoor/outdoor gathering
Accessibility notes: Haymarket House is ADA compliant and wheelchair accessible. Performances will include ASL interpretation. Email marty@poetrycenter.org with any accessibility questions or concerns.
This event is generously co-sponsored by Kundiman Midwest
Featured Readers
Jane Wong is the author of the debut memoir, Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City, out now from Tin House (2023). She is also the author of two books of poetry: How to Not Be Afraid of Everything from Alice James (2021) and Overpour from Action Books (2016).
She holds an M.F.A. in Poetry from the University of Iowa and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Washington and is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Western Washington University. Her poems can be found in places such as Best American Nonrequired Reading 2019, Best American Poetry 2015, The New York Times, American Poetry Review, POETRY, The Kenyon Review, New England Review, and others. Her essays have appeared in places such as McSweeney’s, Black Warrior Review, Ecotone, The Common, The Georgia Review, Shenandoah, and Want: Women Writing About Desire (Catapult).
Alyx Chandler (she/her) is a writer from the South who received her MFA in poetry at the University of Montana, where she was a Richard Hugo Fellow and taught poetry. In 2025, she won the Three Sisters Award in Poetry with Nelle Literary Journal, received a Creative Catalyst grant from the Illinois Arts Council, and attended residencies at Ragdale and Taleamor Park. She works as a poet-in-residence for the Chicago Poetry Center, as well as a remote workshop facilitator for Free Verse Writing Project, which hosts workshops for Montana children who are incarcerated or in youth homes. Her poetry can be found in the Southern Poetry Anthology, North American Review, EPOCH, Greensboro Review, SWWIM, and elsewhere at alyxchandler.com.
Ola Faleti is an artist and arts educator raised & based in Chicago. Her writing has appeared in Pearl Press, TriQuarterly, The Chicago Reader, Interim, Jet Fuel Review, and elsewhere. The curriculum for Ola’s workshop with 826CHI, “Poets in Revolt!” was distributed nationally and birthed an anthology of youth writing. Her favorite number is nine, and she believes there’s no such thing as too many flowers. Keep up with her at www.olafaleti.com.
Lisa Low‘s poems appear or are forthcoming in Copper Nickel, Ecotone, The Massachusetts Review, Poetry, The Southern Review, and elsewhere, and her nonfiction won the 2020 Gulf Coast Nonfiction Prize. She graduated from Indiana University’s MFA program and is currently a PhD student at the University of Cincinnati and associate editor at The Cincinnati Review. Her debut chapbook, Crown for the Girl Inside, won the 2020 Vinyl 45 Chapbook Contest and is forthcoming from YesYes Books. social media – @lisalowsays
C. Russell Price is the author of oh, you thought this was a date?!: Apocalypse Poems, Tonight, We Fuck the Trailer Park Out of Each Other and the forthcoming collection Bisquick: An American Seance out August 2026 from Northwestern University Press. They are a Poet in Residence at the Chicago Poetry Center and work with the Anarchist Review of Books. They are a Lambda Fellow, Ragdale Fellow, and two-time Lit 50 honoree. Price landscapes in Chicago.
Luis Tubens, a.k.a “Logan Lu”, was born in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood and raised in Logan Square. In 2014, he earned a B.A. in Communications, media and theater from Northeastern Illinois University. He is the 2017 Artists in Residence at Oak Park Public Library. Luis has performed poetry across the United States including with the GUILD COMPLEX, Tia Chucha Press, and the National Museum of Mexican Art. He has toured Mexico City in 2016 and 2018 presenting his work at the acclaimed “Show Socrates MX” (2016) and the National Book Fair of Leon GTO (2018) and featured in Puerto Rico at “Poets Passage” and “Gathering of Cities” at Libros AC (2019). He has also held workshops for the residents of the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center and students in the Chicago Public Schools. On stage, he has opened for notable acts including Saul Williams and Calle 13. He is the author of Stone Eagle (2017) published by Bobbin Lace Press, Chicago. Currently, Luis is the resident poet for ESSO Afrojam Funkbeat (2016 Best New Band and Best International Music Act, Chicago Reader) and represented Chicago in the 2014 and 2018 National Poetry Slam.

