The Printers’ Ball is a celebration of print literature in Chicago that brings together hundreds of wonderful independent publishers for a night of recognition and exhibition.
Come join the celebration with a diverse selection of magazines, journals, posters, and more all available for free, as well as a night of live entertainment. Hosted by Newcity, Poetry, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, in collaboration with ALARM Magazine, the night promises to be memorable one. Hope to see you there!
4th Annual Printer’s Ball
Friday, August 22, 2008
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
220 East Chicago Avenue
21+ only, Free admission
MUSIC BY
Pure Magical Love and Stagecoach (members from Mahjongg) presented by Proximity Magazine.
DJs Logan Bay, Dustin Drase, and Greg Gaffud presented by CHIRP, Lumpen, and Venus Zine
EVENTS AT THE PRINTERS’ BALL
6:00-7:00, MCA Theatre
Killing Him: A Radio Play by Yehuda Amichai, presented by Poetry
Translated by Adam Seelig and Hadar Makov-Hasson, featuring Kelly Breheny, Tom Galassi, and Lawrence Grimm; directed by Adam Seelig; sound design by Richard Windeyer; audio production by Ed Hermann at Experimental Sound Studio; casting and executive production by Valerie Jean Johnson
Yehuda Amichai (1924–2000) is considered by many to be the greatest modern Israeli poet, and was one of the first to write in colloquial Hebrew. His work has been translated into more than fifty languages.
7:00-9:00, MCA Theatre
Dollar Store Reading
Usama Alshaibi, Quraysh Ali Lansana, Jonathan Messinger, Julie Shapiro
The famed Dollar Store returns for the night of the Printers’ Ball! Participants receive items purchased at a local dollar store and spin whatever piece of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or audio or video work they want, using it as concretely or obliquely as they wish.
Usama Alshaibi was born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1969 and spent his formative years living between the United States and the Middle East. His work in film and video has been screened at numerous film festivals and venues across the globe and is featured on various International DVD compilations. He has also produced and directed music videos for a variety of recording artists, including Bobby Conn, Magic is Küntmaster, Panicsville and Mahjongg. Usama was the founder and Director of the notorious Chicago-based Z Film Festival from 2000 to 2005.
Quraysh Ali Lansana is the author of the poetry collections They Shall Run—Harriet Tubman Poems, southside rain, and cockroach children: corner poems and street psalms; a children’s book, The Big Word; a poetry video collaboration, Passage, with Kurt Heintz, which won the first ever Image Union/Bob Award from WTTW-TV (PBS); and several anthologies. He is director of the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing, an assistant professor of English and creative writing at Chicago State University, poetry editorial review board director for Third World Press, associate editor of poetry for Black Issues Book Review, and serves on the editorial board of Tia Chucha Press.
Jonathan Messinger is an author, editor and performer. His first book, Hiding Out, was published in 2007. Booklist called it a “fresh, spot-on debut,” and the Omaha World-Herald named it one of the best books of 2007. He’s the book review editor for the weekly arts and entertainment magazine Time Out Chicago and co-publisher of Featherproof Books, a small press in Chicago publishing works of full-length fiction and short stories as their own, lovingly designed mini-books.
Julie Shapiro is the Managing Director of Third Coast International Audio Festival. As managing director, Julie works at the helm of the Third Coast International Audio Festival, a project by Chicago Public Radio that supports producers and other artists creating audio documentary of all styles.
PLUS
Screen-printing demonstration by Mat Daly (7:00-9:00, MCA Classrooms)
The Librarians’ Boudoir, a viewing library of limited run publications
Gnoetry poetry machine
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About the MCA
The mission of the MCA is to be an innovative and compelling center of contemporary art where the public can directly experience the work and ideas of living artists, and understand the historical, social, and cultural context of the art of our time.
About Poetry
Founded in Chicago by Harriet Monroe in 1912, Poetry is the oldest monthly devoted to verse in the English-speaking world. Harriet Monroe’s “Open Door” policy, set forth in volume 1 of the magazine, remains the most succinct statement of Poetry‘s mission: to print the best poetry written today, in whatever style, genre, or approach. The magazine established its reputation early by publishing the first important poems of T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, H.D., William Carlos Williams, Carl Sandburg, and other now-classic authors. In succeeding decades it has presented—often for the first time—works by virtually every significant poet of the twentieth century.
Participating Publishers:
ACM (Another Chicago Magazine) · After Hours Press · ALARM Magazine · Anti Gravity Surprise · AREA Chicago · Publications Department of the Art Institute of Chicago · Bailliwik · Beard of Bees Press · Black Lodge Press · Black Swan Press · Bleached Whale Design · Busy Beaver Button Company · Canarium Books · Charles H. Kerr Company · Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs’ Literary Arts and Events · The Chicago Independent Radio Project (CHIRP) · Chicago Innerview · Chicago Quarterly Review · Chicago Reader · Chicago Review · Chicago Underground Library · Chicagoland Tails · ChicagoPoetry.com Press · Columbia Poetry Review · contratiempo · Court Green · Cracked Slab Books · Dalkey Archive Press · Mat Daly · Delicious Design League · Dexterity Press · The Dollar Store · featherproof books · Flood Editions · Free Lunch · Fresh Squeezed Poetry · Front Forty Press · ghost factory magazine · Gnoetry · Golden Age · The Green Lantern · The Guild Complex · The Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing at Chicago State University · Haymarket Books · Highest Hurdle Press · Hotel Amerika · Hourglass Books · International Socialist Review · JAB (The Journal of Artists’ Books) · JOT (Journal of Ordinary Thought) · The Journal · Kenning Editions · Lake Claremont Press · Literago · Little Bang · Love, Chicago · Lumpen · LVNG · MAKE: A Chicago Literary Magazine · Mildred Pierce Zine · Milk Magazine · MoonLit · Mule Magazine · Museum of Contemporary Art · Neighborhood Writing Alliance · Newcity · Ninth Letter · Northwestern’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Journal · Northwestern University M.A. and M.F.A. in Creative Writing Program · Other Voices, Inc. · THE PLATYPUS REVIEW · Please Don’t · Poetry · The Poetry Center of Chicago · The Poetry Foundation · Polyphony HS · Proximity Magazine · The Puddin’head Press · Quimby’s Bookstore · Ragamuffin Press · Red Rover Series · Residents’ Journal · Rhino/The Poetry Forum · Roctober Magazine · Rose Metal Press · Rubba Ducky · Sara Ranchouse Publishing · Screwball Press · Select · SevenTen Bishop · Shimer College, The Great Books College of Chicago · The Skeleton News · Small Happy · The Small Science Collective · Socialist Worker Newspaper · STITCH Magazine · STOP SMILING · Switchback Books · terry plumming · THE2NDHAND · Third World Press · Time Out Chicago · TriQuarterly · Twilight Tales · University of Chicago Library · UNSCENE · Venus Zine · VERBATIM · Virtual Artists Collective · La Voz del Paseo Boricua · Wednesday Journal, Inc./Chicago Journal · What to Wear During an Orange Alert/Orange Alert Press · Windy City Story Slam · We The People Media · Windy City Media Group, Windy City Times · Writer’s Studio · The Writers WorkSpace · Wurlington Press · You Are Beautiful