Event

Calisthenics for Shrapnel

Co-Curators Mart McConnell and Robbie Q. Telfer create an opportunity for artists and audiences to Ã¢work-outÃ¢ the ammunitions and the fall out of our individual and social investment in the division of race (Colors), class (Collars) and gender (Pants) by reconnecting poetry and theatre. Telfer recently won a 2009 Orgie Award (the anonymously given theatre awards Ã¢to encourage, original, risky, innovative, thrilling, inspiring, and possibly outlandish work in Chicago theatreÃ¢) Each weekend, a poet esteemed for work in print, another for work in performance, a youth poet, and an all-ages slam bring the intensity, communal, high energy, and highly competitive world of the rapidly evolving poetry slam to Links Hall in rapid fire world duels that break through each individual audience memberÃ¢s separate peace.
Flight: Variety, a sampling of performance celebrating and exploring aspects of gender and sexuality.

In wine tasting, a "flight" is an array of variations for the purpose of sampling and comparison. In our festival's Talent Flight, performers will line up to form a "tasting night" of exciting performance exploring the topics at hand.

Headlined by Dorothy Allison, award-winning author of Bastard Out of Carolina and poet.

Hosted by Avery R. Young

featuring:

burlesque by Girlie-Q, Chicago's longest-running burlesque and variety troupe
comedy by the hilarious Brendan McGowan

Marty McConnell with band John Condron and the Benefit: poetry and music
spoken word by poet/storyteller Jeanne Theresa Newman

performance by drag king superstar poet K. Bradford