Here's our lineup this month:
John Arends is an award-winning poet, author, playwright and screenwriter. He studied journalism and creative writing at Iowa State University and witnessed the early days of the spoken word movement at Marc Smith’s poetry slams at the Green Mill. He won a poetry slam back in the day at Fitzgerald’s, but still had to pay for his beer. He’s written screen-plays as diverse as TRICE, story of the only African-American to have a college football stadium named in his honor, and SOLOMON’S WHALE, a modern-day reimagining of Moby Dick. John runs a small ad agency in the Challenge windmill factory in Batavia. Tonight, he will be reading from his first collection of poetry, SINEW – Muscle Poems and Mantras, Bar Rants and Bliss. Free samples are available tonight as a thank you for supporting these great events!
John Drake is a part time writer and musician and full time financial advisor and father. He has a degree in Creative Writing from Knox College and an MBA from the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management. He lives in Naperville and is a founding member of the The Risky Rooster Band. John's writings have appeared practically nowhere, and are recognized by practically no one, but that doesn't seem to faze him in the slightest.
Adam Gottlieb is a poet/emcee, teaching-artist, musician, and activist from Chicago. He got into spoken word through the Louder Than A Bomb teen poetry festival, and was featured in the Siskel and Jacobs LTAB documentary. It is his mission to use spoken word as a tool for self-expression, community building, youth empowerment, and social justice via Young Chicago Authors (YCA), Teen Writers & Artists Project (TWAA), and Global Citizenship Experience H.S. He recently graduated from Hampshire College, where he studied poetry and critical pedagogy, a revolutionary philosophy of education based on learning through dialogue. He’s also in the hip hop group The EyeDealists. Visit his website at www.PeopleArePoets.blogspot.com.
Donna Pucciani is the author of four books of poetry. Her work has been published in the US, Europe, Australia and China, and has been translated into Italian, Japanese, and Chinese. She has won awards from the Illinois Arts Council and the National Federation of State Poetry Societies, among others, and has been nominated four times for the Pushcart Prize. A resident of Wheaton, she currently serves as Vice President of the Poets' Club of Chicago.
Anne Veague runs Waterline Writers, teaches The White Page fiction class at Water Street Studios, and is working on a collection of short stories. While at Knox, she majored in Psychology and won the ACM Nick Adams Short Story Prize. She is excited about the addition of Adam Gottlieb's Wordplay at Water Street featuring writing workshops, Open Mics & spoken word performances for teens and young adults on the 4th Friday of each month, beginning May 24, 2013.
Donna Pucciani is the author of four books of poetry. Her work has been published in the US, Europe, Australia and China, and has been translated into Italian, Japanese, and Chinese. She has won awards from the Illinois Arts Council and the National Federation of State Poetry Societies, among others, and has been nominated four times for the Pushcart Prize. A resident of Wheaton, she currently serves as Vice President of the Poets' Club of Chicago.
Anne Veague runs Waterline Writers, teaches The White Page fiction class at Water Street Studios, and is working on a collection of short stories. While at Knox, she majored in Psychology and won the ACM Nick Adams Short Story Prize. She is excited about the addition of Adam Gottlieb's Wordplay at Water Street featuring writing workshops, Open Mics & spoken word performances for teens and young adults on the 4th Friday of each month, beginning May 24, 2013.
