NEIU English Department Benefit

I'm pleased to announce that among a few special end-of-the-year events, I will be participating in a benefit performance for Northeastern Illinois University's English Department. The way swanky poster, below, has all the applicable details.

That's Friday, December 7th at 9 PM. Hope to see you there!

AWP reading-o-rama!

The AWP conference officially gets underway tomorrow. There will be much rubbing-of-writerly-elbows, hobbing-of-nobs, and eyeballing of purty printed products at the conference itself. In addition, I will be participating is three off-site events:

9 PM Wednesday, February 29th at The Hungry Brain, as part of Salmon Poetry's mega-reading

9 PM Thursday, March 1st at the world-famous Billy Goat Tavern, as part of Heavy Feather Review's "Everything Will Be OK" event

and last, but not least,

7 PM Friday, March 2nd at The Horseshoe for "This Page Intentionally Left Blank," followed by music from The Injured Parties, Khalid Hanifi, and Decoy Prayer Meeting.

Hope to see you at one (or all!) of these to-do's.

Injured Parties residency continues

The Injured Parties are back at The Horseshoe for our residency March 5th. Here's the poster:

Hope to see you there!

Folk You! 9th Anniversary

As some of you may know, I've been hosting a singer-songwriter round robin (guitar pull, showcase, or whatever) since December 2001 called Folk You! We've been in residence at a few places in the city, such as Beat Kitchen and The Hideout, but for the past three-plus years we've been happily ensconced at The Horseshoe. (Thank you, 'shoe!)

I've made efforts to more aggressively promote Folk You! over the years, but more or less we get along just swell on word-of-mouth from both guests and audience members. Still, even considering my reading engagements and band shows, Folk You! in many ways remains my most constant pleasure, whether performing to an intimate handful of attendees or a boisterous throng. As befitting my character, I've tried to make the experience low-key and loose, and while it gives me a chance to try out new material, or fumble through unearthed chestnuts from my troubadourial vault (cheat sheet required), my favorite part of each show is inevitably when I can lean back in my chair and watch the other performers. It's quite a vantage point, and enviably the best seat in the house.

So while our milestone-y 10th anniversary is still a year off, big, big thanks to Mike Felten and Chicago City Buzz for this post from yesterday -- and hope you can make it to this month's edition of Folk You!, November 19th at The Horseshoe.