FEATURED EVENT

American Perspectives: Edward Hirsch
"American Views: How to Read Poetry and Encounter Art"
As part of American Perspectives Opening Day, poet and critic Edward Hirsch discusses some of the ways poetry and visual arts influenced and illuminated one another in the 20th century. He will "study" with the audience, several selected poems, drawing connections to works on view in the museum galleries.

American Perspectives is a yearlong alliance among the Art Institute of Chicago, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the Poetry Foundation designed to explore how artists, composers and writers influenced one another to an unprecedented degree in 19th and 20th century America.

Saturday, September 15, 11:00 AM.

FEATURED POEMS A Short Lexicon of Torture in the Eighties Fast Break Incandescence at Dusk

American Perspectives: Edward Hirsch "American Views: How to Read Poetry and Encounter Art" The Art Institute of Chicago 111 South Michigan Avenue Free admission. As part of American Perspectives Opening Day, poet and critic Edward Hirsch discusses some of the ways poetry and visual arts influenced and illuminated one another in the 20th century. He will "study" with the audience, several selected poems, drawing connections to works on view in the museum galleries.

FEATURED POEMS To Go to Lvov by Adam Zagajewski Old People's Holiday by Mary Kinzie Confession by Reginald Gibbons

Poetry Off the Shelf: Reginald Gibbons, Mary Kinzie, and Adam Zagajewski Three eminent poets read and discuss their work. Hotel Allegro 171 West Randolph Street Admission is free, but reservations are required. Call (617) 358-1990 by October 9th. Presented by The Association of Literary Scholars and Critics.

FEATURED POEMS Actaeon Another Lullaby for Insomniacs Arrowhead Hunting

Poetry Off the Shelf: A.E. Stallings Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center 801 W Adams Street Suite 400 Free admission. Call (312) 655-1234 for reservations. At her young age, A.E. Stallings has already proven to be a prominent voice of next-generation New Formalist poets. A classics scholar, Stallings's first collection, Archaic Smile, won the Richard Wilbur Award, and her second, Hapax, was published by Northwestern/TriQuarterly in 2006. She recently completed a verse translation of Lucretius' De Rerum Natura for Penguin Classics. Stallings currently lives in Athens, Greece with her husband and son. Co-sponsored with the Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center.

American Perspectives: Helen Vendler "Wallace Stevens: The Poet as Painter" Fullerton Hall Art Institute of Chicago Free admission. Literary icon Helen Vendler draws on her two books about poet Wallace Stevens as source references as she focuses on the contemporary work of Jasper Johns. A gallery walk is suggested following her presentation. A book signing follows the event. An American Perspectives program

American Perspectives: A Cave Canem Reading Featuring Frank Walker, Quraysh Ali Lansana, Parneshia Jones, and Kelly Norman Ellis Fullerton Hall Art Institute of Chicago Free admission. Co-sponsored with the Gwendolyn Brooks Center.

FEATURED POEMS Afterthought Losing the Game Space Shuttle

Poetry Off the Shelf: Diane Ackerman First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple 77 West Washington Street $5. Tickets go on sale Monday, September 24, and are available through the Chicago Humanities Festival ticket office at (312) 494-9509 or www.chfestival.org. The celebrated poet (most recently I Praise My Destroyer) and nonfiction author (the bestselling A Natural History of the Senses) reads from a selection of her poems and also from her new narrative The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story. The book chronicles a true story of WWII, in which Christian zookeepers at the Warsaw Zoo saved 300 Jews by capitalizing on the Nazi obsession with the environment, eugenics, and pureblood animals. Presented as part of the Chicago Humanities Festival: The Climate of Concern.

FEATURED POEMS Far Company For the Anniversary of My Death Native Trees

Poetry Off the Shelf: W.S. Merwin "A Poetic Nature" St. James Cathedral 65 East Huron Street $5. Tickets go on sale Monday, September 24, and are available through the Chicago Humanities Festival ticket office at (312) 494-9509 or www.chfestival.org. One of the most influential and acclaimed writers of his generation, W.S Merwin reads from his work and discusses the artist's duty to engage in environmental activism. Merwin, who cultivates rare plants near his home in a Hawaiian sanctuary, is the author of dozens of books of poetry, including Migration: Selected Poems 1951-2001, winner of the 2005 National Book Award. Presented as part of the Chicago Humanities Festival: The Climate of Concern.

Poetry Off the Shelf: Writing Nature Panel First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple 77 West Washington Street $5. Tickets go on sale Monday, September 24, and are available through the Chicago Humanities Festival ticket office at (312) 494-9509 or www.chfestival.org. Distinguished writers will describe how their relationship with the natural world informs their work in myriad ways. The discussion, led by book critic and author Donna Seaman (In Our Nature: Stories of Wildness), will include author readings. Featuring National Book Award-winning poet W.S Merwin; poet and author Diane Ackerman; nature and travel writer Gretel Ehrlich. Presented as part of the Chicago Humanities Festival: The Climate of Concern .

Poetry On Stage: The Waste Land A staged reading produced by Bernie Sahlins The Museum of Contemporary Art 220 East Chicago Avenue Two Performances 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. $10. Tickets go on sale Monday, September 24, and are available through the Chicago Humanities Festival ticket office at (312) 494-9509 or www.chfestival.org. T.S. Eliot's poem marked so radical a break between the Romantic verse of the nineteenth century and twentieth century modernism that poet William Carlos Williams said of the poem, "It wiped out our world as if an atom bomb had dropped on it." Presented as part of the Chicago Humanities Festival: The Climate of Concern .

American Perspectives: Marjorie Perloff "Avoid a Polar Situation: Johns, Cage, and O'Hara in the Sixties" Fullerton Hall The Art Institute of Chicago 111 South Michigan Avenue Free Admission. The renowned literary critic and professor of humanities at Stanford University examines the interrelationship among the works of three modern masters.

FEATURED POEMS How We Made a New Art on Old Ground Ode to Suburbia The Journey

53rd Annual Poetry Day: Eavan Boland Fullerton Hall The Art Institute of Chicago 111 South Michigan Avenue Admission is free. Call (312) 799-8014 for reservations. Questions of identity—as an Irish woman, mother, poet, and exile—animate much of Eavan Boland's poetry. She was born in Dublin, but grew up in London, where anti-Irish racism gave her a strong sense of her heritage. Irish history and myth also figure prominently in her work, along with the elements of ordinary life. The author of eight collections of poetry, most lately An Origin Like Water: Collected Poems, 1967-1987 and Against Love Poems, she has also written Object Lessons: The Life of the Woman and the Poet in Our Time and co-edited with Mark Strand The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms. She is a professor of English at Stanford.

FEATURED POEMS From The Bridge: To Brooklyn Bridge At Melville's Tomb Legend

American Perspectives: Langdon Hammer On Poet Hart Crane Fullerton Hall The Art Institute of Chicago 111 South Michigan Avenue Free Admission. Yale University professor Langdon Hammer uses on his recent book Hart Crane Complete Poems and Selected Letters to highlight aspects of Crane's life and work that have served as inspiration for artist Jasper Johns. A book signing follows. Presented with the Art Institute of Chicago.

07.31.07: Inventions on Inventions
07.20.07: Printers' Ball
06.10.07: Pimone Triplett & Andrew Feld
06.06.07: Donald Hall & Andrew Motion
05.30.07: Robert Bly
05.07.07: Donald Hall and Andrew Motion
05.10.07: Donald Hall and Andrew Motion
04.18.07: Victor Hernández Cruz
04.10.07: Jack Prelutsky
04.04.07: Tony Hoagland and Dean Young
03.15.07: Poetry Off the Shelf: Martín Espada
02.08.07: Kim Addonizio
01.16.07: Kevin Young
11.19.06: Tartuffe
11.18.06: Tartuffe
11.17.06: Tartuffe
11.05.06: Poetry Off the Shelf: Gary Snyder
11.05.06: Poems of Peace & War
11.04.06: Poetry on Stage: Aurea
10.17.06: Poetry Day: Robert Hass
09.29.06: Mark Strand
09.16.06: Patricia Barber
09.07.06: Poetry Off the Shelf: David Lehman
06.12.06: Another Damn Benefit
06.04.06: Poetry, performance, and music by Aurea
05.16.06: Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest Finals
04.19.06: Poetry Out Loud Illinois State Finals
04.27.06: Poetry Off the Shelf: Adam Zagajewski and Clare Cavanagh
04.05.06: Poetry Out Loud Springfield Finals
04.04.06: Poetry Out Loud Chicago Finals
11.16.05: Poetry Day: Derek Walcott
11.13.05: John Hollander: What You Mean by Home
11.13.05: Poetry on Stage: 10 Brecht Poems
11.12.05: Poetry on Stage: 10 Brecht Poems
11.11.05: Poetry on Stage: 10 Brecht Poems
11.10.05: Poetry on Stage: 10 Brecht Poems
11.05.05: Edward Hirsch: Roots and Wings
11.05.05: Poetry Off the Shelf: Lawrence Joseph & Stuart Dybek
11.05.05: Panel: A Home for Poetry
11.03.05: Poetry Off the Shelf: Kay Ryan
10.17.05: Poetry Off the Shelf: Billy Collins
09.20.05: Poetry on Stage: The Burial at Thebes
09.19.05: Poetry on Stage: The Burial at Thebes
09.18.05: Poetry on Stage: The Burial at Thebes
14.19.05: Poetry Off the Shelf: Kevin Young
04.11.05: National Poetry Recitation Contest Chicago Finals
04.08.05: Poetry on Stage: T.S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral
04.07.05: Poetry on Stage: T.S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral
04.06.05: Poetry on Stage: T.S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral
04.05.05: Poetry on Stage: T.S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral
04.04.05: Poetry on Stage: T.S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral
04.04.05: Poetry in the Public Forum: Dana Gioia