Open Door Series: Rashayla Marie Brown & Philip Jenks
Poetry Foundation
61 West Superior Street
Free admission, register in advance here
At 30 minutes before event start, guests with Eventbrite tickets will have priority entry to the performance space on a first-come, first-served basis. At 15 minutes prior to event start, the performance space is open to all guests. Seating capacity is limited. Eventbrite reservations do not guarantee entry or reserved seating.
The Open Door series presents work from Chicago’s new and emerging poets and highlights the area’s outstanding writing programs. Each hour-long event features readings by two Chicagoland writing program instructors and two of their current or recent students. February's Open Door reading series features Rashayla Marie Brown and student Imani Love, and Philip Jenks and student Charles Danoff.
Artist-scholar Rashayla Marie Brown manages an “undisciplinary” studio practice through photography, performance, writing, installation, and video. A lifelong nomad who moved 24 times, she began her practice as a poet in London. An Artadia and Franklin Furnace grantee, RMB has presented work internationally at Tate Modern, London; Krabbesholm Højskole, Copenhagen; Turbine Hall, Johannesburg; and in commissions at Bemis Contemporary, Omaha; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco; Rhodes College, Memphis; among others. She holds degrees from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Northwestern, and Yale University.
Philip Jenks is the author of three full-length books of poems, most recently Colony Collapse Metaphor (Fence Books). He also co-authored a book of poetry with the splendid Simone Muench, Disappearing Address. Teaching is to him his vocation and purpose. He earned a BA from Reed College, a MA in Creative Writing from Boston University, and a PhD in Political Science from University of Kentucky. He lives in Chicago. He has toured and recorded with Neil Michael Hagerty as a member of The Howling Hex. His current focus is in the intersectionality of race, class, and gender. He has taught at Portland State University, University of Illinois, Roosevelt University, Lewis University, MacCormac College, among others. Recently, he had the honor of teaching grades 6-12 at the wonderful Fusion Academy, where every class is one-on-one. He is completing a manuscript of poetry that seeks to respond to the darkness of the prior texts with possibility and is pursuing a Master’s in Special Education.
Charles Jeffrey Danoff writes poems and reads them to audiences monthly on First Fridays at I'll Cut You Hair Studio in the Flat Iron Arts Building in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago. His poems were originally focused on sports, but over time he has delved into other topics like statistics and electronic music. Currently he is exploring poetic form under the instruction of Phillip Jenks, PhD. His past work includes creating 'zines, contributing to all three editions of the Peeragogy Handbook, and writing the novella Keyi its 中文 4 Sucsexy.
Imani Love is an interdisciplinary artist from the California Bay Area. Her art stems from a foundation in poetry and expands to screenwriting, video direction and collage. As a recent graduate from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, she’s currently working on developing personal archives dedicated to family histories and most importantly, rediscovering the pleasures of creating.