Ego Trippin': Join Us and Young Chicago Authors for National Poetry Month
- Dawn Aulet, Editor-in-Chief
- Apr 2, 2017
- 2 min read
Chicago - On Saturday night, I went to an event at Volumes Bookcafe to kick off the release of Kevin Coval's new book, "A People's History of Chicago."
Coval is the founder of Louder Than A Bomb: The Chicago Youth Poetry Festival and the Artistic Director of Young Chicago Authors. His event Saturday featured his own poetry readings as well as readings from Louder Than a Bomb (LTAB) youth poets.
Last year, I worked in the city at a private school and was privileged to co-coach three Indy poets in the LTAB competition. Watching the poets Saturday and hearing Coval was inspiring.
On the way home from the event, I wrote a poem. As is often the case for me, I am inspired in the car and my voice recorder gets to capture me writing poetry that varies from sad to angry to determined not to give up. I end up eventually transcribing the poetry in the promise to myself that I will perform them one day. I have performed a couple at various events.
When I got home on Saturday night, I saw one of my Facebook friends was accepting a challenge to write a poem every day for the month of April.
"Where did he find this challenge?" I asked.
And then I found it. Young Chicago Authors was challenging us all. One poem every day for the month of April. Follow their prompts if you like. You can find the info here.
I had already written the poem which kind of followed their prompt, although mine was more about what I gave another person and what he gave me than it was about what one or the other of us had taught someone.
But my poem was about Chicago. And it was inspired by the event I had attended.
You can read, "Gifts on a Shelf" by clicking here.
The Tangled Thread would like to host your poetry too. Have something to share? Email us at thetangledthreadstories@gmail.com
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