WBEZ 91.5 Chicago

The Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) is in town for its National Conference, bringing together some of the finest writers in the country.

In 2012, Woman Made Gallery celebrates its 20th anniversary. For a grass roots arts organization in these times, 20 years is an accomplishment reflecting the organization’s sturdiness, maturity, and standing in the community.

How can you find consolation? What sets your mind at ease? What can you hold on to when the world around you crumbles? Solace in So Many Words is an anthology featuring essays, poetry, and fiction on these vital questions.

Egg Money Poets is a collective of Chicago writers, begun 20 years ago, with new members joining as recently as this fall. "Egg money" is extra money, what a woman earned on her own and what allowed her a little luxury. Poetry enriches us in the same way.

Abstraction in the visual arts brings to mind the composition of shapes, colors, and line untethered to “real world” imagery. In poetry, we encounter the unexpected: language run amok, fractured syntax, innovation and experimentation, taking us outside the world of logic and everyday experience.

Woman Made Gallery’s 14th Annual International Open exhibit spans both Women’s History month and Poetry Month. While most WMG readings are organized around the theme of the concurrent art exhibit, this reading is an open celebration of women writers.

The United States of America: a beautiful country with a history damning and redeeming in turns; a nation where all have opportunity, but one percent of the population controls over a third of the wealth; a crucible of enlightenment democracy that allowed slavery.