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OPEN MIC following the featuresBEER & WINE available for purchase
THURSDAY, NOV 14
6pm EST
A special Pop-up Chitlin Circuit facilitated by Indiana State Poet Laureate Curtis Crisler
featuring poets Ross Gay, Hiromi Yoshida, Curtis Crisler
open mic to follow
Sponsored in part by the Writers Guild at Bloomington, Indiana Arts Commission, Bloomington Arts Commission, and the Bloomington Urban Enterprise Association
The Indiana Chitlin Circuit is based on the historical Chitlin Circuit that sprouted during the period of Jim Crow segregation. African American performers weren’t necessarily allowed to share a stage with white performers. A network of live entertainment venues in the US emerged that catered to black audiences and black entertainers.
CURTIS L. CRISLER was born and raised in Gary, Indiana. His book Doing Drive-Bys on How to Love in the Midwest won the C&R Press Award for poetry. His other books include (with Kevin McKelvey) Indiana Nocturnes: Our Rural and Urban Patchwork; THe GReY aLBuM [PoeMS], a Steel Toe Books open reading period selection; Don’t Moan So Much (Stevie): A Poetry Musiquarium; “This” Ameri-can-ah; and Pulling Scabs, nominated for Pushcart Prize. Crisler is Professor of English at Purdue University Fort Wayne. He is the current Indiana State Poet Laureate.
Author of one full-length poetry collection and four poetry chapbooks, HIROMI YOSHIDA is a finalist for the New Women’s Voices Poetry Prize, and a semifinalist for the Gerald Cable Book Award. While serving as a poetry reader for Flying Island Journal, and as secretary of the Writers Guild at Bloomington, she coordinates the Guild’s Last Sunday Poetry reading series.
ROSS GAY is the author of four books of poetry: Against Which; Bringing the Shovel Down; Be Holding, winner of the PEN American Literary Jean Stein Award; and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. In addition to his poetry, Ross has released three collections of essays—The Book of Delights was released in 2019 and was a New York Times bestseller; Inciting Joy was released in 2022, and his newest collection, The Book of (More) Delights was released in September of 2023.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Backspace Gallery, inside Bonne Fête, 112 West 6th Street, on the square in Bloomington IN, 112 W 6th St, Bloomington, IN 47404-3910, United States,Bloomington, Indiana
