August 05, 2008
Media Contact: Anne Halsey (312) 799.8016; ahalsey@poetryfoundation.org

FOURTH ANNUAL PRINTERS’ BALL ANNOUNCED

Celebration of Chicago print features free publications and entertainment

Chicago—The fourth annual Printers’ Ball is set to take place Friday, August 22, at the Museum of Contemporary Art in the heart of downtown Chicago. The Printers’ Ball is an annual celebration of print literature in Chicago, hosted by Poetry, Newcity, and the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), in collaboration with CHIRP (Chicago Independent Radio Project), MAKE: A Chicago Literary Magazine, Proximity Magazine, Stop Smiling, Venus Zine, and over 100 local literary organizations. The event showcases a diverse selection of print publications, available free of charge, including magazines, journals, weeklies, posters, and broadsides, plus a full night of live entertainment.

What: Fourth Annual Printers’ Ball in celebration of print literature in Chicago. Free admission. 21+.

Where: Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 East Chicago Ave., one block east of Michigan Ave., in the heart of the Magnificent Mile in downtown. Four blocks east of the Chicago Ave. Red Line stop, short distance from several Michigan Ave. bus routes.

When: Friday, August 22, 2008, 5:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

Special Attractions:

• Magazine display; free copies of publications (while supplies last!)
  
• Viewing Library (“Librarians’ Boudoir”) of limited-run print
  
• Gnoetry poetry machine demonstration
  
• Screen-printing demonstration by Mat Daly
  
• “Select DVD,” “Poetry Everywhere,” and other video art played on the Video Wall
  
• Food and drink

Music:

• DJs Logan Bay, Dustin Drase, and Greg Gaffud presented by CHIRP, Lumpen, and Venus Zine, from 5:30 on.
  
• Live musical acts Pure Magical Love and Stagecoach (members from Mahjongg), presented by Proximity Magazine. Pucks Café. 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Features:

• Killing Him: A Radio Play, by Yehuda Amichai. Translated by Adam Seelig and Hadar Makov-Hasson. From the pages of Poetry. Auditorium. 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Directed by Adam Seelig. Yehuda Amichai (1924–2000) is considered by many to be the greatest modern Israeli poet, and was one of the first to write in colloquial Hebrew. His work has been translated into more than 50 languages.
  
  
• Dollar Store Reading. Auditorium: 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Featuring Usama Alshaibi, Quraysh Ali Lansana, Jonathan Messinger, and Julie Shapiro. The famed Dollar Store returns for the night of the Printers’ Ball!

Participating literary organizations include:
ACM (Another Chicago Magazine) * After Hours Press * ALARM Magazine * Anti Gravity Surprise * AREA Chicago * Publications Department of the Art Institute of Chicago * Bailliwik * Beard of Bees Press * Black Lodge Press * Black Swan Press * Bleached Whale Design * Busy Beaver Button Company * Canarium Books * Charles H. Kerr Company * Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs’ Literary Arts and Events * The Chicago Independent Radio Project (CHIRP) * Chicago Innerview * Chicago Quarterly Review * Chicago Reader * Chicago Review * Chicago Underground Library * Chicagoland Tails * ChicagoPoetry.com Press * Columbia Poetry Review * contratiempo * Court Green * Cracked Slab Books * Dalkey Archive Press * Mat Daly * Delicious Design League * Dexterity Press * The Dollar Store * featherproof books * Flood Editions * Free Lunch * Fresh Squeezed Poetry * Front Forty Press * ghost factory magazine * Gnoetry * Golden Age * The Green Lantern * The Guild Complex * The Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing at Chicago State University (CSU) * Haymarket Books * Highest Hurdle Press * Hotel Amerika * Hourglass Books * International Socialist Review * JAB (The Journal of Artists’ Books) * The Journal * Kenning Editions * Lake Claremont Press * Literago * Little Bang * Love, Chicago * Lumpen * LVNG * MAKE: A Chicago Literary Magazine * Mildred Pierce Zine * Milk Magazine * MoonLit * Mule Magazine * Neighborhood Writing Alliance * Newcity * Ninth Letter * Northwestern University M.A. and M.F.A. in Creative Writing Program * Other Voices, Inc. (OV Books press and Other Voices magazine) * Paul Nudd * Please Don’t * Poetry * The Poetry Center of Chicago * The Poetry Foundation * Polyphony HS * Proximity * The Puddin’head Press * Quimby’s Bookstore * Ragamuffin Press * Red Rover Series * Residents’ Journal * Rhino/The Poetry Forum * Roctober Magazine * Rose Metal Press * Rubba Ducky * Sara Ranchouse Publishing * Screwball Press * Select * SevenTen Bishop * The Skeleton News * Small Happy * The Small Science Collective * Socialist Worker Newspaper * STITCH Magazine * STOP SMILING * Switchback Books * terry plumming * THE2NDHAND * Third World Press * Time Out Chicago * TriQuarterly * Twilight Tales * University of Chicago Library * UNSCENE * Venus Zine * VERBATIM * Virtual Artists Collective * La Voz del Paseo Boricua * Wednesday Journal, Inc./Chicago Journal newspapers: Chicago Journal Near Loop, Chicago Journal West Town, Skyline, News-Star, Booster, Austin Weekly * What to Wear During an Orange Alert/Orange Alert Press * We The People Media * Windy City Media Group, Windy City Story Slam, Windy City Times * Writer’s Studio * The Writers WorkSpace * Wurlington Press * You Are Beautiful * And others

Admission to the Printers’ Ball is free and 21+. For more information, visit www.printersball.org or e-mail editors@poetrymagazine.org.

About Poetry Magazine
Founded in Chicago by Harriet Monroe in 1912, Poetry is the oldest monthly devoted to verse in the English-speaking world. Harriet Monroe’s “Open Door” policy, set forth in volume 1 of the magazine, remains the most succinct statement of Poetry’s mission: to print the best poetry written today, in whatever style, genre, or approach. The magazine established its reputation early by publishing the first important poems of T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, H.D., William Carlos Williams, Carl Sandburg, and other now-classic authors. In succeeding decades it has presented—often for the first time—works by virtually every significant poet of the 20th century.

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