Celebrate Poetry in Chicago

Every month is Poetry Month in Chicago. The City of Broad Shoulders is home to the Poetry Foundation, which publishes “Poetry” magazine, plus constant spoken word events and workshop opportunities. We’re on it year-round. But since April is actually National Poetry Month, consider diving in deeper.

Our Favorite Chicago Poems

Some classic and more contemporary lyric odes to the complicated city we love. 

“Chicago” by Carl Sandburg

✒️ Favorite line: “Hog Butcher for the World … City of the Big Shoulders”

“Chicago’s Congo” by Frank Marshall Davis

✒️ Favorite line: “Chicago who wears her skyscrapers like a necklace ...”

“Chicago: City on the Make” by Nelson Algren

✒️ Favorite line: “Chicago … Like loving a woman with a broken nose, you may well find lovelier lovelies, but never a lovely so real.”

“We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks

✒️ Favorite line: The whole thing! (It’s short.)

“Chicago and December” by W.S. Dipiero

✒️ Favorite line: “the great stone lions outside monumentally pissed by jumbo wreaths and ribbons”

“whenever i’m at that land is chicago” by Jose Olivarez

✒️ Favorite line: “underneath my gym shoes. is a trail of salt. that last sentence is a test.”

“eschatology” by Eve L. Ewing

✒️ Favorite line: “i’ll miss crossing guards ushering the grown folks too, like ducklings”

Poetry Events All Month Long

Chicago Public Library and plenty more organizations are hosting readings, workshops, lectures, and performances throughout the month.

• ✍️ Writing Workshop | April 8 | Call & Response Books | Kenwood
• 🎤 Poetry for the People | April 9 | Haymarket House | Uptown | Free
• ✍️ Bilingual Poetry Workshop | April 11 | Archer Heights Branch | Free
• ✍️ Poetry of Place and Resistance | April 11 | Manning Branch | Free
• 🎤 “Concentration” | April 11-12 | Ruth Page Center for the Arts | Near North Side
• 🎤 Poetry Open Mic | April 13 | Rogers Park Branch | Free
• ✍️ World of Micro Poetry | April 13 | Little Italy Branch | Free
• ✍️ Bilingual Workshop | April 13 | Portage Cragin Branch | Free
• 🎤 A Poetry Performance and Workshop | April 14 | Logan Square Branch | Free
• 🎤 Adult Listening Circle | April 15 | Harold Washington Library | Loop | Free
• ✍️ June Jordan and the Protest Poem | April 15 | South Shore Branch | Free
• 🎵 “safronia” | April 17-18 | Lyric Opera | Loop
• 🎤 Spoken Word Showcase | April 19 | Offshore Rooftop | Navy Pier
• ✍️ Letter Poems | April 19 | Chinatown Branch | Free
• 🎤 Patricia Smith, Ashley M. Jones, Donika Kelly, Aimee Nezhukumatathil | April 23 | Poetry Foundation | River North | Free
• 🎵 Sijo and Sijo-song: Korea’s Poetry Form | April 25 | Little Village Branch | Free
• ✍️ A Gospel Therapy Experiential Workshop | April 26 | North Austin Branch | Free
• 📚 Independent Bookstore Day crawl | April 25