GUILD LITERARY COMPLEX Celebrating 25 Years of Cross-Cultural Programming ¬¬ 1989-2014 ¬¬

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 29, 2014 Media Contact: Anjulie Rao Phone: 877-394-5061 Email: [email protected]

BROOKSDAY 2014 AT PRINTERS ROW LIT FEST —For the second year, the Guild Literary Complex will present its signature event, Brooksday 2014—a marathon reading that celebrates the life and work of renowned Chicago poet Gwendolyn Brooks. The event takes place at the Chicago Tribune Printers Row Lit Fest on Saturday, June 7—Brooks’ birthday—from 10:30 a.m.–6:00 p.m. at the Guild’s tent (located on the corner of Polk and Dearborn). There will also be a special Brooksday reading taking place at the adjacent Poetry tent from 3:45–4:30 p.m.

This year’s readers include poets, writers, civic leaders, students, and performers from across Chicago’s vast literary landscape. Guild Literary Complex Executive Director, John Rich, states, “The diversity of our readers shows the universality of Mrs. Brooks work as an iconic Chicago poet and national treasure. She is widely admired—and rightfully so—as a trailblazer, mentor, and great artist.”

Reginald Gibbons, poet, fiction writer, translator, literary critic, artist, and Professor of English, Classics, and Spanish and Portuguese at , states, “Brooksday was created to honor and sustain the work of Gwendolyn Brooks. Brooks is one of the most important of American poets—an artist who broke through racial barriers in our literature and publishing, who nurtured many younger writers, and who with poetic virtuosity and courage changed American poetry into the larger realm it should be.”

Featured readers include Poetry Foundation President, writer, and critic ; author and Columbia College instructor Eric May; Chicago Association of Black Storytellers Founder and President D Kucha Brownlee; Chicago poet Andrea Change, and many more. The day will also include sharing of memories, storytelling, and performances by individuals and groups such as Javon Smith and Team Rebirth, among others.

Brooksday partners include: Third World Press, Poetry Foundation, American Writers Museum, Brooks Permissions, and Printers Row Lit Fest. Additional support has been provided by the Writing Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Department of Creative Writing at Columbia College Chicago, the English Department at DePaul University, and Lucky Prints.

ABOUT OUT PARTNERS The Printers Row Lit Fest was founded in 1985 by the Near South Planning Board to attract visitors to the Printers Row neighborhood (once the city's bookmaking hub). MORE MICHAEL PUICAN, President | REGINALD GIBBONS , Vice- President | DEBBIE CARLSON, S ecretary | VESNA NESKOW, Treasurer ROSELLEN BROWN | ANDREA L. CHANGE | MARTA COLLAZO | SUSANA DARWIN | BAYO OJIKUTU | LEW ROSENBAUM JOHN RICH, Director | ANJULIE RAO, Marketing Coordinator

GUILD COMPLEX, P.O. BOX 478880, CHICAGO, IL 60647-9998 www.guildcomplex.org CONTINUED By 2002, it had grown, attracting more than 200 booksellers from across the country displaying new, used and antiquarian books and featuring more than 200 authors participating in panels, discussions, and a variety of other programs.

As part of its ongoing commitment to the written word and its support of literacy and literary endeavor, the Chicago Tribune purchased the Printers Row Book Fair in 2002 from the Near South Planning Board. Recently renamed to be the Printer's Row Lit Fest, it is considered the largest free outdoor literary event in the Midwest-drawing more than 150,000 book lovers to the two-day showcase.

Third World Press provides quality literature that primarily focuses on issues, themes, and critique related to an African American public. The Third World Press mission is to make this literature accessible to as many individuals as possible including our targeted market of primarily African American readers.

Their mission to provide quality literature is further enhanced by their marketing goals to increase the overall awareness for the titles that they publish, and to expand beyond their current customer base of predominately African Americans readers, who are generally identified as college-educated and moderately affluent. These readers are consistent book- purchasing clients with academic or scholarly affiliation. Their goals are to cultivate a broader readership of individuals who want to gain greater insight into African American cultural traditions; to reach individuals that are younger and/or less scholarly-focused; and also to reach that customer who just did not know that we existed.

The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine, is an independent literary organization committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. It exists to discover and celebrate the best poetry and to place it before the largest possible audience.

The mission of the American Writers Museum Foundation is to establish the first national museum in the United States dedicated to engaging the public in celebrating American writers and exploring their influence on our history, our identity, our culture and our daily lives.

Brooks Permissions, founded in 2002, manages the literary works of acclaimed poet Gwendolyn Brooks. Brooks Permissions processes numerous requests for Ms. Brooks’ works annually, working with mainstream, educational, and independent publishers, as well as individual artists for projects ranging from literary anthologies and academic course packs to theatrical performances, multimedia projects, etc.

ABOUT THE GUILD LITERARY COMPLEX Founded in 1989, the Guild Literary Complex (the Guild) is a Chicago-based literary organization that present and supports diverse, divergent, and emerging voices through innovative programs, performances, and readings. MORE

CONTINUED Actively working with individuals and organizations from Chicago’s many neighborhoods, the Guild seeks to connect people, groups, and geographies through literature—bringing unexpected writers, programs, and audiences together. The Guild believes that vibrant literature contributes to society and community, and that all people should have access to dynamic, engaging juxtaposition of voices. The Guild’s programming includes Palabra Pura (bilingual poetry); the Poetry Performance Incubator (collaborative theatre and poetry); and open-submission writing contests such as the Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Award and Prose Awards for short fiction and non-fiction. Since its formation, the Guild has established itself, in the words of the Illinois Arts Council, as “Chicago's premier literary center.” The Guild has been twice selected as a model literary center by the National Endowment for the Arts.

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