Ekphest Press Release
EKPHESTA FESTIVAL OF ART WORD FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MEDIA CONTACTS October 2014 +Fo Wilson, Krista Franklin [email protected]
Chicago Festival of Poetry and Art Invites Public to Preliminary October & November Events
CHICAGO - Ekphest : A Festival of Art + Word invites the public to participate in the development of works-in-progress. Ekphest is a program of poetry and spoken word events that features a curated selection of local poets who will respond to works of art in the collections of Chicago museums and other cultural institutions. The festival takes place in April 2015. Preliminary programimg includes: readings, discussions, and other events meant to contribute to the poet’s creative process.
Ekphrastic poetry is as a form of writing that is created as a response to a work of visual art and reconceived as poetry or prose. Ekphest has paired ten acclaimed poets with some of Chicago’s most prominent institutions. These poets will select a work of art from their assigned institution and engage with the work through poetry.
Ekphest is a project curated by artists, educators and independent curators fo wilson and krista franklin. The curators envisioned the festival as an opportunity to present the city of Chicago with a fresh way to engage with visual art and objects, and to publicly recognize poetry as an accessible and exciting art form. October and November programming is an opportunity for the public to engage with and contribute to the development of the poets’ work for the April festival.
Participating museums and institutions include: the adler planetarium, the art institute of chicago, chicago cultural center, dusable museum, intuit: the center for intuitive and outsider art, the museum of contemporary art (mca), museum of contemporary photography (mocp), and the smart museum at the University of Chicago.
A diverse group of contributing poets with various approaches to poetry and performance have been selected. They are: joel craig, cristina correa, rj el (reginald eldridge), eric elshtain, duriel e. harris, sharrieff muhammad, roger reeves, keith wilson, jamila woods and avery r. young.
Preliminary programming includes events with joel craig and duriel e. harris at the art institute, October 23, 6 - 8pm; cristina correa and keith wilson at the adler planetarium, October 24, 4 - 5:30pm; eric elshtain at mocp, October 30 at 1-3pm; and rj el (reginald eldridge), at intuit, November 6, at 6:30pm.
In addition to preliminary events, the public can look forward to the finished works during the full festival in April 2015 as a way to experience diverse forms of poetry that highlight the treasures in the collections of Chicago cultural institutions in unconventional ways.
Ekphest is sponsored in part by the Propeller Fund, an organization that funds the public’s interaction with and recognition of alternative models for creative projects and exhibitions. The Propeller Fund is administered by Three Walls and Gallery 400 at the University of Illinois in Chicago, two organizations that have partnered to contribute and broaden contemporary visual arts practice in Chicago.
for additional information go to: ekphest.tumblr.com.