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Nonfiction Read-Aloud Book Group – Online

Nonfiction Read-Aloud Book Group meets online on the 2nd and 4th Monday of each month @ 7pm.
We’ve been meeting since 2019 and the makeup of the group is fluid. Pop in when you can! We take turns reading aloud to each other and stop the reading frequently to discuss the text, ask questions, and repeat sentences. People are not required to read in order to participate.

We’re currently reading Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals, by Alexis Pauline Gumbs. Undrowned is a book-length meditation for the entire human species, based on the subversive and transformative lessons of marine mammals. Alexis Pauline Gumbs has spent hundreds of hours watching our aquatic cousins. She has found them to be queer, fierce, protective of each other, complex, shaped by conflict, and struggling to survive the extractive and militarized conditions humans have imposed on the ocean. Employing a brilliant mix of poetic sensibility, naturalist observation, and Black feminist insights, Gumbs translates their submerged wisdom to reveal what they might teach us. The result is a powerful work of creative nonfiction that produces not a specific agenda but an unfolding space for wonder and questioning.

Email [email protected] for the meeting link

A Poetry Event in Honor of Sky Hammer

Julian Talamantez Brolaski and S. Yarberry will perform on Saturday, December 2nd to honor Sky Hammer, asterion projects, 2023.

Free and open to the public.

Art Build for Ceasefire Now! in Gaza

PO Box Collective will be hosting an art build to create banners and posters for upcoming actions.

Masks required. We will have them on hand if needed.

Jewish Fast for Gaza Vigil, Potluck + Art Build

As the genocidal violence committed by the Israeli government continues, the conveners of the Jewish Fast for Gaza invite you to join us for a vigil this Saturday, November 11, 2023, at the PO Box Collective, 6900 N. Glenwood, Chicago, Illinois from 4:00 to 6:30 p.m.

We will eat together before our fast, make art together, and bear witness to the unconscionable number of lives lost by reading aloud some of the names of those killed since October 7, broadcasting the reading into the neighborhood. As of November 6, the Israeli government has killed over 10,000 people in Gaza and injured tens of thousands more. Without a ceasefire, those numbers will continue to grow rapidly.

At the Saturday event, we will also provide art supplies so that people can make signs, banners, and other agit-prop for upcoming actions demanding a ceasefire, and there will also be an opportunity to participate in a ceasefire stitching project.

Please join us and feel free to bring food!
The space is wheelchair-accessible, and there will be air filtration systems. Masks are preferred when not eating or drinking, within the indoor space.
Kids are welcome!
4:00 pm: potluck and art-making begins
4:30 pm: music and havdalah
5:00 – 6:30: reading names and making art

The Jewish Fast for Gaza will continue our weekly fast until there is a ceasefire, and will continue our fast monthly thereafter until there is an end to the blockade of Gaza.

As we fast, we continue to ask people to donate the money they would otherwise spend on food to direct aid organizations in Gaza, including the Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) and UNICEF.

Portions of this event will be live streamed.

Queer Bachata Social

The 2nd Bachata Social at PO Box collective starts with a warmup and intro to the fundamentals of Dominican Bachata, including line dancing and partner dancing without the gendered assumptions about leading and following. No partner or previous experience required.
Class is followed by a dance party to practice your moves from 8-10:30pm. Allies welcome.
The space is wheelchair accessible. Masks are required indoors.
Put your party $ towards a just cause! We will be taking donations for the Community Care Collective of the 33rd Ward going toward breakfast and lunch cooked with love by new arrival families for the asylum seekers staying at the 17th police station.
At the event you will also have the chance to donate to PO Box collective to help keep the lights on at this all-volunteer intergenerational social practice center dedicated to building Rogers Park community through radical art making, mutual aid & programming.
About your host: Ana is a queer Dominican community organizer out to host an inclusive social space that brings their community together through dancing while supporting just causes.

PO Box Poetry Reading Series

This popular monthly series offers in-person readings with local writers.
December readers include Kate Monaghan, Alyssa Moore, and more!!
The event is free and open to the public.
The space is wheelchair accessible.
Masks are required

PO Box Poetry Reading Series Features Fiction!

This popular monthly series offers in-person readings with local writers.
In November we hear from Stephen Patrick Bell, Meg Cass, and Analeah Rosen.
The event is free and open to the public.
The space is wheelchair accessible.
Masks are required.

Palestinian Solidarity Discussion with Chicago Anarchist Assemby

Chicago Anarchist Assembly:

Pop out for a public conversation on the ongoing intifada in Palestine and what our role in Chicago could be to help deepen a global rupture. Bring ideas, proposals, and zines for discussion on:

  • The Palestinian liberation struggle in a local context
  • Anti-colonial, struggle from within the US, black liberation, and land back
  • What can local anarchist interventions look like
  • Anarchist activity in light of another uprising

Accessibility info:

1 single stall bathroom, wheelchair ramp, and 3 diy air purifiers

Palestine Cinema Days ’23 film screening

One More Jump, a documentary by Emanuele Gerosa (2019)

Jehad and Abdallah, founders of the Gaza Parkour Team, grew up together in the Gaza Strip, but their choices divided them for years. Today, more than ever, they need to find out if there is a way that can lead to freedom someone who, like them, was born in prison.

Languages: Arabic, English, Italian / English subtitles.

Doc Chicago Meetup: Works-in-Progress

Area filmmakers screen and discuss documentary works-in-progress.
At this event, Alex Halkin shows excerpts from her archive-based project, If We Film It, It’s the Truth; and Salome Chasnoff presents a trailer for her new short documentary, Someone You Should Meet.
You are invited to bring a beverage or snack to share if you feel so inclined