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6900 N Glenwood Ave
Chicago, IL 60626

PO Box Programming

Exhibitions & Performances
May 24, 2024
May 24, 2024

Double Book Party

A special poetry reading / book launch for two collections coming out this spring: Self-Mythology by Saba Keramati, selected by Patricia Smith for the Miller Williams Poetry Series and The Lengest Neoi by Stephanie Choi, selected by Brenda Shaughnessy for the Iowa Poetry Prize.

Double Book Party

I.S. Jones and Meg Kim will join Choi and Keramati in reading.

About the featured collections:

The Lengest Neoi embraces and complicates what it means to err—to wander or go astray; a deviation from a code of behavior or truth; a mistake, flaw, or defect. Beginning with the collection’s title, which combines a colloquial Cantonese phrase (Leng Neoi / “Pretty Girl”) and the English suffix for the superlative degree (—est), these poems wander, deviate, and flow across bodies, geographies, and languages. In this collection from Stephanie Choi, you’ll find the poet’s “tongue writing herself, learning to speak.”

In the search for a true home, what does it mean to be confronted instead by an insurmountable sense of otherness? This question dwells at the center of Saba Keramati’s Self-Mythology, which explores multiraciality and the legacy of exile alongside the poet’s uniquely American origin as the only child of political refugees from China and Iran. Keramati navigates her ancestral past while asking what language and poetry can offer to those who exist on the margins of contemporary society. Constantly scanning her world for some likeness that would help her feel less of an outsider, the poet writes, “You could cut me in half. Send the left side with my mother, / right with my father. Shape what’s missing out of clay // from their lands and still I would not belong.” Blending the personal and the political, Self-Mythology considers the futurity of diaspora in America while revealing its possibilities.

This event is free and open to the public.

Upcoming Events

Workshop in Trans Studies (WITS) Summer Celebration
Jun
14
Saturday
4:00 PM
9:00 PM
Memorial for People Killed by Police
Jun
15
Sunday
11:00 AM
1:00 PM
Food Not Bombs Sunday Distro
Jun
15
Sunday
1:30 PM
3:00 PM
Queer Trans Non-Binary Art Salon
Jun
15
Sunday
4:00 PM
6:00 PM

View All Upcoming Events

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PO BOX Collective

Is a creative collective & intergenerational social practice center dedicated to building Rogers Park community through radical art making, mutual aid & programming.


Embraces a horizontal organization model that centers marginalized voices while fostering mutual growth & healing.


Intentionally works to counter systemic oppression, while building up positive alternatives outside of those systems and structures.


Is committed to never requiring payment in exchange for programming associated with our collective.


Does not endorse any political candidates, nor do we host political events, such as fundraisers.