Poets for Reproductive Justice among July events at Women & Children First - 2735 - Gay Lesbian Bi Trans News

Among summer events coming up at Women and Children First Books are the annual Used Book Sale, a Where's Waldo Scavenger Hunt and the 40th Anniversary Block Party.

Used Book Sale donations now being accepted for the Saturday, July 27 and Sunday, July 28 event. This year, we'll be accepting donations for our annual Used Book Sale ( benefitting our non-profit arm, the Women's Voices Fund ) on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays through July 24th. Donated books should be in sale-able condition. We will not accept reference books, mass market books ( pulp paperbacks of a lower quality, usually around 6" x 4" in size ), DVDS, or foreign language books. Any books that do not meet our criteria will be returned to you at the time of donation. Interested in volunteering for our Used Book Sale? Please email Karlee at wcfkarlee@gmail.com .

Tuesday, July 2 at 7 p.m.

Layne Fargo in conversation with Christina Gorman

Temper

Book Launch Party

After years of struggling in the Chicago theater scene, ambitious actress Kira Rascher finally lands the role of a lifetime. An edgy, addictive, and fiendishly clever tale of ambition, deceit, and power, Temper is a timely, heart-in-your-throat psychological thriller that will leave you breathless. Layne Fargo is the co-creator of the podcast Unlikeable Female Characters. Layne lives in Chicago with her partner and their pets.

Thursday, July 11 at 7 p.m.

Deborah Shapiro in conversation with Kathleen Rooney

The Summer Demands

Author Reading

On the verge of her 40th birthday and shaken by a recent miscarriage, Emily inherits an abandoned summer camp in Massachusetts. She and her husband move onto the property and make grand plans to revitalize the land, but they soon discover that their inheritance includes an unexpected guest, a 22-year-old woman named Stella. The two women begin spending time together, but each encounter promises to bring Emily a little closer to an understanding of her own identity, but it also puts her marriage and future at risk. Deborah Shapiro's writing has appeared in the New York Times Book Review, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Tin House, and elsewhere. Her first novel, The Sun in Your Eyes, was an Editors' Choice in the New York Times Book Review, as well as one of the season's best reads by Harper's Bazaar, the Wall Street Journal Magazine, and the Chicago Tribune, among other publications. She lives with her husband and son in Chicago. Kathleen Rooney is a founding editor of Rose Metal Press, a nonprofit publisher of literary work in hybrid genres, as well as a founding member of Poems While You Wait, a team of poets and their typewriters who compose commissioned poetry on demand. She teaches in the English Department at DePaul University, and her books include the national bestseller Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk.

Friday, July 12 at 7 p.m.

Alex DiFrancesco

All City

Author Reading with special guests

M; Margo and Penelope Jeanne Brannen

A near-future New York City ravaged by climate change and economic inequality is facing a superstorm. The only ones remaining in the city to face the storm are those who have nowhere to go or no way to leave. Among those are convenience store worker Makayla and Jesse, an 18-year-old genderqueer anarchist. In the aftermath of the storm, Jesse joins Makayla's group of remainders in an abandoned luxury condo building, carving out a small sanctuary. Meanwhile, mysterious, colorful murals begin to appear throughout NYC, bringing hope to the forsaken and left behind but raising the ire of the landlord class. Alex DiFrancesco is the author of the essay collection Psychopomps. They have published fiction in the Carolina Quarterly, the New Ohio Review, and Monkeybicycle and they are a winner of Sundress Academy for the Arts' 2017 OutSpoken contest for LGBTQ+ writing. DiFrancesco's nonfiction has appeared in the Washington Post, Tin House, and Longreads and was a finalist in Cosmonauts Avenue's inaugural nonfiction prize.

Monday, July 15 at 6:30 p.m.

Poets for Reproductive Justice

Please note: this ticketed event will be held at Young Chicago Authors ( 1180 N Milwaukee Ave )

Organized by Eve L. Ewing and inspired by events like Poets for Puerto Rico and Black Poets Speak Out, this reading will feature the following poets: Kaveh Akbar, Beatriz Badikian-Gartler, Tara Betts, Luis Carranza, Melissa Castro, Almandina McKenzie Chinn, Eve L. Ewing, Rachel Galvin, Rachel Jackson, Peter Kahn, Britteney Black Rose Kapri, Adam Levin, Paige Lewis, Amara Martin, Rebel Betty, H. Melt, T Munoz, IvÃ�ï��n PÃ©rez-Zayas, Alison C. Rollins, Erika L. Sanchez, Jennifer Steele, Emily Yoon, and avery r young.

Proceeds from this event will benefit The National Network of Abortion Funds, whose mission is to build power with members to remove financial and logistical barriers to abortion access by centering people who have abortions and organizing at the intersections of racial, economic, and reproductive justice.

Thursday, July 18 at 7 p.m.

Janet O'Shea

Risk, Failure, Play

Author Demo & Reading

Risk, Failure, Play illuminates the many ways in which competitive martial arts differentiate themselves from violence. Presented from the perspective of a dancer and writer, this book takes readers through the politics of everyday life as experienced through training in a range of martial arts practices such as jeet kune do, Brazilian jiu jitsu, kickboxing, Filipino martial arts, and empowerment self-defense. Author Janet O Shea demonstrates the many ways in which physical recreation allows us to manage the complexities of our current social reality.

Friday, July 19 at 7 p.m.

Kristen Arnett in conversation with Lindsay Hunter

Mostly Dead

Author Conversation

One morning, Jessa-Lynn Morton walks into the family taxidermy shop to find that her father has committed suicide. Shocked and grieving, Jessa steps up to manage the failing business, while the rest of the Morton family crumbles. Kristen Arnett is a queer fiction and essay writer. She won the 2017 Coil Book Award for her debut short fiction collection Felt in the Jaw and was awarded Ninth Letter's 2015 Literary Award in Fiction. She's a columnist for Literary Hub, and her work has either appeared or is upcoming at the Normal School, Guernica, Tin House, and elsewhere. Lindsay Hunter is the author of the story collections Don't Kiss Me and Daddy's and the novels Ugly Girls and Eat Only When You're Hungry, a finalist for the 2017 Chicago Review of Books Fiction Award. Originally from Florida, she now lives in Chicago with her husband, sons, and dogs.

Saturday, July 20 at 3 p.m.

Waldopalooza!

Kids' Party

To celebrate the annual month-long, neighborhood-wide scavenger hunt for Waldo, we'll be hosting an afternoon Where's Waldo party hosted by Miss Sophie Start by picking up your passport at Women & Children First anytime after July 1st and then begin searching for Waldo at participating Andersonville businesses. ( The full list is on our website and the printed passport. ) When you find Waldo in each business, get your passport stamped by the folks there. Be sure to bring your stamped passport to Women & Children First on Saturday, July 20th at 3 p.m. for the Where's Waldo Party and enjoy the snacks, games, and activities, plus a visit from Waldo! Passports with ten or more stamps can be entered into a raffle for fantastical prizes, many of which have been donated by local businesses. Prize winners must be in attendance to win! See you there!

Saturday, July 27 and Sunday, July 28

Annual Used Book Sale

Women & Children First's Used Book Sale is an annual tradition benefiting the Women's Voices Fund, the non-profit arm of the store that supports all of our programming and events. Our annual used book sale is part of Andersonville's Sidewalk Sale weekend. Book lovers and bargain hunters won't want to miss this opportunity to treasure hunt through the stacks for great deals on fiction, nonfiction, children's books, and LGBTQ titles—all priced to sell.

Wednesday, July 31 at 7 p.m.

Darrel J. McLeod in conversation with Terese Marie Mailhot

Mamaskatch: A Cree Coming of Age

Author Conversation

Growing up in a tiny village in Alberta, Darrel J. McLeod was surrounded by the comfort of his Cree family, especially his mother, Bertha. But when Bertha turned wild and unstable and their home life became chaotic, Darrel struggled to maintain his grades and pursue an interest in music while changing homes many times, witnessing violence, caring for his younger siblings, and suffering abuse at the hands of his surrogate father. Meanwhile, his sibling's gender transition provoked Darrel to deeply question his own sexual identity. This is an intensely moving portrait of a family of strong personalities, deep ties, abuse and trauma, and the shared history that both binds and haunts them. Darrel J. McLeod is Cree from the Treaty 8 territory in Northern Alberta. Before deciding to pursue writing in his retirement, he was a chief negotiator of land claims for the federal government and executive director of education and international affairs with the Assembly of First Nations. He holds degrees in French literature and education from the University of British Columbia. He lives in Sooke, British Columbia. Terese Marie Mailhot is the author of Heart Berries. She graduated from the Institute of American Indian Arts with an MFA in fiction and received a Whiting Award for Nonfiction in 2019.

Thursday, August 1 at 7 p.m.

Iliana Regan

Burn This Place

Book Launch Party

Burn the Place is a galvanizing memoir that chronicles Iliana Regan's journey from foraging on the family farm to running her Michelin-starred restaurant, Elizabeth. Regan grew up the youngest of four girls on a small farm in Northwest Indiana. Since childhood, Regan has had an intense, almost otherworldly connection with food and the earth it comes from, but connecting with people has always been more difficult. She was a little girl who longed to be a boy, gay in an intolerant community, an alcoholic before she turned twenty, and a woman in an industry dominated by men. Burn the Place tells Regan's story in raw and vivid prose and brings readers into worlds that are entirely original and unforgettable. Iliana Regan is a self-taught chef. She is the founder and owner of the Michelin-starred "new gatherer" restaurant Elizabeth and the Japanese-inspired pub Kitsune, both located in Chicago. A James Beard Award and Jean Banchet Award nominee, Regan was named one of Food & Wine's Best New Chefs 2016.

Wednesday, August 7 at 7 p.m.

Gregg Shapiro

Poetry Reading

Join us for a launch celebration of Gregg Shapiro's two new poetry collections: More Poems About Buildings and Food, published by Souvenir Spoon Books and Sunshine State, from NightBallet Press. Gregg Shapiro's is the author of Fifty Degrees, selected by Ching-In Chen as co-winner of the Robin Becker Chapbook Prize. Other books by Shapiro include the short story collections How to Whistle and Lincoln Avenue. He also has work forthcoming in Gargoyle, Mojave River Review, and the anthology Lovejets: Queer Male Poets on 200 Years of Walt Whitman. His poetry was recently featured in South Florida Poetry Journal, the Gay and Lesbian Review, Chelsea Station Magazine, and the anthology Reading Queer. An entertainment journalist, whose interviews and reviews run in a variety of regional LGBT and mainstream publications and websites, Shapiro lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with his husband Rick and their dog Coco.

Thursday, August 8 at 7 p.m.

Claire Lombardo in conversation with Elizabeth Taylor

The Most Fun We Ever Had

Author Conversation

Marilyn Connolly and David Sorenson fall in love in the 1970s and make a family together. By 2016, their four radically different daughters are each in a state of unrest, but they share the fear that they will never find a love quite like their parents'. The arrival of Jonah Bendt—given up by one of the daughters in a closed adoption fifteen years before—triggers a year of great tumult. Set in Chicagoland and spanning nearly half a century, Lombardo's debut explores the triumphs and burdens of love; the fraught tethers of parenthood and sisterhood; and the baffling mixture of affection, abhorrence, resistance, and submission we feel for those closest to us. Claire Lombardo earned her MFA in fiction at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. She was born and raised in Oak Park, Illinois. A former social worker, she now teaches fiction writing and is at work on a second novel. Elizabeth Taylor is Co-founder The National Book Review, co-author of American Pharoah, and Literary Editor at Large the Chicago Tribune.

Friday, August 9 at 7 p.m.

Lyz Lenz in conversation with Kate Harding

God Land

In the wake of the 2016 election, Lyz Lenz watched as her country and her marriage were torn apart by the competing forces of faith and politics. A mother of two, a Christian, and a lifelong resident of middle America, Lenz was bewildered by the pain and loss around her. Part journalism, part memoir, God Land is a journey into the heart of a deeply divided America. Through a thoughtful interrogation of the effects of faith and religion on our lives, our relationships, and our country, God Land investigates whether our divides can ever be bridged and if America can ever come together. Lyz Lenz has been published in the New York Times, Buzzfeed, and the Guardian, among other publications. Her book Belabored: Tales of Myth, Medicine, and Motherhood is forthcoming. She also has an essay in the anthology Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture edited by Roxane Gay. Lenz holds an MFA in creative writing from Lesley University and is a contributing writer to the Columbia Journalism Review. Kate Harding is the author of Asking For It: The Alarming Rise of Rape Culture, a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award and one of LitHub's "new feminist classics." With Samhita Mukhopadhyay, she is co-editor of Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance, and Revolution in Trump's America. Kate has been Distinguished Visiting Writer at Cornell College; Assistant Director of the Women's Resource Center at Cornell University; a college speaker on body image and sexual violence; a small press editor; and a creative writing teacher. Her new book Victim Complex: On Snowfalkes, Witch hunts, and the Cult of Personal Responsibility is forthcoming from St. Martin's Press.

Save the Date

Monday, August 12, Doors open at 7 p.m. Show starts at 7:30 p.m.

Sappho's Salon

Open Mic

Thursday, August 15 at 7 p.m.

Women in Translation

A Panel Discussion

Wednesday, August 21 at 7 p.m.

Stefania Gomez

Once I Loved a Cowboy

Chapbook Release Party

Saturday, August 24