Chicago’s Poetry Foundation unveils free fall events

Aug. 27 (UPI) — The Chicago-based Poetry Foundation said Wednesday that a series of poetry events, writing workshops, a new exhibition and more will be part of its fall season for this year.

The group unveiled its roster of free public events for the fall 2025 season under its theme: “Facing Life.” Foundation officials said it will highlight visual art in interpretation of poetry to include poets from Chicago and abroad, along with music and “new poetic forms.”

“Like a mural, our season showcases the many faces of poetry’s ‘human sea’ in Chicago and the Midwest,” Noa Micaela Fields, public programs manager and season curator, said in a statement.

The foundation on September 20 will celebrate the opening of the “Victoria Martinez” exhibition inspired by the life and work of Peruvian poet and activist Magda Portal. It will feature a conversation with artist Victoria Martinez and writer Nicole Kaack.

Days later on the 25th Chicago’s Poetry Foundation will partner with the European Union National Institutes for Culture for a multilingual poetry reading called “Chicago Transatlantic.” It explores cultural exchange and the “expansive linguistic” and the city’s diverse immigrant heritages and will feature contributors Poetry magazine, Nick Makoha and Raymond Antrobus.

Meanwhile, music and spoken word will be front and center on October 16 for the first anniversary of the “Rapbrary,” which is a Chicago archive preserving hip-hop as a literary art form.

On October 24 the foundation will honor its 2025 recipients of the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the Pegasus Award for Service in Poetry and Pegasus Award for Poetry Critics who will be announced on September 10 and honored in a ceremony on October 2.

Chicago’s Poet Laureate avery r. young will present “Chicago Soul Poem: A City That Writes Together” on December 4.

Chicago’s Poetry Foundation will close the season on December 11 when poets Pádraig Ó Tuama and E. Ethelbert Miller join the Fulcrum Point New Music Project for their 27th annual Peace Concert at Fourth Presbyterian Church.

“Together we practice facing ourselves more honestly, while also facing the world and refusing to look away,” added Fields from the foundation on Wednesday.