The Printers’ Ball: IT’S ALIVE! is a raucous sprawling event, presented by the Poetry Foundation and Poetry magazine with the Center for Book & Paper Arts, the Chicago Underground Library, Columbia College Chicago, and MAKE magazine.
Their 7th annual event will be one of the largest celebrations of literary culture in the country. On Friday, July 29, in the historic Luddington Building at 1104 S. Wabash, whimsy meets fantasy and fun. Plus, this event is free and open to everyone.
There will be a featured reading by poet, cartoonist, and former Silver Jews frontman David Berman, scheduled for 8 p.m. Berman’s first book of poems is Actual Air (Open City, 1999). As Poetry contributor Cathy Park Hong has said, Berman is “a good gateway drug for that stubborn student who hates poetry.”
Berman’s reading will be one of many live performances featured at this year’s Printers’ Ball, which welcomes more than 200 organizations from around the world and more than 2,000 fans of the literary arts.
The event will host Chicago Underground Library’s larger-than-life-size Ouija Board and haunting encounters with ghosts of literary past, including Ernest Hemingway, Harriet Monroe, and Nelson Algren. Paul Durica’s Pocket Guide to Hell Tours will induct new members to the fabled Whitechapel Club, a late-nineteenth-century Chicago press club that gathered journalists together for drinking, singing, and storytelling in quarters draped with murderous artifacts.
Other features include a horrific poem-film by Simone Muench, a literary costume competition, a live video collage by Kathleen Judge of Judgeworks, and a short animated preview of the novel Ghosts by César Aira (New Directions, 2009), created by Susie Kirkwood and Jill Summers with original score by Daniel Knox. Musical guests include Chances Dances, White Mystery, and An Ebirac Project featuring Willie Gomez. Other special guests include Drag City Records, New Directions, Numero Group, and Uncle Fun.
Founded by Poetry magazine and other independent Chicago literary organizations, the Printers’ Ball celebrates literary culture by offering thousands of magazines, books, and broadsides free of charge; showcasing live music, readings, and other performances; demonstrating letterpress, offset, and silk-screen printing and paper-making; and providing other activities, entertainment, food, and drink—free!
The first 150 people to pre-register at printersball.eventbrite.com will receive a limited edition “IT’S ALIVE!” Printers’ Ball poster by Johnny Sampson when they check in at the event.
What: 7th Annual Printers’ Ball
Where: The Ludington Building
Columbia College Chicago
1104 South Wabash Avenue
One block west of Michigan Avenue
When: Friday, July 29, 2011
6:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.
Admission: Free, all ages
Dress: Come as you are, formal attire not required; costumes encouraged
