The Museum of Contemporary Art

Location: MCA Cafe The MCA's winter reading series. A selection of entertaining Chicago writers share tales of humor and intrigue at these readings hosted by author and poet Cassie Sparkman. Slam poetry at its finest, featuring the best of local, national, and international wordsmiths and ... (mere)poetry performers since 1998. HBO Def Poets Tim Stafford and Joel Chmara are joined by renowned poetry slammers Dan Sullivan, Bill Tuggle, and Emily Rose, author of Cigarette Love Songs and Nicotine Kisses, for this slam.

Free, but reservations are encouraged by calling the Next Theatre at 847-475-1875 x 2 or emailing amber@nexttheatre.org. Playwrights Yussef El Guindi, Heather Raffo and Betty Shamieh (Americans of Egyptian, Iraqi and Palestinian descent, respectively) discuss the politics in their work, their careers ... (mere)as outsider artists, the ability of art to transcend cultural differences and the political challenges of negotiating the east-west divide. Simon O'Rourke, of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, moderates.

Admission: Free Location: Robert B. and Beatrice C. Mayer Education Center Lobby Join us for our third annual Zines, Comics, and Other Hip Lit Fair celebrating independent press in all forms, including zines, comics, graphic novels, artist books, and much more. Visitors get a chance to meet the ... (mere)hottest zinesters and comics around and purchase affordable, one-of-a-kind books and original artworks. Take part in signings and serious book shopping featuring emerging and well-known authors, artists, comics, and poets selected by Quimby's Bookstore and the MCA.

Location: MCA Cafe The MCA's winter reading series. A selection of entertaining Chicago writers share tales of humor and intrigue at these readings hosted by author and poet Cassie Sparkman. Audience and artists alike are invited to analyze society through artistic expression and discussion.

Free with museum admission, but space is limited. You may reserve lecture tickets in person at the MCA box office, online, or by calling 312.397.4010. Up to two tickets may be reserved in advance. There is a $3 nonrefundable handling fee for phone and online orders. Conversation Location: Kanter ... (mere)Meeting Space (1st Floor) Book Signing: 2:30 PM in MCA Store Join us to celebrate the release of the definitive volume on Gary Panter's work -- Gary Panter -- from PictureBox Inc. with a talk and book signing directly to follow. Gary Panter has left his mark on every medium he's touched; from his era-defining punk graphics to his cartoon icon Jimbo to his visionary design for Pee-Wee's Playhouse. A three-time Emmy Award-winner and the recipient of the 2000 Chrysler Award for Design Excellence, Panter has drawn inspiration from diverse vernacular and traditional art arenas over the course of the past four decades. Chris Ware, often described as an ‘alternative cartoonist,' is best-known as the creator of the Acme Novelty Library, publications in various formats that feature the adventures of such characters as Quimby the Mouse and Jimmy Corrigan. Not quite comic books, not quite graphic novels, Ware's work mines art history, popular culture, and personal experience, capturing a queasy sense of reality of modern life in a "retro" style distinctly his own. Dan Nadel is the Director of PictureBox Inc., a Grammy Award-winning art, music, photography, and comics publisher based in Brooklyn, New York. Since 2004, PictureBox has specialized in bringing artists visions to print in startling and unexpected ways. Nadel is the author of Art Out of Time: Unknown Comics Visionaries 1900-1969.