Artists, Activists & Authors After Hours with Chesa Boudin

The evening will begin with a reading by Kevin Coval from his recently published collection of poetry, "Slingshots: A Hip-Hop Poetica." A discussion will follow with activist, editor, letter-writer, and student Chesa Boudin and the book's preface writer, Bernardine Dohrn, who is the Director and Founder of the Children and Family Justice Center at Northwestern University School of Law and long-time activist. The conversation will be moderated by Michael Reyes, Chicano Mexican poet, youth organizer, and co-founder of two youth spaces in Chicago, Batey Urbano and Zocalo Urbano.

This potent mix of artists and activists will discuss the role of youth in current political movements, exploring such questions as: How are youth being marginalized from the activist community? What would a movement look like that was inclusive of youth? How can we cultivate and support the next generation of activists and young thinkers?

"Letters from Young Activists" and "Slingshots" will be available for purchase and signing at the event.

More on Featured Books:

• Letters from Young Activits
• Slingshots: A Hip Hop Poetica (through Kevin Coval's website)

More on Participants:

• Chesa Boudin is a 25 year old itinerant activist, writer and student. He recently began his second Masters degree in public policy in Latin America at Oxford University on a Rhodes scholarship. Chesa has participated in a range of community service projects in the US and around the world. His volunteer work experience includes protecting nature reserves in rural Guatemala and constructing houses in shantytowns in central Chile. Chesa has used writing, campus and community organizing, and public speaking to advocate for changes in social and foreign policy. He has campaigned for improved prison conditions and protection of prisoners' rights in Connecticut State prisons, and around the country. Chesa has also lectured widely on the impact of parental incarceration on young children, and published several essays on the issue. Chesa Boudin is editor of the recently published collection, Letters from Young Activists: Today's Rebels Speak Out. This book is also edited by Dan Bergon and Kenyon Farrow.
• Bernardine Dohrn is the Director and Founder of the Children and Family Justice Center at Northwestern University School of Law. She is a leading child advocate and serves on the boards of directors of the Erikson Institute and the Chicago Reporter. She is a member of numerous organizations, including the Domestic Violence Child Abuse Working Group of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, the steering committee of the Illinois Family Violence Coordinating Committee and the Midwest Coalition for Human Rights. She was a member of the Expert Work Group for the Adoption 2002 Project of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and she co- chaired the Fordham Conference on Ethical Issues in the Delivery of Legal Services to Low Income Persons.
• Four time HBO Def Poet Kevin Coval is a regular contributor to Chicago Public Radio. His writing has appeared in "The Spoken Word Revolution," "Chicago Tribune," "XCP:Cross-Cultural Poetics," "Chicago Reporter," "Cross Currents," and "Crab Orchard Review." He has performed at Battle Cry: The African Hip-Hop Festival; Parliment of the World's Religions (Cape Town, South Africa); and Saint Xavier's College (Bombay, India). Co-Founder of The Chicago Teen Poetry Festival: Louder Than A Bomb, Coval serves as the Artistic Director of Young Chicago Authors.
• Michael Reyes is a Chicano Mexican poet and youth organizer who combines hip hop influences with potent spoken word that confronts the many social ills faced by the Latino communities of Chicago. Gentrification, citizenship of the Americas, neoliberalism, forced migration, white supremacy, racism and colonialism are all topics organized and arranged into poetic stories that not only teach but entertain. Reyes is a co- founder of two youth spaces in Chicago, Batey Urbano (a Puerto Rican Latino space) and Zocalo Urbano ( a Mexican, Chicana/o Latina/o space). Reyes is also a lead organizer of the Participatory Democracy Project in Humboldt Park, a Batey initiative in partnership with the National Boricua Human Rights Network and the Juan Antonio Cortejer Puerto Rican Cultural Center, which helps facilitate community involvement by going door to door, using models from Latin America such as the Bolivarin circles of Venezuela and many of the principles used in Chiapas, Mexico by the Zapatistas.

For more information or an invitation, please contact Kristin Millikian at 312.422.5580.