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Gregory Harms Reads From It’s Not About Religion 9/15

Published on August 24, 2012 0 Comments
Sep ’12
15
7:00 pm

When the Middle East is covered on the news or depicted in film, what is shown is a region defined almost exclusively by violence, chaos, and extremism, and a common question often arises in response: Does religion have anything to do with it?

In It’s Not About Religion, Gregory Harms examines a range of topics in an effort to answer the question. As the book’s title indicates, the region’s woes and instability are in fact not caused by biblical or Islamic factors. Harms reveals a list of entirely secular factors and realities as he examines how and why Americans view the Arab Middle East the way they do; the history of European and U.S. involvement in the region; the emergence of Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism; and how academics and the mass media tend to discuss the region and its inhabitants.

In roughly one hundred pages, the reader is shown a constellation of history and culture that will hopefully help move the conversation of the Middle East and U.S. foreign policy in a more grounded and precise direction.

“An informative, lively, and humane look at the real sources of conflict and struggle in the [Middle East].” –Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine

GREGORY HARMS is an independent scholar and the author of The Palestine–Israel Conflict: A Basic Introduction (3rd ed., 2012) and Straight Power Concepts in the Middle East: US Foreign Policy, Israel, and World History (2010). His articles appear on CounterPunch, Truthout, and Mondoweiss. He has been interviewed on BBC Radio and Chicago Public Radio.

For more info:
gregoryharms.com
percevalpress.com

 

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CCLaP Performs “Podcast Dreadful”

Published on August 23, 2012 0 Comments
Sep ’12
21
7:00 pm

Join the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography (CCLaP) on Friday, September 21st, as it presents a live-audience episode of its new “Podcast Dreadful” serial literary anthology, at the popular Quimby’s Bookstore in Wicker Park. Known for its annual themed compilation of local short work every fall, this year CCLaP is presenting this work as a free 12-part audiobook at its website cclapcenter.com/dreadful, every Monday in September, October and November; featuring a variety of celebrated authors both locally and across the US, each story in this collection has been written in the style of an old Victorian “penny dreadful,” featuring cliffhangers each week and a dark, strange tone throughout. Episode number 4 will be performed in front of a live audience at the famed indie-lit venue Quimby’s, and will feature not only readings from local authors Davis Schneiderman, Jacob Knabb, Jason Fisk and CCLaP owner Jason Pettus, but also real-time radio-style sound effects by a specially assembled stage crew. Free refreshments will also be served that night, and with other CCLaP merchandise available for purchase.

For more info: cclapcenter.com/dreadful or write Jason Pettus at cclapcenter@gmail.com

 Fri, Sept 21st, 7pm

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Matthew Gavin Frank Reads From Pot Farm 9/7

Published on August 8, 2012 0 Comments
Sep ’12
7
7:00 pm

In Matthew Gavin Frank’s new book Pot Farm (The University of Nebraska Press), he talks about his work on a medical marijuana farm in Northern California. Through firsthand observations and experiences (some influenced by the farm’s cash crop), interviews, and research, Pot Farm exposes a thriving but unsung faction of contemporary American culture.

” Investigative research coupled with personal reflections on a controversial arena of American farm production.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Pot Farm is the curious and compelling tale of a hazy season spent harvesting medical marijuana. The cast of characters rivals those found in the finest comic fiction, except these folks are real, and really peculiar. Pot Farm is smart, sly, revelatory, often laugh-out-loud funny, and entirely legal. —Dinty W. Moore, author of Between Panic and Desire

“Sex, politics, intrigue, crime, adventure, life and death—it’s all here, in a strangely compelling hybrid of action flick meets postmodern philosophical meditation meets Cheech and Chong. This compulsively readable exposé from a self-proclaimed ‘unreliable narrator’ has it all, including a cast of outcast characters who simply jump off the page.”—Gina Frangello, author of Slut Lullabies

Matthew Gavin Frank is the author of Pot Farm, Barolo, Warranty in Zulu, The Morrow Plots (forthcoming from Black Lawrence Press/Dzanc Books), Sagittarius Agitprop and more. Recent work appears in The New Republic, The Huffington Post, The Iowa Review, The Best Food Writing, The Best Travel Writing, Creative Nonfiction, Gastronomica, and others. He currently teaches Creative Writing in the MFA Program at Northern Michigan University, where he is the Nonfiction Editor of Passages North.  This winter, he prepared his first batch of whitefish-thimbleberry ice cream.

For more info: matthewgfrank.com

Fri, Sept 7th, 7:00 pm

Lauren Barnett, Neil Fitzpatrick and Bernie McGovern at Quimby’s 8/18

Published on July 21, 2012 0 Comments
Aug ’12
18
7:00 pm
Lauren Barnett, www.melikesyou.com
Barnett has been posting comics to her website for almost 7 years. She has self published 4 mini comics (I’d Sure Like Some Fucking Pancakes, Secret Weirdo, Was That Supposed to be Funny?, and A story about Fish). Her work has been printed in many anthologies and carried in stores across the US. Hic and Hoc Publications recently published her first full length book collecting her comics from 2008-2012 called Me Likes You Very Much. She currently lives in Brooklyn NY.

Neil Fitzpatrick, http://neiljam.com/
Neil Fitzpatrick has been drawing Neil Jam comics in one form or another for many years. He self published the first assemblage of Neil Jam comics in minicomic form. Neil Jam #1 was released in the summer of 1997. Neil Jam has seen print in dozens of minicomics since then, as well as a handful of indie-comics anthologies. In addition to comic books, he’s dabbled quite a bit with Neil Jam in comic strip form. Neil Jam ran as a student comic strip at the University of Missouri for four years. He currently lives in Chicago.

Bernie McGovern, www.rockwellfarmer.com
Bernie McGovern is a puppet designer, illustrator, and comics artist living in Chicago. He teaches for Snow City Arts in Rush Hospital’s pediatrics ward, where children can continue to learn while missing school. Current Snow City Arts projects include a patient-designed video game and shadow puppet animation. His personal projects include the graphic novels “An Army of Lovers will be Beaten” and “The Cosmouse.” His puppets have appeared in plays by Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Neo-Futurists of Chicago, The Hypocrites, Dog & Pony, Sanculottes, and Drinking & Writing Theater. He has a great love for collaborators, juniper, hazelnut infused chocolate, and his parents.

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David Rees Reads From How to Sharpen Pencils 8/15

Published on July 18, 2012 0 Comments
Aug ’12
15
7:00 pm

In David Rees’s new book How to Sharpen Pencils (Melville House), the creator of Get Your War On and founder of ArtisanalPencilSharpening.com shares the secrets of his craft, empowering the layman to discover the pleasures (and perils) of sharpening pencils. Over the course of 18 chapters, Rees explains the difference between sharpening techniques, including:

– Using a Pocketknife

– Using a Single-Burr Handcrank Sharpener

– Sharpening Pencils for Children

– and many more!

“How to Sharpen Pencils is very funny—it’s the work, let’s not forget, of the guy responsible for Get Your War On—but it’s no April Fools’ joke, and it’s no bathroom book. It’s a literary oddity that, even as it gleefully pursues the comic possibilities of its premise, subtly gestures towards its own secluded seriousness. And, for what it’s worth, it also marks the standard to which all future pencil-sharpening textbooks must now aspire.”

– Mark O’Connell, NewYorker.com

“I trust my bespoke pencils only to David Rees.”

– Liz Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

“You may think that sharpening a pencil is easy, but David Rees makes it look hard, and that makes all the difference.”

– John Hodgman, Areas of My Expertise

The work of David Rees has been featured in such places as: Rolling Stone, GQ, Punk Planet, and The Nation. His work has also been in such anthologies as Ultimate Blogs: Masterworks from the Wild Web and The McSweeney’s Book of Politics & Musicals. He has been featured on podcasts and radio shows such as Bullseye with Jesse Thorn and The Best Show on WFMU.

For more info: artisanalpencilsharpening.com

Wed, Aug 15th, 7pm

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