"Tortured Poets" and people who love the art of prose can immerse themselves at the Poetry Foundation and Chicago Public Library
CHICAGO (CBS) — The anticipated release of Taylor Swift's "The Tortured Poets Department" shines a light on the esteemed literary art of poetry.
Her latest album dropped overnight, and the pop superstar had a massive surprise on tap: It's a double album. Leading up to the release of her latest work, workers painted cryptic QR codes on buildings, including one in Chicago's River North neighborhood.
She namechecks famed poets, including Dylan Thomas and singer-songwriter Patti Smith. Both lived in New York's famed Chelsea Hotel in different decades, and that place is also named in the title track.
But you don't have to travel to the Big Apple to experience the sheer delight of poetry. Chicago has a long history in the genre, including the likes of Gwendolyn Brooks, Richard Wright, Carl Sandburg, Sandra Cisneros, and Erika Sanchez, among many others.
The Windy City is home to the Poetry Foundation, which opened in 2011 on the corner of Dearborn Street and Superior Street. Chicago critic and scholar Harriet Monroe founded Poetry magazine in 1912.
The Poetry Foundation building has an expansive space featuring a 30,000-volume poetry library, exhibition gallery, and performance space for free public events.
By coincidence, the Chicago Public Library is celebrating its 25th Anniversary of Poetry Fest Programming next weekend.
It starts Saturday, April 27, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Harold Washington Library.
Some of the events in the day-long fest include a haiku fest, an open mic presentation, a panel discussion about poetry and censorship, and "poems while you wait," where poets armed with manual typewriters compose prose on the spot from audience requests.
So, if you've ever been a tortured poet, staring at a notebook but only seeing a blank space, Chicago has plenty of poetry opportunities waiting to be seen, read about, and heard.
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