Heaven Del Marie performs her poetry with AJ Pryor on chair-drum at Monday’s Poetry as Self Defense: The physical embodiment of language

See the final Cheryl Pope Just Yell : From Within performance, Poetry as Self Defense: Poetry Fashion Dance Music on Thursday, August 20 at 6 PM

Behind the scenes: Our events staff just set up this gorgeous swirling chair arrangement for the next Cheryl Pope performance, Just Yell/Poetry as Self Defense: The physical embodiment of language, which will happen at the Poetry Foundation on Monday, August 10 at 6 PM.

In the second of three performances in Cheryl Pope’s Just Yell : From Within exhibition, Pope and employees from Chicago’s Thousand Waves Martial Arts & Self Defense Center leads a team of young poets through a performance of self defense training and poetry practice. Poets will engage in conversation and movement that confronts issues of race, gender, policing, and abuses of power.

WALK BACK WITH ME: This Wednesday, July 15, from  2:00PM–4:00PM, artists from Cheryl Pope’s Walk With Me #3 invite the Chicago community to join a conversation about the experience of the opening performance for Just Yell : From Within. Video and photographic documentation will be screened for those who missed the initial performance. Light refreshments will be provided.

Poetry Foundation, 61 West Superior Street, Chicago IL.
Free admission

The corresponding exhibition is up at the Poetry Foundation through August 28. In Just Yell: From Within, Cheryl Pope and a group of young poets from Chicago public schools activate various places and spaces of the Poetry Foundation through installation, sculpture, and spoken-word. Borrowing themes and tactile relics of American high school culture, Pope and the young poets address issues of violence as they plague the city of Chicago at a rapidly increasing rate.

See the exhibition 11AM–4PM, Monday–Friday.

Cheryl Pope’s Just Yell: From Within opening reception on June 11 featured the performance WALK WITH ME #3 featuring Phenix Military Academy Poets. 

In the performance, young Chicago writers carved poems into the surface of school desks in this interactive installation that speaks to systems of power and violence. Representing an average Chicago Public School class size, 32 students from Phoenix Military Academy performed in collaboration with Just Yell / Poetry as Self Defense and Project&. Viewers were invited for a walk with students in which they shared a spoken poem during an intimate one to one exchange. 

The exhibition is up at the Poetry Foundation through August 28. In Just Yell: From WithinCheryl Pope and a group of young poets from Chicago public schools activate various places and spaces of the Poetry Foundation through installation, sculpture, and spoken-word. Borrowing themes and tactile relics of American high school culture, Pope and the young poets address issues of violence as they plague the city of Chicago at a rapidly increasing rate.

See the exhibition 11AM–4PM Monday–Friday. 

Part of the exhibition will be available for viewing during our evening events.