Poet | Writer | Author
Performances, Publications and Workshops
Highlights of Featured Readings
Highland Park Poetry • 2024
Madame ZuZu's, Highland Park, IL
Uptown Poetry Show • 2015, 2017, 2018, 2023, 2024
Green Mill Jazz Lounge, Chicago, IL
Facility Theater Benefit • 2023
Facility Theater, Chicago, IL
Ebenezer Lutheran Church
Sponsored by Danztheater, Chicago, IL
Jarvis Square Pottery Fundraiser • 2022, 2023
Jarvis Square Pottery, Chicago, IL
Good Sheppard Lutheran Church, Oak Park, IL
Writer’s Week, Niles North High School • 2016, 2017,
2018, 2019, Skokie, IL
Maud Martha Out Loud • 2018
Logan Center for the Arts, University of Chicago
Sponsored by the Poetry Foundation, Chicago, IL
Not Your Grandma’s Poetry Show • 2017
Sulzer Regional Library, Poetry Fest Chicago, IL
Pop-Up Poet at the Art Institute of Chicago • 2017
Sponsored by the Poetry Foundation, Chicago, IL
Not Your Grandma’s Poetry Show • 2016
Harold Washington Library, Poetry Fest, Chicago, IL
Poetry with Vision • 2016
Loyola University, Gender Studies Program,
Chicago, IL
Poetry with Vision • 2015
Women & Children First Bookstore, Chicago, IL
Elizabeth’s Crazy Little Thing • 2015
Phyllis’ Musical Inn, Chicago, IL
“Poet at the End of the World” • 2015
Podcast Series
Caffeinated Confessions, • 2015
Everybody’s Coffee, Chicago, IL
Featured Artist/Poet Applied Words • 2011
Guild Complex/Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL
The Body Politic of Pierre Marie Brisson • 2011
Th!nkArt Gallery, Chicago, IL,
Atropolis, A Celebration of Art, Antiques & Culture • 2011 Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL
War & Peace, Th!nkArt Gallery, Chicago, IL • 2009
Sister Cities International Paris Committee fundraiser
Art gallery opening for Encyclopedia Show • 2009
Chopin Theater, Chicago, IL
WBEZ Webcast for Poetry Month Celebration • 2009
Harold Washington Library, Chicago, IL
Universe of Poetry • 2008, 2009
Flatfile Gallery, Chicago, IL
Chicago Poetry Festival • 2005
Chicago, IL
Chicago Poetry Explosion • 2005
Two-day festival at Beat Kitchen, Chicago, IL
Ben Around Town • 2003, WYCC-TV, Chicago, IL
Uncommon Ground • 2003, 2004, 2009, Chicago, IL
WHPK Radio, University of Chicago • 2003, Chicago, IL
Flyover Zone • 2003, WQNA, Springfield, IL
Morning Talk Radio • 2002, WBEZ Chicago, IL
Around The Coyote Fall Arts Festival • 2002
Chicago, IL
Civic Center Arts Fest • 2001, 2002
Fontenay Le Comte, France
WZRD Radio • 1998, 2002
Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, IL,
Cook County Fair, Chicago, IL • 2002
Multicultural arts festival
Reviews
In a school: "This was really good. I brought my phone in here thinking I'd use it the whole time, but I didn't look at it once!" - Jason, High School Student
In a bookstore:"...sadly, poetry events are often our least well-attended. So, you can imagine my delight and surprise when our reading with Emily Calvo and Andy Karol drew a crowd of more than forty people! Their work deserves audiences of this size and even larger. Every one of us was enthralled by their multimedia presentation, featuring both visual and musical accompaniment. Crackling with energy, their deeply personal writing combined with their stage presence is fiercely engaging."
— Sarah Hollenbeck,
Co-owner Women & Children First
In a library: Calvo’s poems and paintings span from topics deeply personal and profound to ones light and humorous, moving seamlessly from smiling, frivolous observation, to wincing memories of family and painful personal crises. Her first poem, for example, is called “Hunting Down Dinner on Highway 13,” a light-hearted recollection of dinner at a Missouri café called the Beefmaster. After speculating cheerfully that the restaurant’s patriarch—presumably the Beefmaster himself—has “a past as checkered as the tablecloths,” she turns her eye on the rest of the diner’s supporting cast: Mrs. Beefmaster, Junior Beefmaster, and the ever-attendant swarms of flies making the rounds of the tables. Ever insightful and good-natured, Calvo’s eye transforms a decidedly prosaic event and setting into an engaging character study and contemplation on the universal experience—part awkwardness and part adventure, part drudgery and part curiosity—of traveling the countryside. --2017
Upcoming Events
Intrinsic, The Art of Tai Taeoalii
Saturday, April 20, 2024, 7 pm
at Jackson Junge Gallery
1389 N. Milwaukee in Chicago
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Wednesday, July 10, 2024, 7 pm
Pour One Out Storytelling Series
at Volumes Book Cafe
1373 N. Milwaukee in Chicago
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To book Emily,
email emily@emilycalvo.com
Emily wrote
a poem
about us.
Literary Leadership
One Poetic Voice • 2014 to Present Co-founder,
Organizer of international exchanges, Chicago, IL
Chicago Slam Works, • 2009 to 2017 Co-founder,
Board member and “Slambassador," Chicago, IL
“How to Promote Your Poetry” Panel • 2011, 2017
Harold Washington Library, Poetry Month Fest,
Chicago, IL
“Integrating Poetry into Other Subjects” • 2005
Chicago Public Schools Magnet Cluster Institute Speaker for 100+ CPS elementary school principals and lead teachers, Chicago IL
Teaching Artists Collective • 2005 Sulzer Regional Library, Panelist on teaching poetry for arts instructors, Chicago, IL
Publication Highlights
Wherever I'm At, An Anthology of Chicago Poetry • 2022
Print literary journal, Chicago, IL
East on Central • 2019, 2021, 2022
Print literary journal, Highland Park, IL
American Gun: A Poem by 100 Chicago Poets • 2019
Big Shoulders Books, DePaul University, Chicago, IL
Nourish • 2018
Online literary journal
Dictionary of Midwestern Literature, Volume Two • 2016
Co-authored entry on Poetry Slam with Marc Kelly Smith
University of Kentucky
Lending Color to the Otherwise Absurd • 2014
First collection of original poems and art
Self-published with a grant from the Chicago Dept. of Cultural Affairs and Special Events
Helium180, A Journal of Contemporary Writing • 2014
Journal of Psychological Poetry • 2010
After Hours • 2002, 2004, 2007, 2009
Chicago, IL
Coleré, Coe College • 2002, IA
Oyez Review, Roosevelt University Press • 1998
Teaching Artist
South Middle School • 2005, 2008, Mount Prospect, IL
Joseph Sears Elementary School, Kenilworth, IL
Performance & Workshops • 2007
Two-days for middle school students
Young Women’s Leadership Charter School • 2001 - 2005, Poet-in-Residence for 7th, 8th and 12th graders through
The Poetry Center of Chicago’s Hands on Stanza program
(20-week residency per semester), Chicago, IL
Unity Junior High School, Cicero, IL • 2004, 2005
One-day workshops for three classes of eighth graders
Victor Herbert Elementary School • 2005
Chicago, IL, One-day workshops
Roosevelt Elementary School • 2003, 2004, One-day workshops for middle school students
Cicero, IL
Awards/Recognition
One of "30 Writers to Watch" • 2019
Guild Literary Complex, Chicago, IL
Individual Artist Grant, 2014
City of Chicago Department of Culture and Special Events, Chicago, IL
Semi-finalist in the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award • 2007
Guild Literary Complex, Chicago, IL
Memberships/Affiliations
American Writers Museum • 2017 Chicago
Writers Association Member • 2011 - Present
The Poetry Center of Chicago • 2005 - 2008
Board member
Society of Midland Authors • 2002 to Present