avery r. young
Chicago’s Inaugural Poet Laureate, interdisciplinary artist avery r. young is also an award-winning teaching artist. As co-director of The Floating Museum, young’s work stretches to that programming and curation of the Chicago Architecture Biennial - Cab5, This is a Rehearsal [2023]. In the foreword of his most recent book neckbone: visual verses (Northwestern University Press), Theaster Gates called him “one of our greatest living street poets...one of the most important thinkers on the Black experience,” Black Grooves referred to his album tubman. (FPE Records) as “brilliant” and “supremely funky.” Young’s poems and essays have been published in Cecil McDonald's In The Company of Black, The BreakBeat Poets, and other anthologies. His album booker t. soltreyne: a race rekkid engages matters of race, gender, and sexuality in America during the Obama Era. Avery’s work in performance, visual text, and sound design has been featured in several exhibitions and theater festivals---notably The Hip Hop Theatre Festival, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Contemporary Art, and American Jazz Museum. He is the featured vocalist on flutist Nicole Mitchell’s Mandorla Awakening (FPE Records). His theater credits include co-writing and co-producing the soundtrack for Lise Haller Baggeson’s Hatorgrade Retrograde: The Musical, scoring RedClay Dance’s Rest.Restore.Nourinsh.Move.Heal and writing the libretto for The Chicago Lyric Opera’s Twilight: Gods. Currently young is working on the libretto, compositions for his debut opera titled safronia and he is working on the score and script for his debut play, maim de looter(s).
Profile caption: avery r. young with orayer hands Profile image by: avery r. young by Sulyiman Stokes
outtake for headshot photo shoot
photo by Sulyiman Stokes
Featured Artworks
Chi Soul Workshop
In a room with participants facilitating a ChiSoul Poetry workshop.
photo courtesy of DCASE and Chicago Public
avery, in a blue rain poncho admist a room of participants at one of the ChiSoul Poetry Workshops held throughout his tenure
studio day for recording soloem
avery r young in studio with backing vocalists
photo by Sulyiman Stokes
avery r. young inside of studio with backgrounds vocalists recording his soloem for his Civic Engagement project with the Academy of American Poets
avery performs at Poetry Foundation
avery r young performing at the Poetry Foundation in Chicago, IL
photo courtesy of Poetry Foundation
performing a poem for Patricia Smith's induction into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame at the Poetry Foundation
avery r. young has crowd-funded a project with 3AP
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- $3,026 raised of $3,000 goal
- 0 Days 0:00:00 LEFT
Combining song, poetry, and interviews about race and politics, "booker t. soltreyne" is a new CD and archival project that reflects on how old pedagogies and processes of racism still exist in the Obama Era.
Read more about booker t. soltreyne