Chicago Calling Collaboration: Buddah 309 & T. Renner

T. Renner, "Negative Zone (for John Byrne)," 2010, acrylic on paper, 7" x 5".

Inspired by "Negative Zone"

Spending the morning
Curled and coughing
On the restroom floor
Of an office building
Where your interview was meant to be
45 minutes earlier


You don’t remember the time passing
Or how you ended up
With your face on the cold marble
There’s a pain in your gut
And you pull yourself up
Into composure


Cold water to the face
Wipes away the attempted makeover
You dab at the red and black flecks
Caked at the corners of cracked lips
“What happened to those 45 minutes?”
“Who the hell walked on my tongue?”

-- Buddha 309

During the Fifth Annual Chicago Calling Arts Festival, Chicago-based artists collaborate with artists in other locations—both here in the U.S. and abroad. These collaborations involve a range of art forms—including music, dance, film, literature, and intermedia—and they are prepared or improvised.

This Fifth Annual Chicago Calling Arts Festival and Chicago Artists Month event happens as part of the Waiting 4 the Bus series will be held Monday, October 4, 7:00 p.m., at Café Ballou, 939 N. Western Avenue, Chicago, IL, (773) 342-2909. All ages event, free and open to the public.

Participants will include:

Matthew Barton (Chicago) and Duane Vorhees (Bangkok)

Postcard from NYC -- Al DeGenova (Chicago), Charlie Rossiter (Chicago), Dan Cox (Albany, NY), and Ralph Murre (Baileys Harbor, WI)

Lisa Hemminger (San Diego) and Jeff Mroz (Chicago) -- poetry and music collaboration

Wayne Allen Jones (Chicago) and Robert Karimi (Minneapolis) -- poetry collaboration

A Mess O Poems: "from now on, we will NOT have died young” -- a poetry collaboration between Elizabeth Marino (Chicago) and Sally Evans (Edinburgh)

Buddha 309 (Chicago) and Tony Renner (St. Louis) -- poetry and visual art collaboration

Chainpoem, with Marie Countryman (Vermont), Yentz Melanov (Munich), Song Zijiang (Macao), Charlie Newman (Chicago), Francoise La Maline (Buenos Aires), Steven Schroeder (Chicago), Murray One (Calgary), Mindaugas Briedis (Vilnius), Ken Hada (Ada, OK), and David Breeden (Minneapolis)

Shelley Nation-Watson (Chicago) and Amanda Purdom (Tulsa, OK) -- poetry collaboration

Sid Yiddish (Chicago) and John Hardwick (Indianapolis) -- musical collaboration