Art, music, poetry, food, drink, and conversation at the Smart Museum of Art.

Join us for a festive summer evening featuring an outdoor musical performance by Growing Concerns Poetry Collective and a series of site-specific poetry readings within our special exhibition Expanding Narratives: The Figure and the Ground. 

Enjoy beer provided by Lagunitas Brewing Company and burgers, tacos, and other summertime food from Idio Food Service and Royal Flat Caribbean Jerk Cuisine. Regine T. Rousseau, author of Searching for Cloves and Lillies, will offer a special poetry reading paired with wines curated by 57th Street Wines.

Bring your own blanket or chair.

FREE, open to all. First come, first served. Join in and share on Facebook »

About Growing Concerns

Growing Concerns Poetry Collective fuses lyrical, narrative, and hip-hop poetry with original music and soundscape to create spoken word performance that is greater than the sum of its parts. The group’s deeply personal work explores the nature of identity, love, community, and social responsibility, though a fresh and contemporary lens. The collective has performed throughout Chicago including at Steppenwolf Theatre, the MCA, and for WBEZ. Growing Concerns released its inaugural album We Here: Thank You For Noticing in August 2017, and its first book Five Fifths with Candor Arts in January 2018.

Growing Concerns is comprised of poet and rapper Mykele Deville, poet and actor McKenzie Chinn, and visual artist and musician Jeffrey Michael Austin.

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