Friday, April 25, 2025: Poetry Readings with Rachel Jamison Webster & Virginia Bell
7:00 - 9:00 pm
Join us in for an evening of poetry and cocktails in celebration of National Poetry Month. Our featured poets will be Rachel Jamison Webster and Virginia Bell. There will be time for a Q&A with the audience, and books will be available for sale and signing by the authors.
7:00 -9:00 PM
Join us in for an evening of poetry and cocktails in celebration of National Poetry Month. Our featured poets will be Rachel Jamison Webster and Virginia Bell. There will be time for a Q&A with the audience, and books will be available for sale and signing by the authors.
This is a free event, but we ask you to RSVP as space is limited
Rachel Jamison Webster
Rachel Jamison Webster is a professor of creative writing at Northwestern University and the author of four books of poetry in addition to the nonfiction book, Benjamin Banneker and Us, which was chosen as a Best Book of 2023 by The New Yorker and picked as a Notable Book by The New York Times, Booklist and other outlets. Rachel’s essays, poems, and stories have been published in outlets including Poetry, The Paris Review, and The Yale Review. She lives in Evanston with her husband, the poet John McCarthy, and their daughter Adele.
Virginia Bell
Author of the poetry collection Lifting Child from the Ground, Turning Around (Glass Lyre Press 2025) and From the Belly (Sibling Rivalry Press 2012), Virginia Bell won NELLE Magazine’s Nonfiction Prize in 2020 for the personal essay, “Chicken,” and her poetry won Honorable Mention in the 2019 riverSedge Poetry Prize, judged by José Antonio Rodríguez. Her work has appeared in New City Magazine, Five Points, Denver Quarterly, SWWIM, EAP: The Magazine, Hypertext, The Night Heron Barks, Kettle Blue Review, Fifth Wednesday Journal, Rogue Agent, Gargoyle, Cider Press Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, Poet Lore, The Nervous Breakdown, The Keats Letters Project, Blue Fifth Review, Voltage Poetry, and other journals and anthologies. Bell is Co-Editor of RHINO Poetry and teaches at Loyola University Chicago and DePaul University.
Friday, June 20, 2025: Ernest Hemingway Teaches Us About Who We Are
6:30 - 8:00 pm
Join us for our Discussion and Friday@Hemingway series with Dr. Aaron Lawler. Using books by Illinois authors, Dr. Lawler explores philosophical questions about self and purpose, helping audiences reflect on their personal stories. We learn through story, from history and art to science and economics. This workshop delves into the hero archetype, Hemingway’s hero, and pursuing your better self. Participants will explore ideas from Joseph Campbell, Maureen Murdock, Goethe, Ernest Hemingway, David Brooks, and Carol Dweck.
6:30 -8:30 PM
Dr. Aaron Lawler uses books by popular Illinois authors to explore common philosophical questions about self and purpose and help audiences reflect on their own personal stories. We are natural-born learners, and we learn through story. Everything, from history and art to science and economics, is framed in story. This presentation/workshop delves into the hero archetype, Hemingway’s hero, and chasing your better self. Participants will explore work and ideas from Joseph Campbell, Maureen Murdock, Goethe, Ernest Hemingway, David Brooks, Carol Dweck.
*This is an Illinois Humanities Road Scholars Speakers Bureau event. Illinois Humanities is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy Demands Wisdom and the Illinois General Assembly [through the Illinois Arts Council Agency], as well as by contributions from individuals, foundations, and corporations.
Saturday, July 19, 2025: Hemingway Birthday Porch Concert with Local Memory and Lydia Cash
7:00 - 9:00 PM
Tonight, as part of our F@H series we present a porch concert featuring Local Memory and Lydia Cash. We will also acknowledge our student scholarship recipients while celebrating Hemingway’s 126th birthday.
General lawn seating will be available and feel free to bring your own lawn chair. Refreshment service will also be available. *net proceeds benefit the Foundations Student Scholarship Fund
7:00 - 9:00 PM
Tonight, as part of our F@H series we present a porch concert featuring Local Memory and Lydia Cash. We will also acknowledge our student scholarship recipients while celebrating Hemingway’s 126th birthday. General lawn seating will be available and feel free to bring your own lawn chair. Refreshments will also be available. *net proceeds benefit the Foundations Student Scholarship Fund
This event is RAIN OR SHINE and we will have a tent on the front lawn in case of rain.
Local Memory
Local Memory is a six-piece indie/alt-country band from Chicago, Illinois, led by songwriter Amy Myers & collaborator Matt Ciani, joined by guitarist Lucas Chamberlain, drummer Nico Ciani, pianist Nicole Murray, & vocalist Lydia Cash.
Lydia Cash
Lydia Cash writes candidly about her life, forging songs as beacons of authenticity in which she reveals the innermost workings of her heart’s loves and losses. Her delicate melodies woven with alt-rock angst showcase this native Alabamian /Chicago transplant’s dichotomy of grit and sweetness.
Friday, September 19, 2025: Storytelling: Dear John
7:00 -9:00 pm
STORY TELLING @HEMINGWAY’S
This evenings Friday@Hemingway's features the Hemingway Birthplace as a backdrop for an evening of storytelling. The crown jewel within the Hemingway Archives collection is the letter Ernest Hemingway received from his nurse, Agnes von Kurowsky, upon his return to Oak Park in 1919 after serving in the American Red Cross during World War I. This famed “Dear John” shaped Hemingway and literary history. Join Chicago-area storytellers for an evening of “Dear John” tales in the front parlor room of Hemingway’s birthplace home.
Storytelling@Hemingways: Dear John
7:00 - 9:00 PM
F@H's features the Hemingway Birthplace as a backdrop for an evening of storytelling. The crown jewel within the Hemingway Archives collection is the letter Ernest Hemingway received from his nurse, Agnes von Kurowsky, upon his return to Oak Park in 1919 after serving in the American Red Cross during World War I. This famed “Dear John” shaped Hemingway and literary history.
Join the following Chicago-area storytellers for an evening of “Dear John” tales in the front parlor room of Hemingway’s birthplace home:
Austin Jordan is a Chicago-based actor, improviser, and comic who's been rejected just enough to find the humor in it. This summer he appeared as Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice at the Morton Arboretum with Inkwell Arts and performs regularly at iO with his improv group The Gist. He’s also brought his comedy to the stand-up stage at The Fest: Vol. 1 and The Spades Table. Austin is excited to share his story that proves rejection can sting...and still get a laugh.
I was born a minority of a minority. Black and Mormon. It made silence feel louder.
Dr. Karen Mitchell is an emeritus professor of communication studies at the University of Northern Iowa, where she taught courses in performance studies for thirty years. For 25 years, she was the Artistic Director of UNI Interpreters Theatre, directed a group dedicated to promoting gender justice on campus, and was a leader in diversity, equity, and inclusion workshops on campus. Since retiring in 2021, she has organized two storytelling events, acted in community theatre productions and independent films, and directed plays and staged readings. Currently, she lives a good life in Waterloo, Iowa, with her golden doodle Gigi.
Facebook offered a free dating app, and I thought “Why not?” However, like most free things there’s often a catch, and Larry was quite the catch.
Patti Minglin is the CEO of Go Girl Communications, where she helps brands find their voice and actually get people to listen. She’s been called a “connector,” a “creative spark,” and (by her kids) “a little too enthusiastic with emojis.” Beyond running her agency, Patti serves as the chair-elect on the Executive Board of the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce, champions nonprofits like Beautifully EmpowHERed and Naperville's School District 203 Workforce Innovation Council and regularly takes the stage to share her stories of life and leadership.
In this heartfelt and hilariously honest talk, Patti shares her “Dear John” letter—not to a past relationship, but to the woman she used to be. What if the hardest breakup you ever go through… isn't with a person at all?
Mike Mitchell is a veteran high school English and drama teacher with 31 years of experience. He has directed numerous plays and musicals and remains active on stage himself. A few of his performance credits include Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing (Goodly Creatures Theatre), Murray in The Odd Couple (BrightSideTheatre), Toad in A Year with Frog and Toad (North Central College Summer Theatre.) Recently, he has been performing at comedy clubs throughout the Chicago suburbs with the improv group Skits n’ Giggles. Offstage, Mike’s favorite role is that of husband and father. Married for 30 years and the proud dad of three daughters, he enjoys playing guitar, walking his dog, reading Shakespeare, and grilling for family and friends.
Try to imagine telling someone, “I think we should split,” and then continuing to live together, for another four years, for the sake of the kids.
Friday, October 24, 2025: Haunted Hemingway, Ghost Stories
7:00 -9:00 pm
Haunted Hemingway, Ghost Stories
F@H's features the Hemingway Birthplace as a backdrop for an evening of literary ghost stories read by Chicago area writers. Authors will be announced as they are confirmed.
Haunted Hemingway, Ghost Stories
7:00 - 9:00 PM
F@H's features the Hemingway Birthplace as a backdrop for an evening of literary ghost stories read by Chicago area writers. Featured authors will be announced as they are confirmed:
Ananda Lima is the author of Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil (Tor, 2024) and Mother/land (Black Lawrence Press, 2021), winner of the Hudson Prize. Her work has appeared in American Poetry Review, Poets.org, Kenyon Review, Electric Literature, and elsewhere. She is a Contributing Editor at Poets & Writers and Program Curator and Core Faculty at StoryStudio, Chicago. She has an MA in Linguistics (UCLA) and an MFA in Creative Writing (Rutgers University, Newark). Craft, her fiction debut, was longlisted for the Story Prize, the ALA Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and received starred reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and Library Journal. The New York Times describes it as “a remarkable debut that announces the arrival of a towering talent in speculative fiction.” Lima is also a translator and a photographer. Originally from Brazil, she lives in Chicago and New York.
Nat Holtzmann is a writer and bookmaker who frequently collaborates across mediums with other artists. Her debut story collection, Slight (TEMPER Press, 2025), blurs the lines of short fiction and prose poetry to probe the dark waters of girlhood. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best Small Fictions, and is featured in or forthcoming from Chicago Review, Denver Quarterly, Salt Hill Journal, Necessary Fiction, The Minnesota Review, and elsewhere. She teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Sahar Mustafah’s debut novel The Beauty of Your Face was named a 2020 Notable Book and Editor’s Choice by New York Times Book Review and one of Marie Claire Magazine’s 2020 Best Fiction by Women. Her award-winning short stories have been recently featured in Prairie Schooner, The Massachusetts Review, and Redline: Chicago Horror Stories. Her second novel, The Slightest Green, is forthcoming this November from Interlink Books. Mustafah writes and teaches outside of Chicago.
Nick Medina, born in Chicago, Illinois and a member of the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana, Nick Medina writes horror, thriller, and mystery fiction that pairs social issues with local and Native American folklore. In addition to writing, he enjoys live music, ghost stories, and spending time with family. His third novel, The Whistler, is out now. Connect with him on www.nickmedina.net, Instagram (@nickmedinawrites), Threads (@nickmedinawrites) and X (@MedinaNick).
