Cantab Feature for Wednesday, November 13, 2019: José Olivarez

Chicago poet and author of Citizen Illegal: José Olivarez. Photo by Marcos Vasquez.

Chicago poet and author of Citizen Illegal: José Olivarez. Photo by Marcos Vasquez.

José Olivarez is the son of Mexican immigrants and the author of Citizen Illegal, a finalist for the PEN/ Jean Stein Award and a winner of the 2018 Chicago Review of Books Poetry Prize. In 2018, he was awarded the first annual Author and Artist in Justice Award from the Phillips Brooks House Association, and the book was named a top book of 2018 by NPR and the New York Public Library. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Paris Review, Chicago Magazine and elsewhere.

Along with Felicia Chavez and Willie Perdomo, he is co-editor of The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNEXT (forthcoming from Haymarket Books). He is the co-host of the Poetry Gods podcast and a recipient of fellowships from CantoMundo, Poets House, the Bronx Council on the Arts, the Poetry Foundation, and the Conversation Literary Festival. Visit him at his website.

This show in our weekly Wednesday series takes place at the Cantab Lounge, 738 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge. Doors for the show open at 7:15. The open mic begins at 8:00 and the feature performs at approximately 10:00. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.