from my email--Lit & Luz
This summer at Make Lit: Luz at the Edge, Book Club, Podcasts and more!
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July Newsletter
Image: Cabeza de Chivo
Get your tickets before they sell out!
Image: Luz at the Edge graphics by Irene Wa
Luz at the Edge: a night of music and dance in support of the Lit & Luz Festival
Saturday, August 8, 8 PM
The Empty Bottle — 1035 N Western Ave, Chicago
With special guests: Cabeza de Chivo, artists Selina Trepp (2017-18 Lit & Luz Collaboration Cohort), Flor Flores (2023-24 Lit & Luz Collaboration Cohort), and DJ’s selective listening, Jordan Knecht, and Señor Eddy.
On August 8, we will come together to celebrate our culture and community in support of the artists, writers, and performers of Lit & Luz, as well as the ongoing work of building bridges between Chicago and Mexico.
A night of live music, poetry, performance, and dance at Chicago’s Empty Bottle. Your ticket purchase helps MAKE continue fostering international collaboration and offering free bilingual arts programming at accessible venues throughout Chicago and Mexico City!
Artist ticket: $30
Lit & Luz Supporter (general admission): $40
100% of ticket sales, raffle sales, and donations will go toward producing the Lit & Luz Festival and compensating the performing artists.
Host Committee: Jessica Ann, Mariela Acuña, Elise Butterfield, Antonio Oliva Diaz, John H. Guevara, Sam Lewis, Alivé Piliado, Kathleen Rooney, Teresa Silva, Gibran Villalobos, and Zespo
Image: Laura Letinksy, From To Say It Isn't So, Chicago, 2006, Platinum Palladium Print, 4” x 5”, Print, 2016
Win an artwork from Chicago luminaries and Lit & Luz past participants Alberto Aguilar, Cecilia Beaven, or Laura Letinsky while supporting cultural exchange through the Luz at the Edge Art Raffle.
Purchasing a $25 raffle ticket affirms your commitment to international collaboration between artists and writers from Chicago and Mexico.
Secure your tickets online now through August 8, 2026. Drawing will occur at Luz at the Edge on August 8, at the Empty Bottle. For more details, visit: https://www.litluz.org/
All proceeds from this fundraiser benefit MAKE Literary Productions’ Lit & Luz Festival, which seeks to:
Foster international collaboration between artists and writers from Chicago and Mexico through the Collaboration Cohort—an interdisciplinary, low-residency program centered on the creation of new work through partnerships and travel
Imagine and offer free, bilingual arts programming at accessible venues throughout Chicago and Mexico City
Build dedicated audiences for contemporary Mexican literature and multidisciplinary art in Chicago, and likewise for Chicago literature and art throughout Mexico
Lit & Luz Book Club is back!
Join the Lit & Luz Book Club/Club de lectura this summer and fall to read and discuss some of today’s most exciting contemporary Mexican and Chicago-based authors in both Spanish and English.
Founded in 2018 by writer and Lit & Luz Literary Director emeritus, Miguel Jiménez, the esteemed local reading group is hosted this year by author and performer Angelica Julia Dávila and is an opportunity for Chicagoans to read Latinx literature in translation and recent works by authors in Lit & Luz’s Collaboration Cohort and community.
The 2026 Lit & Luz Book Club will partner this summer with Time and a half Books, Pilsen Community Books, Chicas de Pilsen, and the National Museum of Mexican Art to host conversations and activities once a month. At these meetups, Lit & Luz Book Club participants will also be able to explore themes from the book through a writing or art exercise.
Upcoming books & meetups!
July:
Poetry After Barbarism: The Invention of Motherless Tongues and Resistance to Fascism by Jennifer Scappettone (Columbia University Press, 2025)
Meetup: July 29, 6:30 pm at
August:
String Theory by Karen Villeda, Translated from the Spanish by NAFTA (Cardboard House Press, 2025)
Meetup: August 20, 7:00 pm at Time and a half Books
September:
Tsunami: Women’s Voices from Mexico edited and translated by Heather Cleary and Gabriela Jauregui with additional translations by Julianna Neuhouser, Gabriela Ramirez-Chavez, and Julia Sanches, (The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2025
- Meetup: September 20, 12:00 pm at Pilsen Community Books
October:
Corazón de hojalata / Tin Heart by Margarita Saona (Pandora Lobo Estepario Productions, 2017
Meetup: October 24, 12:00 pm, location TBA
Image: Lit & Luz Podcast Episode 7, 'Facilitar el arte: Curaduría, comunidad y colaboración' with Mariela Acuña and Alive Piliado
Listen to the 7th episode of our Lit & Luz Podcast, a conversation with curators Mariela Acuña, Director of Exhibition and Residency at the Hyde Park Arts Center, as well as Alivé Piliado, Associate Curator at the National Museum of Mexican Art (NMMA).
Titled, 'Facilitar el arte: Curaduría, comunidad y colaboración', in this Spanish-speaking podcast episode, Mariela and Alivé chat with our Executive Director, Sofia Gabriel, about their practices and their contributions to the Chicago Arts ecosystem, as well as the new residency partnerships we established with the Art Center and NMMA to support the collaborations and the artists to build new platforms, and connect with a broader community before the festival.
Lit & Luz Chicago collaborates with over 17 cultural organizations across the city to help represent Chicago’s art scene and its varied Latinx/e culture.
Listen to this podcast episode by clicking the link below, or find the Lit & Luz Podcast on Spotify and Apple Music.
SAVE THE DATE: Nov 8 - Nov 13, 2026
The 2026-27 Lit & Luz Festival of Language, Literature, and Art, our signature cross-cultural celebration of Language, Literature, and Art, will return to Chicago, November 8- Nov 13, 2026, bringing together artists, performers, musicians, poets, and writers from Chicago and Mexico around the theme of “Edge/Borde”. Participating artists in the festival's 13th edition will explore social, geographical, and linguistic limits through tensions at the “edge of space”. The weeklong festival programming will consider the complexities of official borders, as well as the ways in which soft and hard edges are constructed within cities and regions—and within artistic practices themselves—through language, culture, identity, and policy.
Save the date and join us in Chicago this fall!
Image: Audience at the Lit & Luz Live Magazine Show at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago . Photo by Natasha Moustache.
This & That
This Saturday, The People’s Cup: Futbolito for the Arts!
If you’re feeling skeptical about grand promises of global unity and social impact, we’ve got a more tangible way to make a difference.
Join CAD for The People’s Cup: Futbolito for the Arts, on Saturday, July 18, 1-4 pm, a foosball tournament and fundraiser celebrating art and community with a little friendly competition.
On the eve of the 2026 World Cup, CAD is bringing people together for an afternoon of foosball, art-making, foods, drinks, and fun–all in support of CAD and its mission.
Chicago Art Department, 1926 S. Halsted, Chicago, IL 60608
Saturday, July 18, 2026, 1-4 pm
All proceeds directly support CAD’s mission to champion local artists.
Image: Esteban King
Image: Susy Bielak
Conversation & Exhibition Walkthrough
Join artist Susy Bielak (2016-17 Lit & Luz Collaboration Cohort) and Esteban King—a Mexico City–based curator, writer, and Artistic Director of Lit & Luz—for an evening conversation and walkthrough of Camas de Ceniza / Ash Beds.
Esteban and Susy first met through the binational Lit & Luz Festival in 2017 and have remained in ongoing dialogue ever since. Together they will discuss the ideas, materials, and research behind the exhibition, exploring the intersections of landscape, migration, environmental change, and memory while moving through the installation.
Susy Bielak is the central artist behind Camas de Ceniza / Ash Beds. Esteban King is a Mexico City–based curator, Artistic Director of Lit & Luz, and Modern Art Curator at Zona MACO.
Conversation & Exhibition Walkthrough Camas de Ceniza / Ash Beds with Susy Bielak and Esteban King
Thursday, July 23, 2026
Pueblo Unido Gallery, 6212 N Clark Street Chicago IL USA
Gallery open: 6:00–8:30 p.m.
Conversation & exhibition walkthrough: 7:00 p.m.
Invest in cultural exchange!
Image: Gabriela Damián Miravete and Maria Gaspar, “What broken bones will we mend together now?” / “¿Qué huesos rotos sanaremos ahora?” at the Live Magazine Show, MCA November 2025. Photo by Natasha Moustache
Your support is invaluable as we continue to host free, multilingual events in the US and Mexico and facilitate cultural exchange between artists and writers in both countries.
Thank you for helping create spaces where our languages, stories, and creative visions can thrive!
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