Canto-Kójo: Reading & Open Mic Series!

Revel in the spoken and written word in community at November's installment of Canto-Kójo, an open mic and reading series hosted by Itiola "I.S." Jones and Yazud Brito-Milan!

We'll spend the first 30 minutes packing whistle kits for distribution to community members given the increased threat of ICE in our beloved city of Chicago. Then, we'll spend time together celebrating the artistry within our community! Come with a poem, short written work, song, or anything else that's on your heart that you'd like to share!

I.S. Jones is an American/Nigerian poet, editor, essayist, and former music journalist. She is a Graduate Fellow with The Watering Hole and holds fellowships from Hedgebrook Callaloo, BOAAT Writer's Retreat, Brooklyn Poets, and Bread Loaf, where she was the 2023 Bread Loaf-Rona Jaffe Scholar in poetry. Jones co-edited The Young African Poets Anthology: The Fire That is Dreamed Of (Agbowó, 2020) and served as the inaugural nonfiction guest editor for Lolwe. She is an editor at 20:35 Africa: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry and has freelanced for Complex, Revolt TV, NBC News THINK,and elsewhere.

Yazud E. Brito-Milian (they/them) is a Chicane poet, impatient collagist, abolitionist, and eldest sister. Born in Winston-Salem, NC, and based in Chicago, IL, they are working on their first chapbook, crossfade, dedicated to their dad’s black and yellow KORG M50 and the musicians who raised them. Yazud received fellowships from The Watering Hole, Periplus, and CantoMundo. Their work can be found in Muzzle Magazine, Voicemail Poems, The Poetry Project, and Huizache Magazine.