We Love Everyday People

By Margaret Lyons in Arts & Entertainment on Jul 31, 2008 8:46PM

Kevin Coval’s Everyday People book release makes for cerebral entertainment so nice you can see it twice.

Tonight and tomorrow night you can witness the locally born, bred, and based HBO Def Poet in the flesh, performing various selections from his latest poetry collection. Also in on the gig: participants from Louder Than a Bomb, the annual Chicago spoken-word smackdown Coval put together to facilitate area teens’ poetic self-expression.

A “talk-back” session with Coval and a reception featuring the Tim Lincoln Trio will take place after the show each night, hosted by Chicago Public Radio’s Natalie Moore and the Trib’s Rick Kogan, respectively. The Everyday People release events are part of Victory Gardens’ Fresh Squeezed series of edgy and unconventional performances and social events for the younger crowd. Which basically means this is a fun smartypants activity to blow the standard stuffy fare out of the water.

See it tonight (July 31) or tomorrow night (Aug 1) at the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater; 7:30 pm both nights; $15 includes admission and a CD of Coval’s work, $25 dollars gets all that and a copy of Everyday People. For tickets call (773) 871-300.

And if you’re still making up your mind, just know he gets full endorsement from the world’s foremost hip-hop poetry ambassador, Mos Def. There. —Ana Bolotin