“We appreciate/art because we want to know what it means to be alive.”
With those lines from his poem “We Know What Art Is,” Adam Zagajewski celebrated not only the opening of the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts on Oct. 13, 2012, but also the beginning of the Reva Logan Poetry Series.
The new series features distinguished poets like Zagajewski, visiting professor in the John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought and winner of the European Poetry Prize, reading original works commissioned by the University. It continues at the Logan Center at 6 p.m., on Thursday, Jan. 31, with a reading by Chicago-based poet Li-Young Lee.
The Reva Logan Poetry Series was inspired by the Logan family’s passion for poetry, according to Srikanth Reddy, assistant professor in English Language & Literature. Reddy helped organize the series along with Dan Logan, a noted collector of poetry broadsides. Each of the poems from the series will be released on a commemorative broadside designed and illustrated by a local artist.
“The series is a celebration of poetry in Chicago, a celebration of people who come to Chicago from different parts of the world, and a celebration of the interdisciplinary nature of the arts,” Reddy said.
Li-Young Lee and his family came to the United States as political refugees from China in 1964. He began writing poetry as an undergraduate at the University of Pittsburgh, where he studied with Gerald Stern. He is the author of four collections of poetry, Rose, The City in Which I Love You, Book of My Nights, and Behind My Eyes. His meditative and mystical work, which explores memory, family, and personal identity, has been compared to classical Chinese poetry.
Lee is known as “one of our great lyric practitioners,” Reddy said. “I love his work for its visuality, but also for its depth of feeling, its directness, its ability to treat complex issues with wonderful simplicity of tone.”
The Reva Logan Poetry Series will continue later this year with a reading and musical performance by Angela Jackson, a local poet who grew up on the South Side.
Li-Young Lee will read in the Logan Center’s Terrace Seminar Room (801) at 6 p.m. A reception will follow the event. For more information, please visit arts.uchicago.edu.
—Prof. Chuan He
