Chicago Poetry Reading: Mayda del Valle & Friends
Featured writers: Mayda del Valle and friends
A poetry reading, Chicago-style. The current Poet Laureate of the City of Chicago, Mayda del Valle, leads a poetry reading featuring some of the city’s acclaimed poets.
About the writers:
MAYDA DEL VALLE is a Chicago-born poet, and interdisciplinary artist. A former Grand Slam Champion at the Nuyorican Poets Café, she became the youngest poet and first Latinx winner of the National Poetry Slam. She has appeared on Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry and was an original cast member of the Tony Award-winning Def Poetry Jam on Broadway. She is a 2024 Letras Boricuas Fellow and in January of 2026, began her tenure as the second Poet Laureate of the City of Chicago. She is currently developing Herencia, a multimedia performance exploring Puerto Rican migration to Chicago’s South Side.
A South Side Girl’s Guide to Love & Sex: Poems
by Mayda del Valle
As a child of Puerto Rican migrants on Chicago’s Southside, Mayda del Valle’s poetry utilizes part Spanish and English, part hip-hop and salsa, part Nas and Sonia Sanchez, part Shakespeare and John Leguizamo. It is inherited history as well as traditions remixed and invented.