Marguerite L. Harrold reads in SPECTRA: Books & Beats at Rozz-Tox -- August 3.
Saturday, August 3, 6 p.m.
Rozz-Tox, 2108 Third Avenue, Rock Island IL
Co-hosted by the Midwest Writing Center and taking place at Rock Island venue Rozz-Tox on August 3, a popular literary event returns with a musical theme in the SPECTRA Reading Series' Books & Beats edition, a celebration of Chicago house music as well as the release of Chicago House Music: Culture & Community (forthcoming from Belt Publishing on August 13) by award-winning writer Marguerite L. Harrold.
Harrold’s work is a revolutionary act of kindness, gratitude, agitation and community mobilization. Her poems thread the ecology of being human through urban and rural landscapes, in order to explore the ways in which we connect to place, dislocation, and to one another. Harrold earned a Masters of Fine Art in Creative Writing/Poetry from Columbia College Chicago, and was nominated for the 2020 Pushcart Prize (Matador Review). She was also nominated for a 2020 Illinois Arts Council grant (Chicago Review) and was a 2020 finalist for an Allied Arts Council grant. Harrold is a member of the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley and attended the Bread Loaf Orion Environmental Writers Conference, and has also had poems published or forthcoming in the journals Anti-Heroin Chic, The Blue Nib, Jubilat, pulpmouth, and The Chicago Review.
A Chicago native, Harrold will read from her book and her poetry, and will be joined in conversation by SPECTRA host Ryan Collins. The discussion will open up for audience members to participate. Afterward, the rest of the Books & Beats event will be dedicated to a dance party, featuring DJs Samuel P. from the Quad Cities and Leja Hazer from Chicago. The man behind the Sound In Space series, Samuel P. is a local QC record-collector and DJ. A music enthusiast from a young age, he fell in love with record collecting during his time living in Chicago. When Samuel's behind the decks you can expect to hear everything from jazz to disco to house music with a few surprises mixed in. Leja Hazer, meanwhile, is a key figure in the Windy City's dance-music scene. He's currently the talent buyer at the renowned smartbar and previously worked at the legendary Gramaphone Records. With influences spanning from Jazz to House to Soul and Funk, Leja tends to lean towards groovy and laid-back vibes while still showing some Chicago grit.
Chicago house music originated in the city’s Black, gay underground in the late seventies and became one of the most popular musical genres in the world by the end of the century. In Chicago House Music: Culture & Community, Marguerite Harrold tells the story of the genre’s rise and the prolific creators who have sustained it for decades. You’ll learn about house music’s early innovators, like Ron Hardy and Frankie Knuckles, who transformed the social and political turmoil around them into a revolution in dance music. You’ll also hear remembrances from contemporary figures in the house community, like DJ Lady D, Avery R. Young, Czboogie and Edgar “Artek” Sinio, who have forged new paths as the genre has evolved. It’s a story about much more than music— it’s about a community struggling for acceptance, love, liberation, and freedom, and about the creative pioneers whose resilience helped turn house music into a worldwide phenomenon.
Doors for the SPECTRA Reading Series' Books & Beats event open for a social hour at 6 p.m., with the reading and discussion starting at 7 p.m., and the music running from 8 p.m. to midnight. The event is free and open to the public, and Harrold’s book will be available for purchase. Donations to MWC are welcome and go to support youth writing programs in the QC. For more information, contact Ryan Collins at (309)732-7330 and visit MWCQC.org.
