Join us for an author talk with with Marguerite L. Harrold and Brad Walrond on Saturday, September 6th, at 1:00 PM at Gerber/Hart. Marguerite will discuss her 2024 book, Chicago House Music: Culture and Community. Brad will discuss their debut poetry collection Every Where Alien, (2024). Copies of both books will be available for sale at the event.
About the Authors
Marguerite L. Harrold is a poet and writer from Chicago. Her first book, Chicago House Music: Culture and Community (Belt/Arcadia, 2024,) was short-listed for Best Non-Fiction Book of the Year, 2024 by Chicago Review of Books (CHIrby award) and was short-listed for Outstanding Book on the History of Chicago 2025, by the Union League Club of Chicago.
Brad Walrond is a poet, author, performance artist, and one of the foremost writers and performers of the 1990s Black Arts Movement centered in New York City. Walrond’s debut collection, Every Where Alien, (2024) Moore Black Press | Amistad / HarperCollins, chronicles the author’s own Black queer exploration of the world, amidst the discovery of 1990s-early 2000s New York City underground art and resistance movements. Brad’s poems have been published in: The Atlantic, Poem-A-Day | Academy of American Poets, African Voices Magazine, and elsewhere. Walrond holds a B.A. from The City College of New York and an M.A. from Columbia University
About the Books
Chicago House Music: Culture and Community, takes you deep into the vibrations of sound and rhythm as it the tells the story of House Music from its inception to the present, celebrating Chicago’s Black LGBTQ plus community, as the creators and originators of House Music. It provides insight into the cultural, historical, and political events that gave rise to House as an art form, tracing its roots from traditional African rhythms, and Negro Spirituals to Gospel, Jazz, Soul, R & B, Funk, and Disco. Through personal narratives, and a collection of interviews, with artists, poets, DJs, producers, promoters, fans and community members, it includes the women, who have often been overlooked. Chicago House Music: Culture and Community offers an inside look at Chicago House, the music that has influenced art, fashion, poetry, dance, community activism, LGBTQ plus rights, and pop culture world-wide
Walrond’s debut collection of poems, Every Where Alien, posits mid 1990s — early 2000s New York City, as a portal catapulting us into the histories and cultural force of several overlapping underground movements, including: the New Black Arts Movement, Black Rock Coalition, the Underground House Music and Dance community, the HIV/AIDS and Black Queer Artivist community, and the House Ballroom Scene. Be prepared to dance, laugh, cry and scream.