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Past Events

Skunk Cabbage Books

Nov13
"How to Be Less Useful" with Priyanka Mattoo and Greta Johnsen. Hosted by Skunk Cabbage Books at Firefly Fiber Arts Studio. Bring your own WIP!
PastBook SigningEssayAvondale, Chicago

How to Be Less Useful with Priyanka Mattoo and Greta Johnsen

6:30 PM • Friday, November 13, 2026Firefly Fiber Arts StudioFree

Join us and our neighbors at Firefly Fiber Arts Studio for Maker's Night with a twist! We'll be welcoming Priyanka Mattoo, the author of How to Be Less Useful: The Joy of Inefficiency, for a reading and discussion with WBEZ Chicago's Greta Johnsen. Who knows more about the rewards of inefficient crafting among good company than fiber artists? Think about what we choose to cut out or overlook as we approach the deep end of adulthood: Dessert. Naps. Pretty underwear. “Pointless” hangs with the people we love most. What if, instead of being useful, we could all learn how to be happier, more present, more engaged? With self-deprecating humor, devastating insight, and bracing honesty, Priyanka shows us how to step out of the grind as a friend, as a partner, even as a parent, and welcome joy back into our lives without burning it all down. Bring your least useful WIP and join us to revel in the joy of slow, intentional making.

Nov10
Violent Wave poetry reading
PastReadingPoetryAvondale, Chicago

Violent Wave poetry reading

6:30 PM • Tuesday, November 10, 2026Skunk Cabbage BooksFree

On November 10th, we'll be joined by poets B Metzger Sampson, Teresa Dzieglewicz, and Natasha Mijares to celebrate the release of Natasha's new collection of poems, Violent Wave. Join us at 6:30 for reading and book signing with all three of our guests. Natasha Mijares' violent wave is a stunning meditation on the interconnectedness of human and non-human worlds—a text that moves fluidly between fragmentation and vivid sensory detail. Natasha Mijares is an artist, writer, curator, and educator. She received her MFA in Writing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has exhibited at MECA International Art Fair in Puerto Rico, The Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, TCC Chicago, and Locust Projects. Teresa Dzieglewicz is a poet, educator, and lover of rivers and prairies. She is a fellow with Black Earth Institute, a Poet-in-Residence at the Chicago Poetry Center, and part of the founding team of Mni Wichoni Nakicizin Wounspe (Defenders of the Water School). B. Metzger Sampson is a poet, essayist, and frequent collaborator with visual artists. They are the executive director of the Chicago Poetry Center, which hosts poetry residencies for thousands of Chicago School Students annually, public readings and workshops, and critical conversations.

Aug19
PastBook ClubEnvironmentAvondale, Chicago

With Feathers Book Club

6:00 PM • Wednesday, August 19, 2026Skunk Cabbage BooksFree

Join us for our monthly book club, With Feathers, where we read books that help connect us to the natural world around us. In August we’re reading Dan Egan's The Death and Life of the Great Lakes. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes is a compulsively readable portrait of our best neighbors, blending the epic story of the lakes with an examination of the perils they face and the ways we can restore and preserve them for generations to come. We'll discuss on August 19th at 6:00pm.

Aug14
PastAuthor EventFictionAvondale, Chicago

Cupido Cupido: Emily Grandy in conversation with Eiren Caffall

6:30 PM • Friday, August 14, 2026Skunk Cabbage BooksFree

We're so glad to be welcoming author and scientific illustrator Emily Grandy, in conversation with author Eiren Caffall, to celebrate her new novel, Cupido Cupido. 16 year old Egg is sent to his grandfather's farm in Kentucky for the summer, where he discovers a strange, maybe back from extinction? bird on his family's land. Through his new relationships with the out-of-town scientists who come to study the birds, the Kentucky locals, and his reticent grandfather, Egg navigates family estrangement, cultural inheritance, and the complex act of growing up. RSVP required!

Aug11
Cropped flyer detailing questions covered by teach-in, along with date and address of the event. The right-side of the flyer has the location of Quantum Shore on a map.
PastCommunity EventChicagoAvondale, Chicago

Quantum Shore Teach-In

6:30 PM • Tuesday, August 11, 2026Skunk Cabbage BooksFree

Join members of the Community over Quantum coalition to discuss the environmental, social, and economic impacts of the Quantum Shore megadevelopment currently being built in South Chicago. While “business leaders” and politicians tout the benefits of redevelopment of 440 acres of the lakefront, regular people in the surrounding neighborhood and across the city have been sounding the alarm as to its impact on their livelihoods. What we’ve been able to substantiate makes it clear that this impact should worry all Chicagoans for how it will bring suffering to the city and export it across the globe through American imperialism. This session will start from the basics – where is Quantum Shore? who are the stakeholders? what are they doing there? – before explaining what we can expect to happen locally and for the military industrial complex if the developers of Quantum Shore can achieve their ends. Ultimately, we hope to provide an understanding of the situation that makes clear that, while what is being constructed is in many ways new, the underlying struggles are older than the infilled land Quantum Shore is being constructed on. Organizers from Black Alliance for Peace Chicago, Guerilla Workers Party, Palestinian Youth Movement, Science for the People Chicago, and Southside Together be available to speak about getting involved in the Community over Quantum campaign after the presentation.

Jul29
PastWritingPoetryAvondale, Chicago

Concentrating Chaos Poetry Workshop

6:30 PM • Wednesday, July 29, 2026Skunk Cabbage BooksFree

Concentrating Chaos is a free, open community workshop in Chicago dedicated to refining the divine craft of poetry. We meet the last Wednesday of every month. Our goal is to offer a consistent space for poets to receive feedback on their work in order to become the best poets they can. We want to strengthen bonds within the Chicago writing community by creating a supportive environment that will help reinforce and expand your skills. Registration is required. More details and registration can be found at https://concentratingchaos.com/.

Jul15
PastBook ClubEnvironmentAvondale, Chicago

With Feathers Book Club

6:00 PM • Wednesday, July 15, 2026Skunk Cabbage BooksFree

Join us for our monthly book club, With Feathers, where we read books that help connect us to the natural world around us. In July we'll be reading Louise Erdrich's The Mighty Red. A story of natural and human forces acting on the residents of Red River, SD, where a love triangle unspools between a desperate farm heir, an impulsive lapsed goth girl, and her best friend. Human time, Red River time, and geological time are explored alongside crises in our own time. Join us July 15th at 6:00 to discuss.

Jul8
PastAdult BeveragesNatureAvondale, Chicago

Ask A Scientist – Paleo Art

6:30 PM • Wednesday, July 8, 2026Skunk Cabbage Books$5

Ask A Scientist is our bimonthly BYOB event series. You BYOB, we bring a scientist, you ask them about their cool job. We'll be joined by Tyler Keillor, a paleoartist who builds skeletal restorations and flesh reconstructions of prehistoric life at the University of Chicago and other institutions. We'll learn how art and science help us understand what dinosaurs looked like in the flesh based on their fossil records.

Jun24
PastWorkshopPoetryAvondale, Chicago

Concentrating Chaos poetry workshop

6:30 PM • Wednesday, June 24, 2026Skunk Cabbage BooksFree

Concentrating Chaos is a free, open community workshop in Chicago dedicated to refining the divine craft of poetry. We meet the last Wednesday of every month. Our goal is to offer a consistent space for poets to receive feedback on their work in order to become the best poets they can. We want to strengthen bonds within the Chicago writing community by creating a supportive environment that will help reinforce and expand your skills. Registration is required. More details and registration can be found at https://concentratingchaos.com/.

Jun10
again harder book cover
PastAuthor EventLGBTQAvondale, Chicago

Again, Harder: Alice Stoehr with Sloane Murphy

6:30 PM • Wednesday, June 10, 2026Skunk Cabbage BooksFree

Join us to celebrate the release of Alice Stoehr's Again, Harder with Alice in conversation with Sloane Murphy. Again, Harder, from Feminist Press, gathers the uncompromising short fiction of Alice Stoehr, which investigates the inner lives, evolving relationships, and often violent marginalization of a community of trans women in a large Midwestern town. Again, Harder is the sardonic heartbeat of a new generation of American trans women. Alice Stoehr is a writer and bookseller living in Minneapolis. She has self-published four books of short fiction. Sloane Murphy drives a pick-up truck in the midwest. She writes short fiction about women who live there. Her fiction has appeared in Joyland Magazine, Picnic Magazine, and a few zines. Her short story collection, Shut Up, I Love You, I'll Call You Tomorrow, is forthcoming in November from Little Puss Press.