Kevin Coval

Kevin Coval has been called “the voice of the new Chicago” by the Chicago Tribune and “the city’s unofficial poet laureate” by the Boston Globe.

Founder of Louder Than A Bomb: The Chicago Youth Poetry Festival, Artistic Director of The Chicago Youth Poetry Festival, author of ten books including The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop and Schtick, co-author of the play This is Modern Art, and professor of hip-hop aesthetics at the University of Illinois-Chicago, Kevin’s work has been featured in Poetry Magazine, The Drunken Boat, Chicago Tribune, CNN, Fake Shore Drive, Huffington Post, and four seasons of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam.

His latest book, A People’s History of Chicago—with a foreword by Chance the Rapper and illustrations from Hebru Brantley, Paul Branton, Runsy, Max Sansing, Troy Scat, and Bianca Pastel—covers 525 years in 77 poems, telling the story of the city from before white folks arrived to the Cubs winning the World Series.