Labor and Arts Festival 99

The Labor & Arts Festival celebrates the joys and struggles of working class men and women. This year?s festival focuses on sickness and health-more Americans than ever fear the consequences of poor heath, of injury, of catastrophe. Employment is no longer much of a hedge against the costs of even ordinary health concerns- like having a baby. Many of us have grim experiences with ?mis-managed care? some have been active in attempts to create a national health plan. This evening our featured poets will explore the terrain of the wounded and the terrain of the healing.

Maureen Connolly is a native of Chicago and also has Irish citizenship. She is a poet and writer, and a physician. Her work has been published in Hammers, Tomorrow, Ariel, and the international anthology Freedom?s Just Another Word. She has read at Printer?s Row, the Hemingway Museum of Oak Park, Arts Vortex, Harold Washington Library, and Around the Coyote. Maureen received a fiction writing fellowship from the Ragdale Foundation.

Poet and novelist Ana Castillo writes ?Carlos Cortez? is the better half of the 20th century walking.? Through his words and woodcuts Cortez is a delightful and importand chronicler o lavor movements, Chicano history and , of course, la Vida. ?A long-time member of the IWW, Cortez? most recent book of poetry is Where Are The Voices?& Other Wobbly Poems. An exhibit including his visual art work opens in September at the Rudy Lozano Library.