Hosts Miguel Jiménez and Rachel Galvin at the Lit & Luz Live Show, October 19, 2019, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
MAKE Literary Productions, NFP publishes this online magazine you are reading, and until 2019, published a print MAKE each year. MAKE the organization also produces the Lit & Luz Festival of Language, Literature, and Art. Though there are many overlapping contributors, the festival took on a life—and a website—of its own. Check it out at litluz.org.
More on the festival…
The Lit & Luz Festival began in 2012, unofficially, with events following the release of MAKE Magazine issue 13, “Intercambio/Exchange,” a bilingual issue featuring new work from Latin American writers which was created in response to the dismal amount of translated literature available in the US. In 2014 the Lit & Luz Festival was formed to support the creation of new art through international collaboration and make space for essential dialogues between residents of Mexico and the United States. It has since produced yearly events in Mexico City and Chicago, with writers and artists from Chicago, Mexico, and beyond.
MAKE Literary Production’s 6th annual Lit & Luz Festival of Language, Literature, and Art, themed “Migration” looks at the physical act of moving, while also considering social and cultural movements within a place, time, or community. The week-long festival takes place at over a dozen arts venues and universities throughout Chicago, October 12th–19th. The following February, a similar series of events are held in Mexico City. Programs include readings, conversations, and our main event, the “Live Magazine Show”—which returns to the Museum of Contemporary Art on October 19th.
At its heart, Lit & Luz is a cultural exchange between writers and visual artists from Mexico and United States. With the festival taking place first in Chicago, then Mexico City, it is a conversation between two countries. We choose to focus on collaborations in order to foster meaningful and lasting professional relationships and cross-cultural friendships. Past participants include luminaries such as Cristina Rivera Garza, Valeria Luiselli, José Olivarez, Jac Jemc, and Erika L. Sánchez.
Art and language are key to understanding culture and community. With events such as Lit & Luz, we hope to strengthen the relationship between the two countries, and in particular, to increase the distribution of literature and art between Mexico and the US.
MAKE Magazine Publisher MAKE Literary Productions Managing Editor Chamandeep Bains Assistant Managing Editor and Web Editor Kenneth Guay Fiction Editor Kamilah Foreman Nonfiction Editor Jessica Anne Poetry Editor Joel Craig Intercambio Poetry Editor Daniel Borzutzky Intercambio Prose Editor Brenda Lozano Latin American Art Portfolio Editor Alejandro Almanza Pereda Reviews Editor Mark Molloy Portfolio Art Editor Sarah Kramer Creative Director Joshua Hauth, Hauthwares Webmaster Johnathan Crawford Proofreader/Copy Editor Sarah Kramer Associate Fiction Editors LC Fiore, Jim Kourlas, Kerstin Schaars Contributing Editors Kyle Beachy, Steffi Drewes, Katie Geha, Kathleen Rooney Social Media Coordinator Jennifer De Poorter
MAKE Literary Productions, NFP Co-directors, Sarah Dodson and Joel Craig
