Past Event

The Places We've Been: Field Reports from Travelers Under 35

“From teachers to artists, photographers to playwrights, Peace Corps volunteers to World Air Guitar champions, the book provides snapshots of what it means to be a young person traveling in the world today.” – The Ridgefield Press.

The Places We’ve Been Books is a small publishing company in Chicago founded in early 2012 and dedicated to literary-based portrayals of the diverse experiences of human existence.

This event will unite several contributing writers of the recently released anthology The Places We’ve Been: Field Reports from Travelers Under 35 – for the first time in one place.

The Places We’ve Been: Field Reports from Travelers Under 35 is an international anthology of 400 pages, featuring 48 original nonfiction pieces from young writers based in Chicago and across the globe. The journey stories told in The Places We’ve Been leap from country to country, exploring issues of identity, determination, history, politics, fear, joy, hate, home, humanity, and love. By the end, readers have traveled from the peak of Mt. Bisoke in Rwanda, to an enclave on the Tibetan Plateau, to the Southern Seas at the bottom of the world, and much more.

Contributing writers will share and discuss their own travel experiences told in the book. For the writers, one of the best parts of traveling is sharing the experience, and seeing the trip through someone else’s eyes.

Contributors include:
  • Yuki Aizawa (Japan), 2007-2008 facilitator at StoryCorps
  • Pria Anand (Colombia) , Medical student and volunteer
  • Edward Davis (Democratic Republic of Congo), Professor at Malcolm X College of Chicago
  • Kim Coleman Foote (Ghana), 2014 National Endowment of the Arts Literature Fellow
  • Derek Helwig (Rwanda), Twelve-season producer with The Amazing Race
  • Justin “Nordic Thunder” Howard (Finland), 2012 Air Guitar World Champion
  • Lisa Hsia (Iceland), Independent visual artist
  • Daniel Ketchum (Spain), Editor at Marvel Comics
  • Vanessa Mdee (Tanzania), VJ at MTV Base and HIV/AIDS activist
  • Theopi Skarlatos (Greece), Journalist with the BBC and documentary director of “Love in the Time of Crisis”
  • Madeline Wiseman (Russia), Award-winning poet and professor at University of Nebraska
 

This event is free and open to the public. However, reservations are required and can be made online.

This event is presented by The Places We’ve Been, LLC as part of The Collaborative City, a program of the Illinois Humanities Council, in partnership with the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE).

                   

 

If you need a sign interpreter or require other arrangements to fully participate, please call 312.422.5580 at least 72 hours prior to the event. For parking locations near the facility, please visit ChicagoParkingMap.com.