Kathleen Rooney

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Pimp my poem.

January 12, 2011 by Kathleen Rooney

Back in “the day,” patrons of Chicago’s high-class brothel the Everleigh Club could ask the sporting girls for recitations of such poetry standards as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “Moonlight,”  and lots of that era’s literary superstars–Theodore Dreiser, Ring Lardner, George Ade, Edgar Lee Masters, et al.—paid visits to the Club. These days, you can’t visit the Everleigh Club, but you can visit one of the Brothels in New York City, Chicago, L.A., or Barcelona. And I tell you why you should in this essay, “Pimp My Poem,” on the Poetry Foundation website. Also, if you happen to be in Chicago, come check out this month’s Brothel, Dangerous Amusements, at the House of Blues Foundation Room on Saturday, January 15th at 8:00 pm.

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