Kevin Coval Explained

Birth Name:Kevin Coval
Nationality:American
Education:Glenbrook North High School
Occupation:Poet, playwright, writer

Kevin Coval is an American poet. Coval is a Chicago-based writer who is known for exploring topics such as race, hip-hop culture, Chicago history, and Jewish-American identity in his work.[1] [2] [3] He is also known for his appearances in four seasons of the Peabody Award-winning television series Def Poetry Jam on HBO.[4] [5]

Education

Coval attended Glenbrook North High School, graduating in 1993.[6] After high school, Coval attended Ohio University, briefly studying abroad at Swansea University before he left school to play semi-pro basketball in Wales.[7]

Career

In 1996, Coval returned to Chicago and began working different jobs to pay rent, including as a furniture delivery man, caterer, and waiter. He also began performing his poetry at open mics around the city.

In 1997, Coval became a regular at open mics at the Alt-X bookstore. He went on to perform at venues such as Mad Bar, Estelle’s, and the Green Mill Cocktail Lounge.

Coval was named artistic director of Young Chicago Authors, an organization that sends professional writers to schools to teach, in 1999.[8]

In 2001, Coval co-founded the youth performance-poetry competition Louder Than a Bomb with Anna West. By 2017, the competition was considered the largest youth performance-poetry competition in the world.

Coval also appeared in an episode of the HBO series Def Poetry Jam that was broadcast in January 2002, in which he performed his poem “Family Feud.” After the first airing of the episode, Coval was contacted by an agent and went on a college tour, becoming a full-time professional poet. He went on to appear in three more episodes of the series and eventually served as one of the show’s creative consultants, scouting for local poets to appear on the show.

Coval was interviewed by Trevor Noah on an episode of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah that aired in 2017.[9]

Coval co-wrote the play This Is Modern Art, which premiered at the Steppenwolf Theatre for Young Adults in Chicago in February 2015.[10] The play was also performed off-Broadway at the Fourth Street Theater in Manhattan in 2018.[11]

Coval produced the segment “Word on the Street” for the local talk show Windy CIty Live, which was nominated for a Chicago/Midwest Emmy Award in 2020.[12]

Coval was removed from his position as artistic director at Young Chicago Authors in 2021[13] [14]

Coval has written for publications such as CNN,[15] Rock the Bells,[16] Slam,[17] Sarasota Magazine,[18] and Interfaith America Magazine.[19]

Poetry

Coval published his first poetry book, Slingshots: A Hip-Hop Poetica, in 2002. Slingshots is a semi-autobiographical poetic memoir.[20]

His second poetry book, Everyday People, was published in 2008.

Coval released the poetic novella L-Vis Lives! RaceMusic Poems in 2011.[21] [22] The poems in the book form a narrative about a character named “L-Vis,” and examine race, music, and the appropriation of hip-hop culture, while referencing figures such as Elvis Presley, Eminem, and Rick Rubin.[23]

Coval published the poetry collection Schtick in 2013.[24] Schtick centered around themes of Jewish identity.[25]

Coval served as one of the editors of the poetry anthology The Breakbeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop, which was published in 2015.[26] [27] [28]

His 2017 collection A People's History of Chicago, whose title is inspired by Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, comments in 77 poems, one for each neighborhood in Chicago, on the city, its history, and the people that live in it, from its Native American beginnings and its appropriation by whites to the present day, the inauguration of Rahm Emanuel and the World Series win by the Chicago Cubs.[29] [30] [31] Along the way he comments on Robert de LaSalle's mispronunciation of the Native American word "checagou", which he bastardizes with his "misshapen mouth", erasing its original history.[32] A People’s History of Chicago was a finalist for the 2017 Chicago Review of Books Award for Poetry.[33]

In 2019, Coval published the poetry collection Everything Must Go: Life and Death of an American Neighborhood, which examined the topic of gentrification in Wicker Park, Chicago and featured illustrations from Langston Allston.[34] [35] The collection was a finalist for the 2019 Chicago Review of Books Award for Poetry.[36]

Coval edited the poetry anthology The End of Chiraq: A Literary Mixtape, which was published in 2018.[37]

Coval has also published poems in several anthologies, including Born to Use Mics: Reading Nas’s Illmatic,[38] Total Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip-Hop,[39] The Spoken Word Revolution: Slam, Hip-Hop, & the Poetry of a New Generation,[40] and The Spoken Word Revolution Redux.[41]  

Awards

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 2017-04-12 . Poet Kevin Coval's 'A People's History of Chicago' Hits Rahm Emanuel Hard, In Verse . 2023-11-30 . The Forward . en.
  2. Web site: 2014-01-10 . Sifting Through Assimilation's Wreckage to Offer Jews Redirection - Tikkun . 2023-11-30 . www.tikkun.org . en-US.
  3. Web site: 2012-06-29 . Kevin Coval: L-Vis Lives! . 2023-11-30 . great weather for MEDIA . en-US.
  4. Web site: 2011-08-17 . L-vis Lives Live! Kevin Coval Book Release Party . 2023-11-30 . WBEZ Chicago . en.
  5. News: Chicago Sun-Times. Kevin Coval book, mission reveals 'People's History of Chicago'. Selena. Fragassi. April 26, 2017. March 26, 2017.
  6. Web site: 2010-07-28 . The Bomb Dropper: Kevin Coval's unlikely journey from popular suburban jock to iconoclastic def poet Newcity Lit . 2023-11-30 . en-US.
  7. Web site: What the White Boy Wants . 2023-11-30 . Chicago Magazine . en-US.
  8. Web site: Galil . Leor . 2017-04-13 . A people's history of Kevin Coval . 2023-11-30 . Chicago Reader . en-US.
  9. Web site: Morgan . Adam . 2017-10-03 . The Poetry Shortlist for the 2017 Chicago Review of Books Awards . 2024-02-09 . Chicago Review of Books . en-US.
  10. Web site: 2018-06-09 . AMERICAN THEATRE Steppenwolf's 'This Is Modern Art' Tagged With Controversy . 2024-02-09 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180609000720/https://www.americantheatre.org/2015/03/12/steppenwolfs-this-is-modern-art-tagged-with-controversy/ . 2018-06-09 .
  11. Web site: 2018-06-09 . Review: In 'This Is Modern Art,' Say It and Spray It - The New York Times . . 2024-02-09 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180609000717/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/05/theater/this-is-modern-art-review.html . 2018-06-09 .
  12. Web site: 2020 Emmy® Nominees & Winners . 2024-02-09 . NATAS Chicago/Midwest . en-US.
  13. News: Kenney . Madeline . 2021-03-04 . Young Chicago Authors leadership shake-up: Artistic director out, executive director quits . en . Chicago Sun-Times . 26 May 2021.
  14. News: Kenney . Madeline . 2021-03-05 . CPS suspends partnership with Young Chicago Authors after group accused of doing little about sexual assault allegations . en . Chicago Sun-Times . 26 May 2021.
  15. Web site: Coval . Kevin . 2014-04-02 . Rahm Emanuel's Chicago, a tale of two cities . 2024-02-09 . CNN . en.
  16. Web site: KEVIN COVAL . 2024-02-09 . Rock The Bells . en.
  17. Web site: Kevin Coval, Author at SLAM . 2024-02-09 . SLAM . en.
  18. Web site: Kevin Coval . 2024-02-09 . Sarasota Magazine . en-US.
  19. Web site: Vroegop . Allie . 2023-08-29 . POEM: faith in democracy . 2024-02-09 . Interfaith America . en-US.
  20. Web site: Daily . Patrick . 2006-02-23 . Speak, Poetry . 2024-02-09 . Chicago Reader . en-US.
  21. Web site: 2012-06-29 . Kevin Coval: L-Vis Lives! . 2024-02-09 . great weather for MEDIA . en-US.
  22. Web site: Coval Review . 2024-02-09 . MUZZLE MAGAZINE . en.
  23. Web site: We are all L-Vis . 2024-02-09 . SocialistWorker.org . en.
  24. Web site: 2014-01-10 . Sifting Through Assimilation's Wreckage to Offer Jews Redirection - Tikkun . 2024-02-09 . www.tikkun.org . en-US.
  25. Web site: 2013-04-04 . Kevin Coval's 'Schtick' – A take-no-prisoners Jewish classic . 2024-02-09 . Mondoweiss . en-US.
  26. Web site: 2015-05-01 . Review of The BreakBeat Poets . 2024-02-09 . www.forewordreviews.com . en.
  27. Web site: Hip-Hop Culture in the Spotlight: A Review of The BreakBeat Poets National Book Review Month . 2024-02-09 . en-US.
  28. Web site: Billet . Alex . The new planet rock International Socialist Review . 2024-02-09 . isreview.org . en.
  29. Web site: Kass . Jeff . 2017-08-01 . Kevin Coval's A People's History of Chicago - Current Magazine . 2024-02-09 . en-US.
  30. Web site: 2017-04-12 . Poet Kevin Coval's 'A People's History of Chicago' Hits Rahm Emanuel Hard, In Verse . 2024-02-09 . The Forward . en.
  31. Web site: Galil . Leor . 2017-04-13 . A people's history of Kevin Coval . 2024-02-09 . Chicago Reader . en-US.
  32. News: A Poet's History of Chicago: Kevin Coval's new collection creates community through history.. April 20, 2017. April 26, 2017. Lovia. Gyarkye. The New Republic.
  33. Web site: 2017-10-13 . UPK Poetry Collection Named Award Finalist . 2024-02-09 . UKNow.
  34. Web site: Alani . Hannah . 2019-09-09 . Kevin Coval's Latest Book, 'Everything Must Go,' Explores Gentrification In Wicker Park . 2023-11-30 . Block Club Chicago . en-US.
  35. Web site: 'Everything Must Go' Investigates Gentrification through Poetry, Illustrations . 2023-11-30 . WTTW News . en.
  36. Web site: 2019-10-14 . The Poetry Shortlist for the 2019 Chicago Review of Books Award . 2023-11-30 . Chicago Review of Books . en-US.
  37. Web site: 2018-05-18 . Reclaiming the City: A Review of "The End of Chiraq" Newcity Lit . 2024-02-09 . en-US.
  38. Book: Dyson . Michael Eric . Born to Use Mics: Reading Nas's Illmatic . Daulatzai . Sohail . 2010 . Basic Books . 978-0-465-00211-5 . en.
  39. Book: Chang, Jeff . Total chaos : the art and aesthetics of hip-hop . 2006 . New York : BasicCivitas Books . Internet Archive . 978-0-465-00909-1.
  40. Book: Eleveld . Mark . The Spoken Word Revolution: Slam, Hip-hop & the Poetry of a New Generation . Smith . Marc . 2005-02-15 . Sourcebooks MediaFusion . 978-1-4022-0246-9 . en.
  41. Book: Eleveld, Mark . The Spoken Word Revolution Redux . 2007 . Sourcebooks MediaFusion . 978-1-4022-0869-0 . en.
  42. Web site: Kevin Coval . 2024-02-09 . Lannan Foundation . en.
  43. Web site: 2017-07-27 . Annual Festival Celebrates Free Speech — And Chicago's 'King Of The Hobos' . 2024-02-09 . The Forward . en.
  44. Web site: Awards . 2024-02-09 . Public Narrative . en-US.
  45. Web site: THIS AND NOTHING ELSE: CHICAGO . 2024-02-09 . THE MARCS STUDIOS / VIDEO PRODUCTION COMPANY . en-US.
  46. Web site: Kevin Coval Wisconsin Book Festival . 2024-02-09 . www.wisconsinbookfestival.org.

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