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Chris Gallinari

 

Chris Gallinari
Chris Gallinari
(photo: Adam Hart)
 

Chris Gallinari was once introduced by Nina Corwin as having a very short and enviable career in spoken word. Her feigned disgust at his ease in writing good poetry, part of her intro, got a good chuckle from the house. But in spite of already being well-known and -admired by the audience, Corwin's claim about Gallinari's brief career was entirely true. Gallinari impressed many in Chicago's open mic circuit with his ease at writing and delivery in the span of only a year.

Gallinari clearly brings some of his oratory skills forward from his courtroom experience; he is a practicing lawyer who often comes to readings directly from the downtown law district, dressed in a signature suit and tie. But his creative, collage-driven writing is his own. His amiable nature and no-nonsense Chicago voice engage audiences city-wide.

The following clips were part of one of Chris Gallinari's first featured readings. They were recorded 15 May 2007, at Molly Malone's (Forest Park, Illinois), and are presented here with the author's permission:

Back When I Lived in the Secular World
Hell Knows
Poem Now with New Cherry Flavor
Prayer Wheel
The Tragic Sense of High School
Trailer Park Zombie
Unorthodox
Zen and the Art of Writing Sonnets

- September 2007