For all our Chicago readers, the Poetry Foundation has launched a monthly group that studies a book handpicked by “individuals from a varied background.” Author and New York Times staff writer Jeff Gordinier made the April pick,  To Repel Ghosts: The Remix by Kevin Young.

The discussion will take place on April 19th from 12:30 p.m at the Poetry Foundation on 61 West Superior Street in Chicago. You can email library@poetryfoundation.org to register, 15 participants can join. Gordinier explained his choice:

I happen to love it when poets get wildly ambitious — we could probably use more of that, these days — and To Repel Ghosts: The Remix makes no secret of Kevin Young’s burning desire to deliver a big book, a book that contains multitudes. To Repel Ghosts is a biography, in verse, of the American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, and nearly every page twists and teems with the late painter’s provocative, enigmatic, knotty approach to language and image. As we move through these pages we feel as though we get to know a man who specialized in seeming unknowable.

Full Disclosure: This GalleyCat editor has written for the Poetry Foundation in the past.