Chance The Rapper wrote the foreward for an upcoming book of Chicago-celebrating poetry. The rapper and longtime Chi-town booster will lead off A People’s History of Chicago, a collection of poems by fellow Chicagoan Kevin Coval.
According to publisher Haymarket Books the book includes “seventy-seven poems (for the city’s seventy-seven neighborhoods)[that] honor the everyday lives and enduring resistance of the city’s workers, poor people, and people of color, whose cultural and political revolutions continue to shape the social landscape.” There’s no word yet on whether Chance got to offer notes on the Chatham section.
It’s not Chance’s first time crossing paths with Coval. The Coloring Book rapper is an alumnus of Coval’s citywide writing workshop Young Chicago Authors and the author also runs the yearly poetry festival Louder Than a Bomb where Chance has performed in the past. It’s a good look for the author and instructor, especially when you consider how desperate every one is to work with Chancellor Bennett.
Though Chance has been busy repping for Hillary Clinton’s campaign in the last few months, he’s hardly forgotten about his fellow Chicagoans. He’s still working on that long-rumored Kanye West collaborative album Good Ass Job and he keeps up a friendly rivalry with the most powerful Chicago resident on the planet.
The book is due out April 11, 2017.
