Worlds and Words of Chicago: Immigrant Stories (Part of the American Writers Festival)

At the second American Writers Festival on Sunday, May 19, Jane Hseu led a discussion with authors Ugochi Nwaogwugwu, Nestor Gomez, and Lani T. Montreal. These artists came to Chicago from Guatemala, Nigeria, and the Philippines. Each has explored the immigration experience in a variety of ways, including spoken work, memoir, poetry, and plays. The panel shared ideas about the importance of telling their stories, and the impact form has on their power.  

The second American Writers Festival, presented by the American Writers Museum and the Chicago Public Library, featured "a number of leading contemporary authors, poets, artists, and playwrights." This free literary festival ran all day on Sunday, May 19, and included panels, discussions, readings, and signings across multiple stages. 

Nestor "the Boss" Gomez traveled from Guatemala to Chicago with his family in the mid 80's. He was 15 years old, stutter, didn't know the English language and was undocumented. he didn't have a voice. Today, he is an American citizen, speaks English with a sexy latinx accent and has become a storyteller. He has won the Moth slam more than 80 times. He is also the creator of 80 Minutes Around the World, a storytelling show that features the stories of immigrants, refugees, their descendants and allies, 

Jane Hsue is Professor of English at Dominican University. She specializes in teaching/ researching Asian American and Latinx literatures and writing creative nonfiction. In addition to academic essays, she has published personal essays on funky Chinese American names, growing up in her mother’s Shiseido cosmetics store, and mental health, literature, and community. Jane enjoys being in creative community, especially being an organizer for Banyan: Asian American Writers Collective and telling stories in Ada Cheng’s storytelling productions. She is currently working on a memoir about how her journey with mental health necessitates coming to terms with a family history of mental illness.  

Lani T. Montreal writes to create her home in the diaspora. She is a queer feminist Filipina writer/educator/performer/activist based in Chicago. Her poems and essays have been anthologized in journals and books, and her plays, produced in the Philippines, Canada, and the U.S. She is CIRCA Pintig's resident playwright and a Chicago Dramatist Network Playwright. She is a two-time recipient of 3Arts Residency Awards, a 2017 VONA Writers of Color Workshop alumni, a 2017 Free Street Theatre Resident Artist, and a 2024 Links Hall Co-MISSION Fellow. She teaches writing at Malcolm X College.

Ugochi Nwaogwugwu is a multidisciplinary creative. Her poems have been published in “Storm Between Two Fingers” & "Too Young, Too Loud, Too Different," both international anthologies released in the UK. “Golden Shovel Anthology,” honoring Gwendolyn Brooks, “The Eternal Year of African People,” and “Wherever I’m At” released nationwide. “Not My President” published by Third World Press in 2017. Her first book of poetry & prose entitled “Seasons of Separation,” in 2023. Ugochi also created an original pan African poetry form called, “Ike,” (pronounced EE-kay) #Ikepoem, paying homage to her Igbo heritage of Nigeria and fostering black appreciation worldwide.