Photo credited to Josi Madera
Vittorio Carli teaches film, literature, and humanities at Moraine Valley Community College and Richard J. Daley College. He also freelances for less than impressive financial incentives. He lives half his time in danger (in Little Village) and the other in boredom (in Oak Lawn).
His film and art reviews have appeared on, www.reelmoviecritic.com (no longer online), chicagopoetry.com and in the publications: Dialogue, Venus, Chicago Artist’s News, The Daily Herald, The Star Newspapers, Tunnel Rat, and Letter eX.
His poems have been published in Best of Chicago Poetry, Online! the Chicago Poetry Renaissance, Café Review, Rambunctious Review, Polvo, The American Dissident, Dissent, Struggle: The Journal of Revolutionary Literature, Mind in Motion, Alphabeat Press, Alternative Press, Poems of the World, Religious Humanism, The World Salad Anthology, and The Anti Mensch.
He has done poetry and performance art with Theater Ted, the Usual Suspects (at the Bucktown Arts Fair), and the art collective, The Ever So Secret Order of the Lamprey.
He has participated repeatedly in the art event/be-in/happening, Lovechaos, and he co-founded the Columbia College Genremelt (d) with fellow instructor, Dan Godston. He also performed in the 2006 Version Festival.
In past performances, he has collaborated with the extraordinary violinist, Quentin Arnold; the hard-edged industrial duo, Dripping Rictus; the performance poet/bubble wrap bride, Tracey Jakubick; and the talented visual artist, Carolyn Curtis Magri.
He has conducted celebrity interviews with Moby, Chris Connelly, Katherine Chronis, Karen Finley, Cynthia Plastercaster, John Sayles, Darren Aronofsky, Chris Eyre, Tom Tykwer, Abel Ferrara, Franka Potente, and Paul Hoover.
He hopes that some day he can collect them all in a published book. His on-line interviews with Bryan Wendorf (the president of the Chicago Underground Film Festival), John Sayles, Moby, Franka Potente, and Abel Ferrara (director of The Bad Lieutenant can be accessed on www.reelmoviecritic.com. His interview with performance artist Katherine Chronis will be reprinted in an upcoming book.
He has a great web page at www.artinterviews.com and a page on www.chicagopoetry.com about poetry and film under the title Vito. Some of the places he haunts include The Art Institute of Chicago, Brainstorm, Facets Multimedia, Gallery Chicago, the Gene Siskel Center, Harold Washington Library, House of Monsters, Kaplan’s on Mondays, Landmark Century Cinema, Mercury Cafe, The Music Box, The Mutiny, Oak Lawn Public Library, and the Skylark.
He mourns the passing of Chela Joe’s, the Ever So Secret Order of the Lamprey Meetings, Mozart Cafe, the old exit, Pilsen Cafe, and Scenes.
He hosts a bi-weekly open mic at Mercury Cafe at 1505 W Chicago (slightly east of Ashland) on the third and last Friday of each month from 7-9 p.m. Featuring poetry, spoken word, standup, performance art, music, puppetry and film. Almost anything goes! No entrance fee.
He is an unmarried, childless bookoholic, and has never been to prison.
