photo by dominique james.

Author of A Church Beneath the Bulldozer (2014), Kush Thompson is a Chicago-born poet, painter, archivist, educator, and Cave Canem fellow. 
She creates archival art; centering often on girlhood and the mechanics of memory. For several years, Kush served as a celebrated educator of Young Chicago Authors’ Teaching Artist Corps; debuting her portraiture series, Blk Hottie in 2016. Voted runner-up best local poet of 2014 by The Chicago Reader, a 2015 Young Futurist by The Root, and a 2017 Pink Door & Luminarts Creative Writing Fellow, Thompson's contributed over a decade of performances and creative writing workshops, both nationally and internationally. As an organizer, Kush co-curated The Lady Church – a series of monthly workshops and annual showcases for women & femmes and briefly served as organizing & chapter co-chair of Black Youth Project 100 Chicago. Her work has appeared in Poetry Magazine & The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop (2015).


like outside (august, 2018) ✿ young chicago authors