NEWS: Bridge Editor-in-Chief Michael Workman Joins 2026–2027 Illinois Humanities Road Scholars Speakers Bureau
Photo: Joerg Metzner Photography.
NEWS
Bridge Editor-in-Chief Michael Workman Joins 2026–2027 Illinois Humanities Road Scholars Speakers Bureau
From Workman: “I’m deeply proud and humbled to share that I’ve been selected for the 2026–2027 Illinois Humanities Road Scholars Speakers Bureau for my new presentation, Writing as Cultural Archaeology and the Poetics of Place — a program building on my earlier Steady State workshop series. As stated in the award letter, ‘This year’s selection process was highly competitive, and your presentation stood out as one that will spark conversation across the state and encourage Illinoisians to see the world in a new way.’
“Originally developed during the Chicago Public Library’s Poetry Month programs that laid the foundation for the work I will pursue in my time as the Joan and Peter Hood Artist-in-Residence at Allerton Park and Retreat Center Oct. 26-Nov. 16; over the next two years, these new presentations will be tailored by region, adapting to the unique histories, landscapes, and cultural contexts of communities across Illinois — from rural towns and small libraries to urban neighborhoods and historical societies.
“This recognition means more to me than any monetary or commercial success — it affirms my lifelong commitment to connecting people through writing, movement, and shared inquiry. Across my work as a poet, writer, artist, and cultural organizer, I’ve sought to create spaces where people can reflect on how language and place shape identity, memory, and civic life.
“Since 1975, the Road Scholars program has a long and vital tradition of bringing the humanities into everyday settings — sparking conversation, reflection, and connection among Illinois residents. Through these upcoming sessions, I’ll be sharing accessible, participatory approaches to literary place history and storytelling inspired by writers and artists like Johanna Drucker, Gwendolyn Brooks, Charles Reznikoff, and Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, whose work reveals how deeply language and geography are intertwined.
“I’m profoundly grateful to Illinois Humanities for this meaningful opportunity — and look forward to the work begun at Allerton by collaborating with communities throughout the state for the duration of my appointment to the bureau.”
🗺️ Learn more about Illinois Humanities: ilhumanities.org
📖 More about Steady State and upcoming programs: michaelworkmanstudio.com
About Michael Workman
Michael Workman is an artist, writer, reporter, and sociocultural critic, whose bylines have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Guardian US, Newcity magazine, WBEZ Chicago Public Radio, and many other national and international publications. He is the former Chicago correspondent for renowned Italian art magazine Flash Art. Workman is also Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Bridge (bridge-chicago.org), a Chicago-based 501 (c) (3) publishing and programming organization since 1999.
Workman is also Development Officer of the Kyiv-Mohyla Foundation of America and the Development Coordinator of the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art (UIMA). His grant writing work has won several prestigious awards, including the Wynn-Kramarsky Freedom of Artistic Expression award from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts on behalf of UIMA and, in 2024, he wrote the proposal that resulted in the recognition of Ukrainian Village as a state-designated cultural district.
His choreographic writing has been included in Propositional Attitudes, an "anthology of recent performance scores, directions and instructions" published by Golden Spike Press, and his Perfect Worlds: Artistic Forms & Social Imaginaries, the first in a 3-volume series, was released by StepSister Press in October 2018 with a day-long program of performances at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.
Most recently, in 2023 he presented Active Investigation, a performance combining restructured texts, place, literary history and phonemic poetics at the Neubauer Collegium at the University of Chicago. He is a 2025 Illinois Arts Council Creative Projects grant and Rabkin Foundation travel grant recipient, the Fall 2025 Joan and Peter Hood Artist-in-Residence at the Allerton Park & Retreat Center in Monticello, Illinois and a 2026–2027 Illinois Humanities Road Scholar Speakers Bureau scholar.
