Kevin Coval is a critically acclaimed author, poet and community space maker. You may have seen him on The Daily Show or four seasons of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, or heard of him as the founder of Louder Than A Bomb: The Chicago Youth Poetry Festival. If you’re all the way up, you already know he teaches hip-hop aesthetics as a professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago and that he hosts the Chicago music focused podcast, Cornerstore.

But his first trip to Toledo is happening right now.

WATCH: Kevin Coval to give talk at Main Library on Thursday. 

Coinciding with National Poetry Month as part of an extended book tour for his most recent work, the well-received A People’s History of Chicago, replete with it’s glowing introduction from Chance the Rapper on Coval being his “artistic father,” he is excited to see how creatives in the Glass City tick, tock, write, and rhyme.

“I love the Midwest and Midwestern cities,” he said, “there’s something a little familiar about Toledo. Just driving in on the expressway, something about it. The rust. The grind. The working class ethos. I love it.”

He’s here to see us. The next time you can see him is Thursday at 7 p.m. at the downtown Toledo-Lucas County Public Library for his talk, “Poetry Speaks with Kevin Coval.”

Contact Phillip Kaplan at pkaplan@theblade.com, and follow on Twitter @filkap; Lori King may be contacted at loriking@theblade.com.

First Published April 11, 2018, 3:00 p.m.