Chicago's Lit & Luz Festival is marking its 13th year with a citywide run of bilingual programming that pairs artists from Mexico and Chicago, opening Sunday at the Hyde Park Art Center and building toward a culminating show at the Museum of Contemporary Art later in the week. The festival brings together poetry readings, author talks, live performances, an art workshop and a film screening, all built around this year's theme, Edge/Borde.
According to Block Club Chicago, the festival is scheduled to run November 8 through 14, 2026, though Lit & Luz's own festival page lists the Chicago run as ending November 13, while a separate press release on the organization's site states the dates as November 8 to 14 — a discrepancy that remains unresolved as of publication. What is confirmed is the opening: the festival kicks off Sunday at the Hyde Park Art Center, with performances from Bárbara Foulkes, Mauricio López F. and Camille Casemier making up three individual works for the night.
Lit & Luz is produced by MAKE Literary Productions, a nonprofit organized under section 501(c)(3), per the organization's own press release. Sofía Gabriel, the group's executive director, said this 13th year is a significant achievement given the funding pressures facing nonprofits generally. She said the festival intends to keep going despite those challenges, with a goal of supporting both artists and audiences.
A Theme Built Around Borders, Soft and Hard
This year's theme, Edge/Borde, is meant to explore physical and metaphorical borders across geography, culture, identity and artistic practice, according to the festival's materials. Organizers describe the programming as considering the complexities of official borders as well as the ways softer and harder edges get constructed, per Lit & Luz's festival page. It's a shift from last year's theme, Repair/Reparar, which the 12th annual festival used to create space for people to come together and heal, as reported by Block Club Chicago.
That 12th edition, covered last November by Block Club Chicago, similarly paired artists and writers from Mexico and Chicago to build four collaborative projects over several months. Gabriel said the festival attracted more than 1,000 attendees across its programming last year, according to Block Club Chicago's reporting. She added that she's confident continued public support will keep the festival running for years to come, and that it helps people understand one another across Chicago's communities and across borders.
Citywide Programming Through the Week
The festival takes place citywide in Chicago, with one or two programs scheduled each day through the run. Stops include a live poetry and storytelling event at The Whistler in Logan Square, a keynote address from Mexican poet Karen Villeda at Haymarket House in Uptown, and a conversation between Villeda and Mexican contemporary author Marina Azahua at Pilsen Community Books. Villeda and Azahua are both part of this year's collaboration cohort alongside Chicago-based collaborators.
Another stop features Aram Han Sifuentes and Azahua discussing the crisis of disappeared people in both Chicago and Mexico, a conversation drawn directly from this year's border-focused theme. The festival also includes a sold-out writing workshop at the Harold Washington Library, and a screening of Drown Among the Dead, a work by Mexican artist Rubén Gutiérrez making its Chicago debut at the National Museum of Mexican Art.
Months in the Making, Staged at MCA
The centerpiece of the week is the Live Magazine Show, where participating artists and writers present collaborative art projects they've spent months developing together. According to the Museum of Contemporary Art, this year's collaboration cohort pairs Azahua with Aram Han Sifuentes, Gutiérrez with Ricardo Gamboa, Bárbara Foulkes with Jennifer Scappettone, and Villeda with Tongji Philip Qian. The pieces are presented in both Spanish and English and can include storytelling, music, poetry, video art and extemporaneous performances, per the museum's listing.
The Live Magazine Show is set for Friday, November 13, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, and it's the festival's only ticketed event, with general admission priced at $19 and student tickets at $10. Registration for other festival programming is encouraged but not required. The collaborative works will travel on to Mexico City, where Lit & Luz says they'll be presented at the Museo del Chopo on March 6, 2027, continuing the festival's model of staging in Chicago each fall and in Mexico City each spring.
A Year of Tighter Arts Budgets
The festival's milestone year arrives as Chicago's own cultural funding has tightened. The city's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events took a 15 percent cut in its 2026 budget, according to WBEZ, which also reported that among the five largest U.S. cities, Chicago was the only one to cut funding for its local arts agency in its most recent budget cycle. Gabriel framed Lit & Luz's 13th year against that backdrop as a significant achievement for a nonprofit arts organization.
MAKE Lit says it has supported the work of more than 260 artists from both the United States and Mexico since the festival's founding in 2014, according to the organization's press release. Gabriel said she hopes to keep growing the festival's audience while continuing to celebrate Latinx culture, Spanish-language programming and Chicago's broader arts and writing ecosystems.
