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At Chicago Critic's Table, writers sharpen their pens with art, culture commentary

That approach has helped the Chicago Critic’s Table community contribute to the literary world. Past participant Britt Julious published a book, Queens of Soul, rooted in her work as a long-established critic, and others have led salons and published their own work elsewhere. 

El-Fil, who entered the cohort as a beginner, published her first review in Portable Gray, the journal of the UChicago Richard and Mary L. Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry. She said her time in the cohort was meaningful as it gave her a chance to support small galleries, but also to play a part in a larger narrative by “highlighting artists who are historically underrepresented or overlooked.”

“Art criticism determines what people pay attention to, and I think it also contextualizes art for the public, which can be really important because it builds a kind of genealogy,” El-Fil said. “So I think my approach to criticism is saying, this is happening right now, but this work is speaking to things that happened previously too.”

By Diadem Anene