MAKE Literary Productions

With 2026 just days away, we’re asking for your support now to help MAKE a difference ✨🙏

And right now, your gift can go twice as far — if MAKE reaches $1,500, an anonymous donor will match every dollar! 🎁✨

MAKE Literary Productions works to make art more accessible across cultures. We address the lack of access and exposure to Latinx/e poets and artists—especially those whose multilingual, cross-cultural work blends literature, performance, visual art, and more 🎭📚🎨

Through the Lit & Luz Festival, we cultivate cross-border partnerships and elevate new voices through dynamic literary, artistic, and performance events. 🇺🇸🤝🇲🇽

Artist Laleh Motlagh described the experience beautifully:
“Lit & Luz was truly a unique experience. Collaborating with a writer from a different culture was inspiring, encouraging, and challenging. We combined our practices and spoken languages into one cohesive artwork that stretched our thinking beyond ourselves.”

At a time of heightened political tensions—especially around immigration—this platform is essential 🌎🔥

Lit & Luz brings together extraordinary Latin and Latinx voices while supporting emerging writers and enriching the performance literature landscapes of Chicago and Mexico.

Your support today helps create space for artists and audiences on both sides of the border—ensuring greater visibility for the communities we serve and strengthening the creative connections that matter most 💬❤️

MAKE’s Lit & Luz exists because of people like you who believe in the transformative power of art and community. Thank you for helping create spaces where our languages, stories, and creative visions can thrive! 🌟📝

We wish you and your loved ones a 2026 filled with joy, care, and community. Happy New Year! 🎉🥂

Image: Lit & Luz 2025–26 Collaboration Cohort artists, hosts, and staff at the Live Magazine Show, MCA, 2025. Photo by Natasha Moustache

Thank you to everyone who showed up, supported, and brought incredible energy to our Lit & Luz Festival this year. We couldn’t have done it without you! ✨

And especially thank you to Lit & Luz main sponsors for 2025: The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, Chicago Community Trust, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, UIC Center for Latinx Literature of the Americas DCASE, and the Poetry Foundation ❤️

Image: Live Magazine Show audience & reception at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA), Lit & Luz Chicago 2025. Photo by Natasha Moustache

Now more than ever, our communities need to uplift Latinx/e voices and invest in programming that brings people together across cultures, languages, and borders 🌎✨

Since its founding in 2004, MAKE has grown from a small saddle-stitched magazine into a vibrant arts organization—one that now produces the international Lit & Luz Festival of Language, Literature, and Art. 🇺🇸🤝🇲🇽

And the impact is inspiring. Past Lit & Luz participants have shared:

“The emphasis on cross-border, multilingual collaboration is truly radical… It demonstrates the festival’s commitment to authentic, meaningful interaction among artists.”
— Diego Báez, Chicago-based writer & educator

“I’m deeply moved by being able to share with other people, in other latitudes… united, sutured by the same thing.”
— Clyo Mendoza, Oaxaca-based poet
This is why your support matters ❤️

🎁 Now through December 31, your gift is doubled.
If MAKE reaches $1,500, an anonymous donor will match every dollar. Thanks to Giving Tuesday, we’ve already raised $500—just $1,000 more to unlock the match! 🙌✨

Your gift—at any level—helps ensure that artists from Chicago, Mexico, and beyond can continue creating work that fosters empathy, imagination, and cross-cultural connection 💫

Thank you for supporting these efforts. We can’t wait to see the difference your generosity will make! ❤️
Wishing you and your loved ones a joyful, caring, and community-filled 2026.
Happy Holidays! 🎄✨

Image: Ana Hernández and Stefania Gomez, “Ra Lidxi Niza” / “Donde habita el maíz” / “Where Corn Lives” at the Lit & Luz Live Magazine Show, MCA, 2025. Photo by Natasha Moustache