"SevenTen Bishop is a Chicago-based collective of literary artists seeking to educate and raise awareness of language's potential in the enrichment of the human spirit, to reinvigorate the use of language in public communication and discourse and to avail ourselves and the wisdom of our experience to those who pursue the artistic endeavor.

SevenTen Bishop will cross-promote programs with artists of varied mediums and disciplines in order to further language arts as being vital to the welfare of the individual as well as the community. In a public forum SevenTen Bishop will perform and spontaneously compose work intended to engage the onlooker in a thought provoking. There will be readings, lectures and discussion sessions in Chicago neighborhoods and other cities. SevenTen Bishop will be available to schools for assemblies or artist-in-residence programs. In conjunction with visual artists, musicians, thespians and the like SevenTen Bishop seeks to transcend the print arts and to advance the possibilities of creative literary communication. SevenTen Bishop will also respectfully carry on the traditions of the print arts by publishing the work of unknown writers in need of guidance, assistance and exposure.

As participating members of society and as artists providing reflections and critiques of the structure and mores society dictates SevenTen Bishop seeks to bring notice to a hightened realism and provide an active articulate voice to cultural experiences both positive and negative often left unspoken or ignored. In a collective spirit SevenTen Bishop will work toward eliminating cultural barriers and enhancing a sense of personal and public place in the American experience through workshops, performances, publications and exhibitions. "