In the mid-1980s, three decades after the flowering of the Beat Generation brought us Alan Ginsburg’s rhythmic, streaming lament Howl, a poetry appeared in a Chicago jazz club that shared the riveting qualities of it predecessor.

Slam poetry — performance poetry reflecting cultural and personal experience as varied as its individual authors — will form the cornerstone of a program that explores relationships between their words and the music of Lee Hyla, György Kurtág, Gustav Mahler, and Franz Schubert.