There was a slightly somber and spooky vibe to the October edition of Tuesday Funk, as is appropriate to the season. Sondra Morin led things off with an essay and a couple of poems. Then Faisal Mohyuddin read a range of poetry, including a selection that were published October 2024 issue of Poetry. Next, Steve Bellinger read an excerpt from his new novel, e-Pocalypse-The Digital Dystopia is Coming.

We took a break to refresh our drinks, after which Laaura Goldstein shared some of her poetry. Last but not least, PJ Gray read a short story about an eventful night out trick-or-treating.

We are taking November off, because the first Tuesday of the month is Election Day and we'd much rather you make it to the polls. But we hope you'll join us in the upstairs bar at Hopleaf on Tuesday, December 3, when we'll have readings by Steve Bellinger, Laura Goldstein, PJ Gray, Faisal Mohyuddin, and Sondra Morin. See you there, and in the meantime, VOTE!

Faisal Mohyuddin is the author of Elsewhere: An Elegy (Next Page Press, 2024), The Displaced Children of Displaced Children, (Eyewear, 2018), and the chapbook The Riddle of Longing (Backbone Press, 2017). His recent work appears in Poetry, The Poetry Review (UK), Jet Fuel Review, Pleiades, and the anthologies Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World and What Things Cost: An Anthology for the People. He teaches high school English in suburban Chicago and creative writing at Northwestern University’s School of Professional Studies. He is also a visual artist, and he serves as a Master Practitioner with the global-not-for-profit Narrative 4.

Please join Faisal and our other fantastic readers on Tuesday, October 1, 2024 in the upstairs bar at Hopleaf. Doors open at 7pm, and the show starts at 7:30. It's free, and 21-and-over. Please RSVP on Facebook.

Laaura Goldstein's first collection of poetry, loaded arc, was released by Trembling Pillow Press in 2013 and their second collection, awesome camera was published by Make Now Press in 2014. They have also published several chapbooks with vibrant small presses across the country as well. They began their teaching career in Philadelphia for the Center for Literacy and Poetry for the People and are now are a Senior Lecturer in Core Literature and Writing at Loyola University Chicago doing work in antiracism and serving as faculty advisor for Students for Justice in Palestine.

Please join Laaura and our other fantastic readers on Tuesday, October 1, 2024 in the upstairs bar at Hopleaf. Doors open at 7pm, and the show starts at 7:30. It's free, and 21-and-over. Please RSVP on Facebook.

PJ Gray has been seen storytelling at 2nd Story, Nestor Gomez's 80 Minutes Around the World, Sidetrack's Outspoken, Drinkers with Writing Problems, and Serving the Sentence to name a few. His varied writing career has included cookbook publishing, television writing and low comprehension fiction for struggling readers of all ages. To learn more, go to PJGray.com.

Please join PJ and our other fantastic readers on Tuesday, October 1, 2024 in the upstairs bar at Hopleaf. Doors open at 7pm, and the show starts at 7:30. It's free, and 21-and-over. Please RSVP on Facebook.

Steve Bellinger was born and raised on the West Side of Chicago by a single mom who worked nights for a printing company. She would bring home books and magazines to encourage him to read. This is how he discovered Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke and the other masters of classic science fiction. It didn’t take long for him to get the itch to write. Over the years, he’s written everything from newspaper articles, comic strips and radio drama to short stories and fan fiction.

One of the original Trekkies, he and his wife Donna hope to renew their wedding vows one day with a full Star Trek-themed ceremony; he'll wear an admiral's dress uniform, and she will be decked out in a custom-made leather-and-lace Klingon wedding dress. That, Steve says, is the only time he will outrank her.

Please join Steve and our other fantastic readers on Tuesday, October 1, 2024 in the upstairs bar at Hopleaf. Doors open at 7pm, and the show starts at 7:30. It's free, and 21-and-over. Please RSVP on Facebook.

Writer. Poet. Bicyclist. New Englander by Trade. Sondra Morin is an alumna of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and the Juniper Writing Institute. She is published in The Rumpus, vis a tergo, SIMILAR : PEAKS ::, Curbside Splendor, among others, and is an Uptown Poetry Slam Champion. She has a poetry chapbook, Inviting the Expanse, published under Radical Snail Press. She has performed with The Neo-Futurists and at live lit readings throughout Chicago, including Write Club, Story Lab, and The First Time. Moonlighting as The Audible Snail, she DJs Wednesday nights on CHIRP Radio. You can read her prose at radicalsnail.com.

Please join Sondra and our other fantastic readers on Tuesday, October 1, 2024 in the upstairs bar at Hopleaf. Doors open at 7pm, and the show starts at 7:30. It's free, and 21-and-over. Please RSVP on Facebook.

Get your monthly dose of live lit at Chicago's favorite eclectic reading series! Join us in the upstairs lounge at Hopleaf on Tuesday, Oct. 1 where we'll have readings from Steve Bellinger, Faisal Mohyuddin, Laaura Goldstein, PJ Gray, and Sondra Morin.

Admission to Tuesday Funk is always free, but you must be 21 to attend. Doors open at 7pm sharp (tables tend to fill up fast, so don't be late!) and the show will start at 7:30pm. Please RSVP on Facebook, and while you're there, go ahead and like and follow us so you get our announcements in your news stream.

Our September show brought together readers new and old. Dr. Ada Cheng shared a contemplative essay about aging and acceptance, followed by Kemi Alabi reading poems from their acclaimed book Against Heaven. Tuesday Funk co-founder Hallie Palladino read a personal essay about how she fell in love with — and began writing for — the movies.

After the break, first-time reader Ryan Varadi shared poems from a collection in progress. Finally, Kate Harding closed out the night with a fresh list of reasons to open a used bookstore (or come visit her at Jarvis Square Books very soon). Thanks as always to our attentive and supportive audience!

Join us in the upstairs bar at Hopleaf on Tuesday, October 1, when we'll have readings by Steve Bellinger, Laura Goldstein, PJ Gray, Faisal Mohyuddin, and Sondra Morin. Hope to see you there!

Hallie Palladino is playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and original co-founder of Tuesday Funk in 2008. She has written plays about everything from fraudulent tech start-ups to a fictionalized account of the Cambridge Analytica data heist. Her most recent play The Cleanup, was a sex comedy about burnt-out parents hooking up after hours at a crunchy DIY preschool co-op. All of these are part of her "deception series" that ask: how do we rebuild after social trust is shattered? Her short Attachment Disorder is published in the Best New Ten-Minute Plays 2021 (Applause Acting Series). Her writings on theater have appeared in American Theatre Magazine, HowlRound, and Rescripted. Currently she's having a blast with her screenwriting partners, Mike Jann and Michele Jordan, writing a raunchy coming of age story with a climax at a Tijuana brothel. Hallie is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild.

Please join Hallie and our other fantastic readers on Tuesday, September 3, 2024 in the upstairs bar at Hopleaf. Doors open at 7pm, and the show starts at 7:30. It's free, and 21-and-over. Please RSVP on Facebook.

photo credit - Joe Mazza - Brave Lux

Kate Harding is the author of Asking for It: The Alarming Rise of Rape Culture and co-editor with Samhita Mukhopadhyay of Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance, and Revolution in Trump’s America. She has both an MFA and a PhD she’s not currently using, but she’s taught creative writing at Northwestern University and StoryStudio Chicago, among other places. After being an editor, book publicist, and author, Kate switched over to the bookselling side in 2021, and she is now the owner of Jarvis Square Books, which will open this fall in Rogers Park.

Please join Kate and our other fantastic readers on Tuesday, September 3, 2024 in the upstairs bar at Hopleaf. Doors open at 7pm, and the show starts at 7:30. It's free, and 21-and-over. Please RSVP on Facebook.