The 125th episode of Tuesday Funk happened to fall on Mardi Gras, and cohost Andrew Huff took that as inspiration for a couple of his topical haiku for the month.

Mardi Gras today!
Laissez les bon temps rouller!
Lent starts tomorrow.

What would you give up?
Me, a 40-day diet.
Reward is less me.

Que séra séra
Whatever will be, will be.
Record player skipped.

Now, I exhaled. Now.
Not tomorrow, not next week.
Now means this instant.

Spring into action with your favorite eclectic monthly reading series! Tuesday Funk returns to the upstairs bar at Hopleaf on Tuesday, April 2 with readings by Nestor Gomez, Elizabeth Tamny, Amar Taylor, Stuti Sharma and Levi Todd.

Admission to Tuesday Funk is free, but you must be 21 to attend. Doors open at 7pm sharp (don't be slow if you want a seat!) and the show will start at 7:30pm. Please RSVP on Facebook, and don't forget to like and follow us so you get our announcements right in your stream.

You can also follow us on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. Hope to see you April 2!

Well, March predictably came in like a lion, but Tuesday Funk fans withstood the miserable weather and came out for a great show on March 5, 2019. Lindsay Eanet warmed the upstairs lounge at Hopleaf up with an essay that brought together astrology, "American Ninja Warrior" and The Hunger Games, then Lori Barrett (filling in for the ill Tracy Harford-Porter) shared a story about getting used to living in a foreign country -- and the noises one's neighbors make. Next, Robbie Q. Telfer read poems that were at once funny and poignant.

We took a break to refill our drinks, after which cohost Andrew Huff shared a couple of topical haiku and introduced Faisal Mohyuddin, who read several poems of his own. Last but not least, Kelly Swails told a story about nearly falling off a cliff and being saved by a cool-headed friend.

Tuesday Funk returns on April 2, when we'll feature readings by Kenji Kuramitsu, Elizabeth Tamny, Stuti Sharma, Amar Taylor and Levi Todd. Hope to see you there!

March into March with Chicago's finest! Tonight we've got Robbie Q. Telfer, Tracy Harford-Porter, Kelly Swails, Lindsay Eanet, and Faisal Mohyuddin!

Our readings take place at Hopleaf Bar, 5148 N. Clark St. in Chicago. We get started promptly at 7:30 pm in the upstairs lounge. Arrive early if you want a seat -- but no earlier than 7:00 pm. Our readings are free, but only those 21 and over will be admitted. No food can be brought in from the restaurant. See you there!

Tracy Harford-Porter was born in Brooklyn, NY and now resides in the Chicago suburbs. She has worked for Essence Communications as a photo editor, the Harlem Children's Zone as the managing editor of Harlem Overheard, StoryCorps as a facilitator coordinator, and Goldman Sachs as a long-term administrative temp/secret ethnographer. Tracy is a 2008 graduate of Clarion West and proud alum of Columbia University School of General Studies, majoring in anthropology. She is currently reworking a NaNoWriMo project into a novel and a screenplay because she is a masochist.

Please join Tracy and our other amazing readers on Tuesday, March 5, 2019 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.

Kelly Swails is a writer, editor, and all-around geek. Her work has appeared in several anthologies as well as Shondaland.com. Currently, she's the Co-Director of the Writer's Symposium at Gen Con, a con-within-a-con for science fiction and fantasy writers. You can stalk her on twitter at @kellyswails or her website at, you guessed it, kellyswails.com.

Please join Kelly and our other amazing readers on Tuesday, March 5, 2019 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.

Robbie Q. Telfer has performed and taught in hundreds of venues and institutions around the world. A co-founder of the Encyclopedia Show, he's been an individual finalist at the National Poetry Slam and has a collection of poetry from Write Bloody Publishing. A member of the internationally-renowned teaching artist collective Project VOICE, he is currently an environmental educator at the Morton Arboretum outside of Chicago.

Please join Robbie and our other amazing readers on Tuesday, March 5, 2019 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.

Faisal Mohyuddin is the author of The Displaced Children of Displaced Children (Eyewear 2018), which won of the 2017 Sexton Prize for Poetry, was selected as a 2018 Summer Recommendation of the Poetry Book Society, and named a "highly commended" collection by the Forward Arts Foundation. Also the author of the chapbook The Riddle of Longing (Backbone 2017), he teaches English at Highland Park High School in Illinois and serves as an educator adviser for the global not-for-profit Narrative 4.

Please join Faisal and our other amazing readers on Tuesday, March 5, 2019 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.

Lindsay Eanet (rhymes with "Senate") can be seen reading around Chicago at shows like OUTSpoken, You're Being Ridiculous, Story Jam and this one, and next to you at your favorite bar, skipping over all your songs on the jukebox. She has a weakness for reality competition shows and cries an average of four times during every episode of American Ninja Warrior. But enough about her, let's talk about you.

Please join Lindsay and our other amazing readers on Tuesday, March 5, 2019 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.

Recent extreme weather was on cohost Andrew Huff's mind as he wrote his haiku for our February 5, 2019 show.

Thank you for coming
despite both an ice storm and
State of the Union.

Do cold toilet seats
sting less if your butt
is already cold?

Seventy degrees
from Thursday to Saturday.
Thanks, global warming.

He also shared a poem written with the assistance of Haikubes:

Our parallel dilemma:
What if we are following
behind the wrong one?