Chicago's favorite eclectic reading series makes its triumphant monthly return! Join us in the upstairs bar at Hopleaf on Tuesday, Aug. 5 for readings by Dan Baron, Eiren Caffall, Esther Cowie, Courtney Justus, and Scott Smith!

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, like and follow us so you get our announcements in your news stream. You can also follow us on Bluesky, YouTube and Instagram — and subscribe to our very low-volume (like, once a month) email newsletter, too!

It was downright hot on the first of July, but we stayed nice and cool in the upstairs lounge of Hopleaf, ready for the 160th edition of Tuesday Funk! Victoria Montalbano got things started with a funny story about being an in-store shopper for a now wildly successful college classmate. Next, Chris Corlew shared some of his quirky poetry. Then Chris Gleason read a piece about their home town from a recent zine.

We took a break to refill our refreshments, and Ursa Miles shared a fable about a fox who gets a taste of their own medicine. Finally, Martha Bayne read her essay from the new book she edited, Nothing Compares to You: What Sinéad O'Connor Means to Us.

Tuesday Funk will be back on August 5 with readings by Dan Baron, Eiren Caffall, Esther Cowie, Courtney Justus and Scott Smith. Hope to see you there!

Ursa Miles is an Ozark-born and Chicago-based storyteller. She spent her early years playing on the dusty floors of her grandparents’ boat shop taking in the tall tales of fishermen and boat builders. Her love of stories led her to pursue a degree in theatre and speech education followed by another degree in storytelling performance. She now passionately works to encourage variety and innovation in folk telling. She is currently touring her solo show, Ozark Phantasmagoria. Her book, Passive Aggressive Fables for Adults, is available wherever books are sold. She also loves cheesecake.

Please join Ursa and our other great readers on Tuesday, July 1, 2025 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.

Chris Gleason is a queer designer, artist, and exuberant Chicago transplant. They make zines and art about poetry, birds, museums, media, nostalgia, and The Queer Experience. They spent their college years writing poetry, and this is the first time they’ve done live lit since getting their writing degree in two thousand and — wait, is it too late to back out now? Assuming it is, they’re excited to tell you about their hometown... and they’ll sell you the companion collage map zine for a cool five bucks. Their zines can be found variously at Uncharted Books, Third Coast Comics, Quimby's, and online at justchrispress.itch.io.

Please join Chris and our other awesome readers on Tuesday, July 1, 2025 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.

Victoria Montalbano is an actress, solo performer, and recovering improvisor. She has made appearances at storytelling shows across the Chicagoland area, and spends part of the year touring her one-person-shows. Her award-winning show, The Princess Strikes Back: One Woman's Search for the Space Cowboy of her Dreams is available for streaming. The world premiere of her next show, Timey Wimey Stuff: The Mid-Life Crisis of a Time Traveling Space Archaeologist is July 5 at the Bughouse Theater. She is begging you to come see it! More info and ticket links at www.VictoriaNotVicky.com.

Please join Victoria and our other amazing readers on Tuesday, July 1, 2025 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.

Chris Corlew is a writer and musician living in Chicago. His poems, short stories, and articles have been published in Cotton Xenomorph, Moist Poetry Journal, Whisk(e)y Tit, Kicking Your Ass, Cracked.com, and elsewhere. With Bob Sykora, he co-hosts The Line Break, a podcast about poetry and basketball. With Brendan Johnson, he is one half of Lazy & Entitled, the band that writes novels. You can find more Chris at Lazy And Entitled Dot Org.

Please join Chris and our other wonderful readers on Tuesday, July 1, 2025 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.

Martha Bayne is a writer and editor in and around Chicago. Currently a senior acquisitions editor at the University of Illinois Press, she has worked in journalism and publishing for 30 years, since she first started publishing a zine in 1995, and recently returned to self-publishing with a Substack newsletter called Range of Motion. In between she has written a narrative cookbook, has edited three anthologies of nonfiction writing about Chicago and the Midwest, and her reported work and essays have been published in the Chicago Reader, the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Reporter, The Rumpus, The Baffler, PRI/The World, and other local and national outlets. Her new book Nothing Compares to You: What Sinéad O'Connor Means to Us, a collection of essays by women and nonbinary writers coedited with Sonya Huber, will be out in July 2025 from Atria/One Signal.

Please join Martha and our other fantastic readers on Tuesday, July 1, 2025 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.

July 1 will be the 160th episode of Chicago's favorite eclectic reading series! Join us in the upstairs bar at Hopleaf for readings by Martha Bayne, Chris Corlew, Chris Gleason, Ursa Miles, and Victoria Montalbano. Maybe it will even consistently feel like summer by then!

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, like and follow us so you get our announcements in your news stream. You can also follow us on Bluesky, YouTube and Instagram — and subscribe to our very low-volume (like, once a month) email newsletter, too!

We had a packed room for our June 3 show — proving once again that Chicagoans love their live lit! And we had a really great show for them, too. Dayna Bateman started things off with a moving abecedarian essay about her indigenous Sámi ancestors to pass for white in the racial climate of 1880s America, in relation to her life today. Next, Diana Babineau read a short story thriller set in a dystopian future in which state government has been tightening its control of women. Then James Stewart III shared a passage from his novel Defiant Acts set in the aftermath of the Rodney King trial.

After intermission, Eden Robins read a piece from the forthcoming comedy murder mystery novel she wrote with Mary Winn Heider. Then Mary Anne Mohanraj closed things out with a passage from one of her books, in which a woman grapples with the alternate versions of her life and identity.

Tuesday Funk will be back on July 1 with readings by Martha Bayne, Chris Corlew, Chris Gleason, Ursa Miles, and Victoria Montalbano. It's going to be a lot of fun — hope to see you there!

Mary Anne Mohanraj is author of Bodies in Motion (HarperCollins), The Stars Change (Circlet Press) and ten other titles. Bodies in Motion was a finalist for the Asian American Book Awards, a USA Today Notable Book, and has been translated into six languages. The Stars Change is a science fiction novella, and finalist for the Lambda, Rainbow, and Bisexual Book Awards. Previous titles include Aqua Erotica,Wet, Kathryn in the City, The Classics Professor, The Best of Strange Horizons, Without a Map, The Poet's Journey, and A Taste of Serendib (a Sri Lankan cookbook). Mohanraj founded the Hugo-nominated magazine, Strange Horizons, and was Guest of Honor at WisCon 2010 and Maneki Neko Con. She serves as Executive Director of the Speculative Literature Foundation, has taught at the Clarion SF/F workshop, and is Clinical Assistant Professor of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Please join Mary Anne and our other awesome readers on Tuesday, June 3, 2025 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.