NEW LOCATION! This month's Tuesday Funk will take place at The Hopleaf, 5148 N. Clark St., Chicago.
Please join us for the next reading on Tuesday, October 6th:
RAYMOND L. BIANCHI is a native of Chicago and the child of Italian Immigrants. He lived and worked for most of the 1990's in Bolivia and Brazil, first as a volunteer and then in publishing. He is the author of two books of poetry:
Circular Descent (2003) from Blaze Vox Books and
Immediate Empire (2008) from i.e. Press. He was the guest translation editor for
Aufgabe 6 which included a section of 18 Brazilian poets that he translated. His translations of Brazilian poet Sergio Medieros will appear in the fall 2009 edition of
Mandorla Magazine from the University of Texas press. He also serves as Publisher and co-founder of
Cracked Slab Books of Chicago. In that capacity he served as co-editor for
The City Visible: Chicago Poetry for the New Century in 2008. He blogs at
www.irasciblepoet.blogspot.com.
Following a lifetime career in dance, MAGGIE KAST received an MFA in fiction from Vermont College. She has published stories in
The Sun,
Nimrod,
Kaleidoscope,
Rosebud,
Paper Street, and
Carve. Her essays and memoir excerpts have appeared in Americ2a,
Image,
Writer's Chronicle,
ACM/Another Chicago Magazine, and others. Her book,
The Crack between the Worlds: a dancer's memoir of loss, faith and family, has just been published by Wipf and Stock and is available at bookstores and
www.wipfandstock.com. Read excerpts at
www.maggiekast.com.
ARLENE MALINOWSKI - As actor, educator, and writer Arlene views solo work as an artistic extension of the social justice work she has been doing for the last twenty five years. Her five solo plays including
What Does the Sun Sound Like and
Aiming for Sainthood have been produced and performed in venues nationwide including St Louis Center of Contemporary Art; 16th Street Theater, Chicago; Los Angeles Women's Theatre Festival; HBO Workspace; NoHo Theatre Festival; Ojai Solo Series; National Center on Deafness; West Coast Ensemble; and Blue Sphere Alliance, as well as at numerous colleges throughout the country. Most recently she performed a new piece which was named one of the five best solo shows by
Windy City Times.
Her solo work has been honored with an LA Garland Award and nominations for the LA Weekly Award and the Los Angeles Theatre Ovation Award. As an actor she has appeared in numerous theater productions including the world premiere of
By the Music of the Spheres at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. Other favorite roles include
Lovers and Other Strangers,
Labor Pains,
Chapter Two,
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest with Deaf West, the critically acclaimed
In A Different Voice and
Faith, Hope and Clarity.
Arlene is also a writer and performer with the nationally touring, multicultural show
A Slice of Rice, Frijoles and Greens which was honored with the White House Award for the Initiative on Race. Recent TV credits include CBS Movie
Sweet Nothing in My Ear,
CSI,
ER,
The Division,
The Practice,
The Division,
Any Day Now, twelve segments of
Fit Spa and Resort and
The X Files.
She teaches solo writing and performing in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago, and coaches individual artists. Her numerous solo students have been honored with Garland Awards, special recognition at the Edinburgh Fringe, LA Weekly Awards, FEM Finalists, Windy City Chicago best solo show, and numerous critics pick. She is a contributing writer for the
Week Behind and
Selling Lemonade for Free and is a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists and Artist in Residence at
16th Street Theater. Her newest play
Anonymous Donor about sperm banks, technology and mean girls will have a Chicago reading in 2009.
LAURA TIEBERT is a travel writer and author of four guidebooks to Chicago, including
Frommer's Chicago with Kids,
Frommer's Chicago Day by Day,
Chicago for Dummies, and the forthcoming Frommer's Chicago Free and Dirt Cheap. She has ghostwritten eight
For Dummies books, ranging from Blues for Dummies with Chicago blues legend Lonnie Brooks, to Beauty Secrets for Dummies with supermodel Stephanie Seymour. Studying with Chicago performance artist Brigid Murphy, she completed her first novel,
Sapphire Dunes, a romantic novel about a feisty and chic young Chicago journalist who follows her heart to a Middle Eastern country and comes home with a great feature story... and possibly the love of her life. Laura is currently working on her second novel,
Home Economics, about a 45-year-old mom on the verge of a nervous breakdown (the breakdown all moms would like to have but can't afford to), whose dead mother-in-law starts speaking to her through a 1950s Sunbeam mixmaster. (Yes, exactly like the mixmasters on display in Tuesday Funk's former home,
Flourish).