Angel Simmons is a Chicago south-sider who was raised in Englewood. As a Columbia College alumna, she does it all as a speaker, mentor, coach, runway and print model, president and CEO of The Message, Inc., and the current Ms. Worldwide USA Ambassador for the Live Out Loud Charity. She has been featured in books, magazines, the Chicago Tribune, Crain's Chicago Business, in Christian music, and as a guest on radio and television. Angel is the author of Love's Great Design, a columnist for Fabulous & Money Savvy magazine, and the co-host of Do Not Submit: Englewood. She has graced some of the city's finest storytelling stages on both the South and North Side. And now you can catch her face in 5 coming movies and on your TV screen in 12 different Chicago shows!

Please join Angel and our other amazing readers on Tuesday, September 5, 2017 in the upstairs bar at Hopleaf. Doors open at 7pm, and the show starts at 7:30. It's free, and 21-and-over. RSVP on Facebook.

Michael Fischer is currently earning an MFA in Creative Writing from Sierra Nevada College. He is co-editor of Sierra Nevada Review, an assistant nonfiction editor of Profane, and a Moth Chicago StorySlam winner. His work has been supported by fellowships and grants from the Luminarts Cultural Foundation, Grubstreet, the Lighthouse Writers Workshop, Hippocamp, and the Chicago chapter of the Awesome Foundation. His essays appear or are forthcoming in The Sun, Brevity, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. In his free time, he chases his baby niece down a hallway with a large stuffed bear.

Please join Michael and our other amazing readers on Tuesday, September 5, 2017 in the upstairs bar at Hopleaf. Doors open at 7pm, and the show starts at 7:30. It's free, and 21-and-over. RSVP on Facebook.

Lily Be is a Chicago native, born and raised in Humboldt Park. A momma, a nanny, and storyteller. Lily Be is the creator and cohost of the bimonthly storytelling series, The Stoop, which takes place second and last Thursday of every month at Rosa's Lounge. Lily exists to help people own their narrative and inspire them to be their truest self.

Please join Lily and our other amazing readers on Tuesday, September 5, 2017 in the upstairs bar at Hopleaf. Doors open at 7pm, and the show starts at 7:30. It's free, and 21-and-over. RSVP on Facebook.

Evan W. Stoner is the author of this bio and the novel Birthday Suits, a book that asks the question: if you inherit a disease from your parents, can you hold them legally responsible? While not a courtroom drama, the book explores the emotional fallout of this scenario as it affects the various members of one family. By day, Evan is a legal writer working to ensure foreign scientists are granted green cards, and by night he's working on his next book about a wrench-wielding vigilante. He finished his M.A. at the University of Chicago, and is obsessed with Ryan Adams, all things bass guitar, and his cat Miss Cleo. His previous work has appeared in Underground Voices and Colloquium, and you may follow him online @evanwstoner.

Please join Evan and our other amazing readers on Tuesday, September 5, 2017 in the upstairs bar at Hopleaf. Doors open at 7pm, and the show starts at 7:30. It's free, and 21-and-over. RSVP on Facebook.

Mary Winn Heider writes for kids, but has also worked as a public radio reporter, a high school teacher, and a bartender on a train in Alaska. She teaches writing to kids in Chicago Public Schools with the theater company Barrel of Monkeys, and studied writing herself at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her debut middle grade novel, The Mortification of Fovea Munson, comes out Summer 2018.

Please join Mary Winn and our other amazing readers on Tuesday, September 5, 2017 in the upstairs bar at Hopleaf. Doors open at 7pm, and the show starts at 7:30. It's free, and 21-and-over. RSVP on Facebook.

Cohost Andrew Huff's patented topical haiku reflected the weird summer Chicago's been experiencing and his recent trip to New York.

Beautiful weather
always makes me suspicious
of what is coming.

Chicago may be
second city to New York,
but we have alleys.

Dodging mattresses,
boxes and other trash scuffs
the Big Apple's shine.

He also expressed his frustration with having to honor his promise not to write about the president:

Do you realize
how hard it is to ignore
the toddler in chief?

Get back in the swing of things post-Labor Day with your favorite eclectic reading series! Tuesday Funk is back Sept. 5! Join us in the upstairs lounge of Hopleaf in Andersonville as we welcome Mary Winn Heider, Michael Fischer, Angel Simmons, Evan Stoner and Lily Be.

As always, doors open at 7 pm (no earlier, but arrive as close to 7 as possible or risk not getting a table) and the show starts at 7:30 pm. Admission is free, but you must be 21 or older. Please RSVP on Facebook -- and while you're there, like our page so you get our announcements right in your stream.

After taking a break for the Fourth of July holiday, coming back to the upstairs bar in Hopleaf for the 107th edition of Tuesday Funk was a refreshing pleasure.

Jonathan Winston Jones kicked things off with a second-person narrative that interwove memories with present-day feelings and events. Then Tiffany Gholar read a passage from her book A Bitter Pill to Swallow. Alicia Swiz brought us to the intermission with a story of coming to terms with a breakup, only to have him pop back up right as she was over him.

Everyone refreshed their drinks, then settled in to hear Edward Moses tell the story of how he fell in love with rap -- and then gave us a sample of his own lyrical style. Hannah Gamble closed out the evening with a selection of poems, including a couple that referenced a recently departed friend.

So there you go -- if you weren't there, you missed a good one. But fret not! Video will be up on our YouTube page soon. And we'll be back at Hopleaf on Tuesday, Sept. 5 with readings by Mary Winn Heider, Michael Fischer, Angel Simmons, Evan Stoner and Lily Be. See you there!

Have you missed us as much as we've missed you? Come tell us about it TONIGHT at Tuesday Funk #107. We've got an extra awesome lineup, with Alicia Swiz, Jonathan Jones, Edward Moses, Hannah Gamble, and Tiffany Gholar.

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!

Jonathan Winston Jones has struggled more to come out as a writer than he did when coming out as gay. Whenever he hits his stride with his writing, he hears the voice of his deceased grandfather who raised him saying, "Writing usually doesn't pay the bills." Jones works as senior analyst in the Federal government and has gained expertise in the labyrinthine matter that is the U.S. health care system. His primary focus is on Medicaid, the program for the poor. Jones holds two master's degrees, one in human rights from University of Manchester and a second in public policy from University of Chicago. He's working, albeit slowly, through the MFA at Northwestern. He has also moonlighted as a journalist focused on LGBT issues, with articles appearing in The Advocate, CNN, and The Des Moines Register.

Please join Jonathan and our other amazing readers on Tuesday, August 1, 2017 in the upstairs bar at Hopleaf. Doors open at 7pm, and the show starts at 7:30. It's free, and 21-and-over. RSVP on Facebook.