Fred Sasaki is the art director for Poetry magazine and a gallery curator for the Poetry Foundation. He is the author of Real Life Emails (Tiny Hardcore Press, 2017) and the zine series Fred Sasaki's and Fred Sasaki's Four-Pager Guide To: How to Fix You.

Please join Fred and all our amazing readers on Tuesday, September 6, 2016, upstairs at Hopleaf at 7:30 pm. This 21-and-older event is free.

Virginia Bell is the author of the poetry collection From the Belly (Sibling Rivalry Press 2012). She has been a Pushcart Prize nominee for poetry and a finalist for both the Lamar York Prize in Creative Nonfiction, sponsored by The Chattahoochee Review and the Center for Women Writers' Creative Nonfiction Contest. Her work is forthcoming in Hypertext and has appeared in Fifth Wednesday Journal, Cider Press Review, Gargoyle, Spoon River Poetry Review, Cloudbank, Poet Lore, Pebble Lake Review, Wicked Alice, and other journals and anthologies. Bell is a Senior Editor with RHINO Poetry, and an adjunct professor of English at Loyola University Chicago and DePaul University's School of Continuing and Professional Education. This fall, she is also teaching Creative Nonfiction at the Chicago High School for the Arts. She has a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and was the recipient of a Ragdale Foundation residency in 2015.

Please join Virginia and all our amazing readers on Tuesday, September 6, 2016, upstairs at Hopleaf at 7:30 pm. This 21-and-older event is free.

Your favorite eclectic monthly reading series, Tuesday Funk, returns to the upstairs bar at Hopleaf Sept. 6! Join us for readings by Virginia Bell, Fred Sasaki, Ryan DiGiorgi, Gina DeLuca and Tori Szekeres! Eden Robins co-hosts with special guest host Kyle Thiessen, and Sal will be behind the bar to serve you a tasty beverage or two.

Doors open at 7pm -- no earlier, please! -- and the show starts at 7:30 sharp. So get there early to grab a seat, but not overly early. As always, admission is free, but you must be 21 or older. And come early or stay late after for dinner or snacks downstairs.

Please RSVP on Facebook, and bring a friend. And don't forget to become a fan so you never miss an invitation to one of our readings. Sponsored by the Chicago Review of Books.

Join us tonight for a special Lit Crawl Chicago edition of Tuesday Funk! We'll be in the upstairs bar at Hopleaf Bar, 5148 N. Clark St., doing a slightly abbreviated version of your favorite eclectic reading series featuring Jasmine Davila, James "GPA" Gordon, Steve Bellinger and Rosamund Lannin, and it all starts at 8:15pm sharp!

Come by at 7pm and watch a special episode of live lit/sketch comedy show Cassandra, and stay afterward for Quit it! Ma, They're Looking at Me! at 9:30pm! It's all free, and open to anyone 21 or older.

Learn more about Lit Crawl Chicago, and remember to RSVP on Facebook. See you there!

The product of nine years in San Francisco and eight years in St. Paul, Rosamund Lannin is pleasantly surprised to have lived in Chicago for over a decade. During that time, she has been an editor at Gapers Block (rest in power), performed stories around the city, and consumed many carne asada burritos. These days she co-hosts lady live lit show Miss Spoken, edits Story Club Magazine, and tries to write essays that make you feel things, or at the very least laugh. Join her and some great readers on the 31st at the Gallery Cabaret for Miss Spoken's August show. The theme is Road Trip.

Please join Jasmine and all our amazing readers on Thursday, August 18, 2016, upstairs at Hopleaf at 8:15 pm as part of Lit Crawl Chicago. Come early and watch a special episode of live lit/sketch comedy show Cassandra at 7pm, and stay afterward for Quit it! Ma, They're Looking at Me! at 9:30pm!

Remember to RSVP on Facebook. This 21-and-older event is free.

Jasmine Davila has read in venues small and medium sized for Tuesday Funk, 20x2 Chicago, That's All She Wrote, and Miss Spoken. She is the thoroughly charming co-host of "Vital Social Issues and Stuff," a podcast about pop culture from a lady's point of view. You can find her in many places on the internet, but it might be best to start by following her on Twitter where she is @jasmined.

Please join Jasmine and all our amazing readers on Thursday, August 18, 2016, upstairs at Hopleaf at 8:15 pm as part of Lit Crawl Chicago. Come early and watch a special episode of live lit/sketch comedy show Cassandra at 7pm, and stay afterward for Quit it! Ma, They're Looking at Me! at 9:30pm!

Remember to RSVP on Facebook. This 21-and-older event is free.

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 her kids to read. This is how Steve discovered Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, 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.

Two of the original Trekkies, Steve and his wife Donna plan to renew their wedding vows 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. Steve and Donna live in Lincoln Park with a cat to be named later.

Please join Steve and all our amazing readers on Thursday, August 18, 2016, upstairs at Hopleaf at 8:15 pm as part of Lit Crawl Chicago. Come early and watch a special episode of live lit/sketch comedy show Cassandra at 7pm, and stay afterward for Quit it! Ma, They're Looking at Me! at 9:30pm!

Remember to RSVP on Facebook. This 21-and-older event is free.

The parties' national conventions were on Andrew's mind as we got to the Aug. 2, 2016 edition of Tuesday Funk.

The Republican
National Convention
was all negative.

The Democratic
National Convention
presented some hope.

Belief in science
should not be controversial.
And yet here we are.

James Gordon is an international award winning author and poet, champion storyteller, and an acclaimed actor from Chicago's Southside. He is the author of books from several genres (Mystery and Suspense, Children's, Poetry, and Erotica). James can be seen on epsiodes of the "Steve Harvey Show," "Chicago Med," "Chicago Fire," "Empire," "Chicago PD," "The Patriot," "APB" and "Shameless." He can aso be found on Twitter at gr8estpoetalive and at his website iblowyourmind.net.

Please join James and all our amazing readers on Thursday, August 18, 2016, upstairs at Hopleaf at 8:15 pm as part of Lit Crawl Chicago. Come early and watch a special episode of live lit/sketch comedy show Cassandra at 7pm, and stay afterward for Quit it! Ma, They're Looking at Me! at 9:30pm!

Remember to RSVP on Facebook. This 21-and-older event is free.

It's been a hot summer, but the August 2 edition of Tuesday Funk was very cool.

Connie Voisine led off with poems about life in New Mexico, followed by Vojislav Pejovic with an excerpt of his book about a fraudulent plastic surgeon on the run. Cohost Andrew Huff read a couple topical haiku (including a birthday wish to his long-suffering wife, whose birthday it was), and then Ines Bellina read an essay about how the roots of her family tree have entwined with politics.

After the intermission, cohost Eden Robins read a micro-essay, and Angel Simmons told the story of a near-death experience she had crossing the street. Ryan Bartelmay closed out the show with a bittersweet short story about a group of teenagers looking for "a good time."

We'll be back twice in the next few weeks: We'll be part of Lit Crawl Chicago on Thursday, Aug. 18 with Rosamund Lannin, James Gordon, Steve Bellinger and Jasmine Davila, and then back to our regular schedule with Virginia Bell, Fred Sasaki, Ryan DiGiorgi, Gina DeLuca and KB Jensen on Tuesday, Sept. 6. Hope to see you there!