We here at Tuesday Funk love to use the weather as a metaphor for the passage of time, and this month is no exception - we're bundled up in our scarves and hip jackets, enjoying the changing colors and various pumpkin-flavored things, and tonight we are going to warm ourselves by the glow of our extremely talented readers at Tuesday Funk #74!

So join co-hosts Andrew Huff and Eden Robins at the hearth and listen to Mark Turcotte, Paul McComas & Maya Kuper, Lori Rader-Day, Noël Jones, and Dmitry Samarov!

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!

Mark Turcotte (Turtle Mountain Chippewa) is author of four poetry collections, including The Feathered Heart and Exploding Chippewas. His poems and stories have appeared in POETRY, Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, Sentence, Hunger Mountain, The Missouri Review, Prairie Schooner and other literary journals and anthologies.

His work is included in the Poetry Society's Poetry In Motion project, as well as the Poetry Foundation/NEA recitation program, Poetry Out Loud. He has been the recipient of a Lannan Foundation Grant, two Literary Fellowships from the Wisconsin Arts Board, and a Josephine Gates Kelly Memorial Fellowship from Wordcraft Circle. He was the 2008 Visiting Native Writer at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, and served as Visiting Writer-In-Residence for Spring 2014 at the Center For The Writing Arts at Northwestern University. Since 2009 he has been a Visiting Assistant Professor in English and Creative Writing at DePaul University.

Please join Mark and all our talented readers on Tuesday, October 7, 2014, upstairs at Hopleaf at 7:30 pm. This 21-and-older event is free.

Paul McComas is an award-winning author (five critically acclaimed books, plus two in process), actor, educator, filmmaker and musician, and a progressive activist who's been honored by his home state of Wisconsin, the Mental Health Association, and the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), on whose National Leadership Council and Speakers Bureau he serves.

Chicago singer/songwriter Maya Kuper portrays protagonist Dayna Clay in the stage adaptation of Paul's acclaimed 2002 novel Unplugged. In "UNPLUGGED: Songs & Scenes to Combat Rape" -- with which they're currently touring to raise funds and awareness for RAINN -- Paul and Maya mesh songs and spoken-word performance to tell the story of Dayna, a 27-year-old rocker and rape survivor. The show combines riveting drama with original songs to chronicle Dayna's bumpy journey out of depression, through the South Dakota Badlands, and into discovery, hope, full embrace of her bisexuality, and love.

Please join Paul & Maya and all our fantastic readers on Tuesday, October 7, 2014, upstairs at Hopleaf at 7:30 pm. This 21-and-older event is free.

Originally from Alaska, Noël Jones is a writer and former member of the 2000 National Poetry Slam Champion Team NYC-Urbana, featured in The New York Times and on NPR's "Infinite Mind," as well as at the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, TX. As a performance poet, Jones has toured internationally and was selected to be part of an all-woman tour introducing slam poetry to Denmark. She now lives in Chicago and is focused primarily on fiction, most recently completing the first draft of her novel Vigil at Ragdale. She is very excited to be reading at Tuesday Funk again.

Please join Noël and all our impressive readers on Tuesday, October 7, 2014, upstairs at Hopleaf at 7:30 pm. This 21-and-older event is free.

Lori Rader-Day's debut mystery, The Black Hour (Seventh Street Books, 2014), received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Library Journal. Her short stories have appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Time Out Chicago, Good Housekeeping, and others. Her next book, the mystery Little Pretty Things, is out in 2015. She lives in Chicago.

Please join Lori and all our mysterious readers on Tuesday, October 7, 2014, upstairs at Hopleaf at 7:30 pm. This 21-and-older event is free.

Dmitry Samarov was born in Moscow, USSR in 1970. He immigrated to the US with his family in 1978. He got in trouble in 1st grade for doodling on his Lenin Red Star pin and hasn't stopped doodling since. After a false start at Parsons School of Design in New York, he graduated with a BFA in painting and printmaking from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1993.

Upon graduation he promptly began driving a cab--first in Boston, then after a time, in Chicago--which eventually led to the publication of his illustrated work memoir Hack: Stories from a Chicago Cab by University of Chicago Press in 2011 and the forthcoming Where To? A Hack Memoir from Curbside Splendor.

He has exhibited his work in all manner of bars, coffeeshops, libraries, and even the odd gallery (when he's really hard up ).

He paints and writes in Chicago, Illinois. He no longer drives a cab.

Please join Dmitry and all our Lenin-doodling readers on Tuesday, October 7, 2014, upstairs at Hopleaf at 7:30 pm. This 21-and-older event is free.

Photo courtesy of Paul Germanos

This October, the 74th edition of Tuesday Funk will live up to its tagline with a truly eclectic show, featuring Mark Turcotte, Noel Jones, Paul McComas and Maya Kuper, Lori Rader-Day, and Dmitry Samarov -- plus your regular cohosts, Andrew Huff and Eden Robins.

The reading gets underway on Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2014, promptly at 7:30 pm in the upstairs lounge at Hopleaf, 5148 N. Clark St., Chicago. Doors open at 7:00 pm sharp -- no earlier, unfortunately, but get there as close to 7 as possible to secure a table, as the room fills up quickly. Visit Mark at the bar for an adult beverage, and perhaps stick around afterward for dinner downstairs. Admission is free, but you must be 21 or older.

RSVP on Facebook and bring a friend. While you're at it, become a fan of Tuesday Funk on Facebook so you never miss an invitation to the show. See you in October!

Tuesday Funk co-host Andrew Huff shared his topical haiku at the Sept. 2nd show in spite of a sinus infection.

Little League Champions
Jackie Robinson West are
Chicago heroes.

This rainy summer
has shortened and compressed
construction season.

A blur of motion.
Licensed bonded and ensured
says the speeding van.

Nothing says the end
of summer like a surprise
sinus infection.

Your naked photos
should stay private, not become
public spectacle.

The SS Tuesday Funk disembarked again, and ahoy matey, what a grand voyage it was. That's about all the ship metaphor I can manage.

Holly McDowell pulled us in right away with an excerpt from her YA novel Snake Eyes - about a religious girl who decides to give up the reins of her life to the roll of two dice instead of God. Ryan DiGiorgi had us cracking up with his wacky tale of man's best friend, namely a dog named Roger whose influence extended to the Oval Office. Anne Holub closed out the half with poems about travel and the reasons we should be grateful for Chicago, even though winter is coming.

We caroused, we drank Mark's booze, we waited until the very last minute to return to our seats.

Co-host Andrew Huff told us about current events in 5-7-5, and then Jasmine Davila made her 20 year high school reunion actually sound like a lot of fun... not to mention a meaningful experience. Finally, Scott Smith closed us out with a thoughtful and poignant essay on the Jackie Robinson West victory and its political and social implications.

Listen. You know you should come to Tuesday Funk. What's keeping you? Come to the next one - Tuesday, October 7th, same time, same place. We'll be featuring Mark Turcotte, Paul McComas & Maya Kuper, Lori Rader-Day, Noël Jones, and Dmitry Samarov.

Well, it's official. Summer has dumped us like yesterday's trash. Next up - the bleak, endless winter. But before all that... we can have one last glorious hurrah at Tuesday Funk #73. Don't miss it!

Create your own personal beer pairings with each reader - this month, we're featuring Scott Smith, Ryan DiGiorgi, Anne Holub, Jasmine Davila, and Holly McDowell. And, as always, your faithful co-hosts Andrew Huff and Eden Robins.

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!