Michael Zapata is a founding editor of MAKE Literary Magazine and the author of the novel The Lost Book of Adana Moreau, winner of the 2020 Chicago Review of Books Award for Fiction, finalist for the 2020 Heartland Booksellers Award in Fiction, and a Best Book of the Year for NPR, the A.V. Club, Los Angeles Public Library, and BookPage, among others. He is a recipient of a Meier Foundation Artist Achievement Award. He is on the faculty of StoryStudio Chicago and the MFA faculty of Northwestern University. As a public-school educator, he taught literature and writing in high schools servicing drop out students. He currently lives in Chicago with his family.

Please join Michael and our other amazing readers on Tuesday, March 5, 2024 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.

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. He has exhibited his work in all manner of bars, coffeeshops, libraries, and even the odd gallery (when he's really hard up.) He writes dog portraits and paints book reviews in Chicago, Illinois.

Please join Dmitry and our other amazing readers on Tuesday, March 5, 2024 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.

Join us Tuesday, March 5 for the next edition of Tuesday Funk! The evening will feature readings by Molly Dumbleton, James Gordon, Dmitry Samarov, Mike Zapata and a fifth reader TBDr. Andrew Huff and Eden Robins cohost.

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, go ahead like and follow us so you get our announcements in your news stream.

Hope to see you there!

Jessi D hails from the suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona, which is just as bad as it sounds. She moved to Chicago in 2011 after falling in love with the city while visiting for Lollapalooza and has been dicking around in the Midwest ever since. She's been on the millennial side hustle grind for the last few years, leading the podcast production department at community radio station CHIRP Radio, operating a vintage food truck that served fancy doughnuts, running a latte art training program for a restaurant group, writing copy for a mid-size local coffee roasting company, and DJing weddings where she regularly tells someone's drunk uncle that that no, she will not play Frank Sinatra right after "Get Low." Her most prized freelance gig was bartending a Studio 54-themed funeral. In her spare time, she loves cooking, wandering around cemeteries, and trying new hot sauces.

Please join Jessi and our other amazing readers on Tuesday, February 6, 2024 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.

Over the last 25 years, Kate Harding has been an author, editor, book publicist, bookseller, and creative writing instructor—plus a semi-successful feminist blogger and unsuccessful feminist podcast host. She’s previously performed Live Lit at Tuesday Funk, You’re Being Ridiculous, and the dearly departed That’s All She Wrote, among others. She holds an MFA in fiction and a PhD in Narrative Nonfiction, which she mentions in every bio because they are otherwise of vanishingly little use. Similarly, she’d like you to know she once held the title of “Distinguished Visiting Writer” for three and a half weeks. She’ll be teaching a graduate nonfiction workshop at Northwestern this spring, but most of the time, you can find her at Bookends & Beginnings in Evanston, where she’s the Events Manager.

Please join Kate and our other amazing readers on Tuesday, February 6, 2024 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.

Do you like foul mouthed loud ass mixed race queer bitches? Then you'll love Elizabeth Gomez. Her brash sense of humor reflects how much she was ignored as a child. She is a writer, podcaster, performer, and desperate for attention so sign up for her substack newsletter Mixed Race Tape.

Please join Elizabeth and our other amazing readers on Tuesday, February 6, 2024 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.

James Finn Garner has been performing at events around Chicago for 15 years, and is very happy to be back at Tuesday Funk. He is the author of the best-selling Politically Correct Bedtime Stories, as well as the seminal clown noir mystery series starring “Rex Koko, Private Clown.” You can browse the weird warehouse of his mind at jamesfinngarner.com

Please join James and our other amazing readers on Tuesday, February 6, 2024 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.

Britt Julious is a writer, editor, essayist, and storyteller focusing on subjects that intersect the worlds of art, culture, race, feminism and politics. A firm believer in the underground, the avant-garde and the underdog, Britt currently serves as the music critic for the Chicago Tribune. As a freelance journalist, she has written for Pitchfork, Harper’s Bazaar, Glamour, The Cut, the New York Times and many others. In 2023, Britt was an inaugural fellow of the University of Chicago’s Critic’s Table. She is also a recipient of the Studs Terkel award in journalism for her work spotlighting underserved communities. She is currently working on a book project and a podcast.

Please join Britt and our other amazing readers on Tuesday, February 6, 2024 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.

The weather is very wintery, but it's warm inside by the live lit. Join us Tuesday, Feb. 6 for the next edition of Tuesday Funk! The evening will feature readings by Jessi D, Kate Harding, Britt Julious, Elizabeth Gomez and James Finn Garner. Andrew Huff and Eden Robins cohost.

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, go ahead like and follow us so you get our announcements in your news stream.

Jasmine Davila is the co-host of Miss Spoken, a lady-centric live lit performance on the last Wednesday of the month at Gallery Cabaret. Jasmine has read in venues small and medium sized for shows such as Funny Ha Ha, Feminist Happy Hour, Tuesday Funk, 20x2, and Essay Fiesta. She tweets, tumbls, and instagrams as @jasmined.

Please join Jasmine and our other amazing readers on Tuesday, January 2, 2024 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.