Maggie Kast is the author of The Crack Between the Worlds: a dancer's memoir of loss, faith and family (Wipf and Stock, 2009) and a novel, A Free, Unsullied Land (Fomite Press, 2015). Side by Side but Never Face to Face, a novella plus stories, was published by Orison Press in June 2020. She has published stories in The Sun, Nimrod, Carve, Rosebud and others, and her essays have appeared in America, Image, Writer's Chronicle, Fiction Writer's Review, The Orison Anthology of Spiritual Writing, and elsewhere. She won a Literary Award from the Illinois Arts Council and a prize in the Hackney Literary Contests. Two pieces were nominated for Pushcarts.

Please join Maggie and our other amazing readers on Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2020, on the Tuesday Funk YouTube channel. The show starts at 7:30. It's free, and 21-and-over. RSVP on Facebook, and hope to see you there!.

Keidra Chaney is a writer, editor, blogger and digital strategist, though she's not sure what that actually means these days. She has been published in Chicago Sun-Times, Time Out Chicago, Bitch Media, Paste, and a bunch of publications that no longer exist. She is the co-founder and publisher of pop culture website The Learned Fangirl and she's also the bass player in a band called Sole Heiress though they haven't done anything in over a year.

Please join Keidra and our other amazing readers on Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2020, on the Tuesday Funk YouTube channel. The show starts at 7:30. It's free, and 21-and-over. RSVP on Facebook, and hope to see you there!.

Your favorite eclectic monthly reading series helps you ease into autumn with its next show on Tuesday, Sept. 1! Join us "live" on the Tuesday Funk YouTube channel: youtube.com/TuesdayFunk for readings by Kathleen Rooney, Veronica Arreola, Rayshauna Gray, Keidra Chaney and Maggie Kast. The show will start at 7:30pm, just like we do at the Hopleaf, but you can bring your under-21 friends!

RSVP on Facebook, and hope to see you there! (In the live chat, anyway.)

The August "Quarantuesday Funk" went very well. Tracy Harford-Porter kicked things off with an excerpt of a novel she's been working on, then Kyle Thiessen read a portion of a fake novelization of a movie that doesn't exist. Next, Erin Watson shared several poems.

We took a moment to collect ourselves, then Jocelyn Geboy read an essay about death, grief and community. Last but not least, Norman Doucet talked about George Floyd, systemic racism and racial identity.

It was a classic Tuesday Funk show, funny, strange, poignant and serious in turns. The only difference being it was on YouTube Live. If you missed it, you can still watch the episode in full below, or hop over to YouTube to peep at the chat.

We hope you'll join us for the next edition of Tuesday Funk on Tuesday, Sept. 1 at 7:30pm, once again on YouTube Live. We'll be featuring readings by Maggie Kast, Kathleen Rooney, Veronica Arreola, Keidra Chaney and Rayshauna Gray. Hope to see you there!

Jocelyn Geboy is a freelance writer and performer living in Albany Park. She's currently working for the U.S. Census -- so make sure you get your stats in! 2020 has been a LOT, so she is trying to maintain balance between existential ennui, denial, and time to produce/create. She's the creator of CHIRP Radio's story series The First Time and is looking forward to the day when she can make more of her imaginings come to fruition. You can currently find her at threeleftproductions.com, and all over the web @smussyolay.

Please join Jocelyn and our other fantastic readers on Tuesday, Aug. 4 at 7:30pm on our YouTube channel, youtube.com/TuesdayFunk! Cohosts Eden Robins and Andrew Huff and at least some of the readers will be on live chat during the show. Please RSVP on Facebook.

Kyle Thiessen emerges from creative hibernation every seven to twelve years, but is endeavoring to increase that frequency. Previous efforts include 2011's hastily-produced YouTube parody "Fake Month at the Museum," as well as a short film in 1999 that granted an invitation to the Golden Globe awards, where he peed next to John Lithgow. In addition to YouTubing and peeing, Kyle has spent his adult life as a caricature artist, an IMAX projectionist, and a corporate Powerpoint designer for a multinational conglomerate of high tech weapons systems- and golf cart-manufacturers. Until he fills the hole in his resume where "zamboni driver" should be, he'll be hard at work on the perfect Die Hard screenplay and occasionally tweeting @lazycartoonist.

Please join Kyle and our other fantastic readers on Tuesday, Aug. 4 at 7:30pm on our YouTube channel, youtube.com/TuesdayFunk! Cohosts Andrew Huff and Eden Robins and at least some of the readers will be on live chat during the show. Please RSVP on Facebook.

Norman Doucet -- Black Lives Matter.

Please join Norm and our other fantastic readers on Tuesday, Aug. 4 at 7:30pm on our YouTube channel, youtube.com/TuesdayFunk! Cohosts Eden Robins and Andrew Huff and at least some of the readers will be on live chat during the show. Please RSVP on Facebook.

Erin Watson is a Southern person living in Chicago. Her poems have appeared in the chapbooks Breathtaken and No Experiences and in Entropy Magazine. When it's not a pandemic out, Erin cohosts Other People's Poems at Uncharted Books, as well as the Basement Life reading series in Avondale. When it is a pandemic out, she enjoys the company of her dog Basil, her day job with the food bank, and her record collection. Erin also makes zines that you can find at Quimby's, Uncharted, or online.

Please join Erin and our other fantastic readers on Tuesday, Aug. 4 at 7:30pm on our YouTube channel, youtube.com/TuesdayFunk! Cohosts Andrew Huff and Eden Robins and at least some of the readers will be on live chat during the show. Please RSVP on Facebook.

Tracy Harford-Porter was born in Brooklyn, NY and now resides in the Chicago suburbs. She has worked for Essence Communications as a photo editor, the Harlem Children's Zone as the managing editor of Harlem Overheard, StoryCorps as a facilitator coordinator, and Goldman Sachs as a long-term administrative temp/secret ethnographer. Tracy is a 2008 graduate of Clarion West and proud alum of Columbia University School of General Studies, majoring in anthropology. She has been home for 135 days and is FEELING IT. You can find her on social media @HarfordTracy if you want to find out where her slush submissions end up.

Please join Tracy and our other fantastic readers on Tuesday, Aug. 4 at 7:30pm on our YouTube channel, youtube.com/TuesdayFunk! Cohosts Andrew Huff and Eden Robins and at least some of the readers will be on live chat during the show. Please RSVP on Facebook.

It's nice and hot in Chicago, so we hope you have air conditioning -- or at least a nice cold drink -- for when Tuesday Funk does its next pre-recorded YouTube Live show on Tuesday, Aug. 4 at 7:30pm on our YouTube channel: youtube.com/TuesdayFunk!

Please join us for readings by Kyle Thiessen, Erin Watson, Jocelyn Geboy, Norman Doucet and Tracy Harford-Porter. Cohosts Andrew Huff and Eden Robins and at least some of the readers will be on live chat during the show. Hope to see you there, too! RSVP on Facebook.