Dipika Mukherjee is an internationally touring writer, sociolinguist, and global nomad. She is the author of Shambala Junction (Aurora Metro, 2016), which won the UK Virginia Prize for Fiction, and Ode to Broken Things (Repeater, 2016), which was longlisted for the Man Asia Literary Prize. Rules of Desire (Fixi, 2015) is her short story collection. Her poetry collection includes The Third Glass of Wine (Writer's Workshop, 2015), and her chapbook The Palimpsest of Exile (Rubicon Press, 2009). She lives in Chicago but trawls the world for fabulous stories and smelly food (the durian is a favorite). More at dipikamukherjee.com.

Please join Dipika and our other amazing readers on Tuesday, October 2, 2018 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.

Angel Simmons is a multitalented artist from Chicago's Southside. She is an actress, speaker, coach, print and runway model, storyteller, author and blogger of "Love's Great Design", president of The Message, Inc., and the current "Ultimate Ms. Worldwide USA Ambassador" for the Live Out Loud Charity. Angel serves on the Board for the Karitos Christian Arts Association and the Columbia College Chicago Alumni Network. She has been featured in books, magazines, the Chicago Tribune, NBC 5 News, Crain's Chicago Business Week, Christian music, and as a guest on radio and television. She has appeared in 8 films, 14 television shows, commercials and educational training videos. Angel is the lead actress in The REECH Project's "My Last Party" Stage Production. She is the co-host of "Do Not Submit Storytelling Open Mic" in Englewood, and producer of the "Verses, Vibes & Visions" Live Lit Series.

Please join Angel and our other amazing readers on Tuesday, October 2, 2018 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.

Thanks to everyone who made it out for Tuesday Funk's special Lit Crawl Chicago episode! Sandwiched in between Junior Varsity and The Skewer in our usual room at Hopleaf, we did an abbreviated show on a lovely Saturday evening.

Annabel Lang got us started with a funny, bittersweet story about being "the only dyke in the wedding party." Next, Jan English Leary read two short pieces of fiction from her collection Skating on the Vertical. Then Kimberly Dixon-Mays shared a selection of poems, and Gina DeLuca closed out the show with a hilarious character sketch of a woman looking forward to celebrating her honeymoon taking Instagram photos in Paris.

If you missed it, don't worry, we'll have video up on our YouTube channel soon. And you'll have another chance to join us at Tuesday Funk very soon! We'll be back in the upstairs lounge at Hopleaf on Tuesday, Oct. 2, for readings by Jenny Hatchadorian, Henri Harps, Dipika Mukherjee, Angel Simmons and Hannah Gamble. Hope to see you there!

Kimberly Dixon-Mays is a poet, playwright and performer. A Cave Canem, Callaloo and Ragdale fellow, her poetry has been published in journals and anthologies including Reverie, Trigger Warning, Rhino and Consequence. She also released her first poetry collection, SenseMemory, with Blue Pantry Publishers and has developed a second collection More Than a Notion: Reflections on (Black) Marriage. As a playwright, she has received readings and staged productions with organizations including Chicago Dramatists, Crossroads Theatre Company, and Plowshares Theatre Company. She was a recurring performer with the Guild Literary Complex's collaborative poetry/theater project Poetry Performance Incubator led by director Coya Paz, co-creating and appearing in its original works Tour Guides and Like Bread. She is currently a member of the Chicago Poetry Center and Chicago Danztheatre Ensemble's project Body Passages and is also a 2018-19 Chicago Dramatists Tutterow Fellow.

Please join Kimberly and all our amazing readers on Saturday, September 22, upstairs at Hopleaf at 5:00 pm as part of Lit Crawl Chicago. Remember to RSVP on Facebook! This 21-and-older event is free.

Annabel Lang is a writer living in Chicago by way of the Carolinas. She is the co-founder and co-curator of Junior Varsity, a public workshop and variety show. She also has also participates and leads writing workshops through Wasted Pages, the workshop series formerly housed at CHI-PRC. As a performer, she has been featured around Chicago, most notably at the Neo-Futurist Theater. She has essays featured or forthcoming in Jet Fuel Review, American Chordata, and Cosmonauts Avenue. In all likelihood, if you are from Chicago, she has either served your coffee or sold you a book sometime in the last four years.

Please join Annabel and all our amazing readers on Saturday, September 22, upstairs at Hopleaf at 5:00 pm as part of Lit Crawl Chicago. Remember to RSVP on Facebook! This 21-and-older event is free.

Jan English Leary is the author of two books: Thicker Than Blood, a novel, and Skating on the Vertical, a collection of stories, both published by Fomite Press. Her work has appeared in Pleiades, The Minnesota Review, Carve, The Long Story, The Literary Review, and other journals. She taught fiction-writing at Francis W. Parker School and Northwestern University, and she is now a reader for the Pen-City Writing Program, a three-year, creative-writing certificate program for men incarcerated at a maximum security prison in southern Texas. Jan lives in Chicago with her husband, John Leary, a painter who did the cover art for both of her books.

Please join Jan and all our amazing readers on Saturday, September 22, upstairs at Hopleaf at 5:00 pm as part of Lit Crawl Chicago. Remember to RSVP on Facebook! This 21-and-older event is free.

Gina DeLuca is a comedic essayist and performer living in Chicago. Self-effacing and cynical, Gina's writing speaks to the American zeitgeist with relatability and ease. She has read her pieces at Steppenwolf Theater, iO Theater, Essay Fiesta, and other venues throughout Chicago.

Please join Gina and all our amazing readers on Saturday, September 22, upstairs at Hopleaf at 5:00 pm as part of Lit Crawl Chicago. Remember to RSVP on Facebook! This 21-and-older event is free.

You feel that? The weather is changing and Tuesday Funk is hear to help you usher in decorative gourd season! Join us in the upstairs lounge at Hopleaf on Tuesday, Oct. 2 for readings by Jenny Hatchadorian, Henri Harps, Dipika Mukherjee, Angel Simmons and Hannah Gamble!

As always, admission is free, but you must be 21 to attend. Doors open at 7pm sharp (don't dawdle if you want a seat!) and the show will start at 7:30pm. Please RSVP on Facebook -- and don't forget to like our page so you get our announcements right in your stream.

On Saturday, Sept. 22, Tuesday Funk will once again take part in Lit Crawl Chicago! Join us in our usual spot in the upstairs lounge at Hopleaf at 5 pm for readings by Kimberly Dixon-Mays, Annabel Lang, Jan English Leary and Gina DeLuca!

Lit Crawl Chicago is an attempt to pack as much of the city's literary culture as possible into one walkable radius. It's celebrating voices across the disciplines of writing, whether it's theatre makers, novelists, comedians, storytellers, satirists, live essayists, poetry, and others devoted to the written and spoken word. Events take place in bars, theaters, museums, coffee shops, comic shops, adult shops, and more!

As always, admission is free, but you must be 21 or older to enter. There will be shows before and after ours, so come early and stay late -- or head to one of the many other shows and venues in Andersonville!

August's hot, sultry weather weighed heavily on cohost Andrew Huff's mind (and body) at the 120th episode of Tuesday Funk.

Right place at right time
for a free beer to make the
whiskey taste sweeter.

Languid summer night.
So hot the cat will not chase
a house centipede.

Jazz Fest Saturday,
and skies stay clear in honor
of Ramsey Lewis.

Late summer downpours
turn city streets to streams
and preempt picnics.