MORGAN PARK — The Frunchroom, a quarterly reading series, will return at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at O'Rourke's Office, 11064 S. Western Ave. in Morgan Park.
The series will feature live music for the first time as The Acoustic Mercenaries will entertain the crowd along with The Frunchroom's latest group of South Side readers.
"It's still important to me to feature stories of and by people in the immediate neighborhood. But just as important is to bring in readers from the larger South Side and, eventually, from other parts of the city to talk about what their experiences have been here," said Scott Smith, organizer of the live event.
The latest edition of The Frunchroom also happens just ahead of the Beverly Art Walk. The art showcase coordinated by the Beverly Arts Alliance will again transform local businesses and vacant storefronts into makeshift art galleries on Saturday.
"We get a lot of support from the The Alliance so I'm really excited to kick off Beverly Art Walk week. The art walk and all the Alliance events that have happened since have created a vital creative uprising in this neighborhood that does a great deal to support local businesses and create a tight-knit community. It's great to be a part of that," Smith said.
Here are more details about the readers set to take the stage when The Frunchroom returns:
• Jaime Black, of Pilsen, is the founder and host of Dynasty Podcasts, Chicago's longest-running music podcast. Black has worked in the music and media industries for 17 years. He previously served as producer of the late Q101 radio's Chicago music program, Local 101, until the station's format switch in 2011.
• Lolly Bowean, of Chatham, is a general assignment reporter for the Chicago Tribune. Bowean's reports have a particular focus on urban affairs, youth culture, housing, minority communities and relations in Chicago. Before joining the newspaper, Bowean covered suburban crime, government and environmental issues for the Times-Picayune in New Orleans.
• Carly Carney, of Morgan Park, owns the Beverly Yoga Center at 1917 W. 103rd St. She has been teaching yoga since 2003 and has increasingly integrated meditation into her classes along the way. Carney plans to share her experience with the audience after a recent field trip with her two children to Malcolm X College for a town hall budget meeting with Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
• Erin J. Shea, of Morgan Park, is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Self, the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times and more. Her book, "Tales from the Scale," was named one of the top six health-related books of 2005 by the Wall Street Journal.
• Mario Smith, of South Shore, is a Chicago poet, educator, activist and radio chat show host who has been performing both locally and nationally for more than 20 years. Smith hosts News From the Service Entrance on WHPK-88.5 FM and is a contributor to The Download with Justin Kaufmann on WGN-720 AM.
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