BGSQD

Book Launch: Old Stranger: Poems, by Joan Larkin (in person only)
2024-09-05 19:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Joan Larkin and friends will read from her much-awaited new book, Old Stranger.
“There are few poets in America who can combine Joan Larkin’s formal mastery with her emotional intensity.” —David Bergman, author of Plain Sight.
Old Stranger is Joan’s sixth collection of poems. She co-founded Out & Out Books during the 1970s surge in feminist publishing and co-edited the groundbreaking anthologies Lesbian Poetry and Gay and Lesbian Poetry in Our Time. Her honors include Lambda and NEA awards and the Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America.
To reserve a copy of Old Stranger (Alice James Books, 2024, paperback, $24.95″ please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve a copy of Old Stranger for September 5th” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Queer Art: A Conversation Between Gemma Rolls-Bentley & Penny Arcade (in person & live-streaming)
2024-09-06 19:00 - 20:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join iconic performance artist and playwright Penny Arcade in conversation with curator and writer Gemma Rolls-Bentley. The pair will discuss Gemma’s new book Queer Art: From Canvas to Club and the Spaces Between. The book is a celebration of the relationship between creativity and the LGBTQIA+ experience, featuring nearly 200 artworks from around the world that reflect the richness, self-expression and resilience of queer life. There will be an opportunity to purchase the book on the night and have your copy signed.
To reserve a copy of Queer Art (Frances Lincoln, June 11, 2024, hardcover, $35), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve Queer Art for September 6 event” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Gemma Rolls-Bentley has been at the forefront of contemporary art for almost two decades, working passionately to champion diversity in the field. She is the author of Queer Art; From Canvas to Club and the Spaces Between published by Frances Lincoln in Spring 2024. Gemma has curated for a range of international institutions, most recently the Leslie Lohman Museum of Art, Somerset House, the Tom of Finland Foundation, London Art Fair and Kkweer Arts. In 2022 she curated the Brighton Beacon Collection, the largest permanent display of queer art in the UK, for Soho House Brighton. Gemma has taught at numerous institutions including the Royal College of Art, the Glasgow School of Art, and Goldsmiths, she co-chairs the board of trustees for the charity Queercircle, and sits on the Courtauld Association Committee.

Penny Arcade (a.k.a. Susana Ventura) is an internationally respected performance artist, writer, poet, and experimental theatre maker known for her magnetic stage presence, her take-no-prisoners wit, and her content-rich plays and one liners. She is the author of 10 scripted performance plays and hundreds of performance art pieces. Her work has always focused on the other and the outsider, giving voice to those marginalized by society. She debuted at 18 in John Vaccaro’s explosive Playhouse of The Ridiculous the seminal political, glitter/glam,queer, rock and roll theatre and was a Warhol Superstar at 19, featured in the Warhol/Morrissey film Women In Revolt. She considers herself a conceptualist and interdicipinary artist who mediates her work thru non fiction, perforamnce art, experimental theatre, poetry, video, and music.

Dyke+ ArtHaus Visits The Bureau Closing Celebration (in-person only)
2024-09-07 17:30 - 19:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join us in celebrating the closing of the longest-running group exhibition in the US featuring original works by Dyke Artists over 40: Dyke+ ArtHaus Visits The Bureau. Stop in to buy art made by a Dyke, write us a note with your thoughts on the exhibit, and grab a free commemorative poster. We’ll say a few hundred words around 6ish PM and then celebrate, celebrate, CELEBRATE our Dyke Artist Community!
Visit https://dykearthaus.org/dyke-arthaus-visits-the-bureau for exhibiting artists details, artwork price list, and to learn all about the Dyke+ ArtHaus in Philly.
Contact: dykearthaus@gmail.com

Christopher DiRaddo, Richard Mirabella, Kyle Dillon Hertz, Daniel Allen Cox, and Nathan Xie Read From Their Latest Work (in person and live-streaming)
2024-09-11 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join Richard Mirabella, Kyle Dillon Hertz, Daniel Allen Cox, Nathan Xie, and Christopher DiRaddo for readings from their work. Richard Mirabella will be celebrating the paperback launch of Brother & Sister Enter the Forest, and Kyle Dillon Hertz will be celebrating the paperback launch of The Lookback Window. Copies of The Geography of Pluto by Christopher DiRaddo and I Felt the End Before It Came by Daniel Allen Cox will also be available for purchase and signature. The evening will be hosted by Nathan Xie.
Copies of the titles listed above will be available for purchase at the event. To reserve any of these books, please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve book(s) for Sept. 11 event” in the subject line. And please let us know which titles you’d like to reserve in the body of the email.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD
Nathan Xie (he/they) is working on his first novel. He is a recipient of One Story’s Adina Talve-Goodman fellowship and support from Lambda Literary, the Periplus Collective, Tin House, and Yaddo. His writing can be found at nathan-xie.com.
Daniel Allen Cox is the author of four novels and I Felt the End Before It Came: Memoirs of a Queer Ex-Jehovah’s Witness, shortlisted for the Grand Prix du livre de Montréal and named one of the Best Books of 2023 by Publishers Weekly. Daniel’s essays have appeared in The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, Electric Literature, and Lit Hub and have been recognized by Best Canadian Essays, and The Best American Essays.
Richard Mirabella is the author of Brother & Sister Enter the Forest, a New York Times Book Review Editors Choice and Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction. His work has appeared in Story Magazine, American Short Fiction online, split lip, and elsewhere. He lives in upstate New York.
Kyle Dillon Hertz is the author of The Lookback Window, a New York Times Editors’ Choice. Vanity Fair named The Lookback Window one of the best novels of 2023. His work can be found in Esquire, Freeman’s, Time, and elsewhere. He received his MFA from NYU and a residency from Yaddo. He teaches at The New School.
Christopher DiRaddo is the author of two novels: The Family Way and The Geography of Pluto, both with Véhicule Press. He lives in Montreal where he is the founder and host of the Violet Hour Reading Series and Book Club, which has to date a provided a platform for more than 275 LGBTQ+ writers to connect with new audiences.

Revisioning Democracy Podcast Episode 3: Resisting Europe's Autocrats (hybrid in-person & virtual)
2024-09-12 17:00 - 18:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Revisioning Democracy: Episode 3. Resisting Europe’s Autocrats presents a conversation about “Resisting Europe’s Autocrats” with Frederick Clarkson, Senior Research Analyst at Political Research Associates.
This discussion will include our new comprehensive look at European far-right allies of Project 2025, including Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orbán. We’ve dug deep to consolidate reporting on Orbán’s alliance with the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025’s architects, and how Hungary’s model of “illiberalism” has been adapted for Project 2025. We’ve also looked into the dark money and influence that is flowing between US Christian nationalists and European far-right populists who are newly allied with Orbán at the European Union.
Clarkson will be joined in conversation by podcast cohosts Anne-christine d’Adesky and Jay W. Walker of the Stop the Coup 2025 campaign to stop Project 2025.

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd

Frederick Clarkson has written about politics and religion for more than three decades. His work has appeared in a wide range of publications from Mother Jones, Church & State, and Ms. Magazine to The Christian Science Monitor, Salon.com and Religion Dispatches. He has worked as an investigative editor at Planned Parenthood Federation of America; as Communications Director at the Institute for Democracy Studies; and co-founded the group blog, Talk to Action. He is the author, co-author or editor of several books including Dispatches from the Religious Left: The Future of Faith and Politics in America and Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy.

lesbian book club (in person only)
2024-09-14 11:00 - 12:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
We’ll be reading fiction and non-fiction — classic, contemporary, revealing and visionary. As a group we will decide what to read each month, focusing on lesbian authors and/or related topics. Co-founded by lesbian book lovers Judi Komaki and Piper Olsen.

For September 14th, we’ll be reading Anchee Min‘s Red Azalea (1993). Unfortunately, the book is no longer in print, so the Bureau is unable to offer it for sale. We recommend checking out your local library or searching on bookfinder.com.

For October 12th, the lesbian book club will read Audre Lorde’s Sister Outsider.
Purchase Sister Outsider from the Bureau before October 12th and receive a 15% discount ($15.29 instead of $17.99)! Just mention the lesbian book club when you purchase the book.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required.

A Writer and a Publisher Walk Into a Bar (in person and live-streaming)
2024-09-14 15:00 - 17:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Elisabeth Nonas will discuss Grace Period with Firebrand Books’ Nancy Bereano.
In Grace Period, just as 70-year-old writing professor Hannah Greene walks into her retirement party, she’s called to the ER because Grace, her wife of 25 years, has been in what turns out to be a fatal car accident. This was definitely not part of the plan the two had for their lives, especially since Grace was ten years younger than Hannah. The plan had been for Hannah to join her art history professor wife on a sabbatical trip to Europe. Grace would do research, and Hannah would figure out what she wanted to do in her retirement. How does an independent, feisty lesbian adjust to both her suddenly widowed and newly retired life? How can she survive the loss of the spouse who statistically should have survived her? Grace Period tackles these questions head-on in an intimate, witty portrayal of a woman grappling with the new and unexpected turn her life has taken. It is a tale of love, loss, and survival.
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD
Elisabeth Nonas, the author of three published novels, has written several screenplays as well as short stories, magazine articles, and essays. She coauthored with Simon LeVay the nonfiction City of Friends: A Portrait of the Gay and Lesbian Community in America. The author taught screenwriting and writing for emerging media at Ithaca College for twenty-five years. Nonas’s three novels focused on how lesbians form community and create family. Given that her first book appeared forty years ago when she was in her mid-30s, she clearly has different concerns now as she ages and her life continues to unfold. These were what sparked Grace Period. Originally from New York City, she lives in Ithaca, NY, with her spouse, founding publisher and editor of Firebrand Books, Nancy K. Bereano.

A Reading and Conversation with Nicole Zelniker, Marcia Bradley, and Karis Rogerson (in person and live-streaming)
2024-09-15 15:00 - 17:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Please join us for a conversation with Nicole Zelniker, author of FROM WHERE WE ARE, and Marcia Bradley, author of THE HOME FOR WAYWARD GIRLS. Moderated by Karis Rogerson.
FROM WHERE WE ARE: Gabi Keefer flees Holocaust-era Germany with nothing but her husband, her nephew, and the clothes on her back, but that isn’t the whole story. Over generations, her granddaughter, Lena, struggles with drug addiction and an unplanned pregnancy; her sort-of nephew, Zane, grieves for his wife three years after her death in an antisemitic mass shooting; and her great-niece, Miranda, advocates for Palestinian liberation against her family’s wishes. Each character’s tale begs the questions: What does it mean to be part of a family, what does it mean to survive, and is that enough?
THE HOME FOR WAYWARD GIRLS: While other adolescent girls are listening to grunge rock or swooning over boy bands and movie stars, Loretta knows little of life beyond the Home for Wayward Girls, the secluded ranch where her parents run a program designed to “correct” teen girls’ “bad behavior.” Many are failed runaways desperate to leave their controlling and sometimes brutal homes. Few have any idea of the suffering that lies ahead. Loretta witnesses firsthand how the adults use abusive discipline to crush these young women’s spirits and break their wills, until the day a horrifying act of violence forces her to make her own terrible choice. Terrified and with no other option, Loretta flees the ranch and hitchhikes across the country, ending up in New York, where she dedicates herself to working with lost, vulnerable, and defenseless teens, determined to prevent the same thing from happening to other girls like her.
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD
Nicole Zelniker (she/they) is the author of several books, including UNTIL WE FALL, which was a finalist for the Forward Indie Awards in LGBTQ+ adult fiction. She’s also the founder and editor-in-chief of the literary magazine Knee Brace Press. In her free time, Nicole enjoys re- reading her favorite books, listening to musicals, and bothering her cat.
Marcia Bradley earned her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College after receiving her BA from Antioch LA. Winner of a Bronx Council on the Arts BRIO Award for fiction, she has been published in literary magazines and journals. Marcia is very proud of THE HOME FOR WAYWARD GIRLS, her debut novel, and hopes readers feel a kinship with the protagonist, Loretta, and her journey.
Karis Rogerson is a passionate reader of all things, but especially YA fiction and adult romance, and a writer of essays that focus on books and their authors; mental health; relationships; and so much more. Karis is also represented by Eric Smith at P.S. Literary Agency and has written seven YA novels (and counting). She hopes someday you’ll be able to read her queer romances.

MANBOOBS Launch with Komail Aijazuddin and Adam Eli (in person and live-streaming)
2024-09-18 19:00 - 20:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
What do you do when you’re too gay for Pakistan, too Pakistani to be gay in America, and ashamed of your body everywhere? How can you find happiness despite years of humiliation, physical danger, and a legion of Brooklyn hipsters who know you only as a queer from Whereveristan? How do you summon the courage to be yourself no matter where you are?
Even as a young child in Lahore, Komail Aijazuddin knew he was different—no one else at his all-boys prep school was pirouetting off their desks, or bullied for their “manboobs,” or spontaneously bursting into songs from The Little Mermaid. Aijazuddin began to believe his only chance at a happy, meaningful life would be found elsewhere: America, the land of the free, the home of the gays. But the hostility of a post-9/11 world and society’s rejection of his art, his desires, and his body would soon teach him that finding happiness takes a lot more than a plane ticket. Searching for his place between two worlds while navigating a minefield of expectations, prejudice, and self-doubt, Aijazuddin discovered, sometimes painfully, sometimes hilariously, that there are people and places he’d need to let go of to move forward.
Manboobs: A Memoir of Musicals, Visas, Hope, and Cake (Abrams Press; August 13, 2024; $27.00; Hardcover) is Aijazuddin’s riotous yet intelligent memoir of searching for love, seamlessly blending humor, politics, pop culture, and the bravery required to be yourself. Aijazuddin confidently announces himself as a sharp new voice in humor with his moving, wickedly funny reexamination of the American Dream and our search for home.
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD
Komail Aijazuddin is a visual artist and writer with degrees from New York University and the Pratt Institute who lives and works in New York City. You can see his work at komailaijazuddin.com.

Opening Reception: You Left a Mark on Me (in person only)
2024-09-19 18:00 - 20:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
YOU LEFT A MARK ON ME
SEPTEMBER 19, 2024 – JANUARY 5, 2025
Reception: Thursday, September 19, 6-8 PM
The Bureau of General Services—Queer Division presents You Left A Mark On Me, an exhibition highlighting Queer tattoo artists with an art practice outside of their tattoo work; and Queer artists who utilize tattoo imagery in their work. Curated by Zach Grear and Nelson Santos, the exhibition features paintings, drawings, ceramics, and embroidery work by Colton Ackerman, Alexandria Deters, Virginia Elwood, Evan Paul English, Zach Grear, Christian Lord, Dewey Rice, Lancelot Runge, Tamara Santibañez, and Zyra West.
You Left A Mark On Me looks at the close ties that mark-making and queer bodies connect communities and the creative outputs that come from it. The tattoo artists in this exhibition find alternative forms of mark-making beyond the flesh, whether it’s using their hands to mold clay (Christian Lord, Tamara Santibañez), building sculptures and painting with yarn (Virginia Elwood), or making broad and colorful paint strokes (Evan Paul English, Dewey Rice, Zyra West). On the other end of the spectrum, You Left A Mark On Me, brings together queer artists (Colton Ackerman, Alexandria Deters, Zach Grear, and Lancelot Runge) that are influenced by tattoo imagery, and use ink, thread, and found images to mark the body on paper, playing with iconic tattoo graphics and colorful patterns.
The curators, Zach Grear and Nelson Santos are also artists and collectors of tattoos, interested in how these queer communities intertwine and connect. There is often a deep connection when a queer body is marked by another queer body and the way art expresses this queer magic and beauty.

Clement Goldberg In Conversation With Torrey Peters (in person and live-streaming)
2024-09-20 19:00 - 20:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join DOPAMINE Books author Clement Goldberg as they read from their debut novel, New Mistakes, and discuss cats, plants, aliens, love, sex and art with Detransition, Baby author Torrey Peters. Hosted by Publisher and author Michelle Tea.
In New Mistakes, classic human follies of desire and ambition foreground a revelatory awakening the planet needs. UFOs, cat influencers, telepathic houseplants; sex and drugs and art. By turns tender and hilarious, visionary and perceptive, New Mistakes wittily shows us how we live today and how we might – astonishingly – live tomorrow.
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD
Praise for New Mistakes:
“Goldberg writes with such louche charm.” – Torrey Peters
“This is it, this is the thing, this is where we are.” – Daniel Handler
“Precise, profound and inventive” – Julian Delgado Lopera
“An emo pop sci fi hangout of the highest order.” – Bett Williams

New York Queer Zine Fair 2024: Events at the Bureau (in person only)
2024-09-21 12:00 - 16:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
THIS YEAR’S EDITION OF NYQZF WILL TAKE PLACE ON
SAT, SEPT 21, 2024, 11-5, AT THE CENTER AT 208 W 13 ST, NY, NY.
Rm 101 and 110 for zine tables, Rm 304 and the Bureau for events.
NYQZF.com <http://nyqzf.com/> for more details.
Programs at the Bureau
12-1 Collage Postcard Workshop
3-3:45 Join WMN for a reading of salacious, sweaty, steamy, and sweet Dyke poetry.
4-4:30 Reading with Christopher Clary
Programs in Rm 304
12-1 Mapping Your Joy
1:30-2:30 Come be a child again and make a fortune teller
3-4 Best Practices for Writing with Incarcerated Comrades

TELL: Return (in person and live-streaming)
2024-09-21 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
TELL is a monthly queer storytelling show hosted and curated by Drae Campbell. It is the longest running event at BGSQD. 10 years and going. Each month there is a different theme and a different line up of queer artists who tell true stories from their lives on a theme.
RACHEL LEVITSKY came out as a Lesbian in 1984 and as a poet in 1994. She-they is the author of The Story of My Accident Is Ours, Under the Sun (Futurepoem, 2013 & 2003) NEIGHBOR (UDP, 2009, reissue 2020), Against Travel : Anti Voyage (Pamenar, with Pascal Poyet, 2020) and several other small press editions. In 1999, she-they founded the feminist avant-garde network Belladonna Series, and is a member of Belladonna* Collaborative, a non-hierarchical and variously organized collective making objects, thoughts, actions, events. Levitsky is a professor at Pratt Institute and lives in Woodstock, NY. She’s currently at work on a memoir without memory called Rachel Levitsky Has No Problems.
Jonté Jaurel Culpepper is a graduate from the University of New Mexico with his BA in Contemporary Dance and Minor in Vocal Performance. Some of his theatre credits include: (AC Slater) “Bayside the Musical” Off-Broadway, (Vulture/Garret Understudy) “Sirens Den” Off-Broadway, (Muscle) “Naked Boys Singing” National Tour, (Luke) “Altar Boyz”, “In The Heights” (Domingo),(Male Singer 2) “Epic Rock/Divas” Carnival Cruise Line, “Kinky Boots” (Angel/Dance Captain), “Rock Of Ages” (Joey Primo/Stacee Jaxx & Drew Understudy), “Dreamgirls” (Curtis Taylor Junior Understudy), “La Cage Aux Folles” (Bitelle). Film & TV: “Eleanor The Great” (Dante), (Final Contestant) “American Idol” Season 15, Target Pride Campaign & National Commercial. Instagram: @jontejaurel
Carly Ciarrocchi (she/her) is an Emmy-nominated host, writer, musician, and producer. She has spent most of her career in children’s media, making and hosting TV shows and podcasts with collaborators like Universal Kids, Disney+, Nick Jr, Tinkercast, Sesame Workshop and the LEGO Foundation. She’s a Moth Story Slam winner and has told tales with Generation Women, the Artichoke, The Tell, Soup and Stories and more. She teaches clown-theatre classes at the Brooklyn Comedy Collective.
Drae Campbell is the host and curator of TELL which is also an award winning podcast that can be found anywhere you listen to podcasts.

Theater: The Nosebleed (Lincoln Center Theater, Woolly Mammoth Theater & National Tour, Lortel Nominated), Jesus Hopped The ‘A’ Train (Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater), Only You Can Prevent Wildfires (Teatro Circulo), My Old Man (Dixon Place), Storm.Still (DirectorFest, Drama League), La Cage Aux Folles (Barrington Stage Company)
Film and TV: Senior Escort Service, Blunderpuss, It’s Very Common, TOW. TV: Bull, New Amsterdam. BFA, The University Of The Arts. Ig @draebiz and @tellqueerz.

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation to benefit the storytellers and the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Song of Myself, a Novel by Arnie Kantrowitz: Bill Goldstein in Conversation with Larry Mass (in person and live-streaming)
2024-09-22 15:00 - 17:00 | The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center, 208 West 13th Street, Room 101, New York, 10011, United States
Song of Myself is the story of Daniel Dell Blake, a gay man navigating his way through a tumultuous twentieth-century America. In a world in which being gay is without social or legal status or even recognition, his rites of passage, of embracing his identity, garnering self-respect, and living with irrepressible creativity, will resonate for readers confronting today’s culture wars. Early on in this odyssey of self-discovery, Daniel is a given a gift of inspiration and guidance that will chart the course of his life: Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman, the Great Gay Poet of America, Democracy, Spirituality and The Body.
This event will take place in person at The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011. Room to be announced
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Arnie Kantrowitz (1940-2022) leaves behind a legacy as a true pioneer, sage and champion of the gay rights movement. He is the author of the gay classic, Under The Rainbow: Growing Up Gay; of a monograph, Walt Whitman; and was a notable writer and figure in gay and mainstream media. He became vice president of Gay Activists Alliance in 1970 and was a founding member of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) in 1985. He introduced one of the earliest gay studies courses and in 1999 became chair of the English department at the College of Staten Island CUNY, where he was a longstanding and beloved professor of English. He is survived by Larry Mass, his life partner of 40 years.
Bill Goldstein reviews books and interviews authors for NBC’s Weekend Today in New York, and was the founding editor of The New York Times books website. A graduate of the University of Chicago, Goldstein received a PhD in English from the City University of New York Graduate Center. He is writing a biography of Larry Kramer, to be published by Crown, and worked on the book as a 2019-2020 fellow at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at The New York Public Library. His book, The World Broke in Two: Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, D. H. Lawrence, E. M. Forster, and the Year that Changed Literature, was published in 2017. Bill Goldstein is a co-recipient of this year’s CUNY Graduate Center Alumni Achievement Award.
Lawrence D. Mass, M.D., is a co-founder of Gay Men’s Health Crisis and was the first to write about AIDS in the press. In 2019 he was awarded GMHC’s Founders Activism Award. He is the author of Homosexuality and Sexuality: Dialogues of the Sexual Revolution, Volume 1, and Homosexuality as Behavior and Identity: Dialogues of The Sexual Revolution, Volume 2. He is the author/editor of an anthology, We Must Love One Another Or Die: The Life and Legacies of Larry Kramer. He is the author of a memoir, Confessions of a Jewish Wagnerite: Being Gay and Jewish in America; of the sequel to that memoir, On the Future of Wagnerism: Art, Intoxication, Addiction, Codependence and Recovery, and the forthcoming Wayfaring With Ned Rorem: A Nonfiction Novella. They form a trilogy Mass has designated as his Jewish Wagnerism Series. Mass has written widely on medicine, health and culture for mainstream and specialist publications. A recently retired physician specializing in addiction medicine, Mass resides in New York City and South Florida.

OUTspoken: The Publishing Triangle’s Reading Series, September Edition (in person & live-streaming)
2024-09-25 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
The Publishing Triangle presents its monthly OUTspoken Reading Series as host Rob Byrnes welcomes Trebor Healey, Gerard Cabrera, Drew Pisarra, Jim Berg, and Christopher Murray
Join us as in-person or watch the live-stream (see below) to hear from some of queer literature’s most dynamic established and up-and-coming voices.

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd

Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Queer Craze 2.0: An Intergenerational Conversation and Centennial Celebration (in person only)
2024-09-26 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
One hundred years ago, New York City was in the midst of the so-called Pansy (Queer) Craze, which catalyzed the raucous eroticism of the Jazz Age. Prohibition revelers flocked to see queer performers at the Astor Hotel and the Cotton Club. Broadway stars rubbed elbows with Harlem Renaissance luminaries at the Hamilton Lodge Drag Ball. Shortly thereafter, there was a crackdown, not unlike the one alt-right conservatives are mounting against LGBTQ+ communities today. It’s a familiar pattern, characterized by advances in social rights followed by reactionary efforts to dial them back.
“Queer Craze 2.0: An Intergenerational Conversation and Centennial Celebration” will focus on historical parallels between the 1920s and the 2020s, using Margaret Vandenburg’s new novel, Craze, as a springboard. Then, as now, New York was teeming with gender-bending people from all walks of life. The two conversationalists will be Margaret Vandenburg (novelist, playwright, academic) and Temi George (writer, sound artist, Lesbian Herstory Archives affiliate). If past is prologue, revisiting the Queer Craze might help us navigate current culture wars.
Margaret Vandenburg is a novelist, playwright, and essayist whose new novel, Craze, ventures into the queer speakeasies and drag balls that catalyzed the raucous eroticism of the Roaring Twenties. Her previous novels include An American in Paris, a romp through the sapphic salons of Gertrude Stein and Natalie Barney, and The Home Front, a portrait of a family facing autism. Her plays include Roe v. Wade 2.0, the centerpiece of a theater-based reproductive rights coalition, and Belly of the Beast, a finalist for the Drama League Award for Outstanding Digital
Theater. Having completed her Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, Vandenburg spent her academic career as a Senior Lecturer at Barnard College, specializing in modernism, postmodernism, and gender studies.
Temi George is a writer and sound artist. She is involved at the Lesbian Herstory Archives, where she has worked with the newspaper, periodical, and photo collections. She studied English and philosophy at Barnard College. She is working on a chapbook of micro-poetry that manipulates language from Emily Dickinson’s letters to Susan Gilbert Dickinson. As a child, George would often stare at the sun. She once saw a sign that read “For blind use only” above some braille on a train ticket machine near Dallas. “If I touch this braille,” she thought, “I will go
blind.” She did not touch braille for a long time as a result. If she was that concerned about going blind, why did she stare at the sun? She is pursuing a career in psychiatry, in part, to figure this out.
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Queer Love and Pain: An Evening with Novelists Ella Dawson and Jendi Reiter (in person and live-streaming)
2024-09-28 19:00 - 20:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join Jendi Reiter and Ella Dawson for a reading from their new novels and a discussion of using humor and romance to leaven stories of healing from trauma.
Jendi Reiter’s second novel, Origin Story (Saddle Road Press), features a gay comic-book writer in 1990s New York City who unearths traumatic childhood memories through his art and breaks toxic family patterns with the help of his loving partner.
A bisexual love story with a theme of healing from intimate partner abuse, Ella Dawson’s witty novel But How Are You, Really (Dutton) is set at a 5th-year college reunion where journalist Charlotte Thorne must contend with her bullying boss, the friend group who wonders why she
ghosted on them, and the lovable almost-boyfriend who got away.
Jendi Reiter is the author of five poetry books and chapbooks, most recently Made Man (Little Red Tree, 2022); the story collection An Incomplete List of My Wishes (Sunshot Press/New Millennium Writings, 2018); and the novels Origin Story (Saddle Road Press, 2024) and Two
Natures (Saddle Road Press, 2016). Origin Story was a finalist for the Big Moose Prize from Black Lawrence Press and Two Natures won the Rainbow Award for Best Gay Contemporary Fiction. They are the editor of the writing resource site WinningWriters.com.
Ella Dawson is an NYC-based sex and culture critic and the author of But How Are You, Really, a novel about college reunions and queer millennial angst. She was once internet famous for having herpes, but that’s a whole other story. Ella is proudly bisexual, anxious, and aspires to adopt a kitten. Follow her on social media as @brosandprose.
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Marwan Kaabour presents The Queer Arab Glossary (in person and live-streaming)
2024-09-29 15:00 - 16:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join journalist Afeef Nessouli, who will be in conversation with Marwan Kaabour, the editor of The Queer Arab Glossary, the first published collection of queer Arabic slang. Featuring fascinating facts and anecdotes, The Queer Arab Glossary contains more than 300 terms in both English and Arabic, ranging from the humorous to the harrowing, serious to tongue-in-cheek, pejorative to endearing. The book also includes insightful essays from leading queer Arab artists, academics, activists and writers which situate this groundbreaking glossary in a modern social and political context.
‘This gloriously confident book will be an eye-opening, often unashamedly sexual, revelation and education.’ –The Bookseller
‘The spicy guide to queer Arab slang.’ – The Guardian
‘A little masterpiece’ – Owen Jones
‘Language reflects and creates reality and Marwan Kaabour’s revolutionary volume insists on and makes possible a future rooted in the recognition of continuous histories.’ – Sarah Schulman
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Marwan Kaabour is a graphic designer, artist and writer. His interdisciplinary practice builds pathways between communication and publication design, curation, pedagogy and political activism. Alongside his independent projects, he works with non-profit institutions, companies and individuals in arts and culture sectors. In 2019, Marwan founded Takweer, an online platform and expanding archive of queer narratives in Arab history and popular culture. His debut book, The Queer Arab Glossary, was published in June 2024.
Marwan moved from his hometown Beirut to London in 2011 to pursue a master’s degree in Graphic Design from the London College of Communication, before joining renowned design agency Barnbrook. After more than six years of diverse experience with Barnbrook, first as Designer and later as Senior Designer, he founded his own studio in 2020.
His commissioned design work spans visual identities, publication and exhibition design, marketing campaigns, wayfinding systems and art direction, among others. He has worked with leading cultural institutions, including the V&A Museum, Phaidon, Art Basel, The National Gallery, Thames & Hudson, Serpentine Galleries, Hayward Gallery, Zaha Hadid Foundation and The Mosaic Rooms. He designed the Rihanna book, which was named as one of Time magazine’s best photo books of 2019.

Afeef Nessouli is a journalist who’s currently a producer for The Slow Factory and Everything is Political. He is also an adjunct professor for Parsons School of Design. He has previously worked for Spotify, The Daily Show and The Wall Street Journal. He focuses on queer and Arab stories. Afeef lived through the 2006 Lebanon war and went to jail in Beirut for covering Palestine. You can find his work on social media at @afeefness

Building Resilience through Writing; Exploring Trauma and Healing through a Queer Lens (in person and live-streaming)
2024-10-03 19:00 - 20:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join novelists Mala Kumar, author of What It Meant to Survive, and JD Glass, author of Fire Fall, for a conversation about intersectionality, queer resilience, and the art of sapphic literary fiction. Moderated by mental health expert and the author of Toxic Productivity (forthcoming), Israa Nasir. Hear select readings from Mala and JD. Books will be available for purchase and signing.
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, room 210 of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD
Mala Kumar is the author of the 2014 novel, The Paths of Marriage. What it Meant to Survive is her second novel. Her op-eds, interviews, and essays have appeared in The Guardian, The Advocate, TechCrunch, USA Today, India Abroad, The Aerogram, and Brown Girl Magazine. In her professional life, Mala is a global leader in tech for social good, having worked extensively for the United Nations and at GitHub, a Microsoft-owned software company. She is currently the Director of Program Management, AI Safety at MLCommons. Mala lives in New York City with her wife Cybel. Visit https://malakumar.com for more information about her writing and work.
Former Managing Editor for The Advocate, artist, musician, and author JD Glass is an American Library Association-Stonewall Finalist & Lambda Literary-Literature Finalist forher novel Punk Like Me, Lambda Literary Finalist for Red Light, with that and other titles earning Ben Franklin Literary Finalist, Rainbow Reads Award, and Golden Crown Literary Finalist and Award. A recipient of Columbia College Chicago’s Faculty Recognition Award, and Columbia Scholar Award, Glass’s visual work was selected for Chicago Manifest Art Showcase, InArt Gallery Virtual Exhibit, ISee Pixels exhibit, and OnBigDrawingsII Virtual Exhibit. Glass is also the writer and executive producer for the short film rom-com Her Curve, which has been earning laurels, as well as the upcoming feature, and for the series Punk Like Me–the B Sides,
currently in production.
Israa Nasir, MHC-LP, is a New York City based psychotherapist, author of Toxic Productivity, and the founder of WellGuide—a digital community for mental health awareness. Her work is centered on transforming the way we talk about mental health, taking it from a place of shame to a place of empowerment. A Pakistani-Canadian child of immigrants, she has a specific focus on mental health, identity formation, and healing for the AAPI immigrant (first and second generation) community. Israa has been featured in NBC, Vox, Huffpost, Teen Vogue, and other major publications and been invited to speak at corporations such as Google, Meta, and Yale.

Launch of Criminalized Lives: HIV and Legal Violence (in person and live-streaming)
2024-10-04 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
New York City Launch of Criminalized Lives: HIV and Legal Violence, Rutgers University Press. Using storytelling, theory, and comic illustrations, this book examines firsthand accounts of people living with HIV who have been criminalized because of their status. The book also traces activist social movement response working to counter the harms of HIV criminalization under the slogan #HIVISNOTACRIME.
Moderated by Blake Paskal of Visual AIDS, this event will be a discussion with Criminalized Lives author Alexander McClelland, along with activist and author Robert Suttle, who wrote the foreword to the book, and queer comic artist, Eric Kostiuk Williams, who did the illustrations for the book. Collectively, this panel will discuss the current realities of HIV criminalization in the US, and New York State, as well as the ways public health responses can drive criminalization efforts, recent successes in advocacy, and the role of art, archives, and activism in supporting movements for change.

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Biographies of participants:

Alexander McClelland is an Associate Professor at Carleton University, and is the author of Criminalized Lives: HIV & Legal Violence.
Blake Paskal is an arts educator and is the Programs Manager for Visual AIDS.
Eric Kostiuk Williams is a queer cartoonist and illustrator, who’s work can be seen in 2am Eternal: a Decade of Queer Nightlife Posters + Comics (2023), and in Criminalized Lives: HIV & Legal Violence.
Robert Suttle is a leading global expert working to counter the harms of HIV criminalization, and author of the foreword to Criminalized Lives: HIV & Legal Violence.

Keith Haring Pop Up Book Release Party (in person only)
2024-10-06 15:00 - 16:00 | Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join us for the release of the Keith Haring Pop-Up Book, featuring a special book talk and reception!
Schedule of events:
3:00 – 4:00 panel discussion at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division (room 210 of The Center)
4:00 – 4:30 book signing in the Keith Haring bathroom
4:30 – 7:00 reception
Location: The LGBT Community Center, 208 W 13th St, New York, NY 10011
Celebrate with us as we delve into the world of Keith Haring’s art and the creation of this unique new pop-up book. Enjoy an insightful discussion in the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division between paper engineer Simon Arizpe, publisher Rosston Meyer, and Keith Haring Foundation Director Gil Vazquez as they discuss the creation of the pop-up book and the importance of upholding Haring’s legacy. Explore Haring’s “Once Upon A Time…..” mural bathroom, featured in the pop-up book, with a reception to follow.

The Bureau will have copies of the following items for sale:
Keith Haring Pop Up Book $60
Keith Haring Pop Up Book Altarpiece Edition (includes pop up of Once Upon a Time … bathroom) $350
Keith Haring Marriage of Heaven and Hell Pop Up Poster $60
Keith Haring Love Pop Up Cards $10
For product details and photos visit:
popositionpress.com/keith-haring-pop-up-book

To reserve any of the above items to purchase at the event, please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “October 6 Keith Haring Pop Up” in the subject line.

Black Queer Dance: Gay Men and the Politics of Passing for Almost Straight (in person and live-streaming)
2024-10-09 19:00 - 20:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join us for the launch of Black Queer Dance: Gay Men and the Politics of Passing for Almost Straight by Mark Broomfield with Carlos Jones and Vincent E. Thomas.

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Mark Broomfield, PhD, MFA, Associate Professor of English and Founding Director of Performance as Social Change at SUNY Geneseo, is a London-born award-winning scholar and artist of Jamaican heritage.
Carlos Jones is Professor and Chair of the Department of Dance at SUNY Brockport. He has a body of work that extends from the concert stage to theater to television and film.

Vincent E. Thomas, dancer, choreographer and teacher, (MFA in Dance from Florida State University and a BME in Music from the University of South Carolina) has danced with Dance Repertory Theatre (FSU), Randy James Dance Works (NY/NJ), EDGEWORKS Dance Theater (DC), and Liz Lerman Dance Exchange (MD). He is the Founder/Artistic Director of VTDance and Professor of Dance at Towson University.

Revisioning Democracy Podcast Episode 4: Opus Dei, Radical Catholics, Dark money (in person & live-streaming)
2024-10-10 17:00 - 18:30 | NY
Revisioning Democracy Podcast Episode 4:
Opus Dei, radical Catholics, dark money – and Project 2025: a conversation with journalist Gareth Gore
Cohosts: Anne-christine d’Adesky and Jay W. Walker
Are radical Catholics in Opus Dei secretly funding a dark political agenda in the US and world? Join UK Financial Times Gareth Gore and cohosts Anne-christine d’Adesky and Jay W. Walker for another live podcast of Revisioning Democracy at the Bureau of General Services – Queer Division, on Thursday, October 10th at 5 pm EST.
We’ll talk about Gore’s new book, Opus, an investigative deep dive into Opus Dei’s secret history for the first time. Opus is a thrilling exposé revealing how the secretive, ultra-conservative Catholic sect has pushed its radical agenda within the Church and around the globe, using billions of dollars siphoned from one of Europe’s largest banks, Bano Popular in Spain. Gore exposing its role in bankrolling many right-wing causes globally, including the US Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade. His book provides new details of the people and dark money ties between Opus Dei faithful and militant US Catholic activists including Leonard Leo, who is now bankrolling Project 2025, other US conservative architects of its Christian nationalist agenda. Opus comes out October 1 from Simon and Schuster.
The Bureau will have copies of Opus: The Cult of Dark Money, Human Trafficking, and Right-Wing Conspiracy Inside the Catholic Church (Simon & Schuster, October 1, 2024, hardcover, $30.99) available for purchase at this event. To reserve a copy, please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve Opus for Oct. 10” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
Gareth Gore is a financial journalist and editor with close to two decades of experience, who had reported from over twenty-five countries and covered some of the biggest financial stories. His writing has been published by Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters, and International Financing Review. He is the host of The Syndicate, which tells the behind-the-scenes stories of the biggest financial deals in history

Celebrating Paperback Publications: Where There Was Fire and The Sea Elephants (in person and live-streaming)
2024-10-11 19:00 - 20:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Where There Was Fire and The Sea Elephants, novels by John Manuel Arias and Shastri Akella, share more than their publisher (Flatiron Books) and the DNA of being debut novels released in 2023. Set in international geographies (Costa Rica and India respectively), both stories look at the restorative power of community and queer resistance in the face of oppressive power.
Join the authors as they celebrate the release of the paperbacks editions of their debut novels this fall. They will read from their debuts, engage in conversations, about work old and new, and about being queer writers of color navigating the American publishing industry.
John Manuel Arias is a queer, Costa Rican American poet and writer, and the National Bestselling author of Where There Was Fire, published in the US and the UK and a Good Morning America Buzz Pick and Barnes & Noble Discover Pick. A Canto Mundo fellow & an alumnus of the Tin House Summer Writers Workshop, his prose and poetry have been published in The Kenyon Review, PANK, The Rumpus, and Akashic Books. He has lived in Washington D.C., Brooklyn New York, and in San José, Costa Rica with his grandmother and four ghosts.
Shastri Akella is a queer, neurodivergent migrant of color who comes from a working-class background. His writing is/will be in Best American Short Fiction 2024, Guernica, Fairy Tale Review, CRAFT, Masters Review, World Literature Review and elsewhere. His stories became finalists for the Narrative Fiction Prize twice and he won the 2024 BLR Goldenberg Prize for Fiction, a 2023 Pushcart Prize ,and a 2022 Fiction Fellowship at the Fine Arts Works Center in Provincetown. He earned an MFA in Creative Writing and a PhD. in Comparative Literature from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He’s an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Michigan State University. The Sea Elephants, his debut novel, published in the US (Flatiron
Books) and India (Penguin), was named a most-anticipated debut by Good Morning America, Electric Lit, Book Riot, and LGBTQ Reads, among others.

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

lesbian book club (in person only)
2024-10-12 11:00 - 12:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
We’ll be reading fiction and non-fiction — classic, contemporary, revealing and visionary. As a group we will decide what to read each month, focusing on lesbian authors and/or related topics. Co-founded by lesbian book lovers Judi Komaki and Piper Olsen.

For October 12th, the lesbian book club will read Audre Lorde’s Sister Outsider.
Purchase Sister Outsider from the Bureau before October 12th and receive a 15% discount ($15.29 instead of $17.99)! Just mention the lesbian book club when you purchase the book.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

For our November 9th meeting, we’ll read Divagaciones II, by our very own member Jaqueline Jimenez Polanco! Copies will be available at the October 10th meeting and will remain available at the Bureau after the 10th.

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required.

Representing Ourselves: Queer Short Stories (in person & live-streaming)
2024-10-12 15:00 - 16:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join Jarrod Campbell and Matthew Lansburgh for a reading from their story collections and a discussion about the importance of representing queerness in fiction, why this need for honest, varied representation has brought us here and where these bold portrayals will take us.

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, room 210 of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Jarrod Campbell is a writer living in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC. His fictions, essays, reviews and poetry have appeared in Heavy Feather Review, Northwest Review, Modern Literature, Wicked Gay Ways, and Boner World (Berlin). His collection of short stories, The Reason I’m Here, (June 2023, Stalking Horse Press), was listed as an anticipated June LGBTQIA+ read by Lambda Literary.

Matthew Lansburgh‘s collection of linked stories, Outside Is the Ocean, won the Iowa Short Fiction Award and was a finalist for the 30th Annual Lambda Literary Award and the Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBTQ Fiction. His fiction has appeared in journals such as One Story, VQR, New England Review, Glimmer Train, Ecotone, Epoch, Alaska Quarterly Review, Electric Literature, StoryQuarterly, Columbia Journal, Guernica, and Michigan Quarterly Review, and has been shortlisted in the Best American Short Stories series (in 2018 & 2022) and the Pushcart Prize series (in 2017).

Robert Raasch, author of The Summer Between, in conversation with Christopher Bram (in person & live-streaming)
2024-10-13 15:00 - 16:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
A book launch in kind with National Coming Out Day. Christopher Bram is the acclaimed author of twelve books, including the novel that became the Academy-Award-winning movie, Gods and Monsters. He teaches at the Gallatin School of New York University. Christopher and Robert Raasch will read from Robert’s much-awaited debut novel, The Summer Between. Set in New York City’s vibrant Greenwich Village in 1978, The Summer Between is the bittersweet, unsparingly honest coming-of-age saga of Andrew Jackson Pollock. Christoper and Robert will read excerpts from the novel amidst conversation and questions and answers.
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, room 210 of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Christopher Bram is the author of twelve books, including the novel that became the Academy-Award-winning movie, Gods and Monsters. He teaches at the Gallatin School of New York University.
Robert Raasch was raised in Northern New Jersey. He is a writer, architect/designer, and visual artist who is an active participant in 24PearlStreet and the Fine Arts Work Center (FAWC) in Provincetown, Massachusetts. He divides his time between Southwest Florida, New York, and Copenhagen, where he is working on his second novel.

Donna Minkowitz's DONNAVILLE Launch! In Conversation with David Groff (in person & live-streaming)
2024-10-17 19:00 - 20:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Come celebrate the launch of Donna Minkowitz’s hell-bent, boundary-busting novel DONNAVILLE, in which different parts of the author attack each other, fuck each other, and try to save each other from a terrifying jail inside.
Can they burn the prison down? Will anyone succeed at having sex with the Divine Mother?
A multi-gender, multi-sexuality, queer as f internal quest.
To reserve a copy of DONNAVILLE please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve Donnaville for Oct. 17” in the subject line.
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, room 210 of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd

Donna Minkowitz is the Lambda Literary Award-winning author of the memoirs Growing Up Golem and Ferocious Romance: What My Encounters with the Right Taught Me about Sex, God, and Fury. She is the Village Voice’s former longtime columnist on queer politics and culture, and a former columnist for The Advocate. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times Book Review, The Nation, Slate, and Salon, and she has frequently gone undercover to report on the far right. Minkowitz is the recipient of a GLAAD Media Award, an Exceptional Merit Media Award, and an award for outstanding journalism from NLGJA: the Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists.
David Groff is a multi-award-winning poet, writer, and independent editor. He is the author of three books of poems, Live in Suspense, Clay, and Theory of Devolution. Groff is coeditor of the anthology Who’s Yer Daddy? Gay Writers Celebrate Their Mentors and Forerunners, and is a founder of the Publishing Triangle.

In Care Of (in person & live-streaming)
2024-10-18 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
In Care Of is intimate conversation between the curators of Art in Odd Places 2024 CARE, and a select group of its international and US artists about their 2024 CARE projects, artistic processes and the role of CARE in their life and work.
AiOP 2024 CARE is curated by Patricia Miranda and Christopher Kaczmarek and is scheduled for October 18-20, 2024. AiOP 2024 CARE is the nineteenth edition of the iconic public visual and performance art festival that takes place along 14th Street in Manhattan every fall. The 70+ artists participating in AiOP 2024 CARE will enact actions, notions, considerations and representations of care along 14th Street and invite the public to stop, to rest, to consider, and, above all, care. AiOP CARE 2024 asks how art can create spaces and actions of compassionate fearless care. Can we offer and enter them with joy and love?

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, room 210 of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Art in Odd Places (AiOP) is an annual festival that presents visual and performance art in public spaces along 14th Street in Manhattan, NYC from Avenue C to the Hudson River each October. Active in New York City since 2005, AiOP aims to stretch the boundaries of communication in the public realm by presenting artworks in all disciplines outside the confines of traditional public space regulations.
Curators Patricia Miranda and Christopher Kaczmarek are NYC-based artists, curators, and educators. Miranda is the founder of the artist-run organizations The Crit Lab and MAPSpace, and works with donated, repurposed, lace and linens in site-responsive sculpture and installation. Kaczmarek’s work spans both experimental and traditional practices, including sculpture, site-specific installations, performance, video, built circuits, and solar-powered objects.
Founder and Director Ed Woodham, is a queer elder conceptual artist, curator, and educator based in Manhattan originally from Atlanta, Georgia where Art in Odd Places began.

OUTspoken: The Publishing Triangle's Reading Series, October Edition (in person & live-streaming)
2024-10-23 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
The Publishing Triangle presents its monthly OUTspoken Reading Series as host Rob Byrnes welcomes Ann McMan, John Copenhaver, Daniel Meltz, Gary Zebrun, Nicco Diaz, Jendi Reiter, and David S. Pederson.
Join us as in-person or watch the live-stream (see below) to hear from some of queer literature’s most dynamic established and up-and-coming voices.

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd

Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD
