BGSQD

20Something Monthly Manhattan Meetup
2015-11-11 20:00 - 22:00 (America/New_York) | NY
If you are new to the city, recently out, just looking for friends, or whatever experiences brought you to us – we offer a safe space where we can mingle and talk about our experiences as an LGBT person in New York City. We hold our meetings on the second Wednesday of every month from 8-10 PM at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division. We recommend this 20Something Meetup to anyone who is looking for a more casual space to explore their sexual/gender identity. There will be light refreshments. Bring friends!
Suggested donation of $10 to benefit the Bureau and 20Something. No one turned away for lack of funds.
20Something is the largest social events organization for young lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in New York City, aged 21 to 30. We hold a monthly social, and two monthly icebreaker/discussion groups at the Brooklyn Pride Center and at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, the queer cultural center and bookstore on the second floor of The LGBT Community Center, in Manhattan. With more than 2,500 members, we engage young adults across all 5 boroughs with a safe, confidential, and respectful platform to meet other LGBT folk. Many of our members have made long lasting friendships, relationships, and have been connected to important LGBT services and resources. Whether you are new to the city, recently out, or just looking to make friends – 20Something offers a space for you to pave the way to your own adventures in New York City – and make living here a little easier. Become a member: meetup.com/20SomethingNYC

Topside Press Autumn Invitational
2015-11-07 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
Topside Press Autumnal Invitational Features:
Sara Woods (Sara, or the Existence of Fire)
Charles Theonia (Which One Is The Bridge)
Lisa Foad (The Night Is A Mouth)

Additional readings by:
Mia Mikowicz
Bader AlAwadhi
Constance Augusta A. Zaber
Tom Léger
Gabe Evans
Thel Seraphim
Michael Rex
Cat Fitzpatrick

Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.

NO HOUSE TO CALL MY HOME--A Reading and Discussion about LGBTQ Youth Homelessness
2015-11-06 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
Ryan Berg, author of No House to Call My Home: Love, Family, & Other Transgressions, will talk about his work in New York City as a caseworker for LGBTQ teenagers in foster care, especially those who are about to age out of the child welfare system. Berg begins this account of LGBTQ teens in the NYC foster care system with statistics that are at once shocking and painfully familiar: Children placed in foster care are more likely than veterans of war to develop post-traumatic stress disorder. LGBTQ teens make up 40% of homeless youth and are especially vulnerable. 70% of LGBTQ youth in group homes reported violence based on LGBTQ status.
A panel discussion with Ryan Berg will follow. Participants include Kate Barnhart of New Alternatives, Joey Lopez of The Ali Forney Center, and Ziggy Keyes of The True Colors Fund.

To reserve a copy of No House to Call My Home: Love, Family, & Other Transgressions please email Greg at contact@bgsqd.com

Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Ryan Berg is a Lambda Literary Foundation Emerging Writers Fellow and received the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Nonfiction Literature. His work has appeared in Slate, The Advocate, Ploughshares, Local Knowledge and the Sun. Berg has been awarded artist residencies from the MacDowell Colony and Yaddo. NO HOUSE TO CALL MY HOME is his first book. He’s worked as a youth worker in New York and Minneapolis. He’s currently the program manager for the Minneapolis and Suburban Host Home Programs of Avenues for Homeless Youth.

Mike Albo and Brontez Purnell: Johnny Would You Love Me If My Dick Was A Hornito?
2015-11-05 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
Published 14 years apart Mike Albo’s Hornito (2001) and Brontez Purnell’s Johnny Would You Love Me If My Dick Were Bigger (2015) are a literature pairing made in queer heaven. Both have as their driving force the yearnings, learnings and explorations of sweet, funny, unapologetically horny protagonists on the hunt for community, love, and dick. Each providing an insider view into the cultural context in which they were written: Hornito’s late 90s white gay-centric queer New York, and Johnny’s contemporary black Bay Area queer punk activist scene.

Worthy of enjoyment independent of each other, the book club will provide ample time for both to be discussed in their own right, while also setting aside time to reflect on what they offer when read together. The authors have indicated a love of each’s other’s work and in reading them in tandem it is exciting to consider the similarities and differences in the work and the worlds each book invites the reader to enter.

Albo and Purnell will read from their books, come together in conversation, and then take questions.

Purchase both books from the Bureau! Write us to have us hold copies for you: contact@bgsqd.com

Hosted by Theodore (Ted) Kerr and William Johnson

Mike Albo is a writer and a performer. He is the author of the novels “Hornito” (HarperCollins), “The Underminer: The Best Friend Who Casually Destroys Your Life” (Bloomsbury), “The Junket”, a Kindle Single and newly released, “Spermhood: Diary of a Donor”, a Kindle Single. His solo shows include “Please Everything Burst”, “My Price Point”, and “The Junket”, which appeared Off Broadway at the Lynn Redgrave Theater in 2014.

Brontez Purnell is a zinester, writer, dancer and musician, who lives in California. He is the author of “The Crusing Diaries”, “Johnny Would You Love Me If My Dick Were Bigger”, and “Fag School”. He is a member of the punk band Younger Lovers and has appeared in the films “I Want Your Love”, and “Together People”.

William Johnson is the online editor of the Lambda Literary Review.

Canadian born Theodore Kerr is a Brooklyn based writer and organizer with a focus on HIV/AIDS.

Celebration Launch WSQ's "The 1970s" and EqualityArchive.com
2015-11-04 18:00 - 21:30 | NY
Reception celebrating the publication of “The 1970s,” a special issue of Women’s Studies Quarterly, by The Feminist Press. And a toast to the launch of equalityarchive.com–a digital theater for the history of sex and gender equality in the United States.
At 7PM, we’ll host panel conversation, “Sex, Gender and Equality” to explore the promise and the problems for LGBT communities conceptualizing sex and gender equality in the 21st century.

To reserve a copy of The 1970s issue of Women’s Studies Quarterly please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com

Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.

WRITE QUEER!
2015-11-03 19:00 - 21:00, 2015-10-27 19:00 - 21:00, 2015-10-20 19:00 - 21:00, 2015-10-13 19:00 - 21:00, 2015-10-06 19:00 - 21:00, 2015-09-29 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
Write Queer! is an ongoing open-ended weekly writing workshop for those who identify as both Queer and Writer. Come read a variety of work by queer artists, generate new writing, and workshop with your peers. All experience levels and writing backgrounds are welcome.
Classes meet every Tuesday from 7pm-9pm at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division.
Please note that the Bureau is closed on Tuesdays—we will open from 7 to 9 PM on Tuesdays for this event.
$20 per class to benefit the facilitators and the Bureau. Limited sliding scale and scholarship available. Contact Cecily at sumthn.else@gmail.com for details.

Tran 9 From Outer Space- A Trans Poets Workshop Halloween Special
2015-10-31 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
We have come from outer space to read you transsexual poetry and wear silly outfits. We expect this will raise an army of poetry enthusiasts and queers who will make us victorious over weak and pathetic humankind. Come drink beer with us, and hear work from our latest zine “Your Authentic Self Is Embarrassing”. Afterwards we will go out and destroy this puny undefended city. Featuring all your favourite grotesque bloodthirsty alien monsters.

Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Boys, Bears & Scares
2015-10-30 19:00 - 22:00 | NY
Frightful foreplay on Halloween eve as four gay horror authors read from their latest chilling horror and suspense fiction.
Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Featuring:

Bronx-born wordsmith, Larry Benjamin considers himself less a writer than an artist whose chosen medium is the written word rather than clay or paint or bronze. He is the author of the allegorical Vampire novella Vampire Rising, the gay novels What Binds Us, and Unbroken―a 2014 Lambda Literary finalist, and a 2014 IPPY (Independent Publishers Book Award) Gold medalist―and Damaged Angels, a collection of short stories. He lives in Philadelphia with his husband and their two dogs.

Daniel W. Kelly is the author of the Comfort Cove gay horror series, plus the horror collections Horny Devils and Closet Monsters: Zombied Out and Tales of Gothrotica. He is also creator of Boys, Bears & Scares, a website dedicated to gay male horror.

David Swatling grew up in New York, studied theatre, and escaped to Amsterdam in 1985. He produced arts & culture programs for Radio Netherlands, winning numerous international prizes. His debut thriller Calvin’s Head was a 2015 Lambda Literary Award Finalist, and Corpus Calvin will be out in May 2016.

J.L. Weinberg was born and raised in San Francisco. He moved to New York City to become a film critic, but was sidetracked by stints as a model and actor. He returned to movie journalism, writing for New York, Premiere, The Village Voice, Interview, American Cinematographer, The Advocate, and The New York Native. True Religion is his first novel.

Celestial Body: BD/SM, Rituals and Protocols, Top-Secret Fetishes, Underground Sexuality . . . and God.
2015-10-28 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
“Is our often-censored urge towards sex and our great, undeniable urge towards a union with God . . . the same urge?” from The Substance of God, by Perry Brass.
What are the core feelings that link queer sexuality, BD/SM and spirituality? Is there a Dominant/ Submissive-Master/Slave feeling that links us directly with submission to the God-force? Does “kinky” sexuality lower male defenses enough to bring in a feeling of a supernatural union? Is gay tribal sexuality—at the heart of a leather and S/M lifestyle—important to our own survival now in the time of a mainstreaming and corporatization of gayness leaving too many gay men and lesbians feeling alone, isolated, and alienated from their community? Perry Brass, author of The Manly Pursuit of Desire and Love, hosts a three-part series of discussions, readings, and even demonstrations on this intriguing, often controversial topic.
Each session will feature different guests sharing their feelings about this often controversial topic. Please note: this series addresses material of a sexually graphic nature and some sessions will include nude performers.

Special guests Andrew Harwin, John Ollom, and Darrell Perry will participate in the first session, Wednesday, October 28, 7 to 9:30 PM.
The second session will take place on Wednesday, November 18, 7 to 9:30 PM.
The third and final session will take place on Wednesday, December 16, 7 to 9:30 PM.

Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Perry Brass has published 19 books, including poetry, novels, short fiction, science fiction, plays, and bestselling advice books (How to Survive Your Own Gay Life, The Manly Art of Seduction, The Manly Pursuit of Desire and Love). Active in the movement toward lgbt rights (gay equality) since 1969, Brass’s work continuously deals with issues of sexual freedom, personal authenticity, and personal politics coming out of his involvement with the movement for gay liberation. He is especially interested in that connection between sexuality and spirituality; with the world of the body, the mind, and a deeper “soul” consciousness connecting the two. Aside from his books, poetry, plays, and essays, he also regularly blogs for the Huffington Post. For more information: www.perrybrass.com

Andrew Harwin is a Life Coach and Ordained Interfaith/Interspiritual Minister. A Native New Yorker and Bronx Science graduate whose earliest spiritual experiences were in Nature, he pursued Hinduism and Buddhism when a Reform Jewish education didn’t meet his spiritual needs. As a teenager Andrew had transcendent LSD experiences but realized he couldn’t continue and still remain in his body. Hesse’s “Siddhartha” revealed enlightenment was best attained by living consciously, recognizing the connectedness of everything.
Having his first sex with men at 14, Andrew came out at 17 and began exploring his erotic shadow and kinky desires. From 19 to 21, he was a Nichiren Shoshu Buddhist. He also learned Transcendental Meditation and has been practicing ever since.
Diagnosed with HIV in ’88, Andrew lost many friends and lovers to AIDS and almost died in ‘95. Returning to life in ’96, he came out as a leatherman, marching with the Leather contingent in the ’97 NYC Pride March and joining the now-defunct Gay Male S/M Activists. He’s a former GMSMA President and Chairman, currently serving as an advisor to the Folsom Street East Board and a member of its Events Committee.
For 10 years, Andrew helped teach the GMSMA Novice Tops & bottoms course. He created a BDSM Spirituality Discussion Group and is the author of stories and essays on transcendent SM published in GMSMA’s “NewsLink.”
In 2003 Andrew was given the Barry Douglas Community Service Award for “selfless dedication and unwavering commitment to New York’s SM-Leather-Fetish community.”
A Chicago Hellfire Club Associate and Member of Delta International, he’s the 2011 recipient of CHC’s J. Paul Eaton Award for service behind the scenes at Inferno.
Andrew’s a graduate of The Body Electric School, including “Power-Surrender-Intimacy” and “Sacred Intimacy Training.” He’s also a member of the Easton Mountain Retreat Center community.

John Ollom received his MFA from Goddard College and BFA in Ballet from Texas Christian University where he trained under Fernando Bujones of American Ballet Theatre and the Royal Ballet. He has been teaching in New York City and around the country since 2000. His methodology has been taught at the Eastern Michigan University, Kalani Retreat Center in Hawaii, Atmananda Yoga Sequence, Baruch College, CUNY Hostos, CUNY in the Heights, Easton Mountain Retreat Center and every summer at the Ollom Movement Art Summer Program at Smith College.
In 2010-2011, John Ollom was chosen as the Artist in Residence at the Eastern Michigan University Dance Department. Since 2002, John has served as the Artistic Director of Ollom Movement Art/Prismatic Productions, Inc. where he has choreographed such works as The Catalyst, Love and Longing, The Journey, John Ollom’s The Journey, Anatomy of Woman, Dido and Aeneas, The Other Species, Love Stories, Internal Landscapes, Man of War, M.U.D. (Men Under Dirt), Kuan Yin’s Compassion, Nemetona, The Portal, and Prisoner of My Projection. His choreography and direction can also be seen in the film “Karpos and Kalamos”.
His work has been the subject of three documentary films: “Late Bloomers” by Annette Cyr, Professor of Art at the National University in San Diego; “The Making of M.U.D.: An Exploration of the Work of John Ollom and Ollom Movement Art” by Robert Kazmayer, MA; and, “There’s Something About John” by Emma McCagg.

Darrell Perry (aka Darrellblackandblue) has been active in the New York Leather scene since 1990. He was a member of GMSMA (now defunct) and has been co-founder or founding member of some of the New York area’s most influential leatherclubs.
Darrell produces and sources still and video imagery for both print and web in the news, celebrity, advertising and promotion areas. He also hosts leather-themed play parties and is building a network of interconnected web-based businesses to serve the leather and gay communities in the e-commerce space.

TELL 17: Chance
2015-10-23 19:00 - 22:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
TELL is an evening of story telling from the mouths and minds of queers in NYC hosted by Drae Campbell at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division since February 2014.
Chance is the theme of the seventeenth installment of TELL. Featuring Hana Malia, Camille Atkinson, Jay Lucero, and Cara Kildruff.

$10 suggested donation – no one turned away for lack of funds

Drae Campbell is a writer, actor, director, story teller, dancer, and nightlife emcee. Drae has been featured on Late Night with Conan O’Brien and on stages all over NYC. Drae’s directing work has appeared in Iceland, NYC, Budapest and in the San Francisco Fringe Festival. The short film Drae wrote and starred in with Rebecca Drysdale, YOU MOVE ME won the Audience Award for Outstanding Narrative Short at OUTFEST 2010 and has been shown in festivals globally. Drae won the grand prize at the first annual San Miguel De Allende Storytelling Festival in Mexico. She once reigned as Miss LEZ and also got dubbed “the next lezzie comedian on the block” by AfterEllen.com for her comedic stylings on the interwebs. Campbell hosts and curates a monthly queer storytelling show called TELL at BGSQD. Check her out online! www.draecampbell.com

New York vocalist Camille B. Atkinson has been performing and working as a singer, actor, voice over artist and dancer for over 20 years. She has fronted 5 NYC bands singing Blues, Soul, Funk, Pop, Motown, Country, Rhythm & Blues, Standards, Musical Theater, Art-Rock and Early Jazz. She has sung on countless EPs, demos, at weddings, in concerts, fundraisers and at private events. Her earliest exposure to music came from the Catholic church where she began singing in the choir in her hometown of New Orleans, as well as the lively Jazz musicians that played on the streets near Jackson Square. To get a feel for her voice, she has been called “the love child of Janis Joplin and Ella Fitzgerald”. She possesses a high school diploma in Theater Arts from Interlochen Arts Academy and a BFA in Acting from Ithaca College. She is a seasoned, well rounded theater artist who skills include stage management, directing, producing, songwriting, playwrighting, costume design, wigs, props and make up artistry. She is currently taking on various front and backstage roles in “Truffles! A murder mystery dinner theater experience”. She also performs in an acoustic duo called GUMBO with guitarist/vocalist Mike Cobb. For more information on her upcoming events please visit her website.
web site
music
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Cara Kildruff started her stand-up career in the classrooms and principal’s offices of the New Britain, CT public school system. Voted “Class Clown” in high school, she took a break to attend film school in the hopes of becoming a “serious” filmmaker. Two schools and a theatre degree later, Cara found herself working on Block Island by day and at the suggestion and offer of a free ticket from the owner of the Empire Theatre, got up on stage to amuse the tourists before the show. Since moving to NYC fifteen years ago, she spent four soul sucking years toiling for Corporate America and had a pre-mid-life crisis. She quit her job, took a three week comedy workshop, a one year program in comedy performance and writing and had been doing stand-up ever since. Cara was a member of the sketch comedy group “Hottie Grandma”, performed at the Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival, has appeared on here!TV’s “Hot Gay Comics Live”, performed at clubs and colleges all over, including the Friar’s Club, and is currently a co-host of “Talking About”, a monthly LGBTQ program on Queens Public Television. She recently debuted her first solo show, “How I Became an Unskilled Laborer” at the People’s Improv Theater as well as participated in the PIT’s first LGBTQ Comedy Festival in 2015.

Jay Lucero is a college student majoring in creative writing. A few of his interests are theatre, music and fashion. He’s been acting since his sophomore year in high school in different school productions. Jay Lucero is the recipient of the Martin Luther King Jr. award at Queensborough Community College. Jay explores gender through his writing and he hopes to one day publish a funny memoir where he documents his queer childhood.

Hana Malia is a proud public school teacher, prouder (mourning) born and bred NYC lifer, theater artist, and author. Her work has appeared on stages (think Dixon Place, La Mama, sticky bar floors, and Carnegie Hall), and pages (think smut, obscure poetry magazines, and the zines you keep treasured in your bathroom reading collection) that speak life into fat filthy femme survival, city silences and shouts, aging classroom blackboards, and campy musical rewrites. Traditionally a dinner table story teller and impressionist, Hana is thrilled to put the pieces together at TELL and see what comes out of her mouth.

Bi Book Club: Call It Wonder, by Kate Evans
2015-10-22 18:30 - 20:00 | NY
The Bi Book Club meets monthly to discuss bi-themed books and the issues they raise.
Day/Time: Oct 22 (4th Thursdays), 6:30-8pm. Dinner after nearby (so far, we always go to Village Den.) Nov & Dec dates conflict with the holidays so we are working on alternative dates.
Our book for Oct: Call It Wonder: an odyssey of love, sex. spirit, and travel a new memoir by Kate Evans. (We suggest you buy or order your copy from our host, BGSQD. Write to contact@bgsqd.com
Pick out some phrases, paragraphs or scenes that you’d like to discuss, or just join in on our read-a-long. Give us your critique of the book. What worked, what didn’t, how was bisexuality represented? If you haven’t had time to finish the readings, come anyway because we read passages from the book aloud for discussion. As usual, we’ll also be using the text as a jumping off point to further discussion of bisexual issues and personal experiences.
Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.
RSVP on Meetup.com

Queer Collage Party
2015-10-21 19:00 - 22:00 | NY
The first Queer Collage Party, organized by friend of the Bureau Paul VanDeCarr, took place at the Bureau in June, and it was such a hit that we’re doing it again! We provide the glue sticks and paper, you provide the pictures. Everyone who attends should bring at least one magazine or book or a bunch of pictures that you’ll contribute to the group. Each person can make their own collage(s), or team up with others! You can keep your own collage(s), but don’t expect to walk away with your magazine intact! The spirit here is fun and sharing. Attend for part or all of the evening. You are encouraged but not required to bring a little snack to share — chips, tangerines, grapes, hummus, whatever. We’ll have music playing (not live, though). Beer, wine, and sparkling water will be available for cash donations.
Facilitated by dear friend of the Bureau David Christie
Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Bureau Book Club Discusses Times Square Red, Times Square Blue, by Samuel R. Delany
2015-10-18 18:00 - 20:30 | NY
Times Square Red, Times Square Blue combines in 200 brief pages daring and sexy queer encounters in Times Square’s pornographic movie theaters and contemplation on the nature of social relationships in cities. A late-career masterpiece by noted queer Black science-fiction writer Samuel R. Delany, the book is a perfect dip into our fair city’s seedier and sexier past.
Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.
Please email the Bureau if you would like to reserve a copy of Times Square Red, Times Square Blue: contact@bgsqd.com

Bureau Book Club is facilitated by Ben Miller.
Ben Miller is a writer and researcher in Crown Heights, Brooklyn who has published short fiction and essays on queer histories and themes. He tweets @benwritesthings, learn more at www.benwritesthings.com

Trans Poets Bloom: A Launch Party For Vetch Poetry
2015-10-17 20:00 - 22:00 | NY
Vetch is a new journal of trans poetry and poetics–one of the first venues that will publish only poems by trans poets. Come out to the first issue launch party to celebrate with us! There will be readings by editors and contributors, as well as an atmosphere of giddy joy.
Reception will begin at 8 PM, readings at 8:30.
Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Readers:

Kay Gabriel finished her BA at Columbia University in 2013 and won a Euretta J. Kellett fellowship for postgraduate study at Cambridge, which she used to spend a year writing dykily about Sappho. She is currently a PhD candidate in the Princeton University classics department. Her poetry has appeared in Industrial Lunch.

Stephen Ira’s poetry and short fiction have appeared in The Collection: Short Fiction from the Transgender Vanguard, Spot Literary Magazine, the St. Sebastian Review, and Specter Magazine, among others. In 2013, he was selected as one of Lambda Literary’s summer fellows in poetry. In 2014, he was featured as a guest star in La Mama’s SQUIRTS: New Voices in Queer Performance. He graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 2014.

Liam O’Brien grew up on a small island outside Seattle. In 2012, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College, where he received the Stanley and Evelyn Lipkin Prize for Poetry and the Nancy Lynn Schwartz Prize for Fiction. His work can be found in print in Unsaid Magazine, and online at The Offending Adam, Blackbird VCU, Buffalo Almanack, and Industrial Lunch. He is currently pursuing his MFA at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop.

Grey Vild’s work has appeared in THEM, Elderly, and Hue. He has a chapbook forthcoming from EOAGH and is the happy recipient of the Queer Art Mentorship Fellowship 2014 with Stacy Szymaszek.

Rebecca Bedell is an English major in her junior year at Princeton University, hoping to complete a creative writing certificate in poetry. She fantasizes about further bastardizing the Whitman-Ginsberg poetic lineage to a stark and confessional trans poetics, and hasn’t been able to write about anything other than being trans for a while. Her work was published in a few teen collections which aren’t very relevant since they used her old name.

Truvada Revolution: Screening and Q&A
2015-10-15 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
Have you heard of Truvada and PrEP? Do you have questions about the controversial FDA-Approved drug that prevents HIV? Producer and Director Eric Leven will host a screening of his VICE Documentary: Stopping HIV: The Truvada Revolution with a Q & A afterward to answer any questions about the film, filmmaking process and any lingering questions about the medication of Truvada itself.

Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Eric Leven is a Producer and Director with nearly ten years of experience in the documentary and reality television industry, having produced and directed such show’s as Dual Survival, Strange Medicine, BBQ Pitmasters and Mobwives. Eric is also a social and political activist focusing on such issues as: LGBT Rights, Safer Sex awareness and HIV/AIDS. He is 34 years old and lives in the East Village.

20Something Monthly Manhattan Meetup
2015-10-14 20:00 - 22:00 | NY
If you are new to the city, recently out, just looking for friends, or whatever experiences brought you to us – we offer a safe space where we can mingle and talk about our experiences as an LGBT person in New York City. We hold our meetings on the second Wednesday of every month from 8-10 PM at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division. We recommend this 20Something Meetup to anyone who is looking for a more casual space to explore their sexual/gender identity. There will be light refreshments. Bring friends!

20Something is the largest social events organization for young lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in New York City, aged 21 to 30. We hold a monthly social, and two monthly icebreaker/discussion groups at the Brooklyn Pride Center and at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, the queer cultural center and bookstore on the second floor of The LGBT Community Center, in Manhattan. With more than 2,500 members, we engage young adults across all 5 boroughs with a safe, confidential, and respectful platform to meet other LGBT folk. Many of our members have made long lasting friendships, relationships, and have been connected to important LGBT services and resources. Whether you are new to the city, recently out, or just looking to make friends – 20Something offers a space for you to pave the way to your own adventures in New York City – and make living here a little easier. Become a member: meetup.com/20SomethingNYC

PISS ELEGANT
2015-10-10 18:00 - 21:00 | NY
STH Editions & BGSQD present: PISS ELEGANT
Saturday, October 10th, 6-9pm
LIVE @ 8pm – SLAVA MOGUTIN
FEATURING: Art & Special Editions by Straight To Hell contributors & comrades
STH (aka, The Manhattan Review of Unnatural Acts) – now in it’s fifth decade of service to the international pervert community – presents an evening of lurid viewing featuring original art & limited editions by: ASSUME VIVID ASTRO FOCUS • MATTHEW BURCAW • STASH BUTTINSKI • WALT CESSNA • DANNY FIELDS • AIKEN FORRET • JOE OVELMAN • SLAVA MOGUTIN • BOB NICKAS • CHRISTOPHER SCHULZ • JAN WANDRAG • WILLIAM WOOD • JIMMY WRIGHT • & others

More about STH HERE

Event cover image: Photograph by Luke Smalley, on the back cover of STH 68

Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Queercopia: Readings By LGBTQ Comic Creators
2015-10-09 18:30 - 21:30 | NY
In conjunction with New York Comic-Con, Queercopia returns to the Bureau with another line-up of creators whose works focus on LGBTQ content. The event will open with a meet and greet at 6:30, with the presentation starting at 7.
Greg Fox (Kyle’s Bed & Breakfast), Jeff Krell (Jayson), Morgan Boecher (What’s Normal Anyway?), Tara Avery (Gooch, Dirtheads), P. Kristen Enos (Web Of Lives), Carlo Quispe (Uranus), and others will be presenting.

This event serves as a fundraiser for Prism Comics and Bureau of General Services—Queer Division @ The Center. Please note that this event is not officially affiliated with NYCC.

Tickets for this event are $15: click here to purchase.

An evening with RJ Martin reading from his debut novel THE BODY
2015-10-07 19:00 - 22:00 | NY
What happens when the lines between spirit and flesh begin to blur?
In the Adirondack town of Lake Henry, NY, altar boy Jonah Gregory, fifteen, dreams of becoming a priest. Aside from being a spiritual comfort to his fellow man, Jonah pursues his vocation because he knows his special devotion to the Lord is mutual since he believes Christ is gay too. When his older sister, Angie, introduces him to Rusty Kincaid, the handsome, closeted son of a romance novelist and a dead ringer for the messiah, Jonah is thrust into a physical-spiritual love triangle. Jonah knows he must choose between them and the path each one represents, but he can’t look at one without seeing the other, and neither seems willing to give him up.
Jonah is guided on his quest by Rusty’s famous mother, Jace Kincaid, his ill-tempered pastor from Brooklyn, his frustrated parents, and the two men who have captured his heart: Rusty and the Lord.

RJ Martin grew up in the foothills of the Adirondack, attended Skidmore College and Columbia University, and other than a brief stint in Los Angeles, he has been a Brooklynite for most of his adult life. A true Gemini he is as proud of being part of the LGBT community as he is of being a Christian, as happy at a baseball game as a Broadway musical, and as appreciative of a good pinot noir as a frothy IPA. He would never want to be without his dog, faith, books, friends, writing, hamburgers, bike, and family. RJ also blogs for the Huffington Post.

SHAME MONSTER: Dan Fishback's Queer Jewish Anti-Zionist Trip to Israel/Palestine
2015-10-04 16:00 - 19:00 | NY
Earlier this summer, playwright Dan Fishback traveled to Israel/Palestine to do research for an upcoming theater project. He spent a month meeting with non-violent Palestinian activists, Israeli settlers and others, ending with a surreal visit to Tel Aviv during Pride Week. Throughout his travels, Fishback also “interviewed” many Israeli and Palestinian men on Grindr. In this multimedia talk, he will share stories from his trip, bear witness to the realities of apartheid, and offer thoughts on BDS, censorship and the various ways U.S. Americans engage with the ongoing occupation of Palestine.Fishback’s travels were made possible by a research grant from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.

Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau.
No one turned away for lack of funds.
Dan Fishback has been writing and performing in NYC since 2003. Time Out New York called his play The Material World “the best downtown musical in years,” and named it one of the Top Ten Plays of 2012. He is the director of the Helix Queer Performance Network, through which he curates and produces many series, workshops and public events, including La MaMa’s SQUIRTS. Fishback has released five albums, both solo and with his band Cheese On Bread, which has toured extensively in Europe and North America. Previous performances include “thirtynothing,” “You Will Experience Silence,” “Please Let Me Love You” and “Waiting for Barbara,” most of which have been presented at Dixon Place. He has received grants and residencies from the Doris Duke Charitable Trust, Franklin Furnace, the Six Points Fellowship for Emerging Jewish Artists, Kelly Writers House, the Hemispheric Institute of Performance & Politics, Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center and BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange, where he has been “in residence” in some form or another since 2010. His upcoming play, “Rubble Rubble,” is based on his trip 2015 to Israel/Palestine, which was funded by the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.

DIRT, SEX, PASSION!
2015-10-03 19:00 - 22:00 | NY
The Bureau is very pleased to welcome back the one and only Rumi Missabu for Dirt, Sex, Passion! A benefit for the Bureau.
Promises to be nothing short of a fun-filled multi-media romp and
bizarre conversation with actor, director, producer, mentor,
counterculture figure & original Cockette RUMI MISSABU who ruminates
on such subjects as how he went from Disney to soft core porn in a
span of just three short years, what happened when he touched Andy
Warhol, why he kicked Allen Ginsberg out of his house, how he
accidentally snubbed Jean Paul Gaultier in London, why Ethel Merman
called security on him at Macy’s, the pitfalls of having sex with your
stalker and what Rasputin’s daughter told him about her very first job
in America.
All this and much more with a cast of characters with everybody from
Sally Field to Tina Turner to Jackie Curtis to Liberace to Jane
Russell!

DIRT, SEX, PASSION! is a benefit for the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division. A donation of $10 is suggested.
No one turned away for lack of funds.

To Russia with Love
2015-10-02 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
The project “To Russia with Love” emerged from the realization that the real moral imperative is not to remain passive in the face of hatred and injustice. That’s how a group of Montreal artists and collaborators came together with photographer Damian Siqueiros to make a stand against the recent wave of institutionalized homophobia and the ruthless violence that exists in Russia towards our gender diverse brothers and sisters. “To Russia with Love” portrays iconic and historically relevant gay and lesbian Russians with their respective partners, starting from the 19th century to our time. The project features Pyotr Tchaikovsky (composer) and his long time companion Aleksey Sofronov; Anna Yevreinova and Maria Feodorova (renowned lawyer and writer respectively from the 19 century); Sergei Diaghilev (founder of the Ballets Russes in Paris) and Vaslav Nijinsky; a contemporary fictional lesbian couple made of a police woman and an Olympic athlete; and lastly a male couple impersonating Stalin and Putin.
Writer Ivan Savvine will speak about the photographs and soprano Tatiana Poletskaya will sing from Tchaikovsky’s repertoire.
Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Damian Siqueiros’s photographs will remain on display at the Bureau on Saturday, October 3, and Sunday October 4.

Damian Siqueiros is a Mexican / Quebecer photographer and multidisciplinary artist. The construction of our gender identity has a central role in his artistic research. Through the images he underlines the importance of equality between the sexes and respect for diversity. The creation of the photographs draws inspiration from the great masters of painting to add an historical perspective to these contemporary topics. Dance and movement are key elements to explore gender as performative experience.
His work has been exhibited in museums and galleries throughout North America and Europe, such as the Art Museum of the Americas, the MOLA and the Gabarron foundation. Damian has received numerous prizes and grants, notably the Prix Coup de Coeur Scotia Bank in 2010. The photographer is most proud of his collaborations with great artists such as Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Margie Gillis, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens and Cas Public.

Queer Zine Fair
2015-10-01 17:00 - 21:30 | NY
In conjunction with the Bureau’s current exhibition, KNOWSGAY No5: Heroes and Role Models, KNOWSGAY brings together various queer zine makers and fans to meet, share and discuss their art and process. Each exhibitor will have their publications for sale as well as speak about their work and participate in a brief Q&A.
Participating artists and zines:
Elvis B.
SELFISH
3-Pack Jack Steven Reigns Darin Klein Christopher Kardambikis
Sherley Olopherne
Anthony Malone
Arno Mokros
Kyle Quinn
Stephen Grebinski
Dave Ortega
Headmaster
Pink Mince
J. Morrison
Le Gros Monsieur
Creeps Annual
FAQNP

Under the Mink. A Novel of Drag Kings and Queens (and the Mob)
2015-09-26 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
Under the Mink is a historical novel, based on little-known facts about the Mafia’s involvement in a gay entertainment subculture that flourished in mob-owned nightclubs in Greenwich Village in the 1940s-50s. The author was fortunate enough to know some of the performers. A short film opens the program, followed by tall tales, a show of vintage images, and a reading from the novel.
Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Lisa E. Davis has lived in Greenwich Village for 40 years and loves to write about it. With a PhD in Comparative Literature, she worked for years in SUNY and CUNY, and at the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, Hunter College. Lately, her writing has appeared in anthologies and periodicals dedicated to LGBTQ culture. Her historical novel Under the Mink, about drag kings and queens of yesteryear, grew out of her long-time friendship with some of them. The new edition (2015) has a photo insert with vintage images. A second book in progress, The FBI’s Lesbian, is the true story of a notorious Village lesbian who worked undercover for the FBI in the American Communist Party. Lisa has a daily Iyengar yoga practice.

TELL 16: Crisis/Opportunity
2015-09-25 19:30 - 22:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
TELL is an evening of story telling from the mouths and minds of queers in NYC hosted by Drae Campbell at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division since February 2014.
Crisis/Opportunity is the theme of the sixteenth installment of TELL. Featuring The World Famous *BOB*, Liz Glazer, Molly McCloy, and Ronnie Mae Painter.

$5-10 suggested donation – no one turned away for lack of funds

Drae Campbell is a writer, actor, director, story teller, dancer, and nightlife emcee. Drae has been featured on Late Night with Conan O’Brien and on stages all over NYC. Drae’s directing work has appeared in Iceland, NYC, Budapest and in the San Francisco Fringe Festival. The short film Drae wrote and starred in with Rebecca Drysdale, YOU MOVE ME won the Audience Award for Outstanding Narrative Short at OUTFEST 2010 and has been shown in festivals globally. Drae won the grand prize at the first annual San Miguel De Allende Storytelling Festival in Mexico. She once reigned as Miss LEZ and also got dubbed “the next lezzie comedian on the block” by AfterEllen.com for her comedic stylings on the interwebs. Campbell hosts and curates a monthly queer storytelling show called TELL at BGSQD. Check her out online! www.draecampbell.com

Photograph by Marie Baronnet
The World Famous *BOB*, known for her over the top blonde bombshell image and incredible ability to mix martinis in her cleavage, has captivated audiences all over the world with her unique burlesque stylings, humorous performance art, and MC skills.
She has been photographed by hundreds of photographers including Patrick McMullan, Mario Testino, and David LaChapelle. *BOB* appears in several books including Hotel LaChapelle, New Burlesque, Striptease: From Gaslight to Spotlight, Burlesque: The New Bump and Grind, The Brooklynites, The Velvet Hammer Burlesque., Domestic Burlesque as well as The Burlesque Handbook. A collection of photos by Amy Touchette was recently published by UnGyve Press entitled Shoot the Arrow- A Portrait of The World Famous *BOB*. Believing that television is “the theatre for the poor” *BOB* is a huge fan of the boob tube and has appeared on A&E’s The History of Cleavage as well as HBO’s Real Sex. She has graced the pages of over 50 national & international publications including The New York Times. The big screen suits *BOB* as well, with screen credits including John Cameron Mitchell’s film Shortbus and Beth B.’s EXPOSED.
World Famous *BOB* is a regularly scheduled guest speaker at NYU and has performed and appeared at over 20 US Universities including Harvard, Yale, and Bard.
She has performed all over the world and recently co-created and starred in Young Jean Lee’s; Untitled Feminsit Show. From NYC’s Dance Theatre Workshop, to Taylor Mac’s The Lily’s Revenge, to Stockholm’s Sodra Teatern, World Famous *BOB* has brought crowds together by pointing out what we all have in common- the need for love and creating that with her art in the moment. *BOB* continues her life in the spotlight and is also an Ultimate Self Confidence! Coach for people worldwide. She is currently co-hosting CAMPFIRE! Queer Storytime at Dixon Place Lounge.
For more info and to see if she is coming to your town visit www.theworldfamousbob.com

Liz Glazer used to be a tenured law professor but recently gave that up to do standup, tell stories, act, sing, dance, and write about her own life. She hosts a free weekly show called Say Everything on Thursdays from 7-9 at Paddy Reilly’s Music Bar, 519 2nd Avenue at 29th Street, and co-stars as Sizzle in the web series “Sizzle and Izzle.”

Molly McCloy is a a three-time NYC Moth Slam winner with work published in Slate, Nerve, and Swink. She holds an M.F.A. in Nonfiction from The New School. On October 3, Molly will perform her one-woman show, Mad Dog Grudges, at Dixon Place. It is the dark-comic story of a screwed-up family trying to end its legacy of intergenerational violence and substance abuse. Find out more about Molly’s performance and written memoir at mollymccloy.com and https://dixonplace.org/performances/mad-dog-grudges/

A native New Yorker born and raised in Astoria, Queens, Ronnie Mae Painter is a Brooklyn-based artist who’s primary media are painting on canvas and works on paper. She is also a published author and poet. Her literary works can be found in the anthology “Are Italians White”, edited by Jennifer Guglielmo and Salvatore Salerno. Painter’s experiences growing up as a woman of African-American and Italian-American biracial descent during the 1970s are transcended through both her visual and literary works in energetic movements and a shouting tone.
