LIFELINES: Art, Intimacy, and HIV—an Intergenerational Conversation
2021-06-18 18:00 - 19:30 (America/New_York) | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Please join artist Eric Rhein, in conversation with Jonathan Coleman and Paul Michael Brown as they celebrate and reflect upon the themes that run through Eric’s first monograph-memoir, ERIC RHEIN: LIFELINES —which includes a key essay by Paul Michael Brown.
ERIC RHEIN: LIFELINES is the first monograph devoted to the artist. It features intimate photographs taken between 1989 and 2012. These compelling images highlight tenderness and care as lifesaving instincts. Included in the book are related bodies of work: delicate assemblages and wire drawings that often serve as memorials for fallen friends.
Eric, Jon, and Paul will discuss the overlapping contexts in which they came of-age—and how they emerged, matured, and created within an era of crisis.
Eric will show artworks and intimate photographs from LIFELINES; Paul will read from his essay, showing the richness of thought, heart, and history which make the book both an artistic expression and an historic document. Jon will join the conversation
The discussion will be opened to questions from the audience.
“These images affirm the desiring self at a moment when the desire had become dangerous…”
—Mark Doty
Registration on Eventbrite is required in order to receive the Zoom link on the day of the event.
Closed-captioning will be available.
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $5.
All are welcome to join, with or without a donation.
You can make a donation when you register.

Click here to register

Purchase ERIC RHEIN: LIFELINES on or before Friday, June 18th, 2021, and receive 25% off: $30 (regularly $40)

Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

About the participants:
Eric Rhein has gained international recognition as an artist whose work embodies themes of love, sexuality, and identity as explored through his ever-evolving experience with HIV. In 1996 Rhein began his ongoing project Leaves, a memorial honoring the lives of over 300 individuals he knew who died of complications from AIDS. Rhein’s work has been exhibited widely in the United States and abroad. Reviews have appeared in the New York Times, Huffington Post, ARTnews, Vanity Fair, and Art in America. He is included in the Smithsonian Archives of American Art’s Visual Arts and the AIDS Epidemic: An Oral History Project. Rhein currently lives in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City.

Jonathan Coleman, Ph.D. is the Co-founder and President of Faulkner Morgan Archive, Inc., a nonprofit that saves and shares the LGBTQ history of Kentucky. He was the James Still Fellow at the University of Kentucky, earning his doctorate in history in 2014. He often lectures on queer history and was a consultant for the Kentucky LGBT Heritage Initiative funded by the National Park Service. Coleman’s first book, Anywhere, Together: A Queer History of Kentucky, is forthcoming from the University Press of Kentucky.

Paul Michael Brown is a writer and curator based in Lexington, Kentucky. He is the former direc-tor of Institute 193 and was the recipient of the 2020 Arts Writer’s Grant. His research and writ-ing has included a focus on queer and self-taught practitioners from the American South. Brown curated the 2019 exhibition ERIC RHEIN: LIFELEINES at Institute 193 and 21c Lexington, which served as the inspiration for this book.

TELL 74: Juneteenth
2021-06-19 18:00 - 19:30 | NY
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.
Juneteenth is the theme of the 74th TELL, on Saturday, June 19, 2021, 6 to 7:30 PM (EDT), with special guest host lea robinson. Featuring storytellers: Letta Neely, Maxine Eloi, and Amanda Shea.
Suggested donation $10 to benefit the storytellers and the Bureau.
All are welcome to join, with or without a donation.
You can make a donation when you register on Eventbrite.
Registration on Eventbrite is required in order to receive the Zoom meeting link on the day of the event.
Click here to register

lea robinson is a queer/transgender/butch/gender non-confirming POC identified actor and writer. lea recently moved to Oakland from NYC, where they were active in both the theater world and film & tv. Lea is currently SAG-AFTRA and AEA and has representation in both L.A. (manager: MadCatch Entertainment) and in San Francisco (MDT). A lover of cats, scary movies and video games.

Letta Neely is an Earthling; she is also a Black Dyke, an Artist, an Activist, a Feminist, and a Mother. In addition to Juba and Here, Letta is the author of the chapbooks When We Were Mud and gawd and alluh huh sistuhs. Her plays: “Hamartia Blues”, “Last Rites”, and “Shackles & Sugar” have been produced in Boston, Philly, and Los Angeles. She is a co-artistic director for Fort Point Theatre Channel and the editor of Ife Franklin’s book, “The Slave Narratives of Willie Mae”. She is also an actor and director, most recently performing with the A.R.T. in the Boston Theatre Marathon Zoom Edition and directing Renita Martin’s “Unmasked” for the Revolution of Values Black Theatre Project. She believes in the interconnectedness of both the struggle and the liberation. Her newest projects: 1) Traces/ Remain:Seed to Harvest with Deen Rawlins can be seen on the Arts Emerson Toshi Reagon’s Parable Path website. 2) Scriptwriter for Ife Franklin’s film “The Slave Narratives of Willie Mae will be presented on Juneteenth at Black Market. and 3) Her newest book Geographies of Power will be available in late 2021.

Maxine Eloi is an actor, writer, director, musician, teaching artist and filmmaker. Classically trained at Boston University and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA), Maxine has continued to pursue her creative passions through film, theater, and music since graduating with a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree. Maxine has a passion for social justice and sparking positive change in the world. In addition to starring in over 15 films (The Broken Swords, Blue Crossing, Roll Pin Punch) she has also created two independent films Sunday Funday and Aghast, that speak on themes from the environment to abuse of power. Sunday Funday was featured in over 10 festivals internationally, including the Berlin Black International Film Festival. Maxine is a company member of Theater Delta, Curious Theatre Collective, and is a teaching artist at North Carolina Theater Conservatory. When Maxine is not working on film or theater she enjoys her other creative passion in music by performing with multiple bands. Maxine is a vocalist, guitarist and songwriter for her indie rock band, Maxine Eloi, as well as punk collaboration Perchance to Dream. She also performs as a vocalist in The Wiley Fosters. Maxine is grateful to pursue her career as an artist and collaborate with others to create engaging and thought-provoking work in film, theatre, music, and TV.

Amanda Shea is an International multidisciplinary artist residing in Boston, Massachusetts. Shea has performed spoken word poetry at numerous venues throughout Boston and globally (including the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre (NYC), the Peace Institute (D.C.), National Press Club (D.C.), and the Institute of Contemporary Art). She achieved status as an International Artist when she performed virtually in Africa for ArtGlo based in Malawi; as well as the Jos Literary and Arts Festival in Nigeria. Amanda has been published in several articles such as The Boston Globe, WBUR, Boston Magazine, Boston Hassle and appeared on local news station NBC Boston. Shea sat down with Pebbles on HOT96.9 Boston for the “Voices” segment. Most recently, Shea was internationally published in Times Group, a news outlet based in Malawi.
She served as an official host for the 2018 and 2019 Boston Art & Music Soul Festival as well as the 2019 Arts Equity Summit. Shea is a radio host on LFOD Radio, which has been nominated for two Boston Music Awards.
Amanda is a full time educator who facilitates youth workshops for spoken word poetry, visual arts, and public speaking throughout a plethora of schools and non profit organizations in Boston.
Amanda will be embarking on her third tour, to Africa, in 2021 with two other Boston poets. The “Awake” tour seeks to explore the role of art as both a revolutionary and spiritual tool for social justice and human spiritual awakening.

Celebrating Comics! With Random House Graphic
2021-06-21 19:00 - 20:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Let’s celebrate PRIDE together with an evening conversation with Random House Graphic creators Jessi Zabarsky, Jose Pimienta, and Reimena Yee, moderated by Whitney Leopard, Senior Editor at Random House Graphic. The group will discuss creating and publishing graphic novels for kids and their lives as comic creators. After the conversation, they will take questions from the audience! We encourage the audience to ask about craft and process as well as what’s it like to work in the publishing industry.

Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $5.
All are welcome to join, with or without a donation.
You can make a donation when you register.
Registration on Eventbrite is required in order to receive the Zoom link on the day of the event.
Click here to register
Closed-captioning will be available.
Purchase Jose Pimienta’s Suncatcher, Jessi Zabarsky’s Witchlight, and/or Reimena Yee’s Séance Tea Party on or before June 21, 2021, and receive25% off!

Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

Jessi Zabarsky lives in Chicago with her cat and forty three plants. She was raised in the woods and will one day return there. Her first graphic novel, Witchlight, was published by Random House Graphic in 2020, and her upcoming story Coming Back will be published 2021.. You can find her online at @jessizabarsky.

Jose Pimienta was raised in Mexicali, Baja California and now resides in Los Angeles, CA where they work on comics and storyboards for animation and film. Suncatcher was their debut author/illustrator graphic novel. Twin Cities is their first middle-grade graphic novel. In their stories, they focus on the importance of Latinx culture and the experience of growing up on the border.

Reimena Yee is an illustrator, writer, and designer hailing from the dusty metropolis of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She once was a STEM student, but left to pursue her passion for the world and all of the histories and cultures within it, which she weaves into her art and stories. She is the co-founder of UNNAMED, a comics collective that builds community and resources for visual-literary creators in Southeast Asia.
She is the author-illustrator of the gothic comics The World in Deeper Inspection and the Eisner and McDuffie-nominated The Carpet Merchant of Konstantiniyya. Séance Tea Party was her debut middle-grade graphic novel, to be followed by her upcoming graphic novel My Aunt Is A Monster in 2022.

Project Speak Out Loud! Story Reading & Discussion
2021-06-22 17:30 - 18:30 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Please join the Project Speak Out Loud Peer Educators (PSOL PEs) for the public debut of a story they’ve written themselves and a guided discussion, hosted by the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division!
A young adult short story with LGBTQIA+ characters and themes, “Lost Souls” is sure to be a tale you won’t forget! Free PDF download of book will be available to those who attend.
Anyone and everyone is welcome to join and celebrate the hard work of these teens/young adults.
Project Speak Out Loud! (PSOL) is a peer education program supported by queer youth of color ages 14-24 and their allies. Peer educators provide free sexuality education workshops that are sex-positive, comprehensive, and inclusive to community members throughout NYC. PSOL’s goal is to build LGBTQ+ cultural competency through a reproductive justice lens and provide safer spaces in NYC for black and brown LGBTQ+ youth to express themselves and be heard!
For more information or to request a workshop with PSOL Peer Educators, please contact Gillian Singer (PSOL Community Educator & Activities Specialist) at gsinger@grandsettlement.org.

Registration on Eventbrite is required in order to receive the Zoom link on the day of the event.
Closed-captioning will be available.
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $5.
All are welcome to join, with or without a donation.
You can make a donation when you register on Eventbrite.
Click here to register

Touch :: Feeling :: Reading
2021-06-23 19:00 - 20:30 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
As the global pandemic persists, we become further estranged from touch. Not only is this estrangement a product of our circumstances, the distance between bodies is integral to the extension of our lives. As we envision a future beyond the pandemic, we are also redefining our relationship to touch, the intimate interaction between bodies, our sociality, our sense of the erotic, and our individual and collective vulnerabilities against the violent mechanisms of late capitalism. If we accept that touch has always possessed radical potential prior to the pandemic, how can we imagine other possibilities of touch in our pandemic present and future?
Inspired by Audre Lorde’s “Uses of the Erotic,” this reading and celebration of Muriel Leung’s IMAGINE US, THE SWARM draws from Lorde’s idea of the “erotic charge.” This political reimagining of touch hopes to transform the way we move and heal during a time of grief and uncertainty.
Purchase Muriel Leung’s Imagine Us, the Swarm from the Bureau on or before June 23, 2021, and receive 25% off!

Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
Suggested donation $5 to benefit the Bureau.
All are welcome to join, with or without a donation.
Registration on Eventbrite is required in order to receive the Zoom link on the day of the event. You can make a donation when you register.
Click here to register
This event is funded in part by Poets & Writers through public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.

Readers biographies:
MURIEL LEUNG is the author of Imagine Us, The Swarm, forthcoming from Nightboat Books and Bone Confetti, winner of the 2015 Noemi Press Book Award. She is the Poetry Co-Editor of Apogee Journal. She also co-hosts The Blood-Jet Writing Hour podcast with Rachelle Cruz and MT Vallarta. She is a member of Miresa Collective, a feminist speakers bureau. An Andrew W. Mellon Humanities in a Digital World Fellow, she is completing her PhD in Creative Writing and Literature at the University of Southern California. She is from Queens, NY.

JOEY DE JESUS is the author of HOAX (The Operating System, 2021), We Animate the Dream: A Poet’s Run for Public Office (Mount Analog Political Pamphlet Series II, 2021), NOCT- The Threshold of Madness (The Atlas Review, 2019), and co-author, alongside Sade LaNay, of Writing Voice into the Archive vol. 1, edited by Jennifer Tamayo with support from UC Berkeley’s Center for Race and Gender. Joey received a MFA in Poetry from Sarah Lawrence College and a Departmental Fellowship to complete their MA in Performance Studies from New York University. They received the 2019-20 BRIC ArtFP Project Room Commission and 2017 NYFA/NYSCA Fellowship in Poetry for HOAX. Poems have appeared in Poem-A-Day, Artists Space, Barrow Street, Bettering American Poetry, The Brooklyn Rail, Brooklyn Magazine, The New Museum and elsewhere. Joey is a co-editor at Apogee Journal and sits on the advisory board of No, Dear Magazine. Joey lives in Ridgewood where they ran for New York State Assembly.

SARETTA MORGAN is a writer and artist based between Phoenix and Mohave Valley, Arizona. She is author of the chapbooks Feeling Upon Arrival (2018) and room for a counter interior (2017). Her current creative work engages Black migration and ecology in the United States Southwest. As a community organizer she works at intersections of migrant justice, environmental justice, and Black liberation.

CHRISTINA OLIVARES is the author of the books of poetry No Map of the Earth Includes Stars, winner of the 2014 Marsh Hawk Press Book Prize, and Ungovernable, forthcoming from YesYes Books.
Olivares is a queer American-Cuban from the Bronx. She believes in the abolition of poverty and of the carceral state and in the radical project of imagining our liberation. She works as an educator.

CATALINA OUYANG engages object-making, interdisciplinary environments, time-based projects, and relational works to examine themes of desire, subjugation, and dissidence. Ouyang’s practice is an act of searching: through myth, through literature, and through histories both oral and visual, to indicate counternarratives around representation and self-definition. Ouyang’s intuitive use of organic, inorganic, and conceptual material is simultaneously poetic, apocalyptic, primordial, and abject.
Ouyang will have a solo exhibition at No Place Gallery (Columbus, Ohio) in July 2021, followed by their second solo exhibition with Lyles & King in September. Additional solo exhibitions include Real Art Ways, Hartford, US; Knockdown Center, Queens, US; Make Room, Los Angeles, US; and Rubber Factory, New York, US. Ouyang’s work has been included in group exhibitions at SculptureCenter, Queens, US (curated by Katherine Simóne Reynolds); Nicodim, Los Angeles, US; François Ghebaly, Los Angeles, US (curated by Kelly Akashi); BRIC, Brooklyn, US; Helena Anrather, New York, US, and many more. Ouyang is currently a 2020-21 Studio Artist in Residence at Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, US. Ouyang received an MFA from Yale University in 2019. They are represented by Lyles & King, New York, and Make Room, Los Angeles.

ICA SADAGAT is a poet and essayist immersed in textual impact, pleasure/play, and question marks. She’s published in Apogee Journal, Nightboat Books, and TAYO Literary Magazine.
Currently, Ica is a Truman Capote Fellow and MFA candidate at CalArts where they co-created the HYPERLINK reading series in the Creative Writing Program. Ica received her BA at The New School studying Literature, Psychology, Race & Ethnicity, and Gender Studies. A former youth counselor, they’ve performed and/or instructed at The Philippine Center, The New School, Studio Museum 127, Princeton University, Brooklyn Museum, and more. Before and beyond that, Ica surfs.

Aaron S. Lecklider Presents Love's Next Meeting with Emily Hobson
2021-06-24 18:00 - 19:30 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Join Aaron S. Lecklider as he reads from his new book, Love’s Next Meeting: The Forgotten History of Homosexuality and the Left in American Culture. Lecklider will be in conversation with Emily Hobson, author of Lavender and Red: Liberation and Solidarity in the Gay and Lesbian Left.
Combining rich archival research with inventive analysis of art and literature, Love’s Next Meeting explores the relationship between homosexuality and the Left in American culture between 1920 and 1960. Aaron Lecklider uncovers a lively cast of individuals and dynamic expressive works, revealing remarkably progressive engagement with homosexuality among radicals, workers, and the poor. Leftists connected sexual dissidence with radical gender politics, antiracism, and challenges to censorship and obscenity laws through the 1920s and 1930s. In the process, a wide array of activists, organizers, artists, and writers laid the foundation for a radical movement through which homosexual lives and experiences were given shape and new political identities were forged. Love’s Next Meeting cuts to the heart of some of the biggest questions in American history: questions about socialism, about sexuality, about the supposed clash still making headlines today between leftist politics and identity politics. What emerges is a dramatic, sexually vibrant story of the shared struggles for liberation across the twentieth century.
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $5.
All are welcome to join, with or without a donation.
You can make a donation when you register.
Registration on Eventbrite is required in order to receive the Zoom link on the day of the event.
Click here to register
Closed-captioning will be available.
Purchase Love’s Next Meeting: The Forgotten History of Homosexuality and the Left in American Culture from the Bureau on or before June 24, 2021 and receive 25% off!
Please note: Love’s Next Meeting will be released on June 15th. Shipments will go out as soon as copies are available.
Emily Hobson’s Lavender and Red: Liberation and Solidarity in the Gay and Lesbian Left is also available from the Bureau’s online store.

Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

Drownings, Accidents, & Murder: Writing Fiction About Loss
2021-06-25 18:00 - 19:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
On Friday, June 25th at 6 to 7 PM EDT, please join the Bureau for an online reading and conversation with Randi Triant (A New Life) and Sarah Anne Johnson (The Last Sailor) on writing fiction that’s centered around family grief. While these novels are different genres (psychological suspense vs general/historical fiction) they both deal with the themes of grief and loss after a sibling’s drowning.

Registration on Eventbrite is required in order to receive the Zoom link on the day of the event.
Closed-captioning will be available.
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $5.
All are welcome to join, with or without a donation.
You can make a donation when you register on Eventbrite.
Click here to register

Purchase Randi Triant’s A New Life and/or Sarah Anne Johnson’s The Last Sailor on or before Friday, June 25th, and receive 25% off!

Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

Randi Triant will read from her new psychological suspense novel, A New Life. Her debut novel, The Treehouse, was selected by the lesbian and bisexual culture site, AfterEllen.com as an “ultimate summer read. The Treehouse reads like a fabulous lesbian soap opera, chock-full of wit and overflowing with heart.”
In addition to The Treehouse, Randi Triant’s short fiction and nonfiction have appeared in literary journals and magazines, including two anthologies of writing about HIV/AIDS, Art & Understanding: Literature from the First Twenty Years of A & U and Fingernails Across the Blackboard: Poetry and Prose on HIV/AIDS from the Black Diaspora. She has taught writing at Boston College and Emerson College. randitriant.com

Sarah Anne Johnson will read from her latest novel, The Last Sailor. Jon Clinch, author of Marley and Finn, says of The Last Sailor, “There is real life in Sarah Anne Johnson’s new book, and genuine family drama too, all grounded in an authoritative evocation of old Cape Cod’s waterways, marshes, and waterfront towns. The Last Sailor is memorable, clearly seen, and deeply felt.”
Sarah Anne Johnson’s previous books are The Lightkeeper’s Wife, The Very Telling, The Art of the Author Interview, and Conversations with American Women Writers. Her interviews appear in The Writer’s Chronicle, Glimmertrain Stories, Provincetown Arts, and The Writer. She has taught writing at Lesley College and Bennington College. sarahannejohnson.com

PRIDE WAS A PROTEST! The Impossible but True Story of Gay Pride
2021-06-26 16:00 - 17:30 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
PRIDE WAS A PROTEST!
The Impossible but True Story of Gay Pride … LA, NYC and Beyond
Facilitated by August Bernadicou
Featuring:
Ellen Broidy: Proposed the idea of the first NYC Pride march; participated in the Lavender Menace Zap
Reverend Troy Perry: Founded the Metropolitan Community Church, the largest LGBTQ Church with over 400,000 members around the world
Martha Shelley: Co-founded the pioneering, gay activist group, the Gay Liberation Front (NYC); participated in the Lavender Menace Zap
Perry Brass: The Gay Liberation Front (NYC); co-founded Callen Lorde, a health network dedicated to providing care to New York’s LGBTQ population; author
Dr. Don Kilhefner: The Gay Liberation Front (LA); co-founded the LA LGBT Center, the largest LGBTQ Center in the world; co-founded the Radical Faeries, an international network dedicated to exploring gay consciousness; Jungian-depth psychologist
Learn history from the original outlaws as they tell their story of fear and running during the first march that became Gay Pride.
Suggested donation to benefit The LGBTQ History Project and the Bureau: $5.
All are welcome to join, with or without a donation.
You can make a donation when you register on Eventbrite.
Registration on Eventbrite is required in order to receive the Zoom link on the morning of the day of the event.

Click here to register

QUEER LIBERATION MARCH 2021
2021-06-27 | NY
From Reclaim Pride Coalition website (posted March 1, 2021)
“The Reclaim Pride Coalition (RPC) will take to the streets on Sunday, June 27th, 2021 to stage the third annual Queer Liberation March. As in 2019 and 2020, this is a People’s March with no regimented contingents, no corporate sponsors, and no NYPD control over decision making or uniformed police marching. The Queer Liberation March revives the goals and spirit of the original Christopher Street Liberation Day March in 1970, born out of the 1969 Stonewall Uprising: social justice, freedom, and access for all!
“Over the last year, the larger Queer and Trans communities have endured extraordinary challenges and difficulties brought on by the pandemic and its economic fallout, continued violent attacks committed by the NYPD on peaceful protesters, murders of Black Trans Women, and the public expressions of anti-Trans bigotry and racism by alleged members of our communities, among many other issues of importance to our intersectional coalition.
“‘We must march and have our voices heard,’ said James Papadopoulos, a march organizer, ‘The struggle for Queer Liberation cannot wait for the passing of the pandemic, as COVID-19 has made surviving even more difficult for far too many of our most marginalized community members.’ As with the 2020 Queer Liberation March For Black Lives and Against Police Brutality, organizers will encourage marchers to wear masks and employ risk reduction strategies. Masks and sanitizer will also be provided at the gathering site and along the March route to keep this a safe event. Spare wheelchairs will also be carried along the March route to be utilized as needed. As with both prior marches, organizers pledge to make the March as accessible as possible: including ASL interpretation for all aspects, attention being paid to accessible subway stations near the gathering spot and end points, and street medics and marshals being positioned throughout the March.
“In recognition of the extraordinary diversity of lived experience among our many Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual, Two-Spirit, Non-Binary, Gender Non-conforming (LGBTQIA2SNBGNC+) and other communities, RPC organizers have created an online form for folks around the city, the country, and the world to share their struggles, challenges, and needs to inform the planning and messaging for the March.
“‘This is the People’s March,’ said organizer Francesca R. Barjon. ‘We want any and every member of our Queer and Trans family to guide the direction of this March, thereby creating an event that can make a true impact on our lives and our capacity to thrive!'”

The Bureau is partnering with Reclaim Pride Coalition on a series of five online panels addressing houselessness; transgenerational activism; radical Black love/confronting anti-Blackness; prison/police abolition; and sex work/sex workers’ rights.
The first of these panels, No Place to Call Home: Queer & Trans Houselessness, 2021, will take place on Thursday, April 15, 6 to 7:30 PM EDT online. To register for this FREE event please visit the Eventbrite page.
The Bureau’s online store now features a section devoted to books recommended by Reclaim Pride Coalition!

Reclaim Pride Coalition (RPC) is a New York City-based group of LGBTQIA2S+ activists in alliance with dozens of grassroots community groups, nationally and internationally. RPC’s primary work is organizing the Queer Liberation March. In June 2019, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, RPC mobilized more than 45,000 people to recreate the original 1970 Christopher Street Liberation Day March route uptown from Stonewall to Central Park. In 2020, under the darkness of the global pandemic, RPC held the Queer Liberation March for Black Lives and Against Police Brutality. The QLM is the annual people’s protest march without corporate funding; corporate floats; politicians’ grandstanding; or police control or involvement.
For Reclaim Pride Coalition’s complete statements of purpose:
RPC March – Why We March
RPC 2020 March – Demands & Safety Info
Website: www.reclaimpridenyc.org
Facebook: @QueerMarch
Twitter: @QueerMarch
Instagram: @QueerMarch

WMN - Lesbian Art and Poetry: Virtual Launch for issue 3 "Taking Space"
2021-07-24 12:00 - 13:30 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Please join WMN – a lesbian publication of art and poetry for the virtual launch of their third issue Taking Space. This issue features work by dykes who identify as disabled and/or are living with a physical, sensory, cognitive, or chronic illness.
WMN believes in representing sectors of the lesbian community that are not always given the visibility they deserve. WMN wants to support disabled artists and writers as the discourse around disabilities, and representation is lacking particularly within the art world and the lesbian community. Taking space is guest-edited by Zee Monteiro, who is based in London, UK, who is a community organizer, blogger, poet & activist who identifies as neurodivergent.
Suggested donation $5 to benefit the Bureau and the readers. All are welcome to join, with or without a donation. You can make a donation when you register.
Registration on Eventbrite required:

Click here to register

Accessibility notes:
– There will be live automated captions for the reading
– The launch and presentations will be in English
– The event will be recorded and available on the Bureau’s YouTube page as well as on the WMN website with a written transcription.
Poetry readings and artist presentations by Taking Space contributors: Aurora Berger, Marlena Chertock, Carson Wolfe, Marisol Brady, Nitika Raj, and Jenna Rowell.
This event is made possible in part by the Queens Council on the Arts with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Walk Between Worlds Release: Samara Breger with Leah Schnelbach
2021-09-08 18:00 - 19:00 | NY
Celebrate the release of Walk Between Worlds, Samara Breger‘s debut novel, called “the scrappy-sapphic-knight saga we all deserve,” by Tuck Woodstock, host of Gender Reveal. Samara will be joined in conversation by Leah Schnelbach, Senior Staff Writer at Tor.com.

Registration on Eventbrite is required in order to receive the Zoom link on the day of the event.
Click here to register
Suggested donation of $5 to support the Bureau’s work.
All are welcome to join, with or without a donation.

Purchase Samara Breger’s Walk Between Worlds from the Bureau’s online store to have the book shipped to you or to pick up at our physical store.

Leah Schnelbach is the senior staff writer at the pop culture website Tor.com, and a fiction editor for the literary journal NoTokens. Their work has appeared in The Rumpus, Joyland, Electric Literature, Volume 1 Brooklyn, and other estimable places. Turn-ons: espresso, Oreos, well-deployed bi lighting; turn-offs: clickbait, lima beans, the death of the author. You can find them on Twitter @cloudy_vision

Samara Breger is a writer and performer from New York. In her previous life, she was an Emmy-nominated journalist, covering sexual and reproductive health. Now, she writes books about magic and feelings. She has a crush on every character.

Paul Moreno / Problem Areas Reception
2021-09-10 16:00 - 19:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
The Bureau of General Services—Queer Division is proud to present Paul Moreno / Problem Areas. This will be Paul’s first solo exhibition and includes a selection of paintings and drawings from 2016 through 2021.
Please join us for the opening reception for Paul Moreno / Problem Areas on Friday, September 10, 2021.
Please note that registration on Eventbrite is required.
In order to limit the number of people in the room at any given time, we are asking visitors to schedule their visits in advance. When registering you will need to select a half-hour slot between 4 and 7 PM. Masks are required throughout The LGBT Community Center, including the Bureau.
Click here to sign up for a half-hour slot between 4 and 7 PM.
Paul is a self-taught artist who grew up in Sparks, Nevada. Paul studied Literature and Critical Thought at University of San Francisco and NYU. About the title, Problem Areas, Paul states “I took the title from the old adage that art-making is largely a process of problem solving. However, the title is also meaningful in that when I choose subjects for my work, I try to look at something that I have complex or unresolved feelings about. By spending time with the subject, against the background of parsing it into formal elements that serve the picture, I find spiritual resolution can also present itself. In this way, the problem, as it were, is not a negative, but an opportunity to expose the beauty in the subject to myself and hopefully the viewer.”
Paul Moreno / Problem Areas will remain on view at the Bureau through December 31, 2021.

SHORTIES: Scott Alexander Hess & Joe Okonkwo on the Allure of Short Fiction
2021-09-16 18:00 - 19:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Scott Alexander Hess and Joe Okonkwo discuss their latest books. Hess has a volume containing two novellas—The Root of Everything and Lightning. Okonkwo has published a collection of short stories called Kiss the Scars on the Back of My Neck. After reading selections from their books, the authors will engage in a spirited conversation: How does writing short(er) fiction compare to composing full-length novels?
Patrick E. Horrigan, author of Pennsylvania Station, calls Hess’s novellas “Historical fiction at its cutting-edge best,” while noted author William J. Mann has lauded Okonkwo’s collection as “A remarkable examination of the human condition.”

Safety protocol:
In an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19, we are limiting the number of attendees to 30. Registration on Eventbrite is required in order to attend.
Click here to register
If you have any symptoms associated with COVID-19 in the days leading up to the event, we ask you to please cancel your reservation so that others can attend. If all 30 reservations have been claimed and you would like to be placed on a wait list, please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com.
Please note that masks are required at all times inside The LGBT Community Center, where the Bureau is located.

Both Scott Alexander Hess’s The Root of Everything and Lightning: Two Novellas as well as Joe Okonkwo’s Kiss the Scars on the Back of My Neck are available for purchase from the Bureau. Click on either title above to purchase on our online store where you have the option to have books shipped to you or to pick up at our physical store. Books will also be available for purchase at the event.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau’s work. We will pass a bag at the start of the event.
All are welcome to join, with or without a donation.

Scott Alexander Hess is the author of five novels, including Skyscraper, a Lambda Literary Award Finalist, and The Butcher’s Sons, which was named a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2015. His writing has appeared in HuffPost, Genre Magazine, The Fix, Thema Literary Review, and elsewhere. Hess co-wrote “Tom in America,” an award-winning short film, starring Sally Kirkland and Burt Young. He teaches fiction writing at Gotham Writers Workshop and curates Hot Lit, an LGBTQ+ themed monthly newsletter. Originally from St. Louis, Missouri, Hess lives in New York City with his husband.

Joe Okonkwo’s debut novel Jazz Moon won the Publishing Triangle’s Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction and was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award. His short stories have appeared in Global City Review, The Piltdown Review, The New Engagement, Storychord, Love Stories from Africa, and Strength. His story “Cleo” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Joe served as Prose Editor for Newtown Literary and he edited Best Gay Stories 2017. He is represented by the Baldi Literary Agency.

Jake Hall, Author of Art of Drag, in Conversation with Dominique Morgan
2021-09-22 19:00 - 20:00 | NY
Jake Hall sits down with Dominique Morgan to discuss their latest book Art of Drag (2020) and how drag intersects with queer politics. Morgan is an award-winning TEDx speaker who has partnered her lived experience of being impacted by mass incarceration with a decade of change-making artistry and advocacy. Her book “Sex Ed for System Facing People” will be available early next year. Hall has written for Dazed Digital, i-D, VICE, and British Vogue among others on topics from sustainability in fashion to government crackdowns on queer people. Join us as both authors look at the abolitionist movement through a queer lens, the identity of drag, and what it means to subvert social constructs, hosted on Zoom by the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division in NYC.

Registration on Eventbrite is required in order to receive the Zoom link on the day of the event.
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $5.
All are welcome to join, with or without a donation.

Click here to register

Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

Jake Hall is a freelance writer who has written for Dazed Digital, i-D, VICE, Highsnobiety, INTO, Refinery29 UK, and British Vogue, among others. They have written on topics from sustainability in fashion and body-shaming in queer communities, to government crackdowns on queer people, and intersex genital mutilation. Alongside this work, they are studying for a PhD at the University of Birmingham. Jake’s research aims to illuminate the link between high fashion and queer theory, as well as arguing the potential of clothing to radically challenge and subvert the social constructs of gender, sexuality, and race.

Dominique Morgan (She/Her) is an award-winning artist, activist, and TEDx speaker. As the Executive Director of Black and Pink, the largest prison abolitionist organization in the United States. She works daily to dismantle the systems that perpetuate violence on LGBTQ/GNC people and individuals living with HIV/AIDS. Partnering her lived experience of being impacted by mass incarceration (including 18 months in solitary confinement), with a decade of change-making artistry, advocacy, and background in public health, she continues to work in spaces of sex education, radical self-care, and transformative youth development with intentions of dismantling the prison industrial complex and its impact on our communities. Ms. Morgan is a 2020 Ten Outstanding Young Americans Award recipient, NAACP Freedom Fighter Award recipient, and 2020 JM Kaplan Innovation Prize recipient. Her new album Pisces In E Flat Major is available on all platforms and her book “Sex Ed for System Facing People” will be available January 2022. Find out more about Dominique at www.dominiquemorgan.com.

Queer Appalachian Parents, Sex Work, and the End of the World
2021-09-23 18:00 - 19:00 | NY
Join rural authors Alison Stine, winner of the 2021 Philip K. Dick Award, and Becca Spence Dobias to discuss their new books, Trashlands and On Home.
Trashlands is a strip club at the edge of an apocalyptic junkyard where a mother works to earn enough to rescue her son.
In On Home, three generations of Appalachian mothers, including one who works as a cam girl, struggle with the weight of the past and the small town they call home.
What can rural America—past, present, and near-future, teach us about queerness and the volatile world we find ourselves in today? Stine and Spence Dobias will ask each other these questions and more.

Registration on Eventbrite is required in order to receive the Zoom link on the day of the event.
Click here to register
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $5.
All are welcome to join, with or without a donation.

Purchase Becca Spence Dobias’s On Home (paperback, $18.99) from the Bureau’s online store to have the book shipped to you or to pick up in the physical store.

Pre-order Alison Stine’s Trashlands (hardcover, $27.99) from the Bureau’s online store to have the book shipped to you or to pick up in the physical store–please note the release date is October 26, 2021.

Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

Alison Stine grew up in rural Ohio and now lives in Colorado. Her first novel Road Out of Winter won the 2021 Philip K. Dick Award. A disabled writer, she is the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and National Geographic, and writes for The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, 100 Days in Appalachia, and elsewhere. Her next novel Trashlands publishes from MIRA (HarperCollins) in October 2021.

Becca Spence Dobias grew up in West Virginia and now lives in Southern California with her husband and two children. She is the Project Manager for Writing Bloc and a co-host of its podcast, The Indie Writer Podcast. On Home is her first novel.

“Summer Fun” + “You’re Pretty Gay”: Jeanne Thornton and Drew Pisarra
2021-09-24 18:00 - 19:00 | NY
Celebrate the release of Summer Fun, Jeanne Thornton’s second novel and You’re Pretty Gay, Drew Pisarra’s new collection of short stories. The former has been hailed as “Wildly imaginative . . . Thornton’s writing is as rich as her ideas and spiked with wit.” by Kirkus Reviews while the latter has been described as “a mosaic of wit, surrealism, sex, queerness, memory, mortality and self-discovery” by The Washington Blade.

Registration on Eventbrite is required in order to receive the Zoom link on the day of the event.
Click here to register
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $5.
All are welcome to join, with or without a donation.

Purchase Jeanne Thornton’s Summer Fun (hardcover, $27) from the Bureau’s online store to have the book shipped to you or to pick up in the physical store.
Purchase Drew Pisarra’s You’re Pretty Gay (paperback, $14) from the Bureau’s online store to have the book shipped to you or to pick up in the physical store.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau’s work by purchasing books from us!

Jeanne Thornton is the author of Summer Fun, The Dream of Doctor Bantam, and The Black Emerald, as well as the coeditor (with Tara Madison Avery) of We’re Still Here: An All-Trans Comics Anthology. She is the copublisher of Instar Books and lives in Brooklyn. More information is available at her website, jeannethornton.com.

Drew Pisarra is the author of the books You’re Pretty Gay, Infinity Standing Up, and Publick Spanking as well as the radio play “The Strange Case of Nick M.” A literary grant recipient of both Café Royal Cultural Foundation and Curious Elixirs: Curious Creators, he currently lives in Hell’s Kitchen in real life and at mistermysterio in the Twittersphere.

Leslie Cohen Shares The Audacity of a Kiss: Love, Art, and Liberation
2021-09-25 19:00 - 20:30 | NY
Leslie Cohen will discuss her new memoir, The Audacity of a Kiss: Love, Art, and Liberation, published by Rutgers University Press. Cohen and her partner Beth Suskin served as models for George Segal’s iconic sculpture Gay Liberation, located in Christopher Park across from the Stonewall Inn. In her evocative memoir, Cohen tells the story of a love that has lasted for over fifty years and recounts her quest to build gay and feminist oases in New York, including the groundbreaking women’s nightclub Sahara.
Registration on Eventbrite is required in order to receive an email with the Zoom link on the day of the event.
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $5
All are welcome to join, with or without a donation.
Click here to register

LESLIE COHEN has been a museum curator, a nightclub owner and promoter, a limousine driver, and a lawyer, as well as a writer whose work has appeared in such publications as Curve and The New York Times Style Magazine. Now retired, she and her wife Beth live in Miami, Florida with their cat, Birdie.

Purchase The Audacity of a Kiss from the Bureau’s online shop or our physical store in Manhattan’s LGBT Community Center! Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

Bureau closed on Sundays October 3 and 10
2021-10-03, 2021-10-10 | NY
We apologize for any inconvenience and we hope we’ll see you soon! In the meantime please visit our online store, which is always open!

BESPOKE IS BACK--MOVED TO ONLINE ONLY!
2021-10-13 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN MOVED ONLINE! PLEASE JOIN US ON THE BUREAU’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzrAvfZMDF_ilmUH0CBn5iA
Bespoke is back! Your favorite all queer, all genre reading series returns to the Bureau (VIRTUALLY ONLY) this October 13th featuring three fantastic writers — Doug Dibbern, Ricardo Hernandez, and Janelle Lawrence!
Suggested donation of $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work. We will pass a bag at the start of the event. But you are more than welcome to make a donation on Eventbrite when you register. Thank you for supporting the Bureau’s work!
All are welcome to join, with or without a donation.

Doug Dibbern’s Cinema’s Doppelgängers (Punctum Books, $25) will be available for purchase at the event. If you would like us to hold a copy for you or ship a copy to you, please email us at contact@bgsqd.com.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

Doug Dibbern’s second book, Cinema’s Doppelgängers,a work of speculative fiction in the guise of a scholarly history of film, was published this summer by Punctum Books. His first book, Hollywood Riots: Violent Crowds and Progressive Politics in American Film, won the 2016 Peter Rollins Prize. He’s currently finishing what he hopes will become his third book, which he refers to as either an “anti-memoir about his obsessive cinephilia” or a “Sebaldian rumination on the relationship between art, genealogy, and identity formation.” He’s also published cinema studies scholarship, film criticism for “The Notebook” at Mubi.com, and literary essays for journals like Chicago Quarterly Review and Hotel Amerika. He has a Ph.D. in Cinema Studies from New York University and teaches there now in the Expository Writing Program.

Janelle Lawrence is an Afro-Latinx interdisciplinary artist that investigates communal and individual strength with stories that explore the complex layers of perspective and perception. They have had their musicals presented at various Theaters such as Club Cumming, Joe’s Pub, Seattle Public Theatre, Legoland NY and The REACH at the Kennedy Center. They have been residents of the 92nd St Y Musical Theatre Development Lab: Collective, Greenhouse Residency SPACE on Ryder Farm resident and Barn Arts Hamilton Project Resident. They are a Juilliard School alumni, and a 2020 Recipient of NBT’s Soul Series Lab – Playwriting Micro-Development Session.

Ricardo Hernandez is recipient of fellowships from Lambda Literary, Poets House, and the Vermont Studio Center. His poems have appeared in MumberMag, Muzzle Magazine, Hyperallergic, and other publications. A semifinalist for the 2019 Vinyl 45 Chapbook Contest, Ricardo holds an MFA from Rutgers-Newark and lives in Jersey City.
This event is funded in part by Poets & Writers with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

Craft Class & Reading with Jen Hyde
2021-10-16 11:00 - 13:30 | NY
If storytelling is one of the first acts of literacy for young children (ages 0-3), as poets, how do we use our gifts to inspire and connect with developing minds? What do our lines sound like when we write them for young people? How do we make use of abstraction, or compelling images to convey a literal life lesson or learning moment? The purpose of this workshop is to start thinking about how an idea can translate to a picture book. We’ll look at examples including “One Leaf Rides the Wind” by Celeste Davidson Mannis, “Daniel Finds a Poem” by Micha Archer, and “The Day You Begin” by Jacqueline Woodson. This workshop will be one part story time, one part discussion, and one part active writing. We will draw on several storytelling forms in picture books to create an original story or poem for children in the 0-5 age group. Participants can bring an idea for a story or a poem you’d like to revise or rework together. The reading to follow is open to the public; feel free to bring your little ones!

Registration on Eventbrite is required in order to receive the Zoom link for the event.
Click here to register
Suggested donation is $10 (but not required). All donations go directly to the course instructor. Writers of all backgrounds welcome. You can make a donation when you register on Eventbrite.

Office Hours Poetry Workshop is a community-based writing workshop for poets who show a demonstrated commitment to writing. The workshop fellowship culminates in a public reading each fall and spring to showcase sizzling new work. We welcome all poets, especially people of color, LGBTQ+, and those who are womxn-identified. Our Craft Classes are free and open to the public with RSVP.

Jen Hyde is the author of Hua Shi Hua: Drawings and Poems from China. She is currently at work on a memoir about her heart defect and the women who’ve saved her life. Her work has been supported by fellowships from The Asian American Writer’s Workshop, The Millay Colony, Yaddo and Hedgebrook, and she has written essays for The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, Longreads, and elsewhere. More at jenhyde.com

William E. Jones and Paul Moreno Flesh + Blood / For Your Pleasure
2021-10-21 19:00 - 20:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
This hybrid live and in person / virtual event brings together William E. Jones, author of the new novel I Should Have Known Better, and Paul Moreno, artist whose show Problem Areas is currently on view at the Bureau.
William and Paul began an on-going discussion about art, writing, and culture, queer and otherwise, in 2019 when one of them slid into the other’s DMs. At this event the conversation will take place live and with an audience. William will read a selection from I Should Have Known Better, and Paul will give a brief talk about his show. They will then chat about each other’s work in an impromptu fashion before taking questions from attendees in person or virtually. Paul will be talking live at the Bureau, and William will be present virtually from Los Angeles.
Safety protocol:
In an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19, we are limiting the number of in-person attendees to 20. Registration on Eventbrite is required in order to attend.
Click here to register
If you have any symptoms associated with COVID-19 in the days leading up to the event, we ask you to please cancel your reservation so that others can attend. If all 20 reservations have been claimed and you would like to be placed on a wait list, please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com.
Please note that masks are required at all times inside The LGBT Community Center, where the Bureau is located.
If you’re unable to join in person, please join us online as we livestream this event onthe Bureau’s YouTube channel.
Purchase Jones’sI Should Have Known Better(paperback, $13.95) from the Bureau!
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

Forget Burial Book Launch
2021-10-23 18:00 - 19:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join Marty Fink and Alex Juhasz for an intergenerational conversation about the ongoing legacy of HIV caregiving to celebrate the launch of Forget Burial: HIV Kinship, Disability, and Queer/Trans Narratives of Care.
Queer and trans people in the 1980s and early ‘90s were dying of AIDS and the government failed to care. Lovers, strangers, artists, and community activists came together to take care of each other in the face of state violence. This book uncovers how early HIV care-giving narratives actually shape how we continue to understand our genders and our disabilities today.
Safety protocol:
In an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19, we are limiting the number of attendees to 20. Registration on Eventbrite is required in order to attend.
Click here to register
If you have any symptoms associated with COVID-19 in the days leading up to the event, we ask you to please cancel your reservation so that others can attend. If all 20 reservations have been claimed and you would like to be placed on a wait list, please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com.
Please note that masks are required at all times inside The LGBT Community Center, where the Bureau is located.
If you’re unable to join in person, please join us online as we livestream this event on the Bureau’s YouTube channel.
Suggested donation of $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work. We will pass a bag at the start of the event. But you are more than welcome to make a donation here when you register. Thank you for supporting the Bureau’s work!
All are welcome to join, with or without a donation.
Purchase Forget Burial: HIV Kinship, Disability, and Queer/Trans Narratives of Care (paperback, $29.95) from the Bureau to have shipped to you or to pick up at the event.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
Marty Fink is an Associate Professor of Professional Communication at X University. They are the author of Forget Burial: HIV Kinships, Disability, and Queer/Trans Narratives of Care (Lambda finalist in LGBTQ non-fiction, 2020) which investigates HIV activism past and present through the lens of caregiving. Fink’s work has appeared in journals including Television and New Media Studies, The Journal of Medical Humanities, Transgender Quarterly, and Jump Cut. Fink’s work draws on homo archives and trans literature toward prison abolition and defunding the police.
Dr. Alexandra Juhasz is Distinguished Professor of Film at Brooklyn College, CUNY. She makes and studies committed media practices that contribute to political change and individual and community growth. Author and/or editor since 1995 of scholarly books on activist media in light of AIDS (AIDS TV, 1995 and AIDS and the Distribution of Crises, 2020, Duke), black lesbian and queer representation (Sisters in the Life, Duke, 2018), feminism (Women of Vision, UMN, 2001), and digital culture (Learning from YouTube, MIT, 2011, Really Fake, with Nishant Shah, 2021, U MN Press), Dr. Juhasz also makes videotapes on feminist issues from AIDS to teen pregnancy as well as producing the feature fakes The Watermelon Woman (Cheryl Dunye, 1997) and The Owls (Dunye, 2010). Her current work is on and about fake news and radical digital media literacy (fakenews-poetry.org).

Conjuring the Sacred: Poets of the Diaspora
2021-10-28 19:00 - 20:30 | NY
We’re not sure what the problem is with registering on Eventbrite today, but please know that you can live-stream this event on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzrAvfZM
Join us for a free virtual celebration of Black poets, living and writing in the diaspora. This magical lineup includes: Gbenga Adesina, Kemi Alabi, Romeo Oriogun and Candace Williams. These four contemporary scholars, storytellers and archivists, whose work expands the cannon, will perform poems and offer their favourite poetry prompts to the audience. The program will be moderated by Omotara James and is brought to you by City Artists Corps Grant & NYFA.
This event is FREE, but registration on Eventbrite is required in order to receive the Zoom link ON THE DAY OF THE EVENT.
Click here to register
Gbenga Adesina, Nigerian poet and essayist, is the author of Painter of Water, a haunting meditation on intimacy in the face of war and historical violence selected by Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani for the New Generation African Poets series. His work centers intimacy as a form of inquiry, and the sea as archive and brutal border around which orbits the questions of empire, migration, and exile. He was a Goldwater Fellow at NYU where he received his MFA, and was mentored by Yusef Komunyakaa. He was the 2020 Olive B.O’Connor Fellow at Colgate University, where he taught a poetry class called, “Song of the Human”. His work have been published in Prairie Schooner, Harvard Review, Academy of American Poets’ Poem-A-Day, and the New York Times. He’s the winner of the 2020 Narrative Prize. (Author photo description: A person with a beard. Description automatically generated with medium confidence).

Kemi Alabi was born on a Sunday in July. The author of Against Heaven (Graywolf Press, 2022), selected by Claudia Rankine as winner of the Academy American Poets First Book Award, their work appears in Poetry, the Atlantic, Best New Poets 2019, The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 2, and elsewhere. Alabi is coeditor of The Echoing Ida Collection (Feminist Press, 2021) and lives in Chicago, IL. (Author photo description: A person wearing glasses-description automatically generated with low confidence.)

Romeo Oriogun is the author of Sacrament of Bodies, a finalist for the Lambda Award for Poetry. He currently lives in Ames where he is an Innovation Fellow at Iowa State University.

Candace Williams is a black queer nerd living a double life. By day, they’re a middle school English teacher. By night, they’re a poet. Their chapbook, Spells for Black Wizards, was a 2017 TAR Chapbook Series winner and published by the Atlas Review. The Dark Diary (formerly futureblack), their first full-length poetry manuscript, was a 2018 National Poetry Series finalist and is forthcoming from Grieveland.
They’ve earned a MA in Elementary Education from Stanford University, a Brooklyn Poets Fellowship, Pushcart nominations, as well as workshop scholarships from Cave Canem and the Fine Arts Work Center. They were a 2017 Create Change Fellow at the Laundromat Project. They’ve read their poetry, given lectures, and devised original performances at many venues including the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Bushwick Starr Theater, Poetry Project, Eyebeam, Dixon Place, the New School, and the New Museum. They are a member of CityLore’s Homer 2 Hip Hop Advisory Committee. (Author photo description: A picture containing person, indoor. Description automatically generated.)

Moderator:
Omotara James is a multidisciplinary artist, poet and editor, based out of New York City. Her debut poetry collection is “Song of My Softening,” slated for release in 2022, with Alice James Books. (Author photo description: A picture containing person, glasses, indoor. Description automatically generated.)

Welcome to the Tori Vortex
2021-10-29 18:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Ksenia M. Soboleva, Samantha Nye, and Catalina Schliebener will discuss their collaborative project Raspberry Swirl: Dyke Views on Tori, which poses Tori Amos as a time-capsule into 1990s teenage rebellion, queer alienation, and femme aesthetics. Published by Lyeberry press, the eponymous artist-book is the culmination of their deep dive into queer Tori fandom, which they have coined the “Tori Vortex.” Led by Ksenia’s desire to theorize the lesbian obsession with Tori Amos, Sam and Cata reflect on the ways in which their adolescence was marked by the redhaired musician, and how these sensibilities have informed their current artistic practice.

Megan Milks will read from TORI AMOS BOOTLEG WEBRING, their personal history of early online Tori fandom. In this second volume of Instar Books’ new Remember the Internet series, Milks returns us to a world before “search” and “social media,” a world still inventing the rules for being with one another online. Teenage Megan takes us on a journey from early listservs and personal fan pages to the most elite Tori Amos tape trading webring of 1998, using their living room computer to navigate fandom friendships haunted with nascent queer meaning.

Stephen van Dyck will read from PEOPLE I’VE MET FROM THE INTERNET, a queer re-imagining of the coming-of-age narrative set at the dawn of the internet era, taking the form of a very long annotated list. The book spans twelve years, starting in 1997 when AOL is first entering suburban homes just as thirteen-year-old Stephen is coming into his sexuality, constructing selves, and cruising in the fantasyscape of the internet. Through strange, intimate, and sometimes perilous physical encounters with the hundreds of men he finds there, Stephen explores the pleasures and pains of growing up, contends with his mother’s homophobia and early death, catalogues popular culture (Shirley Manson, Annie Lennox, and Tori Amos), and searches for glimpses of utopia in the available world.

Safety protocol:
In an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19 we ask that all attendees bring proof of vaccination and we are limiting the number of in-person attendees to 35. Registration on Eventbrite is required in order to attend. You will need to show proof of vaccination at the door.
Click here to register
If you have any symptoms associated with COVID-19 in the days leading up to the event, we ask you to please cancel your reservation so that others can attend.
Please note that masks are required at all times inside The LGBT Community Center, where the Bureau is located.

KSENIA M. SOBOLEVA is a Russian-Tatar writer and art historian specializing in queer art and culture, with a particular focus on lesbian (in)visibility. She holds a PhD from the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU.

SAMANTHA NYE is a painter, video installation artist and long-term Tori Amos lover living in Philadelphia. Samantha’s first solo show My Heart’s In A Whirl is currently on view at The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

CATALINA SCHLIEBENER is a Sudamerican, Chilean-born visual artist who works primarily with collage, installation, and murals. Schliebener’s work draws on images, objects, and narratives associated with childhood and explores gender, sexuality, and class.

MEGAN MILKS is the author of Tori Amos Bootleg Webring, as well as Margaret and the Mystery of the Missing Body and Slug and Other Stories, both out this fall from Feminist Press.

STEPHEN VAN DYCK is the author of People I’ve Met from the Internet, out now from Ricochet Editions. Stephen lives in Los Angeles.

Gay Literature Icon Felice Picano’s Only New York Appearance
2021-10-30 19:00 - 20:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Felice Picano will read selections from his praised new novel, Pursuit: A Victorian Entertainment and discuss the book and its companion volume, Pursued: Lillian’s Story, to be published in 2022. Both are fictional results of the author’s decades long research into gender and sexuality throughout history. Other periods of interest he is writing about are Pre-Homeric Greece, and 18th Century Naples. Picano will also discuss his Sci Fi Trilogy, City on a Star, and its first two volumes, Dryland’s End and The Betrothal at Usk.
Safety protocol:
In an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19, we are limiting the number of attendees to 20. Registration on Eventbrite is required in order to attend in person.
Click here to register
If you have any symptoms associated with COVID-19 in the days leading up to the event, we ask you to please cancel your reservation so that others can attend. If all 20 reservations have been claimed and you would like to be placed on a wait list, please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com.
Please note that masks are required at all times inside The LGBT Community Center, where the Bureau is located.
If you’re unable to join in person, please join us online as we livestream this event on the Bureau’s YouTube channel.

Purchase Pursuit: A Victorian Entertainment (paperback, $18.95) from the Bureau’s online store and have it shipped to you or pick it up at our physical store.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
One of the founding fathers of Modern Gay Literature, and member of the ground-breaking Violet Quill, Felice Picano is the best-selling, prize-winning author of poetry, plays, screenplays, stories, novels, non-fiction, and memoirs translated into 17 languages.

Come Meet Musician and Poet Calvin Arsenia at the Bureau
2021-10-31 15:00 - 17:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Come Meet Musician and Poet Calvin Arsenia at the Bureau on Halloween! Arsenia will be hanging out at the Bureau from 3 to 5 PM on Sunday, October 31st, to chat and to sign copies of Every Good Boy Does Fine.
To reserve a copy of Every Good Boy Does Fine (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2021, paperback, $14.99), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com.
About Every Good Boy Does Fine :
“Glowing with warmth, vulnerability, and a heavy heart, Arsenia’s intimate reflections depict the past and present wrestling within the individual as he endeavors to chart his own course in the world.”–Atwood Magazine
Both a journey of individual healing and a call for action, these poems show that, with a little love and acceptance, anyone can flourish.
From one of Kansas City’s most exciting singers Calvin Arsenia, comes a debut book of poetry and prose Every Good Boy Does Fine. Named for the classic mnemonic used to teach the lines of the treble clef (EGBDF), his collection speaks to his passion as a musician and also his deep and tumultuous history in the Evangelical community.
Arsenia includes elements of queer poetry, writings on racial awakening, Christian de-conversion, and sexual awakenings in a homophobic community with the hopes that, when finished reading, readers will feel ready to start their own journey of self-expression through music and performance.
A profoundly thoughtful and enlightening work, Arsenia uses his lyrical talent to show that there is always somewhere to go no matter where you are coming from.

About Calvin Arsenia:
Voted Kansas City’s Best Musician 2018 and 2019 (PitchKC), and featured on Billboard, NPR.org, NEWNOWNEXT, Pride.com, and GRAMMY.com, singer and harpist Calvin Arsenia has built a reputation for turning the arts world on its head.
Arsenia’s angelic, classically-trained voice soars over audiences, enchanting even the fussiest of fans, beckoning them to join him as he flirts between genres.
But the music is just one part of his prodigious performances, for Calvin believes the art is in crafting the perfect moment. His music is best
served live, with sensational performances and high fashion from the visually striking performer who stands at 6’6”.
Arsenia’s height, energy, and curated environments fill the often intimate spaces he performs in. Brought into 9 countries through public and private grants in less than a decade, Arsenia builds a scene for his audience and for himself, packed with beauty and lasting delight.
More at calvinarsenia.com

Cruising into Age—Getting Older Queerly
2021-11-04 18:00 - 19:00 | NY
How do queers age gracefully — and queerly? How do they deal with traumatic pasts, which sometimes leave painful personal and physical legacies, and how do they do so while keeping desire and intimacy alive? Prolific queer author Jonathan Alexander discusses his two new Fall books, the critical memoirs Stroke Book: The Diary of a Blindspot (Fordham University Press) and Bullied: The Story of an Abuse (Punctum) with fellow queer writer Alex Espinoza, author of Cruising: An Intimate History of a Radical Pastime.
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To purchase Jonathan Alexander’s Bullied: The Story of an Abuse please visit the publisher’s website: punctumbooks.com.

Jonathan Alexander is a writer living in Southern California where he is Chancellor’s Professor of English at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author, co-author, or editor of twenty-one books. His cultural journalism has been widely published, especially in the Los Angeles Review of Books for which he is the Young Adult editor, where founding editor Tom Lutz called him one of “our finest essayists.” He lives with his husband and cat, and when not writing, dabbles in watercolors and plays piano in a music ensemble with friends. For more about Jonathan Alexander and his books please visit www.thecreeptrilogy.com and www.the-blank-page.com. Photo by Carla Wilson.

Alex Espinoza is the author of Still Water Saints, The Five Acts of Diego León, and Cruising: An Intimate History of a Radical Pastime. He’s written for the LA Times, the NY Times Magazine, VQR, LitHub, and NPR’s All Things Considered. The recipient of fellowships from the NEA and MacDowell as well as an American Book Award, he lives in Los Angeles and is the Tomás Rivera Endowed Chair of Creative Writing at UC-Riverside.

EXCESS: Aesthetics, Gender, Performance. A Roundtable Discussion
2021-11-10 19:00 - 20:00 | NY
A Roundtable Discussion about how a new generation of Black and Latina girls, drag queens, and burlesque stars are employing excess as a political tool. Featuring scholars Jillian Hernandez (author of Aesthetics of Excess), Meredith Heller (author of Queering Drag), and Lynn Sally (author of Neo-Burlesque). Moderated by Joe E. Jeffreys.
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Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

Purchase Jillian Hernandez’s Aesthetics of Excess: The Art and Politics of Black and Latina Embodiment (Duke University Press, 2020, paperback, $27.95) directly from Duke University Press

Jillian Hernandez is Associate Professor at the Center for Gender, Sexualities, and Women’s Studies Research at the University of Florida. She created, Women on the Rise!, an outreach initiative that introduces contemporary art and artists and offers art-making praxis to young Black and Latina women in Miami. She discusses this in her critically-acclaimed book published by Duke University Press (2020), Aesthetics of Excess: The Art and Politics of Black and Latina Embodiment.

Meredith Heller is a Senior Lecturer of Queer Studies in the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at Northern Arizona University. She specializes in queer theory and critical identity studies, with additional expertise in performance studies and digital media. Queering Drag: Redefining the Discourse of Gender-Bending won the Popular Culture Association’s 2021 John Leo and Dana Heller Award for Best Book in LGBTQ Studies and was named one of NBC’s “10 LGBTQ books to watch out for in 2020.”

Dr. Lynn Sally is a scholar and practicing artist. She received her PhD in Performance Studies from New York University and MA in Gender Studies and Feminist Theory from The New School for Social Research. Her recent book Neo-Burlesque: Striptease as Transformation (Rutgers University Press, 2022) has been hailed “a smart,feminist tour de force…must read” by Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens. She also writes creative nonfiction at Medium and www.lynnsally.com.

Joe E. Jeffreys is a drag historian. He teaches theatre studies at New York University and The New School and has video documented NYC’s vibrant drag and burlesque scenes for over a dozen years. See samples of his video work at https://vimeo.com/joejeffreys

What Wasn’t I Thinking: Sebastian Stuart Talks with Stephen McCauley
2021-11-11 19:00 - 20:00 | NY
If you are having trouble registering on Eventbrite (the site isn’t working properly right now, Thurs., Nov. 11, at 2 pm), please email us at contact@bgsqd.com and we’ll send you the Zoom link you need to join us online tonight at 7 PM.

JoinSebastian Stuartas he reads fromWhat Wasn’t I Thinking?: A Memoir Of Rebellion, Madness and My Mother.The reading will be followed with a conversation between Sebastian and authorStephen McCauley.
“Sebastian Stuart’s dazzling memoir held me in its thrall like the best kind of novel. His mastery of suspense and his inherent humanity make for one electrifying read. And, like all good memoirists, he made me reexamine my own life along the way.” –Armistead Maupin
“A madcap and a captivating, deeply moving chronicle of madness—a combination ofThe Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,Franny and Zooey,andThe Bell Jar.” —Kevin Sessums, author ofMississippi Sissy
“A gripping read—as sad and sweet as life itself.” —Edmund White

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Click on the following links to place an order on the Bureau’s online store:

Thank you for your support!

Sebastian Stuarthad a heady childhood. His brilliant, acerbic mother was the Entertainment Editor ofLifemagazine and his father was an Oscar-nominated filmmaker. James Baldwin was a dinner guest and Bette Midler paid a courtesy call. Yet beneath the glittering parties, the family was haunted by unspoken tragedy. By age fifteen Sebastian was dropping acid and turning tricks for money. He found friendship and solace with his cousin Tina, an aspiring poet and striking beauty who was signed by the Ford modeling agency. When Tina began to exhibit symptoms of schizophrenia, Sebastian was torn between a desire to save her and the fear of losing himself in her madness. From San Francisco in the ’70s to New York in the AIDS-ravaged ’80s, Stuart’s quest for self-discovery leads to a sad and shocking understanding of his family history and the price of grief denied. And, ultimately, it leads to redemption. By turns hilarious, irreverent and heartbreaking,What Wasn’t I Thinking?is an unflinching evocation of loss and forgiveness.
Sebastian Stuarthas published nine novels, including a national bestseller published in eight languages, a New York Times bestseller and a Book of the Month Club selection. His novelThe Hour Betweenwas an NPR Season’s Readings selection and won the Ferro-Grumley Award as best LGBT novel of the year. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Stephen McCauleyis the author of six previous novels, includingThe Object of My Affection,True Enough, andAlternatives to Sex. Many have been national bestsellers, and three have been made into feature films.The New York Times Book Reviewdubbed McCauley “the secret love child of Edith Wharton and Woody Allen”, and he was named a Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture. His fiction, reviews, and articles have appeared inThe New York Times,The Washington Post,Harper’s,Vogue, and many other publications. He currently serves as Co-Director of Creative Writing at Brandeis University. He has several properties listed on Airbnb in Massachusetts and New York and owns a total of zero toss pillows.
