Queering the Lines: A Conversation with Rebecca Levi and John Chaich
2015-01-14 19:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | NY
Artist Rebecca Levi will talk about her work with John Chaich, curator of the recent exhibition Queer Threads, on Wednesday, January 14, at 7:00 PM at the Bureau.
Rebecca Levi’s thread-based and pen & ink work is influenced by images in found photography, mid-century magazines, and 1970s porn. In her embroidered portraits, she subverts the norms of the medium with the unexpected, inviting a playful collision between traditional handicrafts and the untraditional themes of queer identity and gender performativity.
John Chaich featured Rebecca Levi’s work in the exhibition Queer Threads: Crafting Identity & Community, which debuted at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay & Lesbian Art last year and is traveling to MICA, Baltimore in December 2015. He also selected her work as one of the artworks in the recently released Visual AIDS “Play Smart” trading cards series.
John Chaich is a curator, designer, and writer based in New York City. He holds an MFA in Communications Design from Pratt Institute. Chaichcreative.com
Rebecca Levi is a New York City born and based embroidery and pen & ink artist. She received her BA from McGill University in Montreal. www.rebeccalevi.com
The exhibition Queering the Lines: Rebecca Levi – Thread & Ink is showing at the Bureau until February 1, 2015.

DEADLINE: Works-in-Progress from Cutting-Edge Queer Artists: January Edition!
2015-01-15 19:00 - 22:00 | NY
Sabrina Chap brings you this works-in-progress series featuring new work from cutting-edge queer artists. Built on the notion that there’s no greater inspiration than a deadline, this series forces renegade artists to bring new and developing work to an audience for the first time. Part experimentation + part guaranteed failure = 100% awesomeness.
Check out this article on the August edition of Deadline in Next Magazine: “BGSQD’s Deadline Gives Queer Artists Room To Create And Grow” by Chris Hernandez

The January edition of DEADLINE will feature:

Zavé Martohardjono (theatrical movement work)
Adam Chad Brody (music video)
Courtney Gillette (literary memoir)

Nefertiti Asanti (spoken word)

Que(e)rying Theory #2 “Sex, or the Unbearable” by Lauren Berlant and Lee Edelman
2015-01-18 18:00 - 21:00 | NY
Que(e)rying Theory is a discussion group about queer theory and critical theory for thinkers from all contexts. Reading texts both vintage and new, we will ask questions such as: What is queerness? What do queer politics look like? How do we find the tools for living in a precarious world? And finally, what can theory mean in our own lives? In dialogue with one another, we will fearlessly relish in the complexities of theory, and collectively work towards richer understandings of our past, present, and future. Discussions will be moderated by Connor Spencer, and for a small donation, wine, beer, and sparkling water will be available to help lubricate our conversations.

***

How does negativity structure our politics, thinking, and relationships? Is it an affect that we can live with? In Sex, or the Unbearable, queer scholars Lauren Berlant and Lee Edelman consider the “unbearable” desires attache to sex, the social, and relationality. Through readings of film, art, theory, and literature–including Lydia Davis’s story “Break It Down”–the two thinkers trace wildly divergent paths through thorny fields of inquiry. Featuring two eminent scholars in conversation, the book is a glimpse into cutting-edge conversations in queer theory, and a perfect read for the busy holiday season.

Our conversation will first touch on the previous work of these notoriously dense scholars, and then strive towards unpacking the core arguments of the text. Come with questions, thoughts, and ideas–even if you didn’t have a chance to finish the entire book!

Connor Spencer is a writer living in New York City. He graduated with a BA in English from New York University, where he conducted bi-coastal archival research on the artists David Wojnarowicz and Gary Fisher. Recently, he was a finalist for the Marshall Scholarship. Connor tweets about leftism, queer politics, and dog costumes @conneriks.

EXPLORING QWEER EROS
2015-01-21 19:00 - 22:00 | NY
EXPLORING QWEER EROS

This five week communal exploration of qweer erotic myths and mysteries will utilize the Heart Circle and Plato’s Symposium to explore the unique power of qweer erotic ethos and its importance in our world today.

The Symposium was chosen for this workshop because in its five speeches Athenian philosophers at a drinking party express in depth their thoughts concerning erotic love. Although specific to the time and place – eros between adult men and youth – The Symposium provides an excellent platform for contemporary discussion. Themes we will cover include the nature of eros, desire, attraction, loss, coupling, erotic friendship, fear, death and HIV/STIs. We will delve into the connection between eros and psyche, eros and thanatos, and eros as a community builder and binder. Using the Heart Circle approach will allow participants to explore these strong subjects in a safe, confidential and non-judgmental space.

These Heart Circles will be conducted every Wednesday evening, 7-10 p.m., beginning January 21, ending February 18, and will be facilitated by Rosie Delicious. All circles will be held at the Bureau of General Services – Queer Division, in the LGBT Community Center, 208 w. 13th St, NYC.

The weekly Heart Circles will integrate this classic text with contemporary practices that integrate mind, body and spirit in a rejuvenated erotic life for participants. We will be using Plato’s Erotic Dialogues, translated/edited by William C. Cobb, 1993, SUNY Press. You may read it online or purchase a hard copy, available through the Bureau of General Services – Queer Division at the LGBT Community Center.

It is advised that participants attend all five weeks as each week will cover different sections of the text. Pre-registration is encouraged via email to houseofdelicious@gmail.com. An additional text describing the Heart Circle process will be sent to all registrants. This series is free although we will pass a hat for donations to be shared by the Bureau and the facilitator.

Rosie Delicious, a Radical Faerie sex magician, has co-facilitating Sex Magick Workshops in the Radical Faerie tradition since 2000. This workshop was initiated by Harry Hay and John Burnside in 1990, and Rosie encountered this most efficacious work in 1996. Using the Heart Circle technique as a way of exploring these classic texts will enable participants their own unique experience of their qweer sexuality in a safe and confidential environment.

www.faeriesexmagick.org

Interested participants can also register to attend a week-long sex magick retreat using this experience as a cornerstone.

Harry Hay asked 3 essential questions for qweer men to explore:

Who are we?
Why are we here?
What are we here for?

Hay argued that to answer these questions for ourselves, each of us needs to dig deep into our consciousness to find our unique narrative, both for our personal benefit as well as for the gifts that we bring to society at large. The best way to explore this was through sharing in the Heart Circle practice. Through the use of a talisman or talking stick, the Heart (or Talking) Circle is a process that allows each participant to share their experience and perspective in an uninterrupted flow. Harry gleaned this means of communing from his lifelong study and work with Native Americans. Heart Circle practice also grew out of the new consciousness movements of the 1960’s and 70’s and has become a hallmark of communing in Radical Faerie circles.

Bi Book Club: Recognize: The Voices of Bisexual Men
2015-01-22 18:30 - 20:30 | NY
The Bi Book Club meets once a month to discuss bi-themed books and the issues they raise. People of all orientations and genders welcome! Dinner after nearby.
Our current book is Recognize: The Voices of Bisexual Men edited by Robyn Ochs & H. Sharif Williams (Dr. Herukhuti.) For January, we’ll be reading the last five pieces of the section on Identity. Plus the sections on Challenging Labels and Liminality. [We plan to continue reading 2 sections per month of Recognize until we’re done with the book.] Pick out some phrases or paragraphs that you’d like to discuss, that inspired you, or that struck you because of their elegant turn of phrase or the meaning behind it. If you havent 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.
Getting Books: We urge you to purchase your print copy at BGSQD and support the only LGBT bookstore in New York City. Especially since they are hosting us in their space! If you prefer e-books, just get them your usual way.
Deciding Books: The group votes on what book to read next.
Venue: Bureau of General Services Queer Division Bookstore at the LGBT Center, 2nd fl. Rm. 210
The Bi Book Club meets at the Bureau of General Services-Queer Division on the last Thursday of each month.

TELL 9: Surprises
2015-01-24 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.
Surprises is the theme of the ninth installment of TELL, featuring Becca Blackwell, Harvey Katz, Elana Lancaster, and Katia Perea!
$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. Besides winning the 2011 Miss LEZ title, 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, YOU MOVE ME won the Audience Award for Outstanding Narrative Short at OUTFEST 2010 and has been shown in fesivals globally. She just won the grand prize at the first annual San Miguel De Allende Storytelling Festival in Mexico. Drae was dubbed “the next lezzie comedian on the block” by AfterEllen.com for her comedic stylings on the interwebs. Campbell throws a monthly party in Brooklyn called PRIME. Check her out online (her reel and her website www.draecampbell.com) and around town.

Becca Blackwell is a NYC based performer. They act in a lot of stuff and make their own work.

Harvey Katz is a spoken word artist and storyteller who became a woman in front of a seated congregation in Miami before becoming a man in the Deep South. Currently he travels the country providing educational workshops on transgender identity and performing on stages large and small under the pseudonym Athens Boys Choir.

Elana Lancaster is an LGBT health advocate and occasional storyteller who lives in Brooklyn. He is a Moth StorySLAM winner, and has been featured on the Story Collider podcast. The two best compliments he’s ever received were “You talk to people about sperm like you were teaching them how to make waffles,” and “I would trust you with my life if I didn’t know you so well.”

Katia Perea lives in Brooklyn and is a serious cartoon fan. She has a PhD in Sociology from the New School for Social Research specialized in television girl cartoons, popular culture theory and media studies. She is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at CUNY (City University New York) and is currently researching the Brony community for her upcoming book, “Girl Cartoons” due out soon.

Stone Butch Blues Book Club
2015-01-25 18:00 - 21:00 | NY
Whether you loved it, hated it, or never even read it, why not join us for a discussion of Leslie Feinberg‘s Stone Butch Blues (1993)?
Stone Butch Blues is no longer in print, but the organizer of the event, Lana Povitz, will happily send you a free digital copy if you email her at lpovitz at gmail.com.

From Minnie Bruce Pratt’s Obituary in The Advocate:
Leslie Feinberg, who identified as an anti-racist white, working-class, secular Jewish, transgender, lesbian, female, revolutionary communist, died on November 15. She succumbed to complications from multiple tick-borne co-infections, including Lyme disease.
Feinberg was the first theorist to advance a Marxist concept of “transgender liberation,” and her work impacted popular culture, academic research, and political organizing.
Her historical and theoretical writing has been widely anthologized and taught in the U.S. and international academic circles. Her impact on mass culture was primarily through her 1993 first novel, Stone Butch Blues, widely considered in and outside the U.S. as a groundbreaking work about the complexities of gender. Sold by the hundreds of thousands of copies and also passed from hand-to-hand inside prisons, the novel has been translated into Chinese, Dutch, German, Italian, Slovenian, Turkish, and Hebrew (with her earnings from that edition going to ASWAT Palestinian Gay Women).
From 2004-2008 Feinberg’s writing on the links between socialism and LGBT history, “Lavender & Red,” ran as a 120-part series in Workers World newspaper. Her most recent book, Rainbow Solidarity in Defense of Cuba, was an edited selection of that series.
Feinberg authored two other non-fiction books, Transgender Warriors: Making History and Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue, as well as a second novel, Drag King Dreams.
For more on Leslie Feinberg check out this article by KaeLyn on Autostraddle.

EXPLORING QWEER EROS: Second Meeting
2015-01-28 19:00 - 22:00 | NY

NEW YORK WRITER DYKES at BUREAU OF GENERAL SERVICES-QUEER DIVISION
2015-01-29 19:00 - 22:00 | NY
FIVE NEW YORK WRITER DYKES READ FROM THEIR LATEST NOVELS & DISCUSS THE EXPERIENCE OF
WRITING QUEER FICTION IN THE BIG CITY

Ann Aptaker
R.G. Emanuelle
Jane Hoppen
Susan X. Meagher
Cindy Rizzo

THURSDAY, JAN. 29TH, 2015
READINGS, DISCUSSION, Q & A 7 p.m.
BOOKSIGNING, 8 P.M.

Native New Yorker Ann Aptaker has earned a reputation as a respected if cheeky exhibition designer and curator of art during her career in museums and galleries. Taking the approach that what art authorities find uncomfortable the public would likely enjoy, exhibitions Ann has curated have garnered favorable reviews in the New York Times, Art in America, American Art Review, and other publications.

She brings the same attitude and philosophy to her first love: writing, especially a tangy variety of historical crime fiction. Ann’s short stories have appeared in two editions (2003 and 2004) of the noir crime anthology Fedora. Her flash fiction story, “A Night In Town,” appeared in the online zine Punk Soul Poet. In addition to curating and designing art exhibitions and writing crime stories, Ann is also an art writer and an adjunct professor of art history at the New York Institute of Technology. CRIMINAL GOLD is her debut novel.

Ann can be contacted at writer.aptaker@gmail.com, on Facebook at Ann Aptaker, Author, and on Twitter @AnnAptaker

R.G. Emanuelle is from New York City, and spent more than 20 years as an editor, writer, and typesetter. When she was child, a neighbor called her a vampire because she only came out after dark, so it’s fitting that her first novel, Twice Bitten, is about creatures of the night. When she’s not writing or editing, she can usually be found cooking or developing recipes, as she is also a culinary school graduate, which is what inspired her to write her romantic novella, Add Spice to Taste, starring a love-burned chef. She is co-editor of All You Can Eat: A Buffet of Lesbian Erotica & Romance, Unwrap These Presents, and Skulls and Crossbones: Tales of Women Pirates, and her short stories can be found in numerous anthologies.Blog: www.rgemanuelle.com
Email: rgemanuelle@gmail.com
Facebook: R.G. Emanuelle
Twitter: @Rgemanuelle

Jane Hoppen‘s fiction has been published in various literary magazines, including Story Quarterly, Western Humanities Review, Feminist Studies, The Dirty Goat, PANK, and Superstition Review. Her novel, In Between, was published by Bold Strokes Books, December 2013. Her novella, The Man Who Was Not, was published as an e-book by Bold Strokes Books, June 2014.

Susan X. Meagher lives in Brooklyn with her wife, Carrie. Born in East St. Louis, Illinois, she has lived in both Chicago and Los Angeles for significant periods, but New York fits her very well. She has over thirteen novels in print along with the seventeen and counting novels in the “I Found My Heart in San Francisco” series. Her latest novel is Out of Whack.You can find out more about Susan at her websitewww.susanxmeagher.com All of her books and eBooks are available atwww.briskpress.com

Cindy Rizzo is an author of lesbian fiction. Her first novel, Exception to the Rule, won the 2014 award for Best Debut Fiction from Golden Crown Literary Society and was a finalist for the Rainbow Book Awards. In September 2014, her second novel, Love Is Enough, was released. A short story, The Miracle of the Lights, appeared in the anthology Unwrap These Presents (Ylva Publishing). Earlier writing includes essays in the anthologies, Lesbians Raising Sons and Homefronts: Controversies in Non-Traditional Parenting. Cindy was also the co-editor of a fiction anthology, All the Ways Home, published in 1995 (New Victoria) in which her story Herring Cove was included.Cindy has worked in philanthropy for many years and has a long history of involvement in the LGBT community. She serves on the boards of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in New York and Funders for LGBTQ Issues. She lives in New York City with her wife, Jennifer, and their two cats. They have two grown sons, a wonderful daughter-in-law, and a baby granddaughter.
You can contact Cindy by email at cindyt.rizzo@gmail.com, via Facebookwww.facebook.com/ctrizzo, through her blog, www.cindyrizzo.wordpress.com, or on Twitter @cindyrizzo.

Live from the Bureau! An Open Mic Night
2015-01-31 19:00 - 22:00 | NY
LIVE from the BUREAU! An Open Mic Night
Organized by Andrew Bell
The January installment of LIVE from the BUREAU! will be hosted by Ali Dineen and will feature guests from The Love Yourself Project.

LIVE from the BUREAU! is a program featuring the original work of fledgling, emerging, established and seasoned live-performers, poets and visual artists. Come for songs, burlesque, spoken word, diary musings, violin solos, puppetry, and other queer induced happenings, including a pop-up gallery, with the overarching theme of: Oppression and Resistance/Fear and Hope. Expect individuals and small gangs, elders and twinks, the sacred, the profane, the tragic, the hilarious and everything in between, and come ready for anything.

SIGN UP TO PERFORM AT THE EVENT
FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED

Ali Dineen is a human being, artist, musician, traveler, activist, resident of Queens, eater of pasta and other foods, listener of music and other sounds, amongst other things. She hopes sincerely that you’re having a good day.

​The Love Yourself Project exists​ to inspire people to build a strong relationship to the self, mindfully creating a future with loving regard for all living beings and the environment; ultimately, manifesting a humanity that declares itself unwavering in its commitment to peace, loving-kindness, compassion, and harmony.

Drew Bell is a full-time painter and Bureau volunteer happy to be making his contribution as an event organizer.

regrets4context
2015-02-01 18:00 - 21:00 | NY
__4__ is a series presenting queer and trans words and performance, curated by Abigail Lloyd and Charles Theonia.
Regrets: Cat Fitzpatrick is a poet and essayist, she teaches at Rutgers University- Newark, she facilitates the Trans Poets Workshop NYC, and is one of the editors at Topside Press. You can read her work in places like Asylum, Glitterwolf and, forthcomingly, EOAGH. And also in her zine. “At Least It’s Short”, which she is happy to sell you tonight for anything you are prepared to pay. She lives in New Jersey, and she is very sorry about
everything.
Context: Tommy “Teebs” Pico is the author of absentMINDR (VERBALVISUAL, 2014)—the first chapbook APP published for iOS mobile/tablet devices—was a Queer/Art/Mentors inaugural fellow, 2013 Lambda Literary fellow in poetry, and has poems in BOMB, Guernica, and [PANK]. Originally from the Viejas Indian reservation of the Kumeyaay nation, he now lives in Brooklyn. With Morgan Parker he curates the reading series Poets With Attitude (PWA).

EXPLORING QWEER EROS: Third Meeting
2015-02-04 19:00 - 22:00 | NY

Opening Reception of David Lavine: Collage
2015-02-06 19:00 - 22:00 | NY
David Lavine, Sploosh!, hand-cut paper collage, 6 1/4” x 6 1/4”

Join us for the opening reception of David Lavine: Collage on Friday, February 6th, 7 to 10 PM.
The exhibition has been extended through Sunday, March 29!

David Lavine, Seascape (Krakt), hand-cut paper collage, 7 5/8” x 6 1/4”.

Artist’s Statement:
All works are one-of-a-kind paper collages, hand-cut with scissors and assembled with archival tape and glue. There is no scanning, reprinting or photocopying, or any type of digital manipulation. All printed matter is fair game: textbooks, posters, magazines, catalogs, coloring books, maps, comic books, art books, etc. Working from a quarry of several thousand cut elements, form and color relationships serve as a starting point for each collage; eventually narrative threads appear as disparate elements begin to relate. Sometimes the finished collages are explosions of shape and color in hyper-dynamic compositions and seamless spatial interplay, other times they are minimal landscapes or seascapes resulting from the simple pairing of two cut pieces.

Selected group exhibitions:
“Art From The Boros II,” Denise Bibro Fine Art (New York)
“Art From The Boros,” Denise Bibro Fine Art (New York)
“Green Acres & Simple Pleasures,” Piermont Straus (Piermont, NY)
Dealers’ Lounge, PS Project Space (New York)
“A Minor Inconvenience,” Pierro Gallery of South Orange / Montclair Art Museum Young Curators (South Orange, NJ)
“Scapes,” Brooklyn Artists Gym (Brooklyn)
“Intimate: Small Works,” Brooklyn Artists Gym (Brooklyn)
Publication/Web:
“New Works by David Lavine,” aarting (aarting.com)
“David Lavine”, aarting (aarting.com)
Featured work, Indiewalls (indiewalls.com)
Featured work, The Atomy (theatomy.com)
Featured work, Zealous (www.zealous.co)
Education:
University of Pennsylvania, BA Fine Arts

davidlavinecollage.com

Reading with Erica Doyle, Ron Palmer, and Peter Nickowitz
2015-02-07 19:00 - 22:00 | NY
Join us for a reading with Erica Doyle (Proxy), Ron Palmer (Prick Queasy), and Peter Nickowitz (Cinema Vernacular).

r. erica doyle was born in Brooklyn to Trinidadian immigrant parents, and has lived in Washington, DC, Farmington, Connecticut and La Marsa, Tunisia. Her work has been anthologized in Best American Poetry, Our Caribbean: A Gathering of Gay and Lesbian Writing from the Antilles, Gumbo: A Celebration of African American Writing, Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam, Gathering Ground: A Reader Celebrating Cave Canem’s First Decade and Voices Rising: Celebrating 20 Years of Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Writing. Her poetry and fiction appear in various journals, including Ploughshares, Callaloo, Bloom, From the Fishouse, Blithe House Quarterly and Sinister Wisdom.
Her articles and reviews have appeared in Ms. Magazine, Black Issues Book Review and on the Best American Poetry and Futurepoem blogs. She has received grants and awards from the Hurston/Wright Foundation, the Astraea Lesbian Writers Fund, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, the Humanities Council of DC and Poets and Writers, and she was a New York Foundation for the Arts Poetry Fellow. Erica is also a fellow of Cave Canem: A Workshop and Retreat for Black Writers.
In addition, she has read her work at the Kennedy Center, the National Black Arts Festival, Joe’s Pub, the Nuyorican, the Calabash International Literary Festival in Jamaica, WI and various colleges and universities. Erica received her MFA in Poetry from The New School, and lives in New York City, where she is an administrator in the NYC public schools and facilitates Tongues Afire: A Free Creative Writing Workshop for queer women and trans and gender non-conforming people of color.

Her recent book of poetry, Proxy (Belladonna*, 2013) was the winner of the Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America and a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award.

Peter Nickowitz is a poet, playwright, and screenwriter. He is the author of Cinema Vernacular (Publication Studio, 2014) and Rhetoric and Sexuality: The Poetry of Hart Crane, Elizabeth Bishop, and James Merrill (Palgrave, 2006). He lives in New York City and teaches at NYU.

Photograph by Kevin Killlian

Ronald Palmer is the author of Prick Queasy (Publication Studio) www.publicationstudio.biz/books/244 and LOGICALOGICS (Counterpoint / Soft Skull Press). He has taught poetry and prose writing at NYU, Binghamton University and Framingham State University.

He lives in San Francisco with his fiancé Kevin Rolston.

Prick Queasy was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award

EXPLORING QWEER EROS: Fourth Meeting
2015-02-11 19:00 - 22:00 | NY

PDF Club: Forgetting ACT UP by Alexandra Juhasz, Hosted by Theodore Kerr
2015-02-12 19:30 - 21:30 | NY
In her essay “Forgetting ACT UP” (Quarterly Journal of Speech, 2012), filmmaker, activist and academic Alexandra Juhasz explores the idea that, “When ACT UP is remembered—again and again and again—other places, people, and forms of AIDS activism are disremembered.”
At this event we will explore Juhasz’s essay, as well as discuss what her argument means at this moment when some responses to early AIDS activism are being remembered, while much of what has happened has yet to be remembered, reclaimed, and acknowledged. How does this lack of remembering fit into current discussion and action around #blacklivesmatter and how does it impact work being done presently around HIV/AIDS?
Everyone is welcome. People are encouraged to read the essay beforehand. Email the organizer if you do not have access to a copy.
kerr.theodore@gmail.com

Theodore Kerr is a Canadian born, Brooklyn based writer and organizer. He was the programs manager at Visual AIDS. He is currently doing his graduate work at Union Theological Seminary.

Ted Kerr writes:
“On February 12th I will be hosting an event called PDF Club: Forgetting ACT UP by Alexandra Juhasz. To be clear: Alex is not coming. I am sorry if the title is misleading. It was never the plan. Since she wrote the essay I thought it was important her name be in the title. Alex has a full and busy life in California where she is a filmmaker, academic, and more. Instead I will be facilitating a conversation where we discuss Juhasz’ 2012 essay where in which—as an early member of ACT UP—she explores the ongoing important and warranted historicization of the activist group by tapping into her own thoughts and feelings and those of others who were not members around the revisitation. A key line of the essay is when she asks: “ When we continue to remember ACT UP, whom do we forget and how does this feel?”
Neither the essay nor our event is a slight against ACT UP. Rather both are opportunities to ask questions: Why do histories – if told at all – often get reduced to one story? What is lost when we simplify history? Whose histories are remembered? How does our awareness of the past impact our present?
To prepare I have compiled a bookshelf of suggested titles (most of which are currently available at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division) that you may have already read, or may want to look at before or after the event.
Head, Bill Kushner
Long Distance, Steven Cordova
Viral, Suzanne Parker
A few years ago I heard Bill Kushner read his poetry. It was a pleasure to hear a grown man talk about lust, pain and living. Head is a collection of poems he wrote in the early 80s, giving a reader a sense of one man’s experience of bodies, streets and heat in New York City in the years before ACT UP. Fast forward and you get Long Distance, of which one reviewer said, “Those who have wondered how to write about AIDS now that it is a treatable disease need only to turn to Steve Cordova’s smart, funny and haunted poems.” Existing beyond these two moments and beyond is Viral by Suzanne Parker. Dedicated to Tyler Clementi, it is a collection that explores the webbedness of tragedy. Death has a way of bringing a community together, as ACT UP illustrates, but what about those on the margins of what we may understand as community? How does the experience of tragedy move?

Hold Tight Gently: Michael Callen, Essex Hemphill and the Battlefield of AIDS, Martin Duberman
Safe Sex Bang: Buzz Bense Poster Collection, Alex Fialho
Check Your Vernacular, Dirty Looks,
Shade: An Anthology of Fiction by Gay Men of African Descent, edited by Bruce Marrow and Charles H. Rowell
What does activism look like when it does not including ‘acting up’? Martin Duberman’s Hold Tight Gently is a dual biography of Michael Callen and Essex Hemphill, figures that loom large in the world of art, activism and HIV and who were around at the same time as ACT UP, but were not part of the group. In the Check Your Vernacular catalog, the fine people of Dirty Looks write about the amazing short film Liberaceón in which Liberace’s attempt at activism around HIV is imagined by filmmaker and star Chris E. Vargas. In Safe Sex Bang, another catalog, Alex Fiahlo interviews Buzz Bence about his extensive HIV/AIDS related poster collection. In reading the dialogue one gets an intimate story about the early days of the virus. The publication includes mention of “gay-staching”, a term coined by Fiahlo that is worth the price to learn it’s meaning. Uncovering other experiences from the time is Shade, a compilation of short works by African American men published in 1996, just as AIDS was changing. I think, in Michael Warner’s sense, we can understand AIDS as generating publics and counterpublics, including, but not limited to, ACT UP. What these books show us are other ways in which people organized around the virus. How silly of us to try and contain AIDS as a thing of the past, through the lens of only one group.

Duets, Visual AIDS
Memories Can’t Wait, edited by Malene Dam, Bridget de Gersigny, and Kate Levy
A few years ago I had the pleasure of interviewing writer David Deitcher about art, AIDS, and memory as part of a publication called Memories Can’t Wait. As a member of ACT UP himself Deitcher sheds light on memory, and how as we live the mind makes sense of the past in ways we need to be attentive to. Also in conversational form is Duets, a new series from Visual AIDS. Each title is a conversation with or about an artist with HIV. In the first book, Gregg Bordowitz and Stephen Andrews discuss living long term with HIV, the universe, and Frank O’Hara. The second Duets is a conversation between photographer Alice O’Malley and people’s academic Che Gossett discussing the life of artist, muse and legend Chloe Dzubilo. Getting a sense of Chloe and her impact through the conversation is one thing, getting to know Chloe through her work is another. These readable pocket-sized volumes are rich with details about life from the early days of the AIDS crisis to now, and in those stories are things we don’t even know we don’t know.

The Gentrification of the Mind: Witness to a Lost Imagination, Sarah Schulman
Safe Space: Gay Neighborhood History and the Politics of Violence, Christina Hanhardt
Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and the Limits of Law, Dean Spade
Anti-Black Racism and the AIDS Epidemic: State Intimacies, Adam Geary (unavailable at the Bureau—priced for academic institutions: $90!)
What Matters, Wrrqshop
Sarah Schulman’s The Gentrification of the Mind is a must read. She makes clear the ongoing and far reaching impacts HIV has on American life, not least of which is people choosing a narrow suburban idea of security over anything else. Dealing in similar yet divergent ideas, written in a different register is Christina Hanhardt’s Safe Space, which explores the relationship between race, class, gender, sexuality, activism, the government and development providing a foundation around which a reader interested in Forgetting ACT UP can see how HIV is exasperated by public policy, and ideas of whose comfort matters. Safe Space is part of the conversation Dean Spade initiates in his book Normal Life, which for me includes the take-away message that there is a thing called “administrative violence,” and when we name it and organize against it we are having a generous and productive conversation not about exclusion or equality but about liberation. Reading Spade’s book is helpful in understanding where Adam Geary is coming from in his book Anti-Black Racism and the AIDS Epidemic. Building on Cindy Patton, Geary is suggesting that instead of the AIDS movement continuing to focus on queer intimacies in a Spadian way, we should look at ways the state is responsible for the ongoing AIDS crisis. So enamored am I by Geary’s book I quote it in my contribution to WHAT MATTERS, the zine complied and created by the fine folks at WRRQSHOP.

I have not read everything at the Bureau, and the Bureau can’t possibly have every book known to humanity, so this is a biased, non-exhaustive bookshelf. Do you have titles you want to add? Contact us or join us on February 12th and be part of the conversation.”

Devils That Have Come to Stay Book Launch Party
2015-02-13 19:30 - 22:00 | NY
Pamela Alex DiFrancesco will read from their new book Devils That Have Come to Stay, and Mya Byrne will perform music based on the novel that the two co-wrote.

Joining us for this event will be special guests Emma Caterine and Ella Boureau. Emma and Ella are both writers of thoughtful, intelligent fiction that sometimes falls under the genre fiction label.

Most of Pamela Alex DiFrancesco‘s life is based around the written word. Pamela Alex has, in the past, worked at newspapers, interned in publishing, and taught writing in after school programs. Pamela Alex’s short fiction has appeared in literary magazines such as The New Ohio Review and The Carolina Quarterly, and on the website of Stoned Crow Press, of which they are a founding member. Pamela Alex also volunteers with homeless LGBTQIA youth and is slowly learning to play the banjo. (Photo Credit: Sam Teichman)

Mya Adriene Byrne is a poet, award-winning performing songwriter, and activist. A proud trans woman, she established her solo folk career in 2012 after years of performing with roots-rock band, the Ramblers, opening for acts such as Levon Helm. Her new album, “As I Am”, is out now, and her writing and music were recently featured in the Advocate. Follow her at @myadriene and listen at www.myabyrne.bandcamp.com.

Love Prescriptions from Cupid
2015-02-14 13:00 - 18:00 | NY
On February 14th, 2015 Cupid will be writing free Love Prescriptions at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division. He is acting as Cupid and channeling Freud to become this character. As an authority on Love he is generously listening to each visitor and prescribing advice for desires such as love, passion and dreams.
Prescriptions will be written in India ink on parchment. He will be available for consultations from 1pm – 6pm.

Nerd Love/Nerd Lust and Other Celebrations of Queer Love Beyond Chocolate and Roses
2015-02-14 19:00 - 22:00 | NY
Would you rather be a part of a community rather than just a couple on capitalism’s most manipulative day of the year? We’ve totally got you covered with awesome snacks, hilarious comedy and storytelling with Kelli Dunham, Tommy O’ Malley, Elsa Waithe and a surprise musical guest. Plus we’ll be having a NERD OFF. All participants will have a chance to demonstrate the nerdiest thing they can do (in public)…prizes for the top nerd!

We might totally have a silent read in at an otherwise romantic location afterwards, if we can figure out how to do it.

Bureau at Artist Services Day at Brooklyn Arts Exchange with Dan Fishback
2015-02-15 13:00 - 14:00 | NY
The Bureau is very excited to participate in the second annual ARTIST SERVICES DAY at Brooklyn Arts Exchange. Artist Services Day features an array of talks and workshops designed to support working dance, theater, performance artists and their supporters. We’ll be joining a conversation led by friend of the Bureau Dan Fishback, director of THE HELIX QUEER PERFORMANCE NETWORK

Dan will discuss Helix’s expansive array of programming for queer artists, writers and audiences. He’ll be joined by a variety of queer culture-makers, from people who present performance to people who make their own. All of the panelists make cultural work in a political or activist context, and our conversation will emerge from that intersection.
Led by Dan Fishback with Greg Newton, Donnie Jochum, T.L. Cowan and Kia LaBeija
1:00 – 2:00pm

BAX is located at 421 Fifth Avenue (and 8th Street) in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
Free and open to the public.
Suggested contribution $5
More info here.

Que(e)rying Theory #3: The Queer Child, by Kathryn Bond Stockton
2015-02-15 18:00 - 21:00 | NY
Que(e)rying Theory is a discussion group about queer theory and critical theory for thinkers from all contexts. Reading texts both vintage and new, we will ask questions such as: What is queerness? What do queer politics look like? How do we find the tools for living in a precarious world? And finally, what can theory mean in our own lives? In dialogue with one another, we will fearlessly relish in the complexities of theory, and collectively work towards richer understandings of our past, present, and future. Discussions will be moderated by Connor Spencer, and for a small donation, wine, beer, and sparkling water will be available to help lubricate our conversations.

***

Children exist in strange temporalities, as Kathryn Bond Stockton argues in The Queer Child, in which she examines how children are queered by the very forces that both constrain and produce them. Through inspired readings of film, novels, and popular culture, Stockton describes the ghostly “gay child” that haunts our fictions of childhood and grows “sideways” outside of the linear narrative of straight, historical time. Stockton’s account of the “gay child” not only complicates ideological configurations of the child, but also our own experiences in the present as the adults who still feel the haunting touch of queer childhood histories.We’ll encounter notions of time and history over the course of our discussion, and consider what changes if we think about childhood in terms of “sideways” growth. Come with questions, thoughts, and ideas–even if you didn’t have a chance to finish the entire book!

Connor Spencer is a writer living in New York City. He graduated with a BA in English from New York University, where he conducted bi-coastal archival research on the artists David Wojnarowicz and Gary Fisher. Recently, he was a finalist for the Marshall Scholarship. Connor tweets about leftism, queer politics, and dog costumes @conneriks.

Image: David Wojnarowicz, Untitled (One day this kid . . .), 1990. Photostat, 30 × 40 1/8 in. (76.2 × 101.9 cm). Edition of 10.

EXPLORING QWEER EROS: Fifth and Final Meeting
2015-02-18 19:00 - 22:00 | NY

Book launch of Joon Oluchi Lee’s 94
2015-02-19 19:00 - 22:00 | NY
Join us for the launch of Joon Oluchi Lee’s 94 (Publication Studio).

94 is a cameo of a novel, a miniature portrait made in relief, existing daintily between the second and third dimensions. Who sat for the portrait: a 19-year old boy in 1994, going to college in the South, gay and Asian, who will become female by 2014. The Stuff into which the portrait was carved: the feelings aroused by boys he desired, the feelings he wanted to have; feelings that are historically specific, that are products of a specific moment in time, space, and cultural evolution, when those days of innocence were actually defined by more manipulation, heartlessness and cruelty than today.

Joon Oluchi Lee is the author of Lace Sick Bag (Publication Studio Portland, 2013) and “The Joy of the Castrated Boy” (Social Text, F/W 2005). His writing and textual performances can be found on girlscallmurder.com and lipstickeater.blogspot.com. He is Associate Professor of Gender Studies and Creative Writing at Rhode Island School of Design.

TELL 10: Breakups
2015-02-20 19:30 - 22:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Join us for the one-year anniversary of TELL!
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.
Breakups is the theme of the tenth installment of TELL, featuring Tiffani Barbour, Ryn Hodes, Glenn Marla, & Jacqueline Mary.

$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. Besides winning the 2011 Miss LEZ title, 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, YOU MOVE ME won the Audience Award for Outstanding Narrative Short at OUTFEST 2010 and has been shown in fesivals globally. She just won the grand prize at the first annual San Miguel De Allende Storytelling Festival in Mexico. Drae was dubbed “the next lezzie comedian on the block” by AfterEllen.com for her comedic stylings on the interwebs. Campbell throws a monthly party in Brooklyn called PRIME. Check her out online (her reel and her website www.draecampbell.com) and around town.

Tiffani Barbour is an actor, singer, muscian and all around entertainer. She recently returned from Sundance film festival, where her short film “Rabbit” garnered rave reviews and generous accolades. She can also be seen smoking cigarettes and staring evilly at people with Liv Tyler on HBO’s “The Leftovers.” Tiffani’s reel.

Ryn Hodes is a passionate, cranky, skeptical, hopeful queer femme, third generation New York Jew, a social worker, self-defense teacher, writer, and mother. She has been thrilled to read her memoir work at Queer Memoir, Bluestockings , Lesbian Herstory Archives and now TELL. Thank you for listening.

Glenn Marla (performer/writer/creative arts therapist) is a Brooklyn-based performance artist, gender queer superstar and beauty pageant queen (Miss LES 2006 and the reigning Mr. Coney Island). The Portland Phoenix calls Glenn Marla’s work, “performance art that pushes the envelope without pushing the audience away,” Time Out New York Calls Glenn a “downtown prophet” and The New York Times calls Glenn “an obese transvestite in tights.” Glenn Marla is a firm believer that if you don’t fit in anywhere you can fit in everywhere. Last spring Glenn finished a graduate program in Art Therapy and Creativity Development and is thrilled to be back on the stages of New York City.

Jacqueline Mary is a Brooklyn based smut maker, video artist and brand new divorcee! Her blend of smarts, humor, and a slightly sociopathic nature brings her to the Tell stage!

Newfangled 5: Robert Siek hosts Wo Chan, Jake Matkov, and Jayson Smith
2015-02-21 19:00 - 22:00 | NY
Join us for the 5th installment of Newfangled, poetry readings by emerging poets hosted by Robert Siek. Newfangled 5 will feature Wo Chan, Jake Matkov, and Jayson Smith.

WO CHAN is a queer Fujianese immigrant living in Brooklyn. Wo is the recipient of fellowships from the Asian American Writers Workshop, Poets House, Kundiman, and Lambda Literary. Their work has been published (and forthcoming) in cream city review, BARZAHK, the Lambda Literary Fellows Anthology, and VYM Magazine. Wo is also a member of the Brooklyn-based drag troupe, Switch n’ Play, and has performed at venues including Brooklyn Pride, Princeton, The Trevor Project, and the Architectural Digest Expo.

JAKE MATKOV received a scholarship to the first grade. He was cast in Annie Get Your Gun as the Gun and has had nightmares ever since. He is an MFA candidate in poetry at LIU Brooklyn, where he holds a teaching fellowship in the First Year Writing Program. He is one of the cofounding editors of visceral brooklyn, LIU Brooklyn’s online lit journal. His work has appeared in thosethatthis, Downtown Brooklyn, and Brooklyn Paramount; he has publications in Liquid forthcoming. You can find him @ooohjakie. He says hi.

JAYSON SMITH is a writer, choreographer, & curator hailing from the Bronx, NY. His work is published/forthcoming in various journals & anthologies, including Kinfolks Quarterly, boundary2: an international journal of literature and culture, and MUZZLE Magazine. A recent Pushcart Prize Nominee, Jayson is currently on staff for Union Station Magazine and a curator for Poets in Unexpected Places.

ROBERT SIEK is the author of the poetry collection Purpose and Devil Piss (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2013) and the chapbook Clubbed Kid (New School University, 2002). His poetry has most recently appeared in The Good Men Project, Painted Bride Quarterly, The Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide, and VACZINE, as well as the anthology Between: New Gay Poetry. He lives in Brooklyn.

DEADLINE: Works-in-Progress from Cutting-Edge Queer Artists: February Edition!
2015-02-22 18:00 - 21:00 | NY
Sabrina Chap brings you this works-in-progress series featuring new work from cutting-edge queer artists. Built on the notion that there’s no greater inspiration than a deadline, this series forces renegade artists to bring new and developing work to an audience for the first time. Part experimentation + part guaranteed failure = 100% awesomeness.
Check out this article on the August edition of Deadline in Next Magazine: “BGSQD’s Deadline Gives Queer Artists Room To Create And Grow” by Chris Hernandez

The February edition of DEADLINE will feature:

Sacha Yanow (live solo performance)
Alyssa Hartley (poetry)
Buzz Slutzky (film)
Beck Heiberg (dance)
David Levesley (theatrical monologue )

Prelude to a Film: Confederitis
2015-02-25 19:30 - 22:00 | NY
Jillian McManemin‘s caressingly transgressive storytelling and Rbt. Sps.‘ karaoke renditions of 70s/80s Nashville Country legends’ greatest hits present dichotomies of heteronormative and queer culture. Addressing themes of romance and mischief, these artists redefine traditional relationships in sultry and charmingly kitsch ways. Prelude to a Film: Confederitis is the first opportunity to view and examine the underbelly of their upcoming feature-film. Through performance, selected plot lines, and screenings, McManemin and Sps. give the audience a rare glimpse on how their characters found one another.

Suggested donation $5
Reception following performance
Rbt. Sps. will be selling three unique mix tapes from his collection.

Rbt. Sps. is a multimedia artist who has been making work in different shitholes in the rural South and sometimes in New York City. He was a participant in the 2008 Vienna Biennale and has shown work at P.P.O.W. and Interstate Projects in NYC. He was also included in the 2013 Moving Image Fair in NYC. He has currently been producing his first collaborative feature with artist Jillian McManemin.

Jillian McManemin is an artist and writer with a focus on film and performance. Her work, and life, investigates sexuality and the spectacle though various theatrical personas. She has presented work throughout New York City, including Anthology Film Archives, Dixon Place, and The CUE Foundation. Her current projects include a reimagining of Le Spectre de la Rose ballet with Kinetic Architecture Dance Co. and the experimental feature-film Confederitis with collaborator and soulmate Rbt. Sps.

Bi Book Club: Recognize: The Voices of Bisexual Men
2015-02-26 18:30 - 20:30 | NY
The Bi Book Club meets once a month to discuss bi-themed books and the issues they raise. People of all orientations and genders welcome! Dinner after nearby.
Our current book is Recognize: The Voices of Bisexual Men edited by Robyn Ochs & H. Sharif Williams (Dr. Herukhuti.) For February we’ll be reading the sections on Liminality & Institutions. We plan to continue reading 2 sections per month of Recognize until we’re done with the book. Pick out some phrases or paragraphs that you’d like to discuss, that inspired you, or that struck you because of their elegant turn of phrase or the meaning behind it. If you havent 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.
Getting Books: We urge you to purchase your print copy at BGSQD and support the only LGBT bookstore in New York City. Especially since they are hosting us in their space! If you prefer e-books, just get them your usual way.
Deciding Books: The group votes on what book to read next.
The Bi Book Club meets at the Bureau of General Services-Queer Division on the last Thursday of each month.

Group reading of Shelley Marlow's new novel TWO AUGUSTS IN A ROW IN A ROW
2015-02-27 19:00 - 22:00 | NY
Join us for a group reading of Shelley Marlow‘s new novel Two Augusts in a Row in a Row, NO. 007 FELLOW TRAVELERS SERIES, PUBLICATION STUDIO with PENNY ARCADE, STEPHEN BOYER, MICHELLE HANDELMAN, GEOFF HENDRICKS, DOUGLAS MARTIN, DEBBIE NADOLNEY, RENO, LOLLO ROMANSKI, RAFAEL SANCHEZ, BUZZ SLUTSKY, PAMELA SNEED, TONY TORN+LEE ANN BROWN, JACK WATERS, PLUS SPECIAL SURPRISE GUESTS
About Two Augusts In a Row In a Row:
A new entry in Publication Studio’s Fellow Travelers Series is always cause for delight. The series, devoted to works of sexual and political adventure that interdict the demands of the market, is perfect for Shelley Marlow and her beautiful, picaresque, Two Augusts In a Row In a Row. I’ve been dying for something first rate and innovative and have found this in Marlow’s writing. Marlow creates an unforgettable array of characters in “old New York,” for the book takes place at the turn of this century when I suppose NYC changed forever. Her hero, Phillip, a gender subversive, is the most enchanting and elusive central character in a novel since Cassandra in Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle. While many have compared Marlow to the late Jane Bowles, I would agree if only there was a loving and empathetic Jane Bowles, and now there is and here is her book.
—Kevin Killian, author of Spreadeagle

Marlow gives us that rare thing—a sad and humorous but character-driven narrative that is rife with life, with wisdom.
—Jeffery Renard Allen, author of the novels Song of the Shank and Rails Under My Back

Shelley Marlow’s writing and visual work is published in several publications including LTTR, AlLuPiNiT, Drunken Boat, saint-lucy.com, The Literary Review, Zingmagazine, New Observations, and Log Illustrated. Notes in Kyzyl, published in the St. Petersburg Review, describes traveling to meet shamans in Siberia. Shelley Marlow is the fiction editor for Ping Pong Magazine out of the Henry Miller Library in Big Sur. Marlow wrote the lyrics to a musical, UnKnot Turandot, performed at La Mama Theater, and presented International Witch Stories at the Italian Pavilion for the 48th Venice Biennial.

Raji Bathish: Queer Writing in Palestine Today
2015-02-28 19:00 - 22:00 | NY
A leading figure in the current generation of Palestinian writers, Raji Bathish comes to us straight from Nazareth to read from his genre-defying, provocative texts that unsettle both liberal Zionists and Palestinian nationalists.

Facilitator and translator: Suneela Mubayi

A Palestinian poet, novelist, screenplay writer and queer cultural activist born and raised in Nazareth, Raji Bathish’s work has been widely published across the Arab and Israeli-Palestinian worlds. He has published eight books of poetry and short stories, of which the best-known is A Room in Tel-Aviv in 2007. He is co-editor of the radical literary page anboob that seeks to promote a Palestinian and Arabic literature without the imposition of patriarchal borders of genre or nationality.

Suneela Mubayi is a graduate student in Arabic Literature at NYU and counts translation amongst her interests. She hopes one day to be able to call herself a poet.
