BGSQD

Live from the Bureau! An Open Mic Night--Curated by Christopher Atamian
2015-03-28 19:00 - 22:00 (America/New_York)
LIVE from the BUREAU! An Open Mic Night
Organized by Andrew Bell
LGBTQ 2015 : Top, Bottom, Versatile; This, That, Whatever is the theme of the March 28th installment of LIVE from the BUREAU!
Curated by Christopher Atamian
with a special performance by Music Bear Tony Banks
Featuring:
Nancy Agabian
Christopher Atamian
Christopher Bram
Alex Ossola
Lousine Shamamian
With Swiss-style chocolates by The Lost Sense and port wine tasting.
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

Nancy Agabian is the author of Princess Freak (Beyond Baroque Books, 2000), a mixed genre collection of poems, short prose, and performance texts on young women’s sexuality and rage, and Me as her again: True Stories of an Armenian Daughter (Aunt Lute Books, 2008) a memoir about the influence of her Armenian family’s history on her coming-of-age. Me as her again was honored as a Lambda Literary Award finalist for LGBT Nonfiction and shortlisted for a William Saroyan International Prize. Her essays have been published in Ararat, The Brooklyn Rail, Women Studies Quarterly (The Feminist Press) and the anthologies Homelands: Women’s Journeys Across Race, Place and Time (Seal Press) andForgotten Bread: First Generation Armenian American Writers (Heyday Books). Collections of her poems appear in the anthologies Birthmark (Open Letter Press) and Deviation (Inknagir). Nancy has also written and performed several one-woman shows, which have been presented internationally — in Geneva, Milan and Yerevan. With Ann Perich, she formed the folk-punk duo Guitar Boy and released a CD, Freaks Like Me. A Fulbright scholar to Armenia for 2006-07, she is currently working on “The Fear of Large and Small Nations” a novel on the influences of nationalism, corruption, and family on personal freedom in post-Soviet Armenia. As a community writing workshop leader, she has worked with multicultural groups in Los Angeles, women writers in Yerevan, and immigrants & first-generation writers in Queens, New York, where she lives. Nancy has an MFA in Nonfiction Writing from Columbia University’s School of the Arts. She teaches creative writing at Queens College, where she was awarded for excellence in teaching in 2012, and in the Writing Program at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University. In 2012, she founded Heightening Stories, a series of community-based writing workshops for the personally brave and socially conscious, online and in Jackson Heights, Queens.

Christopher Atamian is a native New Yorker who writes about different topics of interest in the arts and current events. He has produced and directed videos, films and plays internationally including the 2006 OBIE Award winning play Trouble in Paradise and was included in the 2009 Venice Biennale for his video “Sarafian’s Desire.” he has written one novel and translated six books.

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

Christopher Bram grew up in Kempsville, Virginia (outside Norfolk), where he was a paperboy and an Eagle Scout. He graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1974 (B.A. in English). He moved to New York City in 1978.
His nine novels range in subject matter from gay life in the 1970s to the career of a Victorian musical clairvoyant to the frantic world of theater people in contemporary New York. Fellow novelist Philip Gambone wrote of his work, “What is most impressive in Bram’s fiction is the psychological and emotional accuracy with which he portrays his characters. . . His novels are about ordinary gay people trying to be decent and good in a morally compromised world. He focuses on the often conflicting claims of friendship, family, love and desire; the ways good intentions can become confused and thwarted; and the ways we learn to be vulnerable and human.” Bram has written numerous articles and essays (a selection is included in Mapping the Territory). He has also written or co-written several screenplays, including two shorts directed by his partner, Draper Shreeve.
His novel Father of Frankenstein, about film director James Whale, was made into the movie Gods and Monsters starring Ian McKellen, Lynn Redgrave, and Brendan Fraser. Bill Condon adapted the screenplay and directed. (Condon won an Academy Award for his adaptation.)
Bram was a Guggenheim Fellow in 2001. In May 2003, he received the Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement. He lives in Greenwich Village and teaches at the Gallatin School of New York University.

Alexandra (Alex) Ossola is a freelance science journalist based in New York City. She writes about a lot of things, but lately she’s into biology, tech, animals and education. Tweet at her with jokes or story ideas at @alexandraossola. Yeah, she’s holding a frog in that picture.

Lousine Shamamian‘s professional career started in post-production where she’s been working as a television editor for over 9 years. But, way before that, back in the second grade her true love was acting. After being bypassed for the lead role in Pirates of Penzance and getting the role of Ruth, the older half-blind nursemaid, Lousine realized she would never get the coveted lead role. Being a plump little girl, she made note then that the big girls usually didn’t get to be the lead. Almost 30 years later, Lousine has emerged as a comedian and actor, producing and writing her own material. Finally, she’s taken her creative curiosity into her own hands, performing in comedy clubs in NY as well as making bold webisodes for her series, Lousine: Lesbian Matchmaker To The Straights. She also recently had her adult acting debut on MTV’s Inside Joke.

JIRAIYA: GAY MANGA AND ART ICON: Signing and Talk
2015-03-27 19:00 - 22:00
Jiraiya is known the world over for his iconic muscular pin-up style photoreal illustrations of Asian men, as well as for his bestselling Japanese manga. He makes his first ever public appearance in New York at the Bureau to talk a bit about his craft and to sign copies of Massive: Gay Erotic Manga and the Men Who Make It, as well as “Caveman Guu” comic books and an assortment of merchandise.

*NOTE: Jiraiya is an anonymous figure and while he appreciates meeting fans, has a strict “no facial photography” rule. We ask that attendants respect his privacy.

Bi Book Club: Recognize: The Voices of Bisexual Men
2015-03-26 18:30 - 20:30
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 March, we’ll be reading the last four pieces of the section on Institutions. Plus the sections on Anger Angst & Critique and maybe a bit of Bodies & Embodiment. 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.

Unanswered Prayers—Readings from The Thousand-Petaled Lotus: Growing Up Gay in the Southern Baptist Church, by Michael Fields
2015-03-25 19:00 - 22:00
“When I was eleven years old, I gave my life to Jesus. I have no reason to think that he ever gave it back.”

Thus begins The Thousand-Petaled Lotus: Growing Up Gay in the Southern Baptist Church, Michael Fields’ hilarious and profound recollection of his childhood in Nashville, Tennessee, a/k/a The Protestant Vatican. What does a devout young Baptist do when he finally realizes that the gay cannot be prayed away? Michael left the church behind, only to find that leaving his religion was just the first step on a lifelong search for what Jesus called “the Kingdom of Heaven,” a search that would end many years later in a New York City gym. The Thousand-Petaled Lotus is a classic gay coming-of-age story, told from a decidedly un-classic point of view, a spiritual journey that begins on the first day of creation, and ends with the discovery that the kingdom of heaven is, indeed, “spread out on the earth, but men see it not.”

Reception at 7:00, Readings at 7:30 p.m.
Michael will read selections from his book and invite questions and discussion.

Michael Fields was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee. His early life and struggles with God and everybody else are chronicled in his moving and piquant memoir, The Thousand-Petaled Lotus: Growing Up Gay in the Southern Baptist Church. Michael is a graduate of Columbia University and earned his master’s degree in social work at Fordham. These days, he works as a program director for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Michael lives in New York City with his partner, now husband, of thirty-five years.

Live from the Bureau! An Open Mic Night--Hosted and Curated by Nica Buescher
2015-03-22 18:00 - 21:00
LIVE from the BUREAU! An Open Mic Night
Organized by Andrew Bell
Expect a troupe of roving artists of every persuasion moving idiosyncratically, speaking outlandishly, rapping rhapsodically and doing all sorts of shit you’re not supposed to do indoors. Bring your talent and join the fray.
Hosted and Curated by Nica Buescher
​Featuring DJ Lisa Shred ​
With Special Guests from the Love Yourself Project
and
Sara Emily Kuntz
Kait Burrier
Asha Joanna Sienkiewicz

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

Sara Emily Kuntz, BA in English from the University of Pittsburgh and a MFA in Creative Writing from Carlow University. She has been published in Rivet, Stone Highway Review,Cabildo Quarterly, Rust + Moth, and Cactus Heart. Sara lives in Brooklyn with a big grey cat named Miso, like the soup.

Kait Burrier MFA​ ​Creative Writing from Wilkes University writes poetry, drama, journalism, and to-do lists in New York City, where she hosts and curates a weekly reading series, Union Square Slam
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Asha Joanna Sienkiewicz, originally from Iowa, lives her dream in New York City as a professional Dancer, actress, Model, and dance/fitness Instructor. She has danced for numerous well known companies in New York City, New Jersey, Vegas, and tours around the country.

Book reading of Susie Day's Snidelines: Talking Trash to Power (Abingdon Square Publishing, 2014)
2015-03-19 19:00 - 22:00
Prepare yourself, as Susie Day reads from Snidelines: Talking Trash to Power, a collection of satirical essays that lends a perverse morality to an increasingly amoral world. Join us for readings from the book – including a post-apocalyptic group performance of a sendup of “Sex and the City.” General discussion, impassioned speeches, vice squad raid to follow. Come and support your local queer bookstore!

Susie Day writes satire for Gay City News and various lefty publications. She also writes news stories on prison issues. She attends rad-lib demonstrations, experiences ennui, and has a day job in New York City, where she lives with her much cuter and more politically radical partner, Laura Whitehorn.

Book Launch of JD: A conversation with Mark Merlis and Christopher Bram about gay history and fiction
2015-03-18 19:00 - 22:00
Christopher Bram talks with Mark Merlis about Merlis’s new novel JD and how fiction writers use and transform the gay past.
“JD is a chamber drama about one family, yet it’s full of windows that look out on the wider worlds of the Vietnam War, New York literary politics, and the gay revolution. Mark Merlis is a major writer and this is his best novel yet.”—Christopher Bram

Mark Merlis is the author of the novels JD, American Studies, An Arrow’s Flight, and Man About Town, which have garnered awards including a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, a Ferro-Grumley Award, and a Lambda Literary Award.

Photograph by Draper Shreeve

Christopher Bram grew up in Kempsville, Virginia (outside Norfolk), where he was a paperboy and an Eagle Scout. He graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1974 (B.A. in English). He moved to New York City in 1978.
His nine novels range in subject matter from gay life in the 1970s to the career of a Victorian musical clairvoyant to the frantic world of theater people in contemporary New York. Fellow novelist Philip Gambone wrote of his work, “What is most impressive in Bram’s fiction is the psychological and emotional accuracy with which he portrays his characters. . . His novels are about ordinary gay people trying to be decent and good in a morally compromised world. He focuses on the often conflicting claims of friendship, family, love and desire; the ways good intentions can become confused and thwarted; and the ways we learn to be vulnerable and human.” Bram has written numerous articles and essays (a selection is included in Mapping the Territory). He has also written or co-written several screenplays, including two shorts directed by his partner, Draper Shreeve.
His novel Father of Frankenstein, about film director James Whale, was made into the movie Gods and Monsters starring Ian McKellen, Lynn Redgrave, and Brendan Fraser. Bill Condon adapted the screenplay and directed. (Condon won an Academy Award for his adaptation.)
Bram was a Guggenheim Fellow in 2001. In May 2003, he received the Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement. He lives in Greenwich Village and teaches at the Gallatin School of New York University.

Que(e)rying Theory #4: After Sex?: On Writing since Queer Theory, edited by Janet Halley & Andrew Parker
2015-03-15 18:00 - 21:00
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.

Que(e)rying Theory #4 will address the book After Sex?: On Writing since Queer Theory, edited by Janet Halley & Andrew Parker.

Please support the Bureau by purchasing your copy from the Bureau! Thank you!

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Is “queerness” still a politically useful identity, disposition, and/or way of theorizing? Why does queer theory encompass more than sex and sexuality, and should it? Where is queer theory going, and what new subjects has it tackled? In After Sex?, some of the most prominent writers in the field of queer studies–including Eve Sedgwick, José Muñoz, and Lee Edelman–offer their thoughts on what queer theory is, and where it might take us.
We’ll be using the book to get a sense of the conversations that have shaped queer theory, past and present. Our conversation will also touch on why queer spaces and organizations like the Bureau often facilitate conversations about seemingly “non-gay” issues, and what the work of queer theory is. Read as many of the essays in the book as you wish, and come with your questions and thoughts!

Connor Spencer is a writer living in New York City. He studied English at New York University, where he conducted bi-coastal archival research on the artists David Wojnarowicz and Gary Fisher. In 2014, he was a finalist for the Marshall Scholarship. Connor tweets about leftism, queer politics, and dog costumes @conneriks.

Teaching to Transgression: A Film and Reading Series on Queer Logics and Radical Politics in the Classroom
2015-03-14 19:00 - 22:00
In this film and reading series we will watch and critique a selection of curated films and movies that depict decidedly queer educational relationships between individuals and institutions while drinking beer/beverages and eating snacks. Some questions we might ask ourselves: What constitutes and forms our relationships to institutions as queer relationships? Do queer people occupy classrooms differently, why, and in what ways? To what extent have queer presence and logics existed historically as a rupture in institutionalized educational logics and frameworks? In what state do queer presence and logics present themselves in those spaces now? Why can’t (insert student character) and (insert teacher character) be together and live happily ever after without the cops coming?

“What you call sin, I call the great spirit of love, which takes a thousand forms.”

For the first installment of the series, we will be watching Mädchen in Uniform (Girls in Uniform); a 1931 German feature-length film based on the play Gestern und heute (Yesterday and Today) by Christa Winsloe and directed by Leontine Sagan. Optionally, I will be providing the lyrics to Le Tigre’s “Eau’ Du Bedroom Dancing” as a lens through which to consider the film. Please stay for mingling and light discussion after the film.

Synopsis of the film: When Manuela von Meinhardis (Hertha Thiele) is brought to the boarding school for officers’ daughters, she has difficulty adjusting to the rigid discipline of the institution and its authoritarian head mistress, Fraülein von Nordeck zur Nidden (Emilia Unda). Manuela is taken under the wing of Fraülein von Bernburg (Dorothea Wieck), the most popular and compassionate teacher in the school. Like the other students, Manuela swoons whenever Fraülein von Bernburg gives her attention or advice. However, under the pressure and punitive environment of the boarding school, Meinhardis is driven to attempt suicide.Facilitated by Jordan Martin

Jordan Martin went to Cooper Union School of Art and is a musician, writer, and artist. She spends a lot of her time writing fan-fiction about lesbian films and making electronic music based off of that fan fiction.

Suggested donation of $3

Video invitation

DEADLINE: Works-in-Progress from Cutting-Edge Queer Artists: March Edition!
2015-03-13 19:00 - 22:00
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.
The March edition of DEADLINE will feature:
Sara Lyons – theatre performance
Damien Luxe – performance art
Robert Hyers – essay
Jes Fang – visual art
Hans Rasch– dance

Interested in presenting your work in a future installment of Deadline? Fill out the form!
Artists of any kind are encouraged to submit.
https://goo.gl/forms/Z84O7GgVdB

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

TELL 11: Disaster!
2015-03-12 19:30 - 22:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
TELL is an evening of story telling from the mouths and minds of queers in NYC hosted by Drae Campbell at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division since February 2014.
Disaster! is the theme of the eleventh installment of TELL, featuring Michelle Brotman, Katina Douveas, Sabrina Chap, and Rachel Bookbinder.

$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.

Michelle Brotman is a radical social worker/community organizer, and a staffer at Bluestockings Bookstore. TELL will be her first official storytelling engagement; however, popular consensus holds that Michelle is a magnet for awkward coincidences and absurd encounters–which friends have begun referring to as “Mich-haps”–and she enjoys sharing the sagas of her tragicomedy existence with friends, the internet, and just about anyone who will listen. Michelle is also passionate about cats, knishes, and karaoke.

Katina Douveas has been scrawling writings to the world from pen and paper or napkin or the back of the hand since forever. born in detroit, the poet came to brooklyn to chase the embarkings of literal and literary adventure. katina has pounded pavement in new york city as a jack-of-many-trades for over a decade, and has kept afloat by kidsitting or working as a personal assistant to make free time for passion, spitting poetry, writing, protesting, loving, scheming and dreaming of new heights.

​Sabrina Chap is a beautiful disaster. She’s a cabaret artist and editor of Live Through This—On Creativity and Self-Destruction. sabrinachap.com

Rachel Bookbinder enjoys old records, feminism, Pomeranians, and carbs. She works in health education and is also a visual artist. Her creative work includes jewelry, millinery, photography, and more. For more information, please visit www.rachelbookbinderartist.com

Queer Loves and Lusts in a Post-DOMA World
2015-03-11 19:00 - 22:00
(Painting of Jason and Michael by Hillary Broder)
Celebrating the full range of queer relationship options on the 15th Anniversary of the night Michael Broder hit on Jason Schneiderman
An evening of words and deeds honoring the raunchy outlaw roots of LGBTQ love and celebrating the full range of relationship options in the wake of same-sex marriage—hooking up, dating, living together, cheating, breaking up, open relationships, groups, polyamory, fetish, kink—anything and everything we do to express our loves, lusts, commitments, and refusals of commitment in the era of same-sex marriage. It’s more a marathon or a free-for-all than a traditional reading, but scheduled readers and speakers include:
Jeffery Berg
Thomas Dooley
Jameson Fitzpatrick
Matthew Hittinger
Michael Klein
Trace Peterson
Christina Quintana
Paul Romero
Sarah Sala
Sarah Sarai

Trans Poets Will Burn Your House Down
2015-03-08 18:00 - 21:00
A night of trans poetry and possible pyromania to celebrate the launch of Issue 2 of the Zine of the Trans Poets Workshop NYC. Come for the incandescent performers, stay for the cool beer served by the Bureau’s charming staff. And don’t worry about your house, as long as we’re too busy with poetry, it’ll be just fine.
Kay Ulanday Barrett
Olympia Perez
Tyler Vile
Charles Theonia
Lilith Latini
Stephen Ira
Sasha Alexander
Vivien J Ryder
Tai Maag
Suneela Mubayi
Mya Adriene Byrne
Hosted by Cat Fitzpatrick
BGSQD is wheelchair accessible via an elevator. There is no cover charge but the exciting new poetry zine will be on sale.

We Are Here: Young Activists Talk HIV/AIDS
2015-03-07 19:00 - 22:00
HIV/AIDS remains one of the biggest public health crises worldwide. In the United States, new infection rates continue to be high, particularly among younger Black and Latino men. Four HIV/AIDS activists under 30 have been invited to share stories of the work they’re doing, offering a deeply personal look at this health crisis through a mixture of activist successes and larger social and political challenges. Though these individuals approach activism in different ways, they are united by a deep commitment to targeted educational and community-based projects that target racially and economically diverse populations.
This event also marks the launch of events for Our Viral Lives, an on-going educational project and online digital archive of HIV/AIDS stories focusing on diverse perspectives from an under 30 crowd. By balancing historical remembrance with stories that confront structural and social problems, the project hopes to combat stigma and misinformation around HIV/AIDS. In the process, it hopes to open up opportunities for activists everywhere to create sex positive prevention solutions and strengthen treatment opportunities.

Kyle Bella is currently serving as the Office Manager at Open mHealth, an organization devoted to pursuing mobile healthcare solutions that improve patient and clinician outcomes. He is also pursuing an M.A. in Social Innovation and Sustainability through Goddard College, where he has launched the Our Viral Lives project. Previous writing on HIV/AIDS has been published in Colorlines Magazine, POZ Magazine, Huffington Post, Buzzfeed LGBT, nomorepotlucks, and Jacket2. He spent last summer in Europe researching contemporary artists including Keith Haring, David Wojnarowicz, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, and Isaac Julien.

Mathew Rodriguez is currently the community editor for TheBody.com, the web’s complete HIV/AIDS resource. He is an award-winning journalist and essayist whose work has appeared in Slate, The Advocate Magazine, the Huffington Post and the International Business Times. He is also a celebrated speaker who has spoken at The Apollo Theater, Times Square, the New York Public Library, the International AIDS Conference and the US Conference on AIDS. You can follow him on twitter at @mathewrodriguez.

Charlie Ferrusi is currently pursuing his MPH in Community Health at New York University. He received his BS in School and Community Health Education from SUNY Brockport. Charlie is a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) and holds NYS Teaching Certification in Health Education. He currently works as a Graduate Assistant at the NYU LGBTQ Student Center, and serves on the steering committee for the LGBT HealthLink. In 2014, Charlie was honored in the 2014 POZ 100, and gave a TED Talk at TEDxHudson. Charlie is interested in research and causes related to HIV prevention, transgender health, LGBTQ youth, and health education.

Martez Smith is an MSW candidate at Long Island University Brooklyn and a Research Assistant at CHEST (Center for HIV Educational Studies and Training. Holding a bachelor’s degree in social work from The Ohio State University, Martez has dedicated his life to identifying and promoting strategies that will prevent the spread of HIV and improve the lives of people living with HIV. Working with CDC-funded DEBI programs, as well as the AIDS Clinical Trials Group has provided Martez with knowledge and insight into the needs of MSM of color. In addition to his work with formal organizations and institutions, Martez is a participant and leader among the house/ball community. His insight and knowledge of the AAMSM community has lead to the creation of a community level intervention entitled Elements of Vogue, a multidisciplinary behavioral intervention for young black and latino MSM involved in house/ball culture which aims to improve coping skills and overall wellness. Martez envisions having a role in the incorporation of sexual health education into high school curriculums, and community-based programs in geographical areas heavily affected by HIV infection. Specifically, his hope is to make policy recommendations through research that would in turn lead to the implementation of sexual health education curriculums in places with the highest burden of HIV transmission.

Kia LaBeija (AKA Kia Michelle Benbow) is a multi-disciplinary artist working in photography, performance and installation. A member of the Iconic House of LaBeija, Kia’s work explores the intersections of fantasy, nightlife, community, politics and fine art. In 2014, she received the Visual AIDS Vanguard award for her work as an artist and activist, was featured in the POZ 100 list of groundbreaking public figures, won Grand Prize in Women’s Vogue Performance at the GMHC’s Latex Ball, and had her photography prominently featured in the La MaMa exhibition “Ephemera As Evidence.” As an activist and founding member of the GrenAIDS Collective, her work is focused on HIV/AIDS awareness -specifically in relation to youth- by educating and creating space for new conversations. She is frequently invited to speak and give workshops on performance, voguing and activism at various arts and academic institutions around NYC, and regularly performs in theaters, galleries and nightclubs all over the world. A native New Yorker, she is an alumni of the Juilliard School and the Ailey School, where she trained in music and dance at a young age. Currently, Kia is finishing her degree at The New School University.

Gay Men and The New Way Forward: Book Launch Party and Reading
2015-03-06 19:00 - 22:00
Celebrate the official launch of Raymond L. Rigoglioso’s anticipated new book, Gay Men and The New Way Forward. Organized around 14 Distinct Gay Male Gifts, this book takes an open-hearted look at gay men’s differences. It presents a comprehensive and updated framework that shows how gay men make critical and evolutionarily significant contributions to society. It proposes that, when we understand how we contribute to the health and vitality of society, LGBT people can make an entirely new case for equality and begin an important new era in our movement. Written as an invitation to self-discovery, Gay Men and The New Way Forward contains a self-assessment to help the reader discover how he serves and heals humanity, reinvents manhood, and frees and enriches the human spirit. Raymond will read from his book and invite questions and discussion.

Gay Men and The New Way Forward continues the inquiry about gay men’s purpose, advanced by gay writers, thinkers, and leaders throughout the years. Come celebrate the latest entry into this genre, and explore what it means to be a gay man today.

Raymond L. Rigoglioso is the founder of Gay Men of Wisdom. Through this project, he has led dozens of discussions and programs exploring gay men’s purpose and gifts. He has presented his work at New York’s LGBT Center, Easton Mountain, the Rowe Labor Day Retreat, online, and at groups throughout the northeastern United States. He is a certified life coach and has a professional background that includes more than two decades as a writer and editor for nonprofit organizations. This is his first book.

Adult Contemporary Presents Ariel Schrag, Malik Gaines, and Ethan Philbrick
2015-03-05 20:00 - 22:00
ADULT CONTEMPORARY is an experimental non/fiction salon series featuring readings, lectures, performances and interviews with and by established and emerging writers. We seek out first person perspectives characterized by the urgent and the everyday; true stories that connect us to the big by way of the small, uneventful, and unexpected. Readings will be followed by informal conversations.
Organized by Katherine Brewer Ball and Svetlana Kitto.
The March 5th installment of Adult Contemporary will feature Ariel Schrag, Malik Gaines, and Ethan Philbrick.

Ariel Schrag is the author of the novel Adam (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) and the graphic memoirs Awkward, Definition, Potential, and Likewise (Simon & Schuster). She was a writer for the HBO series How To Make it in America and the Showtime series The L Word. She lives in Brooklyn.

Malik Gaines is an artist and writer based in New York. He has performed and exhibited extensively with the group My Barbarian, with recent projects at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Goethe-Institut New York, and the 2014 Whitney Biennial; and with the newer collaboration, Courtesy the Artists, with recent projects at The Kitchen and the Studio Museum in Harlem. Gaines has written about art and performance for magazines, exhibition catalogues, artist monographs, and journals including Art Journal, Women & Performance and e-flux. His first book, Excesses of the Sixties: Performance, Gender Eccentricity, and the Black Transnational Imagination, is currently in the publication process with NYU Press. He is assistant professor in the department of Art & Art History at Hunter College, CUNY.

Ethan Philbrick is a scholar and performer based in Brooklyn. He is currently a PhD candidate in Performance Studies at New York University completing a dissertation on the shifting conditions of collective artistic and political praxis in the 1970s. He has previously served as the assistant editor of TDR: The Drama Review and is currently a member of the Women and Performance editorial collective. He has performed in New York at SculptureCenter, BRIC, NYU Performance Studies, and Sophia Cleary’s Rehearsal at Cage.

Canceled! Ex-Gays & Tapeworms in NYC. Comedy & Stories by Peterson Toscano & Glen Retief
2015-03-04 19:00 - 22:00
Tonight’s event, Ex-Gays & Tapeworms in NYC. Comedy & Stories by Peterson Toscano & Glen Retief, has been canceled due to the coming snow–Peterson and Glen would have had to drive for a few hours through the snow. So we’ll have to reschedule for another time. Stay tuned!

Peterson Toscano spent nearly 20 years trying to de-gay himself for Jesus in NYC and beyond. Glen Retief suffered during Apartheid South Africa where his bullies tried to beat the gay out of him so that he could be a strong white South African empowered to oppress others.
Both Peterson and Glen dramatically escaped the oppression they faced and turned to art and writing to speak truth to power. They also fell in love with each other. Peterson is internationally renowned for his hilarious and profound one-person plays including Doin’ Time in the Homo No Mo Halfway House, I Can See Sarah Palin from my Window, and Transfigurations, which explores gender non-conformists in the Bible. Glen is the author of the Lambda award winning book, The Jack Bank: A Memoir of a South African Childhood, and working on a novel called, The Tapeworm Chronicles. They will speak and perform sharing their personal journeys, performing old and new work, and what it is like to be two radical queer Quakers dab smack in the middle of Pennsylvania Amish Country.
www.petersontoscano.com
www.glenretief.com
Suggested donation of $5
(no one turned away for lack of funds)

Varied Lives: A Play for Six Men, by Patrick Thomas McCarthy: A Sit-Down Reading
2015-03-01 18:00 - 21:00
Talk back to follow the sit down reading. Refreshments available.

VARIED LIVES (C) 2014 by Patrick Thomas McCarthy ptmc.
A sit down reading of a play “modelled” upon Shakespeare’s MERRY WIVES of WINDSOR.
It’s 1930 in the American Heartland… when adoption ruled as an alternative to marriage…. a visitor from Milwaukee, striving for more than just a weekend in the country, throws Mr. Fenton Philip Ford’s estate and its VARIED LIVES into chaos.
SIX MEN: Modell “Moddy” Terrence Smith. 20s; Mr. Fenton Philip Ford 40s/50s; Turner, the butler 40s/50s; Satchel Baggins 20s; Mr. Princeton Percival Page 40s/50s; Mr. Donald John Falstaff, a Milwaukee brewer 50s

Raji Bathish: Queer Writing in Palestine Today
2015-02-28 19:00 - 22:00
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.

Group reading of Shelley Marlow's new novel TWO AUGUSTS IN A ROW IN A ROW
2015-02-27 19:00 - 22:00
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.

Bi Book Club: Recognize: The Voices of Bisexual Men
2015-02-26 18:30 - 20:30
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.

Prelude to a Film: Confederitis
2015-02-25 19:30 - 22:00
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.

DEADLINE: Works-in-Progress from Cutting-Edge Queer Artists: February Edition!
2015-02-22 18:00 - 21:00
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 )

Newfangled 5: Robert Siek hosts Wo Chan, Jake Matkov, and Jayson Smith
2015-02-21 19:00 - 22:00
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.

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!

Book launch of Joon Oluchi Lee’s 94
2015-02-19 19:00 - 22:00
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.

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

Que(e)rying Theory #3: The Queer Child, by Kathryn Bond Stockton
2015-02-15 18:00 - 21:00
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.

Bureau at Artist Services Day at Brooklyn Arts Exchange with Dan Fishback
2015-02-15 13:00 - 14:00
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.

Nerd Love/Nerd Lust and Other Celebrations of Queer Love Beyond Chocolate and Roses
2015-02-14 19:00 - 22:00
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.
