BGSQD

Adult Contemporary Presents Jan Clausen, Jaime Shearn Coan and Amber Jamilla Musser
2014-10-23 20:00 - 22:00 (America/New_York) | NY
Join us for the October installment of the ADULT CONTEMPORARY reading series, featuring Jan Clausen, Jaime Shearn Coan, and Amber Jamilla Musser.

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.

Jan Clausen’s books include novels, the memoir Apples and Oranges, and six volumes of poetry. Her most recent poetry title, Veiled Spill: A Sequence, has just been published by GenPop Books. Individual poems have appeared widely in periodicals such as AGNI, Bloom, Drunken Boat, esque, Fence, Hanging Loose, The Hat, Hotel Amerika, and Ploughshares, and in the anthologies Obsession: Sestinas in the 21st Century and Poems from the Women’s Movement. In 1976, Clausen co-founded Conditions magazine, and later extended her involvement with the feminist small press movement as publisher of Long Haul Press. The recipient of writing grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and NYFA, she teaches in the Goddard College MFA in Writing Program and at NYU.

Jaime Shearn Coan is a poet and a PhD student in English at The Graduate Center, CUNY. You can find his writings on dance in the Brooklyn Rail. Jaime has received fellowships from Poets House, VCCA, Tin House, and the Saltonstall Foundation. He is the recipient of a 2014 Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Grant and his chapbook, Turn it Over, will be published by Argos Books in 2015.

Amber Jamilla Musser is Assistant Professor in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Washington University in St Louis. Her research includes the history of science, critical race studies, and queer and feminist theory. Her book, Sensational Flesh: Race, Power, and Masochism was just published by NYU Press. It uses masochism to probe the sensations that come with marginalization and powerlessness. She has also published articles on sexuality and embodiment in Feminist Review, Social Text, Literature and Medicine, theory and event, differences, and WSQ.

Queer Voices: Poetry Reading with Michael Broder, Thomas Dooley, Christopher Schmidt, & Charif Shanahan
2014-10-24 19:00 - 21:00
Poets Michael Broder, Thomas Dooley, Christopher Schmidt, and Charif Shanahan will read from their acclaimed and award-winning books and share exciting new work.

Reception at 7:00
Reading at 7:30

Michael Broder is the author of This Life Now (A Midsummer Night’s Press, 2014). His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in American Poetry Review, BLOOM, Columbia Poetry Review, Court Green, Painted Bride Quarterly, and Poem-a-Day on Poets.org. He lives in Brooklyn with his husband, the poet Jason Schneiderman, and a large brood of feral and domestic cats.

Thomas Dooley is the author of Trespass, a 2013 National Poetry Series selection. He is the founder and artistic director of Emotive Fruition, a New York theatre collective of actors and poets. He holds a Master of Fine Arts from New York University and works in the field of narrative medicine.

Charif Shanahan studied poetry at Princeton University, Dartmouth College, and New York University, where he earned his MFA and served as a Starlight Foundation Fellow. Charif is a Cave Canem fellow, a recipient of an Academy of American Poets Prize and a semi-finalist for the “Discovery”/Boston ReviewPoetry Prize. His poems and translations have appeared or are forthcoming in The New Republic, A Public Space, Barrow Street, Circumference,The Manhattanville Review, and elsewhere. He was recently featured in Words Without Border’s “City and the Writer” column. He is the Programs Director for the Poetry Society of America and the poetry editor for Psychology Tomorrow Magazine.

Christopher Schmidt is the author of The Next in Line, winner of the Slope Editions Book Prize (2008), and a chapbook, Thermae (EAOGH, 2012). His poems, lyric essays, and reviews have appeared in Tin House, Boston Review, The Village Voice, Court Green, La Petite Zine, SubStance, EOAGH, and many other venues. Chris is an Assistant Professor of English at LaGuardia Community College of the City University of New York.

Gio Black Peter: 100 Postcard Drawings
2014-10-25 14:00 - 18:00
On Oct 22, Oct 23, Oct 25 Gio Black Peter will be doing a live drawing session at the Bureau. He will be making 100 postcard drawings to celebrate the opening of SEE YOU IN HELL! Only available in person. First come first served.

All of Them Witches - Curated by Gio Black Peter
2014-10-25 19:00 - 22:00
OCT 25
ALL OF THEM WITCHES short film program curated by Gio Black Peter
[one night only]
featuring short films by
Richard Kern
Bruce LaBruce
SUPERM [Slava Mogutin & Brian Kenny]
Franko Black
Matt Lambert
Lee Adams ft. Dahc Dermur VIII
Karol Radziszewski
Nicky Miller
Daniel Mckernan
Paul Gunn
Tyler Stone
Gio Black Peter
+++ plus more
Check out this teaser!

*Devil’s Night* B0DYH1GH, Tender Cousins, SISTER PACT
2014-10-30 20:00 - 22:00
3homoorgasmicspellboundbandsloveunderwillandshagyoutonight

Wakeuphalloweenmorninghungoverandreleasedbytragicomiccatharsis

B0DYH1GH: Since 2010, Brooklyn-based art duo B0DYH1GH have developed a cult following for their epic, psychedelic, synaesthetic music; dark and weird art interventions; intricate, tautological grooves; and entrancing, mysterious style. They’ve performed at legendary New York City club nights such as Birdsong, Spank, Pussy Faggot, Clump, Gio Black Peter’s Super Bisexuals, Everybooty Gay Pride, Jason & Jill, Apocalypse Wow, F.:.NCY, and Chris Tyler’s Total Rejects Live. They’ve served as models and muses for internationally-acclaimed artists such as Amos Mac, whose image of the band went viral after being featured in Out Magazine, and created site-specific work for galleries such as the Impossible Project Space and Strange Loop. The band has had two evening-length special gala performances, DEEP-FRIED CANDYFLOWERS at Culturefix and ALIEN AFTERLIFE at La MaMa, and released a critically-acclaimed debut mixtape, PRETTY BEAUTIFUL, and an instrumental art-rock masterpiece EP BUTTERBAWL. Their sophomore mixtape, LILDED GILY, is forthcoming in 2014.
www.b0dyh1gh.tumblr.com

Tender Cousins—Felix Bernstein, Gabriel Hoot, Sam Taffell “awkward, fragile and imposing” (deadstock) Are xxxposed at www.felixbernstein.com.

Sister Pact, formerly called Skirt, is Logan Sibrel (The Firms) and Omar Afzaal (House of Bread, Young Guts). The band started as a solo project in 2008 when Logan envisioned a soundtrack to an art show that never happened. The resulting bedroom jams would sit idle for a number of years until the two bandmates met and used them as the framework for the collaboration taking place now.
https://sisterpact.bandcamp.com/

TELL 7
2014-11-01 19:00 - 22:00
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.
TBD is the theme of the seventh installment of TELL, featuring Hadassah Damien (aka Damien Luxe), Ariel “Speedwagon” Federow, Chris Roberts, and Anita Dolce Vita.
Our host, Drae Campbell just won the grand prize at the first annual San Miguel De Allende Storytelling Festival in Mexico.
She’s going to tell the ‘winning’ story at the next TELL on 11/1.

https://creativecrossroadsofamericas.org/winners-2014-san-miguel-storytelling-festival/

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. 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 and around town. www.draecampbell.com

Hadassah Damien is a multimedia artist & performer, organizer, and writer who you may have encountered onstage as Damien Luxe. Damien entered graduate school to learn about how protest arts work in radical political history and came out with this research. She’s lectured on radicalism in art at Yale, Duke, UT Austin, U of Toronto, and other fancy places as well as on barroom floors, in barns, and in backyards. [She prefers the latter.] She’s co-producer of the Heels on Wheels Glitter Roadshow, the Opentoe Peepshow Salon series, contributes collaborative technology services to many queer, arts, and social justice organizations, and writes about tech, power, perversion, and art at www.femmetech.org

Photo by Stacie Joy
Ariel “Speedwagon” Federow‘s work has been seen on Broadway, Lafayette, Houston, Chrystie, Fulton, N 6th, and many of the finer streets of NYC and beyond. Venues: Dixon Place, the Hemispheric Institute for Performance and Politics, the Bowery Poetry Club, WoW Theater Cafe, Hey Queen!, Rebel Cupcake, In the Flesh, BAX, the Bureau of General Services: Queer Divison, LaMama ETC. Company member: the Ballez, Butch Burlesque, AO Movement Collective. Works With: Coral Short, Jenny Romaine, Susana Cook, Quito Ziegler, Daniel Rosza Lang/Levitsky, the Aftselokhis Spectacle Committee. Resident reporter, Sarah Jenny News Network. Reigning dapperQ of the year. Co-curator of Deadline, a queer works-in-progress series. 2012 Hemispheric Institute Affiliated Emerging Artist. Miss JewSA 5772. Bingo host. Clown.

Chris Roberts is an artist, writer, and chef working on the MIX festival and a forthcoming second zine of ingredient-based adventures in cooking.

Anita Dolce Vita is a Clinical Research Nurse by day and a fashion and culture blogger by night. In addition to serving as the Editor in Chief at dapperQ.com, her work has been featured/mentioned in The Huffington Post, Curve, DIVA, Autostraddle, MTV’s After Ellen, Newsweek’s The Daily Beast, HuffPo Live, San Francisco Weekly, Canada’s Globe and Mail, Beijing Review, and Bosnia’s Manjine.BA

Belladonna* and the Bureau Present: EC Maxe Crandall, Cheena Marie Lo, & Natalie Peart
2014-11-06 20:30 - 22:00
Join Belladonna* and the Bureau for readings by EC Maxe Crandall, Cheena Marie Lo, & Natalie Peart

Cheena Marie Lo lives in Oakland, CA, where they co-curate the Manifest Reading Series. Their work has been published in 580 Split, La Fovea, The Poetic Labor Project, and the anthology It’s Night in San Francisco but it’s Sunny in Oakland.
EC Maxe Crandall’s chapbook “Together Men Make Paradigms” was published this summer by Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs. The play premiered at the Hot! Festival at Dixon Place and was short-listed for the Leslie Scalapino Award. A 2014 Poets House fellow, Maxe teaches in the Undergraduate Writing Program at Columbia University and is at work on a critical biography called Gertrude Stein and Men.
Natalie Peart is a creative and likes to read tarot cards with her coffee. She co-hosts the Brooklyn Ladies Text-based Salon with poet/mother/person, mother/person/poet, person/poet/mother, Montana Ray.

Newfangled 4: Robert Siek Hosts Nick Comilla, Jameson Fitzpatrick, & Christopher Soto
2014-11-08 19:00 - 21:00
Join us for the 4th installment of Newfangled, poetry readings by emerging poets hosted by Robert Siek. Newfangled 4 features Nick Comilla, Jameson Fitzpatrick, & Christopher Soto.

Born on a military base turned ghost town in Rome, NY, NICK COMILLA currently lives in NYC. He holds an MFA in poetry/fiction from The New School. His poems have appeared in Assaracus, Poetry Is Dead, Lambda Literary, and HOMO Magazine. He is currently working on his first book project, Ghosts of Montreal. You can check out more of his work here and sometimes here.

JAMESON FITZPATRICK is the author of the chapbook Morrisroe: Erasures (89plus/LUMA Publications), and his poems have appeared in The Awl, The American Reader, The Literary Review, and Poetry, among elsewhere. He holds a BA and an MFA from New York University, where he now teaches in the Expository Writing Program.

CHRISTOPHER SOTO (aka Loma) is a queer latin@ punk poet and prison abolitionist. They are currently curating Nepantla: A Journal Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color in collaboration with The Lambda Literary Foundation. They have work published in Columbia: A Journal, Acentos Review, Anti-, and more. They are an MFA candidate in Poetry at NYU.

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.

Author two-fer with Ron Suresha at BGSQD!
2014-11-09 19:00 - 21:00
Join us for a night of bawdy folklore and wintering bears, as Ron Suresha presents two books coming out this November.

First is Suresha’s new collection of Turkish folk humor, Extraordinary Adventures of Mullah Nasruddin, from Lethe Press, the sequel to his 2001 award-winning book of humor, The Uncommon Sense of the Immortal Mullah Nasruddin. These authentic, hilarious “Naughty Nasruddin” stories deal with tabu topics such as bisexuality, adultery, incest, bestiality, and violence. Repressed for centuries for moralistic reasons, many are being published in an English trade book for the first time. Come prepared to be amused and astounded.

The author will also read from the new anthology, The Bears of Winter, edited by Jerry L. Wheeler (who lives in Denver and cannot attend), published by the Bear Bones Books imprint of Lethe Press, which Suresha edits. Listen to excerpts from growlingly sexy bearotica sure to make your fur thicken.
Following the reading, Suresha will answer questions and sign copies of his books.

Ron J. Suresha’s published nonfiction works include: a self-published beverage recipé book, Mugs o’ Joy: Delicious Hot Drinks (1998, reprinted 2013); an acclaimed 2002 book on the worldwide gay and bisexual men’s Bear subculture, Bears on Bears: Interviews & Discussions (revised edition, Bear Bones Books, 2008); and two anthologies, Bi Men: Coming Out (edited with Pete Chvany, Haworth/Routledge, 2006), and Bisexual Perspectives on the Life and Work of Alfred C. Kinsey (Routledge, 2010), both finalists for the Lambda Literary Award. He also authored with Scott McGillivray a 2012 pictorial book with essays, Fur: The Love of Hair (Bruno Gmünder), winner of a Rainbow Book Award. Suresha, who resides with his husband in central western Connecticut, also writes and edits fiction under the pseudonym R. Jackson, and is the Cofounder and Acquisitions Editor of the Bear Bones Books imprint of Lethe Press.

Nights at Rizzoli Launch with Felice Picano
2014-11-12 19:00 - 22:00
Glamour and books don’t often converge, but forty years ago they did so at Rizzoli, one of New York City’s greatest bookstores: and no one is better equipped to celebrate that time and place than Felice Picano, a founding member of the Violet Quill and recipient of the Lambda Literary Foundation’s Pioneer Award (and former Rizzoli manager). With his forthcoming memoir, Nights at Rizzoli, Felice Picano takes us back to New York as it was when the legendary bookstore was a meeting place for intellectuals, celebrities, artists and assorted hangers-on. Then an aspiring writer in a post-Stonewall New York, Picano recounts his days rubbing shoulders with the city’s celebrities at Rizzoli and nights bumping into them in seedier venues downtown.

Join us on November 12th to celebrate the publication of Nights at Rizzoli. Felice will read from his book, followed by a Q&A. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and refreshments will be available.

Felice Picano, poet, novelist, playwright, critic and publisher, was a founding member of the Violet Quill, a pioneering group of gay male writers in the 1980s. Recipient of many awards and citations, he received the Lambda Literary Foundation’s Pioneer Award in 2010, and the City of West Hollywood’s Rainbow Award and Citation in 2013.

Bi Book Club
2014-11-13 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!
Nov Book: The Last Nude by Ellis Avery.
The Last Nude is a novel based on the life of bisexual Art Deco artist Tamara de Lempicka and the affair she had with her most famous model. Author Ellis Avery will join us for the second half of our meeting so we can have some author Q&A!
Future Bi Book Club meetings at the Bureau of General Services-Queer Division:
Friday, December 12
Thursday, January 22
Thursday, February 26

Bureau Birthday Party!
2014-11-15 19:00 - 22:00
On November 15, 2012 the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division was born at Strange Loop Gallery on Orchard Street. The Bureau’s come a long way, baby! We will be 2 years old on Saturday, November 15th, and we hope that you’ll come celebrate with us in our new home at The LBGT Community Center! Drae Campbell will host an evening of festivities featuring Lady Quesa’Dilla, Joseph Whitt, Tommy Pico, and DJ Shomi Noise.
$10 suggested donation to pay our performers (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. 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 and a night of queer storytelling called TELL at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division. Campbell just won the grand prize at the first annual San Miguel De Allende Storytelling Festival in Mexico. Check her out online and around town. www.draecampbell.com

Shomi Noise is a writer, musician, DJ, storyteller, dreamer, and tinkerer with an established reputation in the Brooklyn underground scene. Her work explores narratives of intersectionality, vulnerability, and resilience. She uses music to share empowering messages with the world through a creative mix of stories and sounds.
Shomi has DJed nationally and internationally with sets that include a clever mix of genres ranging from Latin dance music, hip-hop, electrohouse, reggae, pop, punk rock etc. Her ability to read crowds and create catchy and original song mashups on the spot makes her DJ work interesting and refreshing. She currently produces three parties in Brooklyn: Riot Chica,Telenovela, and Wretched. Riot Chica is a queercore/riot grrrl party that celebrates feminism and DIY culture by sharing empowering underground music made by ladies and queers,Telenovela is a new party for Spanish oldies and Wretched is a fun 90s party.
As a writer, performer, and musician, Shomi is working on original singer/songwriter material and other musical projects with friends. She is the author of “Building Up Emotional Muscles,” a coming of age story that incorporates music and storytelling to depict the struggles and triumphs she experienced growing up as a young queer immigrant woman of color in the US. It addresses her experience with the intersectionality of culture, race, class, sexuality and punk rock, and is based on a series of zines sharing the same title. She’s had the opportunity to share this original work as part of Heels on Wheels, an organization of radical queer femme performance artists that tours across the US and Canada. She is currently working on the 4th and last volume of the series and hopes to one day make a movie or play about it. Shomi’s work is best described as unique, sassy, musically eclectic, and fun. She is deeply committed to spreading messages of self-love, empowerment, social justice, and community building.
To find out more about Shomi visit:
www.shominoise.com
https://soundcloud.com/shominoise
https://www.facebook.com/djshominoise

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.

Alejandro Rodríguez AKA Lady Quesa’Dilla — Alejandro is a native Tejan@ from the El Paso and Ciudad Juárez border. Their work is at the intersection of cultural identity, drag, and community. “The Brown Queen,” an autobiographical solo performance about growing up queer in the southwest, premiered at HERE Arts Center in the spring of 2010. Most recent solo performances include “My Tia Lupe” and “The Faggot in the Pink House”. Alejandro has performed in New York City, El Paso, Texas, Chiapas, Mexico, and Montreal, Canada. Alejandro is a member of The House of Bushwig, as Lady Quesa’Dilla, duties include Volunteer Coordinator for the annual Bushwig Festival.
Alejandro can also be found as an Information and Referral Specialist at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center in Manhattan; and as a Teaching Artist in The Bronx and Brooklyn.
Alejandro holds a BA in Theater from Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts, and a MA in Performance Studies from Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, and is an alum of The Hemispheric Institute for Performance and Politics.
Resides in Brooklyn.
Lady Quesa’Dilla is the reigning Miss Coney Island Queen of Drag.

Joseph Whitt is an artist, writer and independent curator living and working in New York City. His work has been presented at MOMA PS1, PPOW Gallery, Eyebeam, Deitch Projects, CRG Gallery, Envoy Enterprises, BGSQD, Interstate Projects and Radio Bushwick, and has been reviewed in The New York Times, Flash Art, and Sculpture. His writings have appeared in Art Papers, ArtUS, Useless Magazine and K48. He has released three chapbooks of poetry –09.29.12, Defriendings, and Harmonica (all published by T.M.I. Ltd.), and is currently working on a fourth.

Que(e)rying Theory #1: “Cruising Utopia” by José Muñoz
2014-11-16 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.

“Queerness is not yet here. Queerness is an ideality. Put another way, we are not yet queer. We may never touch queerness, but we can feel it as the warm illumination of a horizon imbued with potentiality…Queerness is that thing that lets us feel that this world is not enough, that indeed something is missing.”
So begins José Muñoz’s Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity, one of the most influential texts in contemporary queer studies. A response to the so-called “antirelational turn” in the queer academy, Cruising Utopia asserts that queerness is first and foremost about collectivity, futurity, and hope–and not, as some critics have argued, a negation that undoes the very idea of “the social” itself. Cruising from European philosophers to contemporary performance artists of color, Muñoz traces queer dreams of difference past and present, and maps out the utopic futures that lay just beyond the horizon. At once an interruption to pragmatic LGBT political discourses and a moving manifesto for imagining another world, Cruising Utopia is a work that is timely, challenging, and daring, and illuminating for any queer project of change.
Our conversation will open with a brief overview of antisocial queer theory’s major arguments before delving into Cruising Utopia. While we will talk about the text as a whole, we will primarily focus on the introduction, conclusion, and first three chapters of the book. Come with questions, thoughts, and ideas–even if you didn’t have a chance to finish the entire book!
Cruising Utopia is available for purchase at the Bureau–please support the Bureau by purchasing your copy here. Thank you!

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 research on the artists David Wojnarowicz and Gary Fisher. Connor tweets about leftism, queer politics, and dog costumes @conneriks
Event image: Catch One, Copyright Kevin McCarty: https://www.kevinmccartystudio.com/Stages/9/caption/

DEADLINE: Works-in-Progress from Cutting-Edge Queer Artists: November Edition!
2014-11-19 19:00 - 22:00
Post-Clown Disaster, Ariel Federow and Cabaret Idiot, Sabrina Chap bring you this new 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 November edition of DEADLINE will feature:

Thain Damon Stang – ‘A Whores’ Book of Magickal Days’- performance art

Croft Vaughn – performing as Penelope Labradoodle Rockefeller (theatre/performance)

Audrey Zee Whitesides – music

Casey Llewlynn – A queer adaptation of ‘Our Town’ (theatre)

Visual AIDS DUETS Book Club
2014-11-20 19:00 - 20:30
The importance of community and dialogue are at the heart of Visual AIDS‘ new DUETS publication series. In hopes of bringing together the extended Visual AIDS community of artist members, advocates, and affiliates around our latest publications, Visual AIDS is hosting a book club for DUETS: Stephen Andrews & Gregg Bordowitz in conversation. The first volume of DUETS considers themes such as long-term survival with AIDS, mentorship, activism, and spirituality. We will discuss these topics as well as insights, inspirations and reactions to the engaging and highly readable DUETS conversation, which highlights connections between communities of artists and activists. We encourage book club participants to have read DUETS, yet all are welcome to participate in the discussion.
DUETS: Stephen Andrews & Gregg Bordowitz in conversation is available for purchase at the Bureau.
RSVP on Facebook

From King Edward II to Sir Ian McKellen: the world's gayest National Portrait Gallery
2014-11-21 19:00 - 21:30
The lecture by Andrew Lear is principally a slide show, with commentary, in which Lear shows people a small part of the astonishing gay history hanging on the walls of the National Portrait Gallery in London. This includes men, women, at least one trans person, couples, men portrayed by the “queer eye”, and people involved in important gay historical events, such as the Oscar Wilde story; many of them (e.g. Shakespeare, Byron, Aubrey Beardsley) are famous, but others are far less so, at least in the US today. The lecture also raises many key issues in gay history, the difficult evidentiary record, the difficulty of establishing transhistorical categories for same-sex desire, and so on–but it confronts these indirectly, through images and biographies, rather than focusing directly on them.
Q&A and reception to follow the lecture.

Andrew Lear (born December 21, 1958) is a Classicist and scholar of gender history and the history of sexuality. His research focuses on ancient Greek poetry and art.[1] His book on male-male erotic scenes in ancient Athenian vase-painting (Images of Ancient Greek Pederasty: Boys Were Their Gods, co-authored with Eva Cantarella, Routledge 2008), was positively reviewed: it greatly expanded the number of known scenes and proposed a sophisticated framework for their interpretation.[2][3][4][5] He has written articles on topics including the Greek poets Anacreon and Theognis, as well as book reviews for Classical World.[6] His poems and translations have appeared in such journals as Persephone, the Southern Humanities Review, and Literary Imagination. He has taught at Harvard, Columbia, Pomona College,[7] and NYU. In addition to his academic career, Lear is the founder of Oscar Wilde Tours, the first company to offer multi-day guided tours focused on gay history: www.oscarwildetours.com.[8] (From Wikipedia)

Image:
Chevalier d’Eon, by Thomas Stewart, after Jean Laurent Mosnier, oil on canvas, 1792, 30 1/8 in. x 25 1/4 in. (765 mm x 640 mm). National Portrait Gallery, London.

Bureau Book Club #4: Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club, by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
2014-11-23 19:00 - 21:00
The Bureau Book Club is a home for freewheeling discussion about the books and the issues that captivate us. Inspired by the conversations that break out after so many of the Bureau’s more formal events, we’ll have a one-hour session each month about a different work of fiction or non-fiction. Buy the book from the Bureau and get a 10% discount. We know you have busy lives: if you can’t finish the whole book, why not come and talk about the parts you’ve read? Just come prepared with a favorite quote.
Bureau Book Club #4 will be moderated by Ben Miller and Ben González.

Bureau Book Club #4 will discuss: Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club, by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Winner of the 2013 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction!
Benjamin Alire Sáenz‘s stories reveal how all borders—real, imagined, sexual, human, the line between dark and light, addict and straight—entangle those who live on either side. Take, for instance, the Kentucky Club on Avenida Juárez two blocks south of the Rio Grande. It’s a touchstone for each of Sáenz’s stories. His characters walk by, they might go in for a drink or to score, or they might just stay there for a while and let their story be told. Sáenz knows that the Kentucky Club, like special watering holes in all cities, is the contrary to borders. It welcomes Spanish and English, Mexicans and gringos, poor and rich, gay and straight, drug addicts and drunks, laughter and sadness, and even despair. It’s a place of rich history and good drinks and cold beer and a long polished mahogany bar. Some days it smells like piss. “I’m going home to the other side.” That’s a strange statement, but you hear it all the time at the Kentucky Club.

Purchase Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club from the Bureau before November 23rd and receive a 10% discount!
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Ben Miller is a Brooklyn-based writer. Current projects include award-winning biographical research on early gay activist Harry Hay that has taken him to archives in California and conferences from Pennsylvania to New Mexico, an adaptation of an early Mozart libretto for performance at Carnegie Hall, serving as dramaturg for Circuit Theatre Company’s production of The Walk Across America for Mother Earth, and new short fiction influenced by his historical research. His teachers in history and writing have included Linda Gordon, K. Kevyne Baar, Marcelle Clements, and Jonathan Safran Foer. Ben is the winner of New York University’s Bessie and Louis Levy Prize for Excellence in American History, and was named Steffi Berne Research Scholar in the Humanities by the same institution. He is a co-founder of Squid Ink Magazine (launching soon), works as Web Associate at the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, and serves on the communications committee of the New York City LGBT Anti-Violence Project. He tweets @benwritesthings.

Bureau closed on Thursday and Friday, 11/27 & 11/28
2014-11-27 - 2014-11-28

Releasing the Monster: Murder Most Queer Book Launch Party
2014-12-03 19:00 - 22:00
A reading and reception to celebrate the release of Murder Most Queer: The Homicidal Homosexual in the American Theater (University of Michigan Press) by Jordan Schildcrout
The “villainous homosexual” has long stalked America’s cultural imagination, most explicitly in the figure of the queer murderer, who has appeared as a character in dozens of plays. But as society’s understanding of homosexuality has changed, so has the significance of these controversial characters, especially when employed by LGBT theater artists themselves to explore darker fears and desires. Murder Most Queer examines the shifting meanings of murderous LGBT characters in American theater over a century, showing how these representations wrestle with and ultimately subvert notions of queer villainy. [www.murdermostqueer.com]

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Jordan Schildcrout is Assistant Professor of Theater and Performance at Purchase College-SUNY, where he teaches courses in theater history, theory, and dramaturgy, including seminars in LGBT Theater and American Drama. As a dramaturg and literary manager, he has worked for Manhattan Theatre Club, Adobe Theatre Company, and Denver Center Theatre Company. His articles on theater, film, and popular culture have appeared in Theatre Journal, The Journal of Popular Culture, The Journal of American Culture, and The Oxford Handbook of American Drama.

Poetry Reading with Adam Fitzgerald, Maureen McLane, and Stephen Burt
2014-12-04 19:00 - 20:30
Lawrence Kaplun hosts a poetry reading with Adam Fitzgerald, Maureen McLane, and Stephen Burt. Put it in your calendar. Come hear these incredible poets. Not to be missed.

Adam Fitzgerald is the author of THE LATE PARADE (Liveright / Norton) and serves as editor of the literary journal, Maggy. He also serves as Director of The Ashbery Home School in the Hudson Valley. His poems have appeared in many journals such as Poetry Magazine, Boston Review, Fence, A Public Space, and elsewhere. He teaches in the creative writing program at Rutgers and The New School, and lives in New York City.

Maureen McLane is the author of three books of poems, most recently, THIS BLUE (FSG) which was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2014. MY POETS (FSG), an experimental hybrid of memoir and criticism, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her poems have appeared in many journals such as The New Yorker, Paris Review, Boston Review, Slate and elsewhere. She teaches in the English Department at NYU, and lives in New York City.

Stephen Burt is the author of three books of poems, most recently, BELMONT (Graywolf). He’s one of the most exciting literary critics in the United States, and his essays appear in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Poetry Magazine, Yale Review and elsewhere. His essay collection, CLOSE CALLS WITH NONSENSE (Graywolf) was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. His Ted-Talk, “Why People Need Poetry” appeared in 2013. He teaches in the English Department at Harvard, and lives in the Boston area.

Cancelled! Adult Contemporary Presents: Morgan Bassichis, Jibz Cameron & Jack Halberstam
2014-12-04 20:30 - 22:00
Morning of December 4
Organizers Katherine Brewer Ball and Svetlana Kitto write:

In light of the Eric Garner non-indictment, and the huge protests planned in NYC and across the country, we are canceling tonight’s Adult Contemporary. To honor the lives of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, and the countless others who have lost their lives to the violent system of white supremacy in this country, and to participate in this extraordinary movement that we are so inspired by, the organizers and readers of this week’s Adult Contemporary will be in the streets tonight. We are so grateful to our readers and BGSQD for all their work and want to thank everyone who planned on coming tonight—we will keep you posted on future events.

#BlackLivesMatter #ShutItDown

Join us for the Holiday Spectacular event of ADULT CONTEMPORARY, featuring Morgan Bassichis, Jibz Cameron & Jack Halberstam at BGSQD!
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.

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Morgan Bassichis is a writer and performer whose plays include When the Baba Yaga Eats You Alive and The Witch House. Morgan has performed at Dixon Place, the MIX Festival, the HOT! Festival, the Wild Project, Recess, and the Garage (San Francisco), and in films by Dia Felix and Maria Breaux. Morgan is the author of the Sylvia Rivera Law Project’s 2007 publication, “‘It’s War in Here:’ A Report on the Treatment of Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming People in New York State Men’s Prisons.” Morgan’s essays have appeared in the Radical History Review, Captive Genders, and other anthologies. Morgan is former staff member of Community United Against Violence (CUAV), and is a graduate of Brown University.

Jibz Cameron is a performance/video artist and actor who lives and works in New York City. Her work as alter ego Dynasty Handbag has been presented at many international dives both great and small. She has produced numerous video projects and two albums of original music. In addition to her work as Dynasty Handbag she has also been seen acting in work by The Residents, Kalup Linzy, The Wooster Group and in many a web series that remain unpopular. She also works as a professor of various performance and comedy related subjects. Her third evening length performance Soggy Glasses, recently premiered at BAM’s Next Wave Festival. She is currently in development on a television series with Electric Dynamite. dynastyhandbag.com

Jack Halberstam is a provocateur, blogger and writer and officially makes mischief at USC in the department of American Studies and Ethnicity. Jack has written books on queer genders, failure, monsters and feminism and is currently working on something mad and monstrous titled The Wild.

Queering the Lines: Rebecca Levi - Thread & Ink
2014-12-05 19:00 - 22:00
Please join us for the opening reception of Queering the Lines: Rebecca Levi – Thread & Ink
The exhibition will run from Friday, December 5th, 2014-February 1, 2015.
Rebecca Levi will talk about her work with John Chaich, curator of the recent exhibition Queer Threads, on Wednesday, January 14, at 7 PM, at the Bureau. Stay tuned for more details.

My thread-based and pen & ink work is influenced by images in found photography, mid-century magazines, and 1970s porn. In my embroidered portraits, I subvert 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. In my Bear Series, I reinterpret the art of vintage homoerotic physique magazines for contemporary “bear” gay male culture, substituting hirsute and hefty for smooth and svelte. In Wrestling Girls and the Bad Romance Series, I explore the dynamics of female desire and hidden queer histories from vintage pin-up pics and mid-century romance comics. Other pieces in the show play with source material from news reels, statuary, and internet memes.
–Rebecca Levi

Rebecca Levi is a New York City born and based artist. She received her BA from McGill University in Montreal. Her embroidery and pen-and-ink work has been shown in group and solo exhibitions including “Queer Threads: Crafting Identity and Community” at the Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art (New York), Soho Gallery for Digital Art (New York), Four Eleven Studio (Provincetown), Deluca Gallery (New York pop-up), Galapagos Art Space (Brooklyn), and Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Arts Projects (Toronto). Her embroidered work “Breakfast Boy” is one of the artworks featured in the just released Play Smart trading card series from Visual AIDS. www.rebeccalevi.com

The Queer South: LGBTQ Writers on the American South - A Reading by Contributors
2014-12-06 20:30 - 22:00
Join contributors to The Queer South: LGBTQ Writers on the American South for a reading at the Bureau. Featuring Matthew Hittinger, Stephen S. Mills, Joseph Osmundson, Douglas Ray (editor), Jeffery Berg, Perry Brass, and Rangi McNeil.
The Queer South: LGBTQ Writers on the American South, edited by Douglas Ray, published by Sibling Rivalry Press, 2013.
This anthology, dreamed up and edited by Douglas Ray, features poetry and prose that sings of and explores the queer experience of the American South. Included are Dorothy Allison, Shane Allison, John Andrews, Derrick Austin, Jeffery Berg, Richard Blanco, Perry Brass, Dustin Brookshire, Jericho Brown, Joey Connelly, William Cordeiro, C. Cleo Creech, James Croteau, J.K. Daniels, Nick Dephtereos, David Eye, Jason K. Friedman, D. Gilson, Ellen Goldstein, Miriam Bird Greenberg, Elizabeth Gross, Johnathan Harper, Scott Hightower, Matthew Hittinger, Darrel Alejandro Holnes, Rex Leonowicz, Sassafras Lowrey, Tyler Lynn, Bo McGuire, Rangi McNeil, Kelly McQuain, M. Mack, Ed Madden, Jeff Mann, Randall Mann, Mary Meriam, Stephen S. Mills, Cameron Mitchell, Foster Noone, Joseph Osmundson, Eddie Outlaw, Seth Pennington, Evan J. Peterson, Kenneth Pobo, Brad Richard, Hannah Riddle, Laurence Ross, Liana Roux, Kevin Sessums, Del Shores, Erin Elizabeth Smith, Will Stockton, Dan Stone, Christine Stroud, Billie Tadros, TC Tolbert, Dan Vera, Annie Virginia, Valerie Wetlaufer, C.T. Whitley, Scott Wiggerman, Cristan Williams, and L. Lamar Wilson.

Matthew Hittinger is the author of two poetry collections, The Erotic Postulate (2014) and Skin Shift (2012) both from Sibling Rivalry Press, and three chapbooks. He received his MFA from the University of Michigan where he won a Hopwood Award for poetry. His work has appeared in many journals and anthologies, has been adapted into art songs, and in 2012 Poets & Writers Magazine named him a Debut Poet on their 8th annual list. Matthew lives in Astoria, Queens.

Stephen S. Mills is the author of the Lambda Award-winning book He Do the Gay Man in Different Voices(Sibling Rivalry Press, 2012) and A History of the Unmarried (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2014). He earned his MFA from Florida State University. His work has appeared in The Antioch Review, PANK, The New York Quarterly, The Los Angeles Review, Knockout, Assaracus, The Rumpus, and others. He is also the winner of the 2008 Gival Press Oscar Wilde Poetry Award. He lives in New York City. Website: https://www.stephensmills.com/

Joseph Osmundson is a writer, educator, and scientist based in New York City. His writing has appeared in The Rumpus, on Gawker.com, and in The Feminist Wire, where he is an Associate Editor. He completed graduate studies in Molecular Biophysics at The Rockefeller University and is currently a post-doctoral fellow at New York University.

Douglas Ray is author of He Will Laugh and editor of The Queer South. A former Lambda Literary Fellow, he received his B.A. in classics and English and M.F.A. in creative writing from The University of Mississippi, where he edited The Yalobusha Review. He is Poet-in-Residence at Indian Springs School, an independent boarding and day school in Birmingham, Alabama.sdouglasray.com

Jeffery Berg grew up in Six Mile, South Carolina, and Lynchburg, Virginia. He received an M.F.A. from New York University. His poems have appeared in Court Green, The Gay & Lesbian Review, Map Literary, Assaracus and Harpur Palate. He has written reviews for The Poetry Project Newsletter and Lambda Literary. A Virginia Center of the Creative Arts fellow, Jeffery lives in New York and blogs at jdbrecords.

Perry Brass, from Savannah, GA, has published 17 books; Lambda Literary Award finalist 6 times; finalist Ferro-Grumley Fiction Award; won 4 “Ippy” Awards; appears in 30 anthologies of poetry, fiction, and essays; and has been involved in the LGBT movement since 1969, when he co-edited Come Out!, the world’s first gay liberation newspaper. In 1972, he co-founded the Gay Men’s Health Project Clinic, first clinic for gay men on the East Coast, still operating as New York’s Callen-Lorde Clinic. perrybrass.com

Rangi McNeil is author of The Missing (The Sheep Meadow Press, 2003), a poetry collection. An Emerge-Surface-Be Fellow at The Poetry Project at St. Marks Church, he holds an M.F.A. from Columbia University School of the Arts and teaches at Borough of Manhattan Community College.

SLIPPERY: A Sit Down Reading
2014-12-07 18:00 - 21:00
SLIPPERY: A Wintry Tale spun from Shakespeare’s THE WINTER’s TALE
Nine characters [6 men, 3 women]
A queer post modern take on jealousy, homophobia, betrayal, reconciliation and redemption
You’re invited to Monty’s 16th birthday barbecue…
Bring your appetite for family dysfunction
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Patrick Thomas McCarthy is an actor/director/playwright who has called NYC home since 1995. The Fresh Fruit Festival NYC has been his proving ground for the past two seasons with awards as Best Playwright and Best Ensemble Acting for both PRIDE RIVER CROSSING: A Spoon River for a New Century; and sExtOrtiOn a cautionary tale of teen sexting suggested by national news making events. His Midwestern roots include high school English teaching, and a start to his playwriting at Chicago Dramatists Workshop. His 12th NIGHTed, mined from Shakespeare’s TWELFTH NIGHT, had its most recent read at the old BGSQD space on Hester St.
www.ptmcplaywriting.com

Annie's Audiobook Thunder Party
2014-12-10 19:00 - 22:00
Performance / Fundraiser / Not-so-silent Auction for book access for all – to support the audio book recordings of Annie Lanzillotto‘s books for visually impaired audiences, and for all for whom reading a book is too arduous.
Performances by Annie Lanzillotto and special guests.
As Frank Sinatra’s birthday and Our Lady of Guadalupe Day quickly approach on 12/12, so does Annie’s kickstarter campaign deadline. We gather on 12/10 to celebrate and make sure it’s a success so Annie can record the audiobooks of L is for Lion: an italian bronx butch freedom memoir (SUNY Press) and her poetry collection Schistsong (Bordighera Press, 2013).
Click here to donate.
Thank you!
Come raise a glass of vino or Pellegrino, get a book signed dance add a buck
Annie Lanzillotto is the author of the books L is for Lion: an italian bronx butch freedom memoir (SUNY Press), and Schistsong (Bordighera Press). She’s the singer/songwriter of the albums “Blue Pill,” “Eleven Recitations,” and “Carry My Coffee” StreetCry Productions.

TELL 8: Holidays Shmollidays
2014-12-11 19:00 - 22:00
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.
Holidays Shmollidays is the theme of the eighth installment of TELL, featuring Bevin Branlandingham, Robin Cloud, Kelli Dunham, and Topher Gross!

$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.

Photo by Grace Chu
Bevin Branlandingham is an ultra rad warrior for self-acceptance. She is a writer, performer and cultural producer in Brooklyn, NY who believes that all bodies are good bodies and works to make the world safe for people to love themselves. She blogs at queerfatfemme.com and offers body liberation coaching one on one and through workshops.

Robin Cloud is a New York City-based TV host, comedian, and writer. She is the host of BK Live, a daily show that showcases Brooklyn’s art, culture, and political scenes. She has been featured in Diva Magazine, GO magazine’s “Top 100 Women We Love,” Time Out New York’s “Quote of the Week”, and the Washington Post. Her festival appearances include the Women in Comedy, Ohio Lesbian, Fresh Fruit, Emerging Artists, and Hot! Festivals. Frequently booked to be the Master of Ceremonies, she is proud to have teamed up with fantastic artists and organizations such as the Hetrick-Martin Institute, The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center, NYC Pride, Mr. Murray Hill, Toshi Reagon, Doria Roberts and many more!As a college speaker, Robin tours the country with her talk “Accept Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself” which aims to inspire audiences to transform their fears into acts of courage. She is thrilled to be represented by OUTmedia and The Contemporary Issues Agency.

Kelli Dunham [https://kellidunham.com/] is the genderqueer nurse-comic-author-ex-nun hybrid so common in modern Brooklyn. Kelli was one of Velvet Park Magazine’s 25 Significant Women of 2011, was named to the 2012 Campus Pride Hotlist and has appeared on Showtime and the Discovery Channel and nationwide at colleges, prides, fundraisers and even the occasional livestock auction. Kelli’s fifth book, Freak of Nurture [https://freakofnurture.org/] a collection of humorous essays published by Topside Press caused award-winning author Barbara Carellas to give Kelli the moniker “the David Sedaris of the queer world.”

Photo by Sophia Wallace
Close your eyes and picture a short, furry, charming, charismatic gentleman. You’ve just pictured hair-stylist, blogger and sometimes go-go dancer Topher Gross!

Bi Book Club: Recognize: The Voices of Bisexual Men
2014-12-12 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 the Dec meeting we will read the Preface, the Intro and the 1st section, “Identity.” For the next several meetings we will read two sections per month. 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.
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! Copies of Recognize should be in stock by Wed Nov 26 but you can call to check (646) 457-0859. 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
Future Bi Book Club meetings at the Bureau of General Services-Queer Division:
Thursday, January 22
Thursday, February 26

NYC Launch of Diana Cage's Lesbian Sex Bible
2014-12-13 19:00 - 22:00
Celebrate the LESBIAN SEX BIBLE as it is written in this book of DIANA CAGE
Come into her presence with Julia Bloch Ella Boureau Stephen Boyer Elizabeth Koke Rachel Levitsky Sarah Schulman Others
There you will seek TOYS IN BABELAND, and you will find them.
Rumor will be added to rumor; then they will seek a vision from a prophet.
2. First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people! If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask DIANA: Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet? Can you loose the belt of Orion? Who told you you were naked? Are you hiding in the bushes, sewing together fig leaves in an attempt to cover your nakedness?
3. Call unto DIANA and she will tell you remarkable secrets about things to come. She is writing these things to you now, even though she hopes to be with you soon:
as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them
join them in the same flood of debauchery
embrace the bosom of an adulteress
be intoxicated always in her love
let her breasts fill you at all times with delight
4. And DIANA has appointed in the BGQSD first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues, for of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. If DIANA is for us, who can be against us?
5. Hard drinking, riotous feasting, orgies, and things like that.
6. Yea though we walk through the darkest valley, BABELAND’s rod and BABELAND’s staff, they comfort us.
DIANA CAGE formed The Lesbian Sex Bible from the dust of the ground. She spends a lot of time thinking and writing about sex and desire. She is the former editor of the lesbian porn magazine On Our Backs and host of the Diana Cage show on Sirius XM. The Lesbian Sex Bible is her eighth book.
JULIA BLOCH begat Letters to Kelly Clarkson and will bring forth Allison Corporation in 2015.
ELLA BOUREAU brings to pass the monthly reading series and online magazine In the Flesh. She is working heartily on her first full-length play, It Helps to Hate You a Little.
STEPHEN BOYERcreated the novel Parasite and the chapbook GHOSTS.
ELIZABETH KOKE commits her work unto the Feminist Press, where she has proudly worked on several Lambda Literary Award-winning titles including Justin Vivian Bond’s Tango: My Childhood, Backwards and in High Heels and Laurie Weeks’ Zipper Mouth.
RACHEL LEVITSKY wrote all the words of The Story of My Accident is Ours (Futurepoem, 2013), as well as two other full-length books of poetry, Under the Sun (Futurepoem, 2003) and NEIGHBOR (UDP, 2009). She was the founder of the feminist avant-garde covenant, Belladonna*.
SARAH SCHULMAN has multiplied novels and increased nonfiction books and films upon the earth.
“I hope it will eventually replace the Gideon’s bible. Needs to be the in the nightstand of every hotel room” – Holly Hughes
AMANDA, DIANA, MAXE, co-hosts, enthusiasts.

The QT BFF Reading
2014-12-14 18:00 - 21:00
BFFs Grey Vild and Claudia Cortese, Jayson Smith and Aziza Barnes will read poems born of collaboration, conversation and BFF-ship. Cuuuute!

Aziza Barnes is a brown woman poet from Los Angeles currently living in New York. She is a senior at Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, pursuing her BFA in theater, creative writing and Africana Studies. She was a member of NYU’s poetry slam teams in 2011 and 2012, winning first place in the nation. A member of the Dance Cartel, Aziza performs in venues around New York and is finishing a residency at the Ace Hotel. She is a co-founder of the Divine Fabrics Collective. Winner of the 2012 Button Poetry Prize and author of me Aunt Jemima and the nailgun.

Jayson Smith is a writer & choreographer 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 FreezeRay Press. Jayson facilitates a weekly writing workshop with the LouderARTS project in Manhattan, & is on staff for Union Station Magazine. Find him on Twitter to talk Beyoncé & poems & other, less important things.

Claudia Cortese’s chapbook, Blood Medals, which explores Midwest adolescence—a world of slap bracelets and sisterhood, date rape and PBR—is forthcoming from Thrush Poetry Press. Her poems have appeared in Best New Poets 2011, Blackbird, Crazyhorse, Kenyon Review Online, and Sixth Finch, among others, and her essays and book reviews have appeared in Mid-American Review and Devil’s Lake. Her first book of poetry has been a finalist for prizes from the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry and Black Lawrence Press. Cortese lives and teaches in New Jersey.

Grey Vild is a poet and writer who lives and works in Brooklyn. Vild’s work has appeared in THEM, Elderly, and Hue. He has a chapbook, entitled Go to Naples and Fuck Yourself, forthcoming from EOAGH. He is the happy recipient of the Queer Art Mentorship Fellowship 2014 with Stacy Szymaszek.

Queer Geographies: Beirut, Tijuana, Copenhagen: A Conversation between Editor Lasse Lau and Contributors
2014-12-17 19:00 - 22:00
Is there certain logic to queer geography? This presentation will explore the different hegemony of social structures in society that frequently filter and often limit social uses of queer spaces. Spaces that are seen as non-spaces or powerless structures that exist parallel to streets, parks, sculptures, public toilets, department stores, software companies … Spaces that are appropriated socially and physically into the realm of a queer meanings. The clash between space, Marxist Geographer David Harvey writes, happens between the micro-scale of the body and the personal and the macro-scale of the global political economy. The new book Queer Geographies: Beirut, Tijuana, Copenhagen is a collaborative work of artists, activists, and scholars, showcasing queer art in three very different cities throughout the 2000s, showcasing how these cities produce their own significant meanings. Geographer and queer researcher Jen Jack Gieseking Bowdoin College writes about this book, “The art and its very smart, beautiful catalog highlight the identical processes of neoliberal capitalism that touch each of these places and brings queer life into sync more and more from greater distances.”
The 7 PM reception will be followed by a presentation at 7:30 of work from the book and a conversation between editor Lasse Lau and some of the contributors (TBA).

Lasse Lau (Sønderborg Denmark, 1974) is a award winning filmmaker and video artist who lives and works in Brussels and Copenhagen. His films and art explore socioeconomic issues relating to conflicts of space. He has exhibited in Hamburger Bahnhof (Berlin, Germany), The British Museum (London, GB), Bozar (Brussels, Belgium) Museum of Contemporary Art (Zagreb, Croatia), Museum of Resistance (Turin, Italy), CAA Lagos (Lagos, Nigeria) Casa del Lago (Mexico City) Contemporary Museum (Baltimore, USA) and MoMA PS1 (New York, USA). Lau is the co-founder and board member of Kran Film Collective and New York based artist group Camel Collective. In 2005 he was a fellow at the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program (New York, USA).

Photo of Copenhagen power plant by Flo Maak
