BGSQD

Imani Cezanne and Emi Mahmoud Present Matte Fearless: A Women of the World Poetry Slam Champions Showcase
2016-11-20 19:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | NY
After an unprecedented decision to share the 2016 Women of the World Poetry Slam Championship, Emi Mahmoud and Imani Cezanne have reunited to put on a one of a kind show! Come one, come all to the for an unforgettable night of love, laughs, poems and womanhood.

Union Square Slam presents Venessa Marco and WOWPS Qualifier #3
2016-11-22 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
Did you know? Both our USS rep Gabrielle Smith and USS Organizer Extraordinaire Taylor Steele excelled to Finals Stage at last year’s WOWPS competition? Come on out for your last chance to qualify for USS’s WOWPS Finals Dec 14th!! And while you’re at it, come get your heart salvaged by none other than the dynamite Venessa Marco!!
6pm: Free Writing Workshop
7pm: Sign-Ups and Socialize
7:30pm: Slam, First Round (2 min round)
8:15pm: Featured Poet
9pm: Slam, Second and Third Round (1 min and 4 min rounds)
$5 // All Ages // Wheelchair Accessible
About our Feature:
Venessa Marco is an Afro-descendant poet, writer by way of Cuba and Puerto Rico. Marco currently resides in Harlem, New York. She was a member of the 2012 Da Poetry Lounge in Hollywood, California slam team and a member of the 2013 Nuyorican Poets Cafe, which placed 3rd in the nation. In 2014 Marco competed in The Women of The World poetry festival and placed 6th in the nation. She is a recipient of the Cora Craig Author Award for young women writers allocated by Penmanship Books.
About our Slam:
WOWPS is:
a) an acronym for Women of the World World Poetry Slam
b) one of three national poetry slam events put on annually by Poetry Slam, Inc.
c) held in Dallas, TX from March 15-18th, 2017
Union Square Slam WOWPS Qualifier rules:
Qualified competitors are poets who are female assigned or identified individuals who are PSi members and are 18+ or 21+ years of age, depending on the Host City. This includes gender non-conforming individuals.
8 poets, 3 rounds. Cumulative Scores.
First Round: 2 min (all)
Second Round: 1 min (all)
Third Round: 4 min (top 5)
Cumulative score wins the slam. Top two winners advance to Finals.

Closed for Thanksgiving
2016-11-24 | NY
The Bureau will be closed on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 24th.

Union Square Presents: Taylor Steele's Book Release!
2016-11-29 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
Taylor Steele‘s got a new collection of poems she wants to share with all of you! Come celebrate this book with her and every member of every team/collective Taylor has been a part of. It’s a family affair!
Dirty.Mouth.Kiss, published by the amazing pizza pi press, features art by Ashley Tenn.
7:00 – Mix + Mingle (And buy a book, maybe???)
7:30 – Show Starts
$5 Entry // $13 Book // All Ages // Wheelchair Accessible
Will there be FREE PIZZA? Who knows? Will Taylor break out her guitar and sing a few ditties? Come find out!
Featuring Performances By:
Ashley August + Timothy DuWhite + Nkosi Nkululeko + Kearah Armonie + Patrick Roche + Roya Marsh + Jay Salazar + Gabriel Ramirez + of course, TAYLOR STEELE!
About the Author:
Taylor Steele is a Bronx-born, Brooklyn-based writer and performer. Her work can be found at such esteemed publications as Apogee Journal, Drunk in a Midnight Choir, Rogue Agent, and more. Taylor is or has been a content writer for Philadelphia Printworks, The Body is Not an Apology, and Drunken Boat Journal. She is an internationally ranked spoken word artist, placing 5th and 6th in the Women of the World Poetry Slam in 2015 and 2016, respectively. Most importantly, Taylor is a triple-Taurus who believes in the power of art to change, shape, and heal.
About the Book:
“These poems, this book, are the first step in my journey towards honoring the ugly in: me, love, the world. I wasn’t trying to make any of this pretty. This is how my truth tumbled out of me.” – Taylor Steele

Show & Tale: HIV & AIDS
2016-12-01 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
The first Show & Tale in honor of World AIDS Day, a date that originated in 1988 and has been a powerful reminder of HIV and AIDS ever since. We invite attendees to bring an object of importance to them as it relates to their past or present experience with HIV and AIDS.

Not everyone has lost a loved one to this disease but almost everyone’s lives have been touched by it in one way or another.

Do you have photos of the March on Washington or pieces of the AIDS Quilt? ACT-UP fliers, magazine or newspaper clippings? Meeting notes, poems & other pieces of your/their archive? World AIDS Day not only enables us to memorialize those who have died, but to raise awareness and show support for those living HIV+ lives.

Show & Tale is like Antiques Roadshow meets The Moth, or your favorite Pinterest board come to life!

Everyone is welcome to share with a 3 minute time limit. No judges, no prizes, no competition. And no need to practice! Just come and Show your object and share its Tale.Just want to come and listen? Awesome! Observers are always welcome.

Opening Reception for Growing Sideways: Catalina Schliebener
2016-12-02 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
“Scratch a child, you’ll find a queer.” — Kathryn Bond Stockton
The Bureau of General Services—Queer Division presents Growing Sideways, an exhibition of new work by Buenos Aires-based, Chilean artist Catalina Schliebener, organized by independent curator John Chaich, on view December 2, 2016 through January 22, 2017 with an opening reception on Friday, December 2 from 7-9 pm at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, 208 W 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, on the 2nd floor of The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center.
Growing Sideways presents over five dozen drawings on collage that will frame the space and culminate in a site-specific floor-to-ceiling installation, growing across two and three dimensional surfaces and creating a disjointed narrative exploring gender formation and erotic curiosity through Schliebener’s combination of cuttings from found children’s books with abstract drawings and felt pieces that recall organic sensual shapes in nature and the body. Two series–“Peek-a-Boo” and “Sassy and Butchy”–comprise this show.
The exhibition takes its title, and somewhat its conceptual and formal inspiration, from queer scholar Kathryn Stockton Bond’s notion that rather than the normative view of “growing up”, the non-straight child “grows sideways”1 through life-long, lateral interactions between childhood motivations and adult identifications, formed by sly intentions, blurred chronologies, and animalistic attachments.
For Bond, queer children “grow meanings by putting people and things rather oddly besides themselves”2— not unlike the medium of collage.
As the critical acclaim of the recent exhibition Cut Ups at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art and the popularity of the queer collage workshops at the Bureau attest, collage particularly speaks to queer artists and audiences alike as a medium for reclaiming queer desires from prescribed or mediated sources.
However, while collage often fills a surface with cut-and-pasted content, Schliebener isolates and reconfigures shapes as decorative details enhanced by the feathery, light strokes of ink drawings and recreated in felt details against a mysterious, generous use of negative space.
“Whether drawing and collaging on individual paper panels or creating a mural on the floor-to-ceiling wall, Schliebener combines the additive qualities of drawing, reductive acts of cutting, and nuances of figure and ground to explore the ambiguities of gender,” notes curator John Chaich.
Moreover, Schliebener intentionally cuts elements from children’s books–making the exhibition’s setting at a contemporary, independent bookstore within one of the country’s oldest LGBTQ community centers, which houses work by highly regarded queer artists such as Keith Haring and Fierce Pussy, all the more fitting. Apropos, a selection of books of artist-curated books will be on sale especially for this exhibition.

1 Bond, Kathryn Stockton. Growing Sideways, Or Queer Children in the Twentieth Century. Durham: Duke University Press, 2009.
2 Bond, Kathryn Stockton. “Growing Sideways, Or Versions of the Queer Child.” Curiouser: On the Queerness of Children, Ed. Steven Bruhm and Nathasha Hurley. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2004.

Event image: Catalina Schliebener, Peek-a-Book 31, cut paper and ink on paper, 8.5 x 5.5 inches, 2016
Download a PDF of the press release.

Free, public programs will accompany the exhibition:
• Saturday January 7, 2017, 3pm, Hands-On Queer Collage Workshop
• Thursday, January 12, 2017, 7pm, Artist Dialogue with curator John Chaich and Kris Grey, Deputy Director of Education and Visitor Experience at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art.

An extension of Growing Sideways will be mounted in Buenos Aires at Haché Gallery in March 2017, co-curated by Chaich.

Catalina Schliebener (born in Santiago, Chile, in 1980) received her bachelor of philosophy of Universidad de Arte y Ciencias Sociales ARCIS, in Santiago. Afterwards she studied visual arts at the same university. From 2002-2008, she worked as an assistant professor within the areas of philosophy and art theory at several universities in Chile. Schliebener’s work has been exhibited individually and collectively in galleries, museums and art fairs in Santiago de Chile, Buenos Aires, São Paulo, Lima, Belfast, Londres, Miami and New York. She has also received scholarships granted by the Development of Culture and the Arts Fund of the Government of Chile (Fondart), the Board of Cultural Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Relations of Chile (Dirac) as well as the Henry Moore Foundation of the United Kingdom. Recent exhibitions include the solo show, Pin the Tail at Point of Contact Gallery at Syracuse University, and the group exhibition, Queering the BibliObect at the Center for Book Arts in Manhattan.

A Night of Fiction with Gerard Anthony Cabrera, Brad Windhauser, and Cameron L. Mitchell
2016-12-03 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
Join us for a night of fiction featuring authors Gerard Anthony Cabrera, Brad Windhauser, and Cameron L. Mitchell. Gerard and Cameron will be reading their recent short story work while Brad will be reading from his recent novel The Intersection.

Gerard Cabrera is an original of Springfield, Massachusetts, the birthplace of basketball, Doctor Seuss, and Doctor Timothy Leary. He holds degrees from Brandeis University, Hunter College/CUNY, and Northeastern University School of Law. His fiction has appeared in JONATHAN. He practices law and lives in New York City.

Brad Windhauser is originally from Southern California, although he lives in Philadelphia. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte and is an Associate Professor (Teaching/Instructional) of writing at Temple University. His short stories and work have appeared in The Baltimore Review, Santa Fe Writer’s Project Journal, Ray’s Road Review, Northern Liberties Review, and Philadelphia Review of Books and Jonathan. The Intersection is his second novel. www.BradWindhauser.com

Cameron L. Mitchell grew up in the mountains of North Carolina and earned a degree in journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. His writing has appeared in The Queer South anthology, ImageOutWrite (v.5), Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Jonathan (issue 4), Glitterwolf Magazine, The Outrider Review, Blotter Magazine, The Gambler, and a few other journals and magazines. He currently lives in New York, where he works in archives at Columbia University’s medical school library. Mitchell is hard at work on his first novel. Find him on Twitter: @CameronLMitchel.

Authored Truth
2016-12-04 15:00 - 17:00 | NY
Sibling Rivalry Press Authors Imani Sims and Emily Jaeger, joined by Claudia Cortese, telling it like it is.

Come spend your Sunday afternoon with poems and opinions.
3:00pm: Book Signing
3:30pm: Show Starts.

Imani Sims is a spicy Chai-loving Seattle native who spun her first performance poem at age 14. She believes in the healing power of words and the transformational nuance of the human story. Imani empowers youth and adults through various writing courses and interdisciplinary shows nationwide. Her book (A)live Heart is available on Sibling Rivalry Press.

Emily Jaeger is an MFA candidate at UMASS Boston and co-editor/co-founder of Window Cat Press. A past Literary Lambda Emerging Writer and TENT fellow, her work has appeared in Four Way Review, Salamander, and Apt among others. Her chapbook The Evolution of Parasites was published by Sibling Rivalry Press.

Claudia Cortese is a poet, essayist, and fiction writer. Her first book, WASP QUEEN (Black Lawrence Press, 2016), explores the privilege and pathology, trauma and brattiness of suburban girlhood. Her work appears in Blackbird, Black Warrior Review, Crazyhorse, Gulf Coast Online, and The Offing, among others. The daughter of Neapolitan immigrants, Cortese grew up in Ohio and lives in New Jersey. She also lives at claudia-cortese.com

Union Square Presents: Imani Sims, (A)live Heart Book Release and Open Mic
2016-12-06 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
Union Square Slam is thrilled to host an electric reading by Imani Sims, and celebrate her latest book release, (A)live Heart, out now on Sibling Rivalry Press and available at the Bureau!!!
7pm: Sign-Ups and Socialize
7:30pm: Open Mic
8:15pm: Imani Sims
$5 // All Ages // Wheelchair Accessible
About our Feature:
Imani Sims is a spicy Chai tea loving Seattle native who spun her first performance poem at the age of fourteen. Since then, she has developed an infinitely rippling love for poetry in all of its forms. She believes in the healing power of words and the transformational nuance of the human story. Imani works to empower youth and adults through various writing courses and interdisciplinary shows all over Washington. She is a 2016 CityArtist Grant recipient, Central District Forum for Arts and Ideas curator, and Gay City Arts Fellow where she brought Afrofuturism and Performance Art together for eight shows. Her book (A)live Heart is available from Sibling Rivalry Press.

Launch Party for "Queer Methods" Issue of WSQ: Women's Studies Quarterly
2016-12-08 07:00 - 20:30 | NY
Please join guest editors Matt Brim and Amin Ghaziani for the launch of “Queer Methods,” the Fall/Winter 2016 issue of WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly, published by The Feminist Press. “Queer Methods” presents pioneering feminist work on queer research practices across the disciplines, including sociology, performance studies, African American studies, lesbian cultural studies, critical psychology, African studies, transgender studies, media and digital studies, history, and literature. WSQ proudly features new poetry and prose selections by cutting-edge writers.

Matt Brim is associate professor of queer studies and director of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at the College of Staten Island, CUNY. He is author of James Baldwin and the Queer Imagination, as well as an interactive online study guide for teaching the HIV/AIDS documentary film United in Anger: A History of ACT UP. Currently, he is general coeditor of WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly and is a contributing editor for the James Baldwin Review.

Amin Ghaziani is associate professor of sociology and Canada Research Chair in Sexuality and Urban Studies at the University of British Columbia. He is coeditor of A Decade of HAART and author of three books: The Dividends of Dissent, There Goes the Gayborhood?, and Sex Cultures. His work has appeared in the American Sociological Review, Annual Review of Sociology, Contexts, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Social Problems, and Theory and Society.

Mystery & Romance with Ann Aptaker, Jean Copeland & Maggie Cummings
2016-12-10 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
Give a gift of crime and passion this season! And enjoy a zesty night with writers Ann Aptaker, Jean Copeland, and Maggie Cummings at a reading and book signing. Fill her stocking with Mystery & Romance from BGSQD!

Ann Aptaker: Ann Aptaker’s debut novel, “Criminal Gold” was a Goldie Award finalist last year. Her second book, “Tarnished Gold,” was this year’s Lammy Award and Goldie Award winner. Both books have earned excellent reviews from Curve Magazine, Crimepieces, Rainbow Reads, and other print and internet venues. Her Cantor Gold crime series celebrates her favorite themes: dangerous women, crime and mystery fiction, and New York City history. The third book in the series, “Genuine Gold,” releases in January.

Jean Copeland: Jean Copeland is an English teacher and author of lesbian fiction. Her debut novel, “The Revelation of Beatrice Darby,” won the 2016 Alice B Lavender Award and the Golden Crown Literary Society “Goldie” for debut author. She is also the author of “The Second Wave,” available now, and “Twice Around” coming in 2017. She resides in Connecticut with her cat, Charlotte.

Maggie Cummings: Maggie Cummings lives in Staten Island with her wife and their two children. She has degrees in English, theatre and criminal justice. She works in law enforcement in the NYC metropolitan area. She is the author of Totally Worth It and Serious Potential, the first two novels in the Bay West Social series. She is currently juggling work on the series finale as well as a standalone novel to follow.

WOWPS Finals!! Chrysanthemum Tran!! Charlotte Abotsi!
2016-12-13 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
WOWPS FINALS IS HERE!!! Come watch our top women and gnc poets battle it out to represent Union Square Slam in Dallas, TX this March!!

NOT TO MENTION: Our most stunning electric features, CHRYSANTHEMUM TRAN and CHARLOTTE ABOTSI, on their Rush Hour Poetry Collective Tour!!

Slammers:
!! Kearah Armonie !!
!! Ashley August !!
!! Carol Brown !!
!! Cecily Schuler !!
!! Taylor Steele !!

$5 // All Ages // Wheelchair Accessible

WOWPS is:

a) an acronym for Women of the World World Poetry Slam
b) one of three national poetry slam events put on annually by Poetry Slam, Inc.
c) held in Dallas, TX from March 15-18th, 2017
Union Square Slam WOWPS Qualifier rules:

Qualified competitors are poets who are female assigned or identified individuals who are PSi members and are 18+ or 21+ years of age, depending on the Host City. This includes gender non-conforming individuals.

5 poets // 4 rounds

2 min (all)
1 min (all)
(Break for Feature)
4 min (top 3)
3 min (top 3)

Cumulative score wins the Union Square Slam Representative spot to WOWPS in Dallas!!
About our Features:

Chrysanthemum Tran is an emerging queer and transfeminine Vietnamese American poet and teaching artist in Providence by way of Oklahoma City. In 2016, they became the first trans woman finalist of the Women of the World Poetry Slam. A three-time semifinalist at the College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational, Chrysanthemum won “Best Poet” and “Best Poem” in 2016, and “Pushing the Art Forward” in 2015. A 2016 Rustbelt Regional Poetry Slam champion and Pink Door Fellow, Chrysanthemum is a two-time member of the Providence national slam team and coaches the Providence youth slam team. Above all, they enjoy seasoning their cast iron skillet & avoiding the comments section.

A former Youth Grand Slam Champion, Charlotte Abotsi has taken on a directorship role at her home venue, the Providence Poetry Slam. There, she serves as a youth director, booking coordinator, and slam master. She has competed in several international slams, and most recently placed in the top 20 at the 2016 Women of the World Poetry Slam. She 1/2 of The Rush Hour Poetry Tour Collective, a collective demanding intersectionality at every avenue. Her poems have been written about in The Huffington Post and Mic.com. Her favorite typo is misspelling ‘live’ as ‘love’. She is a poet and writer who loves in Providence and is trying very, very hard.

20Something Monthly Manhattan Meetup
2016-12-14 20:00 - 21:30 | NY
If you are new to the city, recently out, just looking for friends, or whatever experiences brought you to us – we offer a safe space where we can mingle and talk about our experiences as an LGBT person in New York City. We recommend this 20Something Meetup to anyone who is looking for a more casual space to explore their sexual/gender identity. There will be light refreshments. Bring friends!
Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau and 20Something. No one turned away for lack of funds.
20Something is the largest social events organization for young lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in New York City, aged 21 to 30. We hold a monthly social, and two monthly icebreaker/discussion groups at the Brooklyn Pride Center and at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, the queer cultural center and bookstore on the second floor of The LGBT Community Center, in Manhattan. With more than 2,500 members, we engage young adults across all 5 boroughs with a safe, confidential, and respectful platform to meet other LGBT folk. Many of our members have made long lasting friendships, relationships, and have been connected to important LGBT services and resources. Whether you are new to the city, recently out, or just looking to make friends – 20Something offers a space for you to pave the way to your own adventures in New York City – and make living here a little easier. Become a member: meetup.com/20SomethingNYC

TELL 30: FUCKERY
2016-12-15 19:00 - 21:30 | 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.
FUCKERY is the theme of the thirtieth installment of TELL. Featuring m.b., Jose Rios, Alex Koones, and Teshale Nuer!

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

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

Having recently abandoned the sad sack of the corporate american dream for the deprivation and freedom of the freelance life, m.b. is an MFA student, editor, literary and commercial translator, events curator, singer, performance artist, cook, writer of fiction/poetry/memoir, and emerging insomniac. m.b. runs a monthly world-music and other performance series, has been the recipient of various writing and performance retreats and fellowships, has been a featured poet at the bowery poetry club for the-poet-in-new-york series, and has a varied and very weird performance history on the stages of carnegie hall, lincoln center, and symphony space, among others. m.b. is an alumnus of the helix queer performance network’s workshop “needing it” at bax/brooklyn arts exchange

At the young age of nine Jose Rios’s mother sat him down and gave him an extremely detailed talk about the birds and the bees. Today, Jose is a communication expert, sexual health educator, and body positivity activist spreading the message that fat people are having sex and skinny people need to get over it. Having moved from Phoenix, Arizona a year ago, Jose managed to get caught in an “accidental” sex part on his first night in New York City and there hasn’t been a dull moment since.

Alex Koones grew up working in New York kitchens and went on to Chef in some of the fancier ones such as The Breslin and Jean Georges. After years in professional kitchens, Alex left to put her experience towards building queer spaces. She is currently the founder and host of Babetown, a pop up supper club for queer women, trans and non binary people where she cooks up great food for a couple dozen queer babes every month.

Teshale Nuer is a NYC-Based writer, performer, educator and over-Activist specializing in Holistic Coaching and Embodied Storytelling. Teshale’s work focuses cultivating joy, healing trauma, centering the self.​​

Vaczine Magazine #3 Release Event / Signing
2016-12-16 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
Official launch of the annual Queer art & literary journal VACZINE Magazine

Broken Werd by VACZINE #3 guest editors Max Steele, Mike Albo, Pamela Sneed & Walt Cessna. There will be editions #1 – #100 / 500 of Vaczine Magazine #3 for sale. $20 each. The first 50 purchases come with a complimentary exclusive double sided signed poster by Gio Black Peter.
Event image: collage by Slava Mogutin for VACZINE

Like A Virgin: Queer Nuns in the Renaissance
2016-12-17 19:00 - 20:30 | NY
What was a lesbian who wanted to enjoy the company of women to do in the 1600s? Join a convent!

From cock-teasing nuns that toy with the emotions of the convent’s male visitors to cross-dressing nuns who become swash-buckling Spanish conquistadors while seducing women in South America, the stories Dr. Horacio Sierra shares in this presentation will change the way you think about nuns, feminism, and lesbianism in the seventeenth century.

This presentation uses movie clips, written excerpts, and humorous GIFs to demonstrate how the Catholic Church provided a safe haven for same-sex loving women in Renaissance England, Spain, and Mexico. Come learn how the convent was queered by real-life women such as Catalina de Erauso and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz as well the literary creations of William Shakespeare and Margaret Cavendish.

Dr. Horacio Sierra is an Assistant Professor of English at Bowie State University. His book Sanctified Subversives: Nuns in Early Modern English and Spanish Literature details the ways in which authors from both Protestant and Catholic nation-states used nuns and convents to explore ideas about womanhood, feminism, and queer sexuality.

Closed on Christmas Eve
2016-12-24 | NY
The Bureau will be closed on December 24, 25, and 31, 2016, and on January 1, 2017.

Closed on Christmas Day
2016-12-25 | NY

Closed on New Year's Eve
2016-12-31 | NY

Closed on New Year's Day
2017-01-01 | NY

Queer Collage Party #4
2017-01-07 15:00 - 18:00 | NY
In conjunction with the exhibition Growing Sideways, the Bureau hosts our fourth Queer Collage Party. Cut, paste, and create in this hands-on event. Artist Catalina Schliebener will be on hand to share remarks on the role of collage in her practice.
We provide the glue sticks and paper, you provide the pictures. Everyone who attends should bring at least one magazine or book or a bunch of pictures that you’ll contribute to the group. Each person can make their own collage(s), or team up with others! You can keep your own collage(s), but don’t expect to walk away with your magazine intact! The spirit here is fun and sharing.
Feel free to bring snacks to share!

Artwork caption:
Catalina Schliebener, Sassy and Butchy 4, 8.5 x 5.5 inches 2016

Catalina Schliebener’s Growing Sideways is on view at the Bureau through January 22.

Dust, Disco, Skyscrapers and Spinning: Four Writers Share New Work
2017-01-11 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
Scott Alexander Hess celebrates the release of his new novel Skyscraper, leading a cluster of outstanding writers in this literary event. Hess (whose new novel Skyscraper is called “A tantalizing piece of literary erotica. Well-crafted and beautifully written,” Joe Okonkwo, Author, Jazz Moon) hits the stage with four writer’s debuting stunning short story collections. Amy Dupcak (Dust), Robert Hyers (Spinning the Record) and Philip Dean Walker ( At Danceteria and Other Stories) will read and chat about the writer’s life.

Please contact the Bureau in advance to reserve copies of any of the books: contact@bgsqd.com

Scott Alexander Hess‘s novel The Butcher’s Sons was a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2015. Skyscraper (Unzipped, an imprint of Lethe Press) is his 4th novel.

Robert Hyers is a queer short story writer and novelist. His short story collection, Spinning the Record, is available from Lethe Press.

Philip Dean Walker‘s debut collection of short stories, At Danceteria and Other Stories, was published by Squares & Rebels in November 2016.

Amy Dupcak‘s short story collection Dust was published by Lucid River Press.

Artist Dialogue: Catalina Schliebener in Conversation with Kris Grey & John Chaich
2017-01-12 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
Drawing insights from the recent Cut Ups exhibition at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, artist and educator Kris Grey and Growing Sideways curator John Chaich join featured artist Catalina Schliebener to discuss the process behind her use of collage and drawing to explore themes of gender formation, cartoon and medical narratives, and sexual curiosity in queer childhood in the works on view at the Bureau.

Catalina Schliebener’s Growing Sideways is on view at the Bureau through January 22.

Headshot Photo credits:
Catalina Schliebener, courtesy of the artist
John Chaich, photo by Melissa Blackall Photography
Kris Grey, photo by Alesia Exum

Interior Decorating with Christopher Clary & Stephen Grebinski
2017-01-13 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
Join artists Christopher Clary & Stephen Grebinski as they discuss their fascination with interiors and the interiority of pornography—which they archive, revere, and destroy in their work.

Christopher Clary collects, performs, creates and destroys photographs — specifically his pornography. His commission for Rhizome at the New Museum was named by Hyperallergic as one of the top 10 works of Internet art in 2015. He was also honored as a Discovery Award nominee at the 2011 Les Rencontres d’Arles in France and featured at the 2009 New York Photo Festival. His work has been reviewed in the New York Times, Artnet, Village Voice, Photo District News, Butt Magazine, HX, Out, and a forthcoming article about appropriation in Elephant magazine. “The court cases that pepper the career of Richard Prince might be round the corner for Clary, too, as he makes the transition from emerging- to established-artist.”

Stephen Grebinski is an artist working primarily with self-published books and zines, which are the result of an omnivorous photographic and archival practice. His printed work has been shown at NADA Fair, Printed Matter, The New York Art Book Fair, Art Metropole, and other institutions worldwide. His work tangles together queer bodies, architecture, and the persistent baroque impulses of desire. Existing somewhere between documentary and performance, these efforts are driven by an impulse to reveal and test the fractured, hidden world beneath our intentions and experiences. These images intersect and collide through brooks, multi layered screen prints, photographic installations, and video.

Union Square Slam ‎presents Ephraim Nehemiah and Open Slam Qualifier #4
2017-01-17 18:30 - 21:30 | NY
POETS! WRITERS! ARTISTS! LOVERS!
Welcome back! Union Square Slam is ready to roll out an incredible second half of the season, starting with our ever-present Free Writing Workshop, a dynamite feature the Heart of the Heartland, Ohio’s own EPHRAIM NEHEMIAH, and our fourth of six NPS Team Qualifier Slams!
* * * * * * PLEASE NOTE OUR NEW START TIME * * * * * *
6:30pm: Writing Workshop w/ Itiola Jones (Free!)
7:30pm: Sign-Ups and Socialize
7:55pm: Draw for Slam
8:00pm: Slam, Round One; Feature; Slam Rounds 2 and 3
Bureau of General Services — Queer Division
208 W 13th St, #210
NY, NY 10010
(btw W 7th and 8th Aves)
$5 // All Ages // Wheelchair Accessible
About our Feature:
Ephraim Nehemiah is a performance poet, actor and father. He is the co-founder of Kent, Ohio’s first poetry slam founded in 2015. Ephraim has participated in the Individual World Poetry Slam, National Poetry Slam, College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational and many other poetry competitions representing himself and teams in Ohio. His work has been published both online and in several anthologies. He has been featured on BlackPoetsSpeakOut, Write About Now and Slamfind. He is currently a student of Kent State University completing his bachelor’s degree in Pan-African Studies.
About our Slam:
::Union Square Slam National Team Competition::
There are six opportunities to compete for the Union Square Slam National Team. The top two winners of each Open Slam have secured their spot in Finals.
Each open slam will :
– consist of up to 8 poet competitors
– have a 3 min time limit for each round with a 10-second grace period
– will go from 8 in the first round to 5 in the second round and 3 in the third round (this is subject to change depending on the number of competitors that night — see below)
be scored cumulatively — the winner of the night will have the highest cumulative score from all three rounds.
Union Square Slam Nationals Qualifiers (Open Slams) are on the following dates:
September 20th
October 18th
November 15th
January 17th
February 21st
March 21st
Union Square Slam National Team Selection Finals will be held on April 18th.
The National Poetry Slam will be held in Denver, CO August 7-12th, 2017. All proceeds and donations to Union Square Slam go directly to funding travel, lodging and registration fees for representatives of Union Square Slam at national events.
In order to represent Union Square Slam at any National Competition, you must meet the following requirements:
– Be 18 years old or older
– Be an active member of PSI at the time of competition (register at www.poetryslam.com you cover your annual registration fee of $20 — questions? Talk to Cecily or the current slam manager)
– Read, sign, and adhere to the PSI Code of Conduct
– Participate in at least one Specialty Slam during the 2016-7 season. Specialty Slams include WOWPS qualifiers, Nerd Slams, Petty Slams, Iron Poet Slams, etc.

Book Release Reading for SLABS by Brittany Billmeyer-Finn
2017-01-22 18:00 - 20:00 | NY
We’re having a reading / a showing / a sharing to present Timeless, Infinite Light’s newest release with you: SLABS by Brittany Billmeyer-Finn.
Slabs is a collection of poetry dealing in and out of the body through various sites including; home, memory, books, and ritual. It is a meditation on self care, sexuality, and identity through a dis/embodied subject in the water, the home, and in the streets. It is a collection of tender sincerities and queer awakening.
PERFORMERS:
// Brittany Billmeyer-Finn //
// Ariel Goldberg //
// Trace Peterson //
// Phyllis Ma //

Bureau of General Services—Queer Division
Sunday Jan 22
Doors 5:30
Event 6-PM
10$ suggested donation // NOTAFLOF
TIMELESS INFINITE LIGHT is an oakland-based small press that publishes poetry and environs, with a heavy, west-coast lean towards the experimental/political/mystical. Sometimes our books look like books, and sometimes they don’t. Join us step into the lifestream fuck the police.

USS presents: Muggs Fogarty and New! Shit! Slam!
2017-01-24 18:30 - 21:30 | NY
Oh Hey There, USSers!! We know you’ve been all holed up behind all this snow doing nothing else but writing all about your feelings and impending doom — time to see what kinda chops those freewrites have! Come join us for a New! Shit! Slam! AND LEST WE NOT FORGET, MUGGS MOTHERFUCKIN FOGARTY will be in house coming for your heart’s throat, so just BE PREPARED.
* * * * * * PLEASE NOTE OUR NEW START TIME * * * * * *
6:30pm: Writing Workshop (FREE!!)
7:30pm: Sign-Ups and Socialize
7:55pm: Slam Draw
8:00pm: Slam, Round One; Feature; Slam, Round 2
Bureau of General Services — Queer Division
208 W 13th St, #210
NY, NY 10010
(btw 7th and 8th Aves W)
$5 // All Ages // Wheelchair Accessible
About our Feature:
Muggs Fogarty is a genderqueer poet and teaching artist from Providence, Rhode Island. Muggs’ work addresses identity and lived experience, with a focus on intersectionality. A former Brave New Voices finalist, Muggs’ unique poetry and stunning performance has left audiences breathless from Providence to San Jose. After graduating from The New School in 2013 with a degree in creative writing, Muggs has been serving the youth of Rhode Island as a writing instructor at the award-winning youth advocacy group, New Urban Arts, and also as head coach of the Providence National Youth Slam Team. Muggs has become one of the most respected voices for queer rights and identity issues within the performance poetry community, and their work has received tens of thousands of views via Button Poetry, the largest spoken word platform in the world. Muggs is working currently as the co-director of the Providence Poetry Slam, and as a teaching artist with CityArts. Their published work can be found in FreezeRay, Wicked Banshee, Bluestockings Magazine, among others.
About our Slam:
New Shit Slam is a triple-dog-dare to push ourselves as artists and to use the mic as an aural and community-based editing tool. Fashioned after Tatyana Browne’s Lit Slam, judges will act as editors: they will not only score the poem on a scale of 0.0-10.0, but also make quick first impression notes based on originality, content, and performance, that will be handed back to the poet as feedback. (Don’t worry, judges! It’s anonymous! But do keep it to a loving objective criticism) Audience members are also encouraged to approach the poets afterwards with their own feedback and responses after the show.
New Shit is defined by having never touched a USS mic — the one exception is if the work has been heavily edited (over 50% new)
8 poets, 2 rounds, 4 minute time limit, no elimination
All poets read in both rounds. Order is determined/drawn before the show
(Participation in at least one Theme Slam (New Shit, WOWPS or Capturing Fire Qualifier, etc) is required for you to compete in Finals. You do not have to win a Theme Slam in order to compete in Finals)

Love Positive Women Valentine Pop-up Exhibition
2017-01-26 18:30 - 20:30 | NY
Opening Reception with reflections:
Thursday, January 26, 6:30–8:30 PM
Exhibition Hours:
Thursday, January 26 – Sunday, January 29, 2017, 1 PM–7 PM

For LOVE POSITIVE WOMEN 2017, artists, activists and HIV+ women will come together at Dieu Donné’s paper making studios in the Brooklyn Navy Yard to create hundreds of unique handmade paper valentines which will be mailed to women living with HIV around the world. Visual AIDS, the Fire Island Artist Residency, Dieu Donné and the International Community of Women Living With HIV (ICW) are hosting three papermaking valentine workshops on January 18 to show their love and support for women living with HIV internationally. The LOVE POSITIVE WOMEN Valentine Pop-up Exhibition at the Bureau of General Services Queer Division will display a selection of the valentines, and directly after the reception, these artworks will be mailed to women internationally and will arrive for Valentine’s Day.
Women living with HIV as well as invited artists—including Chitra Ganesh, Carrie Moyer, Marlene McCarty, Travis Boyer, Jesse Harrod, Jarrod Beck, Pamela Sneed, Natalie Frank, and many others—will make paper valentines for women living with HIV around the world. The valentines will be mailed with personalized messages as a gesture of love and support in the hopes of lessening the stigma experienced by women living with HIV.
LOVE POSITIVE WOMEN is an ongoing project established by Visual AIDS artist member Jessica Whitbread in 2013. “Why not do something nice for the women most forgotten about?” says Whitbread. “Taking the time to do something for someone else is really beneficial to society as a whole. Don’t underestimate the value in something as simple as sending a valentine to a stranger.”
LOVE POSITIVE WOMEN (LPW) is an international series of grassroots events that uses Valentines Day as a backdrop, creating a platform for individuals and communities to engage in public and private acts of love and caring for women living with HIV. Working from a place of strength, LPW focuses on the idea of interconnectedness, relationship building, loving oneself and loving ones’ community.
Women living with HIV can sign up to receive a valentine by sending their name and mailing address to: lovepositivewomen@gmail.com

10th Anniversary Celebration of A Midsummer Night's Press
2017-01-27 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
Please join us to celebrate ten years of publishing poetry from A Midsummer Night’s Press.
Since the press’ beginnings in 2007, it has championed LGBT voices with its Body Language imprint, later adding the Sapphic Classics series (co-published with Sinister Wisdom) which reprints iconic lesbian feminist texts with new introductions and afterwords, making them available to a new generation of readers.

Authors published in Body Language include: Achy Obejas, Brane Mozetic, Julie R. Enszer, Raymond Luczak, Roz Kaveney, David Bergman, Lawrence Schimel, Michael Broder, Julie Marie Wade, and Rigoberto González.

Authors published in Sapphic Classics include: Minnie Bruce Pratt, Cheryl Clarke, elana dykewomon, and Pat Parker.
The press also publishes poetry in translation by women writers under the Periscope imprint, featuring poets from Estonia, Slovenia, Spain and Lithuania so far, and mythic poetry under the Fabula Rasa imprint, which has published authors like Rachel Pollack, Francesca Lia Block, and Jane Yolen, among others.

All of A Midsummer Night’s Press’ titles will be available at the Bureau.
Reception at 7pm, Readings at 7:30pm.
Readers:

David Bergman

Michael Broder

Cheryl Clarke

Rachel Pollack

Lawrence Schimel

Julie Marie Wade

David Bergman is the author of four books of poetry: Fortunate Light (A Midsummer Night’s Press), Heroic Measures, The Care and Treatment of Pain, and Cracking the Code. He is poetry editor of The Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide. He is winner of the Lambda Literary Prize as the editor of Men on Men 2000. He has published two studies, The Violet Hour: The Violet Quill and the Making of Gay Culture and Gaiety Transfigured: Gay Self-Representation in American Literature. Educated at Kenyon College and The Johns Hopkins University, where he earned a Ph.D., he is a professor of English at Towson University. He lives in Baltimore with his partner of many years, John Lessner.

Michael Broder is the author of the poetry collections This Life Now (A Midsummer Night’s Press, a finalist for the 2015 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry) and Drug & Disease Free (Indolent Books). He holds a BA from Columbia University, an MFA from New York University, and a PhD in Classics from The Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is the founding publisher of Indolent Books and the creator of the HIV Here & Now Project. He lives in Brooklyn with his husband, the poet Jason Schneiderman, and a backyard colony of stray and feral cats.

Cheryl Clarke is a poet, essayist, scholar and activist. She is the author of the poetry collections: By My Precise Haircut, Experimental Love, Humid Pitch, Living as a Lesbian (reprinted by Sapphic Classics), and Narratives: Poems in the Tradition of Black Women. She is also the author of the study After Mecca: Women Poets and the Black Arts Movement as well as the volume of her selected works The Days of Good Looks: Prose and Poetry, 1980-2005. She lives with her partner in Jersey City, NJ and Hobart, NY.

Rachel Pollack is an author (poetry, fiction, and non-fiction) and an authority on the modern interpretation of Tarot cards. Her novel Godmother Night won the World Fantasy Award and her novel Unquenchable Fire won the Arthur C. Clarke Award. Some of her non-fiction works include 78 Degrees of Wisdom and The Body of the Goddess. She is also the creator of The Shining Tribe Tarot, which she wrote and illustrated herself, and teaches in the MFA program at Goddard College. A Midsummer Night’s Press published her first collection of poetry, Fortune’s Lover: A Book of Tarot Poems.

Lawrence Schimel writes in both Spanish and English and has published over 100 books as author or anthologist, in many different genres. He has won the Lambda Literary Award twice, for PoMoSexuals: Challenging Assumptions About Gender and Sexuality (with Carol Queen) and First Person Queer (with Richard Labonté), in addition to numerous other awards. He is the publisher of A Midsummer Night’s Press, which has also published his collections Fairy Tales for Writers and Deleted Names. He is also a prolific literary translator.

Julie Marie Wade is the award-winning author of the poetry collections When I Was Straight (A Midsummer Night’s Press), SIX, Postage Due and Without, as well as the prose works Wishbone: A Memoir in Fractures (winner of the Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Memoir), Small Fires: Essays, Tremolo: An Essay, and Catechism: A Love Story, in addition to a forthcoming collection co-written with Denise Duhamel. She teaches in the creative writing program at Florida International University and lives in the Sunshine State with her wife Angie Griffin.

Union Square Slam Presents: Christopher Lilley!
2017-01-31 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
*Mark your calendars: the last Tuesday of every month will feature a local musical performer.*
We’ve got quite the treat for y’all. Christopher Lilley, the phenom, will be bringing us light and good vibes with his musical magic.
About our Show:
7:30pm: Sign-ups and Socialize
8:00pm: Open Mic (Music + Poetry Are Welcomed Here!)
8:45pm: Chris Lilley!
All Ages // Wheelchair Accessible
Open Mic // $5
About our Feature:
Christopher Lilley, a New York native, is a poet, spoken word artist, a singer and multi-instrumentalist, and a teaching artist.
Chris has had the privilege of collaborating with Jasmine Mans and Rudy Fransisco, and has performed in several famed spaces such as the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and the Bowery Poetry Club, as well as in venues across the country. A graduate of Manhattan School of Music with his Master’s degree, he seeks to fuse music and poetry to create well rounded and engaging stories. These stories are used to begin community dialogues on topics that have been labeled as taboo or shameful, with a focus on bringing mental health awareness to black, Christian, and otherwise marginalized communities.
For more of Chris and his work, visit him @clilleypoetry on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter
And over at Clilleypoetry.com
