BGSQD

Bi Book Club discusses The Life and Death of Sophie Stark by Anna North
2016-08-11 18:30 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | NY
The Bi Book Club meets on the second Thursday of each month to discuss bi-themed books and the issues they raise.
Dinner after nearby (so far, we always go to Village Den.)
On August 11, the Bi Book Club will discuss The Life and Death of Sophie Stark by Anna North.
Come and join the discussion, even if you haven’t read the book. We take turns reading passages aloud from the book and discuss them-anyone can participate!
Please purchase your copy of The Life and Death of Sophie Stark from the Bureau!
Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.
RSVP on meetup.com (not required)

Writing Queer Crime & Mystery Fiction: final session
2016-08-10 18:00 - 20:00
A 5-Week Workshop, Wednesdays July 13, 20, 27, August 3 and 10, 6 – 8 p.m. Led by Ann Aptaker.
Is there a Queer perspective to writing crime & mystery fiction? This 5-week workshop will take students through the art and craft of crime and mystery writing, as experienced through Queer characters. Students will learn the importance of “voice,” character development, how character drives plot, and the distinctions of the genre’s various styles (cozy, hard boiled, noir, thriller, who-done-it, etc.,) through Queer experience. Students will write each week.
Cost: $50 per student for 5 week course.
Register at: QueerWriting@gmail.com
Ann Aptaker’s 2016 Lammy winning and Goldie finalist Tarnished Gold and 2015 Goldie finalist Criminal Gold 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: Queer life, crime and mystery fiction, and New York City history. The third book in the series, Genuine Gold, is scheduled for release in January 2017 from Bold Strokes Books. Like her protagonist, Cantor Gold, Ann resides in her beloved hometown, New York.

Union Square Slam presents an evening with Brooklyn Poets
2016-08-09 19:00 - 21:30
Union Square Slam is excited for our Summer reading series, featuring an extended open mic and a phenom featured artist.
We have been committed to exposing all the poetry this city has to offer. We want communities to merge and form into bigger communities. For this show we are happy to have the great literary organization Brooklyn Poets.

Brooklyn Poets is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization celebrating and cultivating the poets, poetry and literary heritage of Brooklyn, the birthplace of American poetry. Since our inception in 2012, our core program of small, intensive poetry workshops taught by award-winning poets in their own homes has served over 300 students and employed over 30 teachers, and we’ve grown to host 22 events per year attracting over 1000 attendees annually, fostering a more close-knit, homegrown, diverse community of poets and readers than what we see traditionally offered by graduate writing programs and the American literary community at large. Our community extends through The Bridge, a unique online network connecting poets and mentors throughout the world.

Click here for more about Brooklyn Poets

6;00pm: Free Workshop with I.S. Jones
7:30pm: Sign-ups and Socialize
8:00pm: Open Mic
8:45pm: Brooklyn Poets
All Ages // Wheelchair Accessible
Open Mic // $5

About our Features:

Candace Williams is a Brooklyn Poets Fellow and her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Sixth Finch, Bennington Review, Lambda Literary Review, Copper Nickel, and elsewhere. She earned her MA in Elementary Education at Stanford University and has taken workshops at Cave Canem and Brooklyn Poets. She lives with a pit bull named Madonna and tweets a little too often (@TeacherC).

Jonathan Clarence is a performance poet and actor living in Brooklyn. The Wisconsin native has appeared in Lime Hawk Journal. He recently completed his undergraduate in advertising at St. John’s University in NYC and is currently a freelance writer for thisismelo.com. With a desire to write poetry and fiction about overcoming oppression, emotional trauma and discrimination of all types from all backgrounds, he’s found his poetic voice and is developing a manuscript.

Jason Koo, named one of the “100 Most Influential People in Brooklyn Culture” by Brooklyn Magazine, Jason Koo is the author of two collections of poetry, America’s Favorite Poem and Man on Extremely Small Island. He is also the editor of Poems for Kobe, a private limited edition of poems presented as a retirement gift to Kobe Bryant by the Brooklyn Nets and Brooklyn Poets, and coeditor of the forthcoming Bettering American Poetry anthology and Brooklyn Poets Anthology. An assistant teaching professor of English at Quinnipiac University, Koo is the founder and executive director of Brooklyn Poets and creator of the Bridge. He lives in Brooklyn.

Bureau Closed on Sundays in July and August
2016-08-07, 2016-07-31, 2016-07-24, 2016-07-17, 2016-07-10, 2016-07-03
For the months of July and August the Bureau will be closed on Sundays.
The Bureau will be open Wednesdays through Saturdays, from 1 to 7 PM.

Reading by Victoria Noe from her new book Friend Grief and Men: Defying Stereotypes
2016-08-04 19:00 - 21:00
Author Victoria Noe returns to the Bureau to read from her new book Friend Grief and Men: Defying Stereotypes.
How do grief and friendships affect what it means to “be a man”? The final book in her series about people grieving the death of a friend examines the belief that men grieve differently than women – in fact, that their friendships are less meaningful than women’s.
Her interviews with gay and straight men will challenge that stereotype. The men profiled range in age from their 20’s to late 80’s. They include a sports reporter, writers, actor-turned-rabbi, sound editor and professional hockey player. All struggled to make sense of their grief, none more so than those in the book’s most talked-about chapter: comparing military veterans and long-term survivors in the AIDS community.
Joining Victoria is fellow ACT UP/NY member Jim Eigo, one of the men profiled in the book. You can count on a lively discussion about the challenges facing men who grieve the death of a best friend or dozens of friends, and how you can help them.

Victoria Noe lives in Chicago but is frequently in New York for research, theatre and addiction to the chai scones at Bosie Tea Parlor. The six books in her Friend Grief series (including Friend Grief and AIDS: Thirty Years of Burying Our Friends) have won awards and fans in the US, UK and Canada. Library Journal named her their first SELF-e Ambassador, helping libraries and independent authors collaborate.

Her essay, “Long-Term Survivor” won A&U Magazine’s 2015 Christopher Hewitt Award for Creative Nonfiction, and her work has appeared on a variety of blogs as well as Positively Aware, Chicago Tribune, Huffington Post and Windy City Times. A fundraiser in the AIDS community in Chicago in the early days of the epidemic, she’s now a member of ACT UP/NY. Her next book is Fag Hags, Divas and Moms: The Legacy of Straight Women in the AIDS Community (2017).

Writing Queer Crime & Mystery Fiction: 4th session
2016-08-03 18:00 - 20:00

Union Square Slam presents Jasmin Nicole
2016-08-02 19:00 - 21:30
We are so excited to host Jasmin Nicole‘s first ever feature!
About the Artist:
Jasmin is a Black, queer, curly-haired poet from West Philly with an afro that can only be satisfied by copious amounts of Shea Moisture products. She loves Family Guy and mint chocolate chip ice cream. She is the original creator of the idea for the reverse microwave and has yet to turn it into a profitable invention. She is the Grand Slam Champion for 2016 at the Fuze Philly Poetry Slam and will be the only poet representing a Philadelphia venue nationally at IWPS this year.
Come through for an incredible night of poetry!

Apogee Issue 07 Launch
2016-07-29 19:00 - 21:00
The celebration will feature readings by JP Howard, Naomi Extra, Soraya Shalforoosh, Robert Balun, Maura Pelletteiri, Dennis Norris II, radhiyah ayobami, Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas, Marwa Helal, Claire Schwartz, Aaron Coleman, Hadeel Salameh, and Shira Erlichman.

Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Emanuel Xavier Radiance & Sam Sax All The Rage Official Book Readings & Signings
2016-07-28 19:00 - 21:00
Join us for the launch of Emanuel Xavier‘s Radiance & Sam Sax‘s All The Rage.

“Emanuel Xavier’s newest book radiates in diverse directions, back into a past of New York club kid glamour and violence, into a family history of lost connections, and into loves forfeited and found-all of which the poet illumines with steady-eyed honesty. Finally, as he confronts a health challenge to the very brain that is the root-place of these sharp and poignant poems, radiation becomes radiance, a hard-won inner light that lets us all see how ‘splendid is our survival.'” –David Groff, author of Clay

In All the Rage, Sam Sax turns the poetry of observation into weapon of prayer and resurrection. Here is the eroticism and anger of bearing witness. Here the dead walk again, sometimes right over us, sometimes right through us. Here are open wounds wet with the spit of old lovers and old versions of ourselves, raw, hungry, and unwilling to let us forget what we’ve seen.

Writing Queer Crime & Mystery Fiction: 3rd session
2016-07-27 18:00 - 20:00

Union Square Slam presents Veda Leone and Brenda Snyder and our GET VIDEO(d) Fundraiser
2016-07-26 19:00 - 21:30
We are thrilled to feature our witchy sisters from the north, Veda Leone and Brenda Snyder, following our GET VIDEO(d) open mic!!
GET VIDEO(d): Justin Woo has generously donated his videographer skills to you as a benefit to Union Square Slam. If you have a poem you would like to have professionally taped and edited, come read on our open mic this Tuesday. For a $20 donation to Union Square Slam, Justin will record your poem, edit it pretty and send it your way!! (Open Mic will be limited to 10 people!! Come early to sign up and secure your spot!!)
We also welcome the return of our free writing workshops, led by IS Jones. Head over at 6pm to workshop your work and/or kickstart your writing!!
About our Show:
6pm: Free Writing Workshop
7pm: Sign up and Socialize
8pm: Open Mic
9pm: Feature
All Ages // $5
About our Feature:
Veda Leone and Brenda Snyder are two kindred poets who found their way to each other and the greater poetry community through the back room of “the Deuce” in Northampton, Massachusetts.
These two writers, trauma survivors, spoken word poets, and organizers mirror each other’s work across state lines. Veda is the co-founder and host of Collinsville’s Spoken Word on the Square at Downright Music in Collinsville, CT and Brenda is the founder and slam master of Witch City Poetry Slam in Salem, MA.
The two of them found inspiration, community, and each other as regular contributors on the mic at Northampton Poetry in Northampton, MA. Brenda’s work has been published on voicemailpoems.org and you can find her ramblings, poems, and inspiration at fix-me-in.tumblr.com; and, Veda’s first chapbook, Cellar Door, was released this January and can be found through her website www.vedaleone.wordpress.com.

PERSONS OF INTEREST: PORTRAITURE & PERSONA
2016-07-21 18:30 - 20:30
Visual AIDS’ Artist+ Members Lucas Michael, Luna Luis Ortiz, and Frederick Weston discuss their artwork in the second program in conjunction with Visual AIDS’ summer exhibition PERSONS OF INTEREST. PERSONS OF INTEREST: PORTRAITURE & PERSONA, moderated by Alex Fialho, brings together these artists to discuss the ways in which they use the camera and photography as means of performance and a space in which to play with identity.
Lucas Michael‘s editorial photography for New York Magazine includes photographing polaroids of celebrities such as Lupita Nyong’o, Hugh Jackman, Lena Dunham, and Adele, while his artwork “Still Life (LM Squared)” finds him outfitted as a drag double of Liza Minelli.
Luna Luis Ortiz was inspired to pick up one of his father’s cameras after he became HIV positive at the age of 14 in 1986, beginning the birth of his self-portraits as a way to leave images for his family in remembrance before he became what he considered the images of AIDS in the 1980’s.
Frederick Weston communicates the soul of a thoughtful man feeling his way through physical realities and representation in America, often through themes of style, fashion, and the commercial male image.
PERSONS OF INTEREST, curated by Sam Gordon for Visual AIDS, features a wide cross section of Visual AIDS artist members and friends. The term, “person of interest” often identifies someone in an investigation that possesses characteristics that merit further attention. The investigation presented here is a collection of drawing, painting, photography, performance, video, and sculpture.
PERSONS OF INTEREST, presented by Visual AIDS at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division features the trained and self taught, long term survivors and the prematurely lost, and individuals who live for us very much in the present, some only in our hearts and minds.
The exhibition includes work by Raynes Birkbeck, Mark Carter, Ben Cuevas, Chloe Dzubilo, Arnold Fern, Tim Greathouse, Keith Haring, Hudson, Affrekka Jefferson, Jerry the Marble Faun, Joyce McDonald, Lucas Michael, Nicolas Moufarrege, Luna Luis Ortiz, Hugh Steers, Hunter Reynolds, Tseng Kwong Chi, Muna Tseng, and Frederick Weston.

Pictured works, from left: Luna Luis Ortiz, Self-portrait-Egyptian Pharaoh, 2003; Frederick Weston, “I’m In Here Somewhere”, Plaster, 10 x 6 x 5; Lucas Michael, polaroid self-portrait

Writing Queer Crime & Mystery Fiction: 2nd session
2016-07-20 18:00 - 20:00

Union Square Slam presents the USS Nationals Team Send-Off and Fundraiser
2016-07-19 19:00 - 21:30
The National Poetry Slam is right around the corner! Come celebrate and get a sneak peak at all the hard work the team has put in this summer, and pick up some sweet treats and a copy of the team’s limited edition chapbook!!
7pm: Sign-Up and Socialize
8pm: Open Mic
9pm: The USS National Team: Kearah Armonie, Patrick Roche, Nkosi Nkululeko, and Taylor Steele
Entry: $5
Chapbook: $20 ($15 with paid entry fee)
Cookies: $3, 2 for $5
Made by our lovely volunteer Theo!! Choose from the following:
– Chocolate Chip
– Rosemary Ginger w/ White Chocolate Chips
– Honey Jack Lemon
– Peanut Butter
– Apple Oatmeal
Meet the Team:
Nkosi Nkululeko is the 2016 NYC Youth Poet Laureate, and a Callaloo Fellow. He has been nominated for the Independent Best American Poetry and The Pushcart Prize. He was a member of the 2015 Urbana Slam Team and currently on the 2016 Union Square Slam Team. Nkosi”s work is published in VINYLpoetryandprose, No Token, decomP, and elsewhere. He lives in Harlem, New York.
Taylor Steele is a Bronx-born, Brooklyn-based writer and performer. Her work can be found at such esteemed publications as Apogee Journal, HEArt Journal, Rogue Agent, Blackberry Magazine, The Body is Not an Apology, and many forthcoming. Her chapbook Dirty.Mouth.Kiss will be available Fall 2016 on Pizza Pi Press. She is a triple-Taurus who believes in the power of art to change, shape, and heal.
Kearah-Armonie (Kearmonie) is a Brooklyn based poet, spoken word artist, MC, Filmmaker, Blogger, and Writer. She currently finishing up her B.A. in Documentary Film Production at Brooklyn College. Having been performing spoken word since 2011, she is now a mentor and teaching artist.
Patrick Roche is a New Jersey-based writer and performer who graduated from Princeton University. He has competed or featured at multiple national competitions, events, and universities around the country. His work has been featured on Button Poetry, SlamFind, UpWorthy, The Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, and others, accumulating over 6 million views.

Bi Book Club discusses Ariah by BR Sanders
2016-07-14 18:30 - 20:00
The Bi Book Club meets on the second Thursday of each month to discuss bi-themed books and the issues they raise.
Dinner after nearby (so far, we always go to Village Den.)
On July 14, the Bi Book Club will discuss Ariah, by BR Sanders
Ariah, by BR Sanders, won the Speculative Fiction category of the Bisexual Book Awards and explores both bisexuality and polyamory. Ariah’s magical training has been interrupted. Forced to rely on a mentor, Dirva, who is not who he claims to be, and a teacher who is foreign and powerful, Ariah is drawn into a culture wholly different from the elven one that raised him. As his friendship with Dirva’s brother blossoms into a surprising romance, and he slowly learns how to control the dangerous magic in his blood, life finally appears to be coming together for Ariah—but love and security are cut short by a tyrannical military empire bent on expanding its borders. War, betrayal, passion, and confusion follow Ariah as his perilous journey leads him beyond the walls of the Empire, and into unfamiliar territory within himself. Along the way, he’ll discover just how much he’s willing to give up to find his place in the world, and he’ll learn what it means to sacrifice himself for freedom—and for love.
Come and join the discussion, even if you haven’t read the book. We take turns reading passages aloud from the book and discuss them-anyone can participate!
Please purchase your copy of Ariah from the Bureau!
Next book: The Life and Death of Sophie Stark. Get your copy from the Bureau.
Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.
RSVP on meetup.com (not required)

Writing Queer Crime & Mystery Fiction: 1st session
2016-07-13 18:00 - 20:00

Union Square Slam presents an evening with the poets of La SoPA
2016-07-12 19:00 - 21:30
Union Square Slam is excited for our Summer reading series, featuring an extended open mic and a phenom featured artist.
We have been committed to exposing all the poetry this city has to offer. We want communities to merge and form into bigger communities. For this show we are happy to have the great poets of La Sopa.
Here’s a little more about La Sopa:
La Sopa (School of Poetic Arts) is a community-based arts program with its intellectual roots in the poetics of the Nuyorican, Black Arts, and Beat movements. From its home base at Loisaida Inc., a historic enclave for artists and people of color on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, La Sopa serves as an incubator for poets, performers, and other creatives to explore and expand their artistic selves, develop their voices, distribute the works in live performance and exhibition, and promote their works in various media.

This week, we welcome the poets of La Sopa (School of Poetic Arts)
7:30pm: Sign-ups and Socialize
8:00pm: Open Mic
8:45pm: La SoPA
All Ages // Wheelchair Accessible
Open Mic // $5

About our Features:
“Nessa” Acevedo is a Colombian American Artist and Social Worker who aims to serve as a catalyst for therapeutic and authentic expression; exposing her heart, mind, and spirit as an invitation for you to do the same and live to tell about it. She has been expressing herself through the written word since childhood, breaking through to the open mic in early 2012 at Capicu Culture’s: People’s Open Mic. She has since performed and/or featured at open mics and events including: La SoPA, The Nuyorican Poet’s Café, The New York Poetry Festival, Word at 4F, The DoJo, Great Weather for Media’s: Spoken Word Sundays, El Fogon, and Smokin’ Word and Drum.
Eric Acevedo is a very young man with an old soul who has been writing and performing poetry since 2008. He loves writing about Puerto Rican history, his abuelita, and what he sees going on in his hood and around the globe. He strives to influence his generation and is an aspiring English teacher. In his goal toward exploring what makes us who we are, he released a self-published chapbook, El Rice Is Cooking, in 2012. Acevedo has performed at universities including Columbia and Fordham and has been featured at Muevete, Queensboro Lit Crawl, Brooklyn Gypsies: Ghetto Hors d’Oeuvres and 35 poets for Oscar López Rivera. Eric hopes to obtain an MFA in the near future as he continues to be an artivist.
Sarah Serrano is a Puerto Rican educator, poet, writer, visual artist, actress, singer and voice actress. Pulling strength from adversity, she strives to connect with and educate her audience using personal experiences with domestic violence, mental health, mortality, social issues and cultural identity.
Known for her powerful spoken word poem entitled “Boricua,” Sarah was recently featured in the upcoming film Project Ñ (link), a documentary about Latino cultural awareness and identity. She has been featured and performed at the historical Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe, WHCR Radio 90.3 FM, The National Black Theater feat. Full Circle Ensemble, CAPICU! Cultural Showcase, The Bushwick Starr Theater, Camaradas, Performance & Pints, Areito Live, Bowery Poetry Club, Bridging Boroughs, and I Know Some Tough Girls.
You can connect with her via Twitter & Instagram @cantfightthefro

CANCELED! 20Something Monthly Manhattan Meetup
2016-07-06 20:00 - 21:30
Tonight’s meeting has been canceled. Stay tuned for announcement about the next 20Something Meetup.
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 hold our meetings on the second Wednesday of every month from 8-10 PM at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division. 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

Union Square Slam presents Justin Lamb
2016-07-05 19:00 - 21:30
Union Square Slam is excited for our Summer reading series, featuring an extended open mic and a phenom featured artist.
This week, we welcome New Orleans-based national slam champ JUSTIN LAMB all the way to the stage!!
7:30pm: Sign-ups and Socialize
8:00pm: Open Mic
8:45pm: Featured Poet: Justin Lamb
All Ages // Wheelchair Accessible
Open Mic // $5
About our Feature:
Justin Lamb is an educator, writer and 2013 National Poetry Slam champion with Team Slam New Orleans. A four-time member of the nationally acclaimed Team SNO (2011-14), Justin is a two-time Slam New Orleans Grand Champion and author of the live poetry album However It Turns Out Is Perfect and chapbook Everything Has A Place. He is currently an MFA candidate at the University of New Orleans.

The Bureau is Closed for Independence Day Weekend!
2016-07-01 - 2016-07-03
The Bureau will be closed on July 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. We return to regular hours on Wednesday, July 6th.

Bloom: Ten Years of Queer Lit
2016-06-30 19:00 - 21:00
BLOOM is a publication of Arts in Bloom Project, Inc., a non-profit dedicated to queer artists, writers, and audiences. BLOOM was founded to support the work of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender writers and artists and to foster the appreciation of queer literature and creation. BLOOM has published 248 LGBT writers and visual artists to date in its 10 year run.

Celebrate the 10th issue of BLOOM with readings by NYC-area queer writers published in the current issue, as well as those who’ve published in past issues.

Reception at 7 PM

Reading at 7:30 PM

Featuring readings by:

Michael Broder

Max Freeman

Dean Kostos

Amanda Krupman

Tom Léger

Susan Ryan

Elaine Sexton

Frankie Thomas

Judy Yu
Art work for cover of Bloom 10 by Mira Gandy.

Michael Broder is the author of Drug and Disease Free (Indolent Books, 2016) and This Life Now (A Midsummer Night’s Press, 2014), a finalist for the 2015 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry. His poems have appeared in many journals including American Poetry Review, Columbia Poetry Review, Court Green, and of course BLOOM. He lives in Brooklyn with his husband, the poet Jason Schneiderman, and a backyard colony of stray and feral cats.

Max Freeman is a poet and filmmaker living in Brooklyn. He holds an MA in English and American literature from Harvard University. His poems have appeared in Barrow Street and Poetry International. He also makes the web series The 3 Bits.

Dean Kostos is a poet. His poetry collections include This Is Not a Skyscraper (recipient of the Benjamin Saltman Poetry Award, selected by Mark Doty, published by Red Hen), Rivering, Last Supper of the Senses, The Sentence That Ends with a Comma, and Celestial Rust. His work has appeared in over 300 journals and his literary criticism has appeared on the Harvard University Press website and in Talisman. A multiple Pushcart-Prize nominee, and a finalist for the Gival Award, he won the Jot Speak Award (UK) for “Amadou Diallo’s Ghost Reminisces.” His poem “Subway Silk” was translated into a film and screened in Tribeca and at San Francisco’s IndieFest.

Amanda Krupman is a writer and (semi?) retired performer. Her prose has been published in BLOOM; A Clean, Well-Lighted Place; The Cleveland Review; xoJane; Time Out New York; and Punk Planet. Her literary zine PLUG was featured in the “From A to Zine” exhibition at Columbia College Chicago. She has performed on stages in Cleveland, Chicago, and D.C. She has performed in many NYC venues, with only a few left standing: RiFiFi (RIP), the Producer’s Club, Barrette (RIP), WOW Cafe, the Soho House, House of Yes, Kings County (RIP), Sugarland (RIP), Public Assembly, Coney Island Freak Show Museum, Sin Sin & the Leopard Lounge, and Element (RIP). She has an MFA in fiction from the New School.

Tom Léger is an essayist, dramatic writer, and publisher. He lives in New York City. https://www.tomleger.com

Susan Ryan was born in Ireland, raised in California and has lived for many years in downtown NYC. Her work has appeared in The New York Observer, The L Magazine and BLOOM. She is currently finishing a novel set in NYC’s Meatpacking District in the early ‘90s and another manuscript about surfing and love and leaving New York for Hawaii. She holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College.

Elaine Sexton is a poet, critic, and educator. Her most recent collection of poetry is Prospect/Refuge,published by Sheep Meadow Press in 2015. She teaches poetry and text & image workshops at Sarah Lawrence College and New York University and is a member of the National Book Critics Circle. www.elainesexton.org

Frankie Thomas is the author of “The Showrunner,” which received special mention in the 2013 Pushcart Prize Anthology, and “Equinox,” which was serialized on The Toast. Her fiction has also been published in H.O.W. Journal, BLOOM, and Volume 1 Brooklyn; her poetry has recently appeared on The Toast, and her essay “The Two Faces of Bisexual OKCupid” appeared last year on The Hairpin. She works as a writing tutor at the City College of New York.

Judy Yu writes stories on the 2 and 3 train from Brooklyn (home) to Harlem, where she works for the rights of court involved youth at the Juvenile Justice Project of the Correctional Association of New York. She has an MFA in fiction writing from Sarah Lawrence College. She has taught writing workshops to LGBTQ youth; domestic violence survivors; and at after school programs in New York City. Judy was a featured reader at the performance showcase, WYSIWYG, at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City and performed with the multi-racial queer writing group Agent 409 in New York City. Her work has been published in Visible: A Femmethology, the chapbook Mamibaile, and issues of the Agent 409 zine.

Queering Sexual Violence Anthology Reading and Discussion
2016-06-29 19:00 - 21:00
Please join us for a reading and discussion with some of the contributors for the anthology Queering Sexual Violence: Radical Voices from Within the Anti-Violence Movement.

Featuring readings by contributors Amita Swadhin, Aishah Shahidah Simmons, Nitika Raj, and Jennifer Patterson.

About the Anthology:
Often pushed to the margins, queer, transgender and gender non-conforming survivors have been organizing in anti-violence work since the birth of the movement. Queering Sexual Violence: Radical Voices from Within the Anti-Violence Movement locates them at the center of the anti-violence movement and creates a space for their voices to be heard. Moving beyond dominant narratives and the traditional “violence against women” framework, the book is multi-gendered, multi-racial and multi-layered.

This collection disrupts the mainstream conversations about sexual violence and connects them to disability justice, sex worker rights, healing justice, racial justice, gender self-determination, queer & trans liberation and prison industrial complex abolition through reflections, personal narrative, and strategies for resistance and healing. The contributors to this book are a feral and wildly compassionate collection of writers, bartenders, professors, therapists, sex workers, healers, sex positive educators, organizers, musicians, bloggers, non-profit workers, filmmakers and rabble rousers. Where systems, institutions, families, communities and partners have failed them, this collection lifts them up, honors a multitude of lived experiences and shares the radical work that is being done outside mainstream anti-violence and the non-profit industrial complex.

More information here: https://queeringsexualviolence.com/

Aishah Shahidah Simmons is a Black feminist lesbian filmmaker, writer, international lecturer, and activist. An incest and rape survivor, Aishah is the producer, writer, and director of the Ford Foundation-funded, internationally acclaimed, award-winning film NO! The Rape Documentary. NO! explores the international atrocity of heterosexual rape and other forms of sexual assault through the first person testimonies, scholarship, spirituality, activism and cultural work of African-Americans. Subtitled in Spanish, French, and Portuguese, NO! also explores how rape is used as a weapon of homophobia. She credits her 14-year practice of Vipassana Meditation as one of the non-negotiable tools that support her work on gender-based violence issues. She is the 2015- 2016 Sterling A. Brown Visiting Professor of Africana Studies at Williams College. She is also 2016-2018 Just Beginnings Collaborative Fellow where she is developing #LoveWITHAccountability, her multimedia project, which will address incest and other forms of child sexual abuse. An associate editor of the online magazine The Feminist Wire, Aishah’s cultural work and activism have been documented extensively in a wide range of media outlets including The Root, Crisis, Forbes, Left of Black, In These Times, Ms., Alternet, ColorLines, The Philadelphia Weekly, National Public Radio (NPR), Pacifica Radio Network, and Black Entertainment Television (BET). You can follow her on twitter @Afrolez

Nitika Raj is a writer, dancer, healer and facilitator. She does social justice work for the same reason she prays – to seek truth and build peace. After working in anti-violence, racial justice, and economic justice movements for 12 years, she recently launched an independent practice -Moksh Creative Consulting. She also serves on the board of the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice. In 2015, Nitika co-produced, co-directed and performed in Yoni ki Raat (Night of Vagina), a theater production to raise awareness about issues of gender, sexuality, and violence in the South Asian community. Born in India and raised in Kuwait, she currently lives in Brooklyn with her wife.

Jennifer Patterson is a poet/writer, grief worker, creative and herbalist who uses words, threads and plants to explore queer survivorhood, the body and healing. She is the editor of the anthology Queering Sexual Violence: Radical Voices from Within the Anti-Sexual Violence Movement (Magnus/ Riverdale Ave Books, 2016), facilitates somatic writing workshops and has had writing published in OCHO: A Journal of Queer Arts, the Outrider Review, HandJoband on The Feminist Wire.Jennifer is also finishing a graduate program at Goddard College focusing on trauma, queer communities, healing, craft, loss, pleasure, pain and creative non-fiction.

Union Square Slam presents HONEY SANAA
2016-06-28 19:00 - 21:30
Union Square Slam is excited for our Summer reading series, featuring an extended open mic and a phenom featured artist.
This week, we welcome New Orleans-based national slam finalist Honey Sanaa!!
7:00pm: Sign-ups and Socialize
8:00pm: Open Mic
9:00pm: Featured Poet: Honey Sanaa
All Ages // Wheelchair Accessible
Open Mic // $5
About our Feature:
Honey Sanaa is a spoken word artist from New Orleans, Louisiana by way of Mississippi. She is an educator by day, who holds 3 higher education degrees, including a Master’s degree in secondary education. Honey is the co-founder of C.H.A.O.S.: Collective Hip-Hop, An Artistically Original Society, a campus-based arts organization founded to help poetry and art students at the University of Southern Mississippi learn and grow in their particular branch of the arts.
Honey has traveled from New York to Florida to California sharing her words with audiences as an individual and as a part of Team Slam New Orleans, affectionately known as Team SNO. Honey is entering her second year in slam and is already ranked 4th in the Women of the World Poetry Slam. She is the current Last Chance Slam Champion from Women of the World Poetry Slam 2016.
In 2012 she published her first collection of poems entitled Firefly Kisses, and recently released her second collection of poetry entitled Truth from the Roots. Honey has been published in The Fem Literary Magazine, Shine: For Harriet, as well as the Painted Bride Quarterly, and Son of Baldwin blog. Honey’s work focuses on the intersections of race, womanhood, coping with trauma, and body positivity in today’s society where all of these are undervalued and underrepresented.
For booking please contact Honey directly:
Web: www.HoneySanaa.com
Email: HoneySanaa@gmail.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/HoneySanaa
Twitter: @HoneySanaa
Instagram: @HoneySanaa
SnapChat: @HoneySana

Photo by Mary Cae

Closed for Pride Sunday
2016-06-26
Happy Pride!!!

Mascara, Mirth & Mayhem: Independence Day on Fire Island - A Q&A with photographer Susan Kravitz
2016-06-25 19:00 - 21:00
Mascara, Mirth & Mayhem: Independence Day on Fire Island celebrates Human Rights and Freedom of Expression
Mascara, Mirth & Mayhem is a collection of photographs taken by renowned photographer Susan Kravitz over the past thirty years at the annual LGBTQ event known as the Invasion of the Pines.
Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.
The Invasion of the Pines occurs every July 4th and involves participants from the Fire Island communities of Cherry Grove and Fire Island Pines. It began in 1976, when a member of the Cherry Grove community had been refused service in a Pines’ restaurant because he had been dressed in drag. In protest, a small group of Cherry Grove residents cross-dressed and took a water taxi to the Pines on Independence Day of that year, to stand up against this “height of insult” by “invading” their neighboring community. Four decades later, the Invasion has evolved into a uniquely raucous event that joyfully celebrates human rights and freedom of expression by thousands of people, straight and gay.
Kravitz’s photographs capture the rebelliousness, the high camp, and the joy of the Invasion. They are provocative, introspective, sad and funny, and tinged with sexual innuendo. Yet they also reflect another journey, one that gives insight into the LGBTQ movement itself. From the fearful, AIDS-ridden years of the 1980s and 1990s, to the joyous years of this decade when LGBTQ people are out and proud (and, if they choose, legally married), these Invasion photographs celebrate a day to be free, to be whoever you want to be, and to be gay.

“My photographs are as much about the times in which they were taken as they are about the people who populate them. Ultimately, they are about human rights and freedom of expression seen through the lens of the Invasion,” said Kravitz of her eighty-eight color and black and white photographs.
