Union Square Slam presents CANDICE ILOH
2016-05-10 19:30 - 21:30 (America/New_York) | NY
Union Square Slam is delighted to roll out our new summer reading series, featuring an extended open mic and a truly stellar featured artist.
This week, we welcome Candice Iloh!
Candice Iloh is a first-generation Nigerian-American writer, poet, and artist-educator residing in Brooklyn, NY whose writing has appeared in Fjords Review, The Grio, For Harriet, Blavity and elsewhere. A VONA fellowship recipient and Home School Lambda Literary Fellow, Candice also contributes to Lambda Literary. She is a MFA candidate in Writing for Young People and Poetry at Lesley University and is currently working on her first young adult novel in verse. When not writing or teaching, you can find her in a dance class in Bedstuy or follow her @becomer.
6:30-7:30pm: Sign-ups and Socialize
7:30-8:30pm: Open Mic
8:30pm: Feature
All Ages // $5

Strange Bedfellows: A Conjugal Book Launch for Jason Schneiderman & Michael Broder
2016-05-11 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
Book party for Michael Broder’s Drug and Disease Free (Indolent Books) and Jason Schneiderman’s Primary Source (winner of Benjamin Saltman Award from Red Hen Books), both of which debuted in April. Readings, signings, beer, wine, hors d’oeuvres, and go-go boys.

Michael Broder is the author of Drug and Disease Free and This Life Now, a finalist for the 2015 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry. His poems have appeared in Columbia Poetry Review, Assaracus, BLOOM, ColumbiaPoetry Review, Court Green, OCHO, Painted Bride Quarterly, and other journals, as well as in the anthologies This New Breed: Gents, Bad Boys and Barbarians 2 (Windstorm Creative, 2004), edited by Rudy Kikel; My Diva: 65 Gay Men on the Women Who Inspire Them (Terrace Books, 2009), edited by Michael Montlack; Spaces Between Us: Poetry, Prose and Art on HIV/AIDS (Third World Press, 2010), edited by Kelly Norman Ellis and ML Hunter; Divining Divas: 50 Gay Men on Their Muses (Lethe Press, 2012), edited by Michael Montlack; and Multilingual Anthology: The Americas Poetry Festival of New York 2015 (Artepoética Press, 2015), edited by Carlos Aguasaco and Yrene Santos. He lives in Brooklyn with his husband, the poet Jason Schneiderman, and a backyard colony of stray and feral cats.

Jason Schneiderman is Associate Editor of Painted Bride Quarterly and Poetry Editor of Bellevue Literary Review. His poetry collection Primary Source (Red Hen Press) won the 2014 Benjamin Saltman award, and his poetry and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including American Poetry Review, The Best American Poetry,The Poetry Review, and The Penguin Book of the Sonnet. He is an Assistant Professor of English at the Borough of Manhattan Community College and lives in Brooklyn.

Bi Book Club discusses A Winter in Rome, by Francis Gideon
2016-05-12 18:30 - 20:00 | 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 May 12, The Bi Book Club will discuss:
A Winter in Rome, by Francis Gideon
Pick out some phrases, paragraphs or scenes that you’d like to discuss, give us your critique of the book: what worked, what didn’t, how was bisexuality represented? If you haven’t had the chance to read the book, come anyway because we read passages aloud for discussion. As usual, we’ll also be using the text as a jumping off point to further discussion of bisexual issues and personal experiences.
Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.
RSVP on meetup.com (not required)

PRONOUNCING THE SCENE OF TRAUMA
2016-05-13 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
A reading centered on how language is a constant healing force in dealing with trauma. Writers will read from work which explores, enacts, and/or responds to experienced traumas. The language of trauma, its silence, fragmentation, inheritance. How trauma settles on the page. How trauma settles in us.

CYNTHIA CRUZ is the author of four collections of poetry: Ruin, The Glimmering Room, and Wunderkammer. Her fourth collection, How the End Begins, was published in March of 2016. Her essays, interviews and art writing have been published in The Los Angeles Review of Books, Guernica, and Hyperallergic. Cruz has received fellowships from Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony as well as a Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University. She has an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College in writing and an MFA in Art Criticism & Writing from the School of Visual Arts.

JAKE MATKOV writes poetry in Brooklyn, NY where he teaches first year writing and is the coordinator of the English graduate programs at LIU Brooklyn. He is a co-founding editor of visceral brooklyn and co-curates its reading series of the same name. A 2015-16 Queer Art Mentorship fellow, his poems have been published in fields magazine, voicemail poems, Maudlin House, thosethatthis, Downtown Brooklyn and others.

HEIDI ANDREA RESTREPO RHODES is a queer, mixed-race, second-generation Colombian immigrant, writer, scholar, artist, and activist. Her creative work and performance has been seen in numerous places, including San Francisco’s SomArts, Galería de la Raza, the 2014 National Queer Arts Festival, As/Us, Decomp, Feminist Studies Journal, Write Bloody’s We Will Be Shelter, and others. Her chapbook, ‘The Inheritance of Haunting’ is due out by Raspa Press in fall 2016. She currently lives in Brooklyn.

CHARIF SHANAHAN is the author of Into Each Room We Enter Without Knowing (Southern Illinois University Press, forthcoming in 2017), winner of the 2015 Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Prize. His poems have appeared in numerous journals, including Apogee, Boston Review, Callaloo, Literary Hub, The New Republic, Phantom Books, and Prairie Schooner. His translations from Italian and German have appeared in A Public Space, Circumference, and RHINO Poetry, among other publications, and have been performed by the Vienna Art Orchestra. Formerly Programs Director of the Poetry Society of America, he is the recipient of awards and fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, Cave Canem, the Fulbright Program, the Starworks Foundation, and Stanford University, where he will be a ’16-’18 Wallace Stegner Fellow in Poetry.

PRETTY BROKEN PUNKS: Martin Belk reads & performs from his NYC Memoir and homonymous London stage play
2016-05-14 19:00 - 20:30 | NY
New York City, 1988—2004. Bohemia’s last stand … Corporania™ taking over. The city you struggled to get to is slowly disappearing. First you hide out with the Danceteria crowd, at Pyramid and BoyBar while slugging your way through the great AIDS die-off. You ActUp on the youth outreach committee. Ultimately, you find yourself a producer of Squeezebox!, running an internet startup and manage the first NYC web concert starring Deborah Harry. Then comes an all-out culture war with NYC’s most hated mayor, a post-9/11 meltdown and relentless gentrification — a story which now resonates in urban centers around the world.

“They pimped-out Lady Gotham to the masses, instead of celebrating the fine call-girl she once was. Only problem is, we survived.”

Look back, don’t stare. If you could speak to your younger self, what would say? Can you handle the reply?

PRETTY BROKEN PUNKS: lipstick, leather jeans, a death of New York is Martin Belk’s literary memoir.

Please RSVP for this event here!

“A superb memoir about coming of age in the bright haze of NYC’s demimonde.”
–Junot Diaz

“I enjoyed the book a lot … full of great memories … it brought it all back. Don’t change a word.”
–Michael Musto, Village Voice

Martin Belk is an expat New Yorker, author and playwright. After burning out as an art director & tech geek, he went back to night school at SUNY Empire State College and got his B.A. In 2004 he sold everything, including his rent-controlled lease, and left the Big Apple for Scotland, where he earned a Master’s Degree from the University of Edinburgh, and wrote the first draft of Pretty Broken Punks.
From 2007-2015, Belk ran a prison writing workshop for the young men at Polmont Young Offender’s Institution — recognized by Her Majesty the Queen and First Minister Alex Salmond. He also published One Magazine & developed new work as a protégé of John Calder – Samuel Beckett’s publisher, and co-hosted the Prague Writers’ Festival.
Belk recently became archivist for Jim Haynes – co-founder of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Traverse Theatre; and edited Paris with Consequence, an historical memoir by Varda Ducovny, ‘wicked stepmother’ of actor David Duchovny, 1950s opening singer for Bob Dylan, and young cohort of Allen Ginsberg & Charlie Van Doren.
Currently, Belk is co-writing the memoirs of Marcus Leatherdale, photographer and former partner of Robert Mappelthorpe; writing a doctorate at Napier University and completing the stage adaptation of Pretty Broken Punks for the forthcoming London stage premiere.
He spends his time between London, Paris and Edinburgh. This BGSQD Big Apple event is a long-overdue homecoming.

Kaitlyn Greenidge and Sarah Schulman
2016-05-15 17:00 - 19:00 | NY
Kaitlyn Greenidge and Sarah Schulman will share their new novels and talk about the meaning of life, art, and whatever the audience wants to discuss.

Kaitlyn Greenidge’s first novel We Love You, Charlie Freeman was just published by Algonquin. Sarah Schulman’s latest novel, The Cosmopolitans is a new release from Feminist Press.

Union Square Slam presents Michael Lee
2016-05-17 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
Union Square Slam is delighted to roll out our new summer reading series, featuring an extended open mic and a truly stellar featured artist.
This week, we welcome Michael Lee!
Michael Lee is a Norwegian-American writer and author of the chapbook, “Secondly. Finally”, which won the 2014 David Blair Memorial Prize (Organic Weapon Arts). Having received grants and scholarships from the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the LOFT Literary Center, and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, his work has appeared or is forthcoming in Ninth Letter, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Indiana Review, Phoebe, Copper Nickel, Poetry Northwest, and The Carolina Quarterly among others. Remaining active on the stage, he is a Rust Belt Regional Poetry Slam Champion, a National Poetry Slam semi-finalist and an Individual World Poetry Slam Finalist, and was voted “Best Poet” and the 2012 College Unions Poetry Slam. Michael has worked as a dish washer, a farm hand, a traveling performer, a youth counselor and arts programming director. Currently, he attends the Harvard Graduate School of Education and lives with many books and a coffee pot.

All Ages // $5

Queer Virtue: What LGBTQ People Know About Life and Love and How It Can Revitalize Christianity: A Conversation with The Reverend Elizabeth M Edman
2016-05-18 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
LGBTQ people are a gift to the Church and have the potential to revitalize Christianity. Frustrated by the notion that “Christian love = tolerance,” the Reverend Elizabeth M. Edman argues that Christianity, at its scriptural core, is not a tradition that is hostile to queer people but is, in fact, itself inherently queer. Edman reveals how “queering” Christianity—that is, disrupting simplistic ways of thinking about gender and sexuality, and more broadly about self and other—can illuminate contemporary Christian faith and shows why queer Christians are gifts to the Church.
Eliel Cruz, founder of Faithfully LGBT, will join the Reverend Elizabeth M. Edman in conversation.
Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Photograph by Keryn Lowry
The Reverend Elizabeth M. Edman is an Episcopal priest and a political strategist who has been illuminating people’s understanding of Christianity and queer life for more than twenty-five years. She has worked on some of the most pressing contemporary issues in the intersection of religion and sexuality, serving as an inner-city hospital chaplain to people with HIV/AIDS, from 1989 to 1995; helping craft political strategy for marriage-equality efforts; and persevering for almost two decades to become an openly queer priest in the Episcopal Church. (New York, NY)

Eliel Cruz is the Executive Director of Faith In America, an organization dedicated to ending religious based bigotry towards LGBT people. He has worked on the intersections of faith, sexuality, and gender for five years. Cruz is a prolific speaker and writer on religion, (bi)sexuality, media, and culture as seen in the Huffington Post, Upworthy, Mic, Daily Dot, Everyday Feminism, Washington Post, Sojourners, DETAILS Magazine, Quartz, Rolling Stone. He’s the co-founder and former president of Intercollegiate Adventist Gay-Straight Alliance Coalition, an organization that advocates for safe spaces for LGBT students at Seventh-day Adventist colleges. He has a BBA & BA in International Business and French Studies from Andrews University.

Queerspawn in Love: A Memoir - Reading/Q&A
2016-05-19 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
Despite growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area as the daughter of four lesbians, Kellen Kaiser envisioned her life working out, fairy tale–like, with a Prince Charming. When her possible prince did arrive, however, it was not without complications. Home on leave from the Israeli army, the man Kaiser picks doesn’t seem like a sure bet. Starting with some casual sex gone awry, they face a number of obstacles, not the least of which are war in the Middle East, long-distance romance, and differing views on sexuality and their approaching adulthood. But they find themselves most challenged by a more mundane concern: the upkeep of a relationship between two people. Funny and keenly observed, Queerspawn in Love is a story about identity, family, and figuring out, through loving someone else and failing, how to love yourself.
Join the author in a reading and Q&A celebration.
Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.
To reserve a copy of Queerspawn in Love, please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com. Thank you!

Kellen Kaiser grew up in San Francisco, loved and supported by her four lesbian mothers and one younger brother. As a child she represented the gay community frequently as a speaker on panels and in the media. Her story has appeared on CNN, in Marie Claire, in the San Francisco Chronicle and in the Seattle Times. Online, her writing has been featured on XOJane, Role Reboot, Inculture Parent, Next Family and of course, KellenKaiser.com. When not writing, she also helps run her family’s cattle ranch. Follow her on Twitter: @momsandbombs

A Brief History of Gay Porn from "Boys in the Sand" to Bel Ami
2016-05-20 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
Join Kyle Renick for a lecture on the history of gay porn from 1971 to 2016 with film excerpts.

Who knew that a history of gay porn would be so popular? We’re expecting a big crowd, so we’re moving things around to accommodate more people. We’ll be clearing out the store at 5:30 and opening doors for the event at 6 pm. First come, first seated (or offered a standing position). Once we reach capacity we’ll close the door. We’ll start at 7:05 sharp! See you tonight!

Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.
KYLE RENICK served as Executive Director of WPA Theatre (Workshop of the Players Art Foundation, Inc.) for 25 years, producing more than one hundred Off-Broadway plays and musicals, including such long-running successes as Little Shop of Horrors by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, and Steel Magnolias by Robert Harling. He produced new works by Charles Busch, Paul Rudnick, Doug Wright, Israel Horovitz and Reynolds Price, as well as revivals by Tennessee Williams, Lillian Hellman and Edward Albee. Born and raised in St. Louis, he attended Tufts University in Boston and graduated Phi Beta Kappa with degrees in Drama and Music. Mr. Renick has been a consultant for both the New York State Council on the Arts and National Endowment for the Arts, and served for 12 years on the Board of Directors of the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York. He has written extensively on movie music for Film Score Monthly and has had articles published in Theatre Times and Back Stage, among other publications. Mr. Renick is a Charter Member of Early Music America, and a current member of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, Film Forum, and the Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film. He does volunteer work for the Boston Early Music Festival and the New York Asian Film Festival. Mr. Renick is currently writing a book about actors and artists he worked with at WPA Theatre.

Newfangled 10: Robert Siek Hosts the Final Newfangled
2016-05-21 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
Please join us for the tenth installment of NEWFANGLED, poetry readings by emerging poets hosted by Robert Siek. The tenth and final reading in the series will feature eight poets who read at one of the previous Newfangleds:
CHASE BERGGRUN, TOM CAPELONGA, RICARDO HERNANDEZ, LAWRENCE KAPLUN, PETER LABERGE, JAKE MATKOV, JAYSON P. SMITH, and NOMI STONE.
Creation of the collage of readers’ photos on this event page by Wo Chan–an artist of many talents!
CHASE BERGGRUN is a nonbinary trans poet and the author of Discontent and Its Civilizations: Poems of Erasure, winner of the 2012 jubilat Chapbook Contest, and their work has been published or is forthcoming in Jellyfish, The Offing, Prelude, inter|rupture, Apogee, No Tokens, Cosmonauts Avenue, BOAAT, Beloit Poetry Journal, and elsewhere. They are Poetry Editor at Washington Square Review and Swarm Quarterly, and an MFA candidate in Poetry at NYU.

TOM CAPELONGA is a twenty-eight-year-old native of New York City. His work has appeared in FourTwoNine Magazine, Podium, the HIV Here & Now Project, and the Lambda Literary Poetry Spotlight. He is working on completing his first chapbook, titled The Christopher Street Reader.

RICARDO HERNANDEZ is a recipient of fellowships from Poets House and Lambda Literary. His work has appeared in Newton Literary, Assaracus, and The Cortland Review. He lives in Queens.

LAWRENCE KAPLUN’s from Southern California. His poems have appeared in the Gay & Lesbian Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, Sonora Review, Southern Humanities Review, and elsewhere. He lives in Manhattan.

PETER LABERGE is the author of the chapbook Hook (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2015), which is included on the American Library Association’s Over the Rainbow List. His recent work appears in Beloit Poetry Journal, Best New Poets 2014, Colorado Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Indiana Review, Iowa Review, Pleiades, and Washington Square Review, among others. He is the recipient of a fellowship from the Bucknell University Stadler Center for Poetry, and the founder and editor-in-chief of The Adroit Journal. He lives in Philadelphia, where he is an undergraduate student at the University of Pennsylvania.

JAKE MATKOV writes poetry in Brooklyn, NY, where he teaches undergraduate courses in the English department at LIU Brooklyn. He is a cofounding editor of visceral brooklyn and cocurates its reading series of the same name. A 2015-16 Queer Art Mentorship fellow, his poems have been published in fields magazine, voicemail poems, Maudlin House, thosethatthis, and others.

JAYSON P. SMITH is a Bronx-born, Brooklyn-based writer. A Callaloo fellow & Urban Word NYC Mentor, Jayson’s work can be found in fields magazine, The Offing, Twelfth House, The Rumpus, & Day One. Jayson is also the Poetry Editor at Union Station Magazine.

NOMI STONE is the author of the poetry collection Stranger’s Notebook, an MFA Candidate at Warren Wilson, and hopefully finished her PhD in Anthropology at Columbia last week. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Best American Poetry 2016, The New Republic, Poetry Northwest, Guernica, Drunken Boat, and elsewhere.

Union Square Slam presents: JAYY DODD: Master Class and Feature
2016-05-24 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
Union Square Slam is delighted to roll out our new summer reading series, featuring an extended open mic and a truly stellar featured artist.
This week, we welcome JAYY DODD!!!
Come join us for a special generative Master Class with Jayy before the show!!!
6:00pm: Master Class w/ Jayy Dodd
7:30pm: Sign-ups and Socialize
8:00pm: Open Mic
8:45pm: Featured Poet: Jayy Dodd
All Ages // Wheelchair Accessible
Open Mic // $5
Master Class // $10
About our Feature:
jayy dodd is a writer, editor and homeboy from Los Angeles, now based in New England. His work has appeared / will appear in Lambda Literary, Prelude, Assaracus, Guernica, Winter Tangerine and The Offing. He’s the author of [sugar in the tank] on Pizza Pi Press. You can find him on the internet talking trash about something. jayydodd.net

An Oral History of Homosexuality in Croatia - Book Reading and Discussion
2016-05-25 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
An Oral History of Homosexuality in Croatia is the first book that collected the testimony of 25 LGBT people who lived in Croatia at the time when homosexuality was forbidden by law, when LGBT people were detained and subjected to public ridicule and nailed to the pillar of shame.
The main idea behind this research was to shed light on the existence of LGBTQ identities in Croatia in the period of 1945-2000; to reveal experiences of self-identifications, sexualities, behaviors and life styles which were mostly hidden and silent, denied, ignored or excluded by society and culture of those times. By producing this “unwritten history,” we wanted to testify to the ever-presence and historical continuity of our identities and expressions, and to confirm both uniqueness and commonality of LGBTQ experiences.
Nine years after its release, in collaboration with Dean Vuletić, a historian who specializes in the cultural and political history of modern Europe, Domino published an English translation of the first Oral History of Homosexuality in Croatia ever written. The original and English book was edited by Zvonimir Dobrovic and Gordan Bosanac, well known Croatian LGBTIQ activists and research was done by Amir Hodzic, Natasa Bodrozic and Karmen Ratkovic.
The book will be presented by Zvonimir Dobrovic.
Suggested donation of $10 to benefit the Bureau and the Queer New York International Festival. No one turned away for lack of funds.

CAPSID : Book Launch and Reading
2016-05-26 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
Please join us for the book launch and party for Capsid : A Love Song by Joseph Osmundson.

Published in April by Indolent Books, Capsid is a hybrid essay that uses personal narrative and lyrical science writing to confront contemporary realities of living with HIV regardless of HIV status. After 30 years, HIV has fundamentally shifted how we understand bodies and health, sex and sexuality, activism and art. With pre- and post-diagnosis anti-retroviral therapy continuing to change the shape HIV infections, we badly need new HIV narratives that confront and explain our contemporary interactions with the virus.

Osmundson will be joined by Jennie Gruber and Darnell L. Moore in readings that will deal with bodies and health and sex and joy. Indolent Books founder Michael Broder will introduce the chapbook.

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

Darnell L. Moore is a Senior Correspondent at MicNews, Co-Managing/Editor at The Feminist Wire and writer-in-residence at the Center on African American Religion, Sexual Politics and Social Justice at Columbia University. Darnell’s advocacy centers on marginal identity, youth development and other social justice issues in the U.S. and abroad. A prolific writer, Darnell has been published in various media outlets including MSNBC, The Guardian, Huffington Post, EBONY, The Advocate, OUT Magazine, Gawker, Truth Out, VICE, Guernica, Mondoweiss, Thought Catalog, Good Men Project and others, as well as numerous academic journals including QED: A Journal in GLBTQ World Making, Women Studies Quarterly, Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media & Technology, Transforming Anthropology, Black Theology: An International Journal, and Harvard Journal of African American Policy, among others.

Jennie Gruber is a writer, educator, media-maker, queer punk, and true karaoke believer. She holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction Writing from Sarah Lawrence. Her writing has appeared on Vice, Helix Queer Performance Network, Fleshbot, and Gaga Stigmata, in The Believer, AORTA, and Whore! magazines, and in several Cleis Press anthologies. Her workshops and readings have been featured at a variety of venues, including Red Umbrella Diaries, Perverts Put Out, Lesbian Sex Mafia, and the Feminist Porn Conference. Born in Northern California, Gruber now lives in Manhattan with a very sweet bear. Her books include Love Not Given Lightly and a recent how-to guide to sexting aptly titled Sexting.

Joseph Osmundson is a writer and scientist from rural Washington State. He is an American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellow in Systems Biology at NYU. His writing has appeared or is forthcoming in The Kenyon Review, The LA Review of Books, Gawker, The Rumpus, Salon, and The Feminist Wire, where he is an Associate Editor.

Five $ Fukt
2016-05-27 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
Max Steele, Slava Mogutin, Billy Miller, Nicholas Gorham, and Walt Cessna will be reading brief bits from Cessna’s book Fukt 2 Start With & Slava Mogutin’s book Food Chain. Nicholas Gorham will be surprising us with a special performance. Cessna will also be introducing his friend Scott Osman (aka DJ Scotto) as he previews key pieces from his Studio 4312 collection of NASA swoosh shirts & hoodys, and yes there will be a couple of samples for purchase.
Very limited copies of FUKT for $5 will be available as well as a selection of random B&W limited edition 5 X 7 prints from Cessna’s WOLFPACK! (2012) photo book for $5 each. Signed & #’d. It will definitely be a chill evening. 4312 collection of NASA’s exclusive model, muse and extremely correct blue haired young man Scott Osman will be our special guest. Cessna has been collaborating with Scott Osman on images for NASA that will be running in Vaczine Magazine #3 and he’s excited to share the results. Friday May 27th 7-9 PM @ the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division/ Extremely casual. Come correct.
Photo credit: Stanley Stellar
Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.

TELL 24: Open Mic
2016-05-28 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.
Queers! Bring Your favorite true five minute story about your self. Tell is having its first open mic slam!
7 PM Sign-up
7:30 PM Story-telling
$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.

Union Square Slam Presents: Reparations
2016-05-31 19:30 - 21:30 | NY
Union Square Slam is excited for our Summer reading series, featuring an extended open mic and a phenom featured artist.
This week, come through to catch REPARATIONS in all their collective glory before they head out to compete at the Rustbelt Regional Slam in Columbus, Ohio June 3-4!!
6:00pm: Workshop w/ Taylor Steele
7:30pm: Sign-ups and Socialize
8:00pm: Open Mic
8:45pm: Featured Poet: Reparations Collective
All Ages // Wheelchair Accessible
Open Mic // $5
Workshop // $10

About our Feature:
Reparations is a poetic performance collective who will take over the world without the help of white folk. They don’t need you. Unless it’s monetary. Then, give it to them. These radical, black, queer poets perform and teach workshops around identity, activism, trauma, and healing. Reparations, comprised of Ashley August, Timothy DuWhite, Roya Marsh, and Taylor Steele, became a collective after winning the 2015 Northbeast Underground Tournament Slam.
Individually, they have performed at The Nuyorican Poets Cafe, The Bowery Poetry Club, The Triad Broadway House, The Apollo, Cherry Lane Theatre, BAM, the United Nations, and many slam venues and universities across the nation. They have been published by such distinguished journals as Apogee Journal, Huffington Post, Blavity, The Body is Not an Apology, Blackberry: a magazine, The Rumpus, and many more. Their faces have been featured on Button Poetry, SlamFind, Def Jam, and “Orange is the New Black” — well, only one of them. They are ready to start a revolution. As a wise woman once said, “Pay me what you owe me!”

To Be Queer, Gifted and Black
2016-06-01 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
Playwright Azure D. Osborne-Lee and Author and Poet Ashley Young present an evening of works-in-progress highlighting the experiences of Queer Black characters in fiction and non-fiction narratives. Join them in sharing the development of their work and celebrate their contributions to the queer community as writers of color.
Suggested donation of $10 to benefit the Bureau and the readers. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Azure D. Osborne-Lee is an award-winning writer and theatre maker from South of the Mason-Dixon Line. He earns a living working as an arts administrator, and lives in Brooklyn with one small cat named Cream Cheez and one flamboyant fish named Lucius.
Azure holds an M.A. in Advanced Theatre Practice from Royal Central School of Speech & Drama (2011), where he studied site-specific, experimental, and collaborative theatre. Azure also holds an M.A. in Women’s & Gender Studies (2008) and a B.A. in English & Spanish (2005) from The University of Texas at Austin.
Azure is an inaugural Field Leadership Fund Arts Manager Fellow (2015-2017) as well as a Lambda Literary Fellow in Playwriting (2015 & 2016). He is an alumnus of The Fire This Time Festival (2015), Rising Circle Theater Collective’s INKtank (2014), and EMERGENYC, the Hemispheric New York Emerging Performers Program (2014).
Azure has held playwriting residences with Brooklyn Community Pride Center (2015), New Shoes Theatre (2011), and Freedom Train Productions (2010). He was recently awarded the 2015 Mario Fratti-Fred Newman Political Play Award for his first full-length play “Mirrors,” and has been a finalist for the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab and The I Am Soul Playwright’s Residency at National Black Theatre as well as a semifinalist for Ars Nova’s Play Group and New York Theatre Workshop’s Emerging Artists Fellowship.
Azure’s short play “The Sandbox” has been published in Glitter & Grit: Queer Performance from the Heels on Wheels Femme Galaxy as well as the forthcoming anthology Emerge: 2015 Lambda Literary Fellows Anthology. Azure has written multiple articles for HowlRound.com on gender and theatre, and his short plays “Vector: Episode One” and “Vector: Episode Two” were produced at The Flea Theater as part of #serials@theflea this past December.
Azure has recently performed at BRIC, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), HERE Arts Center, and BAX | Brooklyn Arts Exchange. In the past year he has presented his writing at Fire & Ink IV: Witness, and has been invited to participate in panels at The Black Lavender Experience 2016 at Brown University and Bodies at Work: Performance, Labor, and ATHE, the upcoming Association for Theatre in Higher Education 2016 Conference.
Azure has a number of engagements this summer, including a reading at National Black Theatre on June 13th. You can keep up with Azure’s work at https://azureosbornelee.com. You can donate to Azure’s Lambda Literary Retreat Fundraiser at https://lambdaliterary.donorpages.com/WritersRetreat2016/AzureOsborneLee/.

Ashley Young is a Queer feminist poet, author and teacher. Her work has been published in three anthologies, Hot and Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love and Fashion (Seal Press), All About Skin: Short Fiction by Women of Color (University of Wisconsin Press) and Glitter and Grit: Queer Performance from the Heels on Wheels Femme Galaxy (Portland Studio). She a contributor at Elixher magazine and has been featured in various online magazines, such as Autostraddle, Rvkvry Journal and more. She is a 2010 Voices of Our Nation’s Foundation Poetry Fellow and a 2011 Lambda Literary Foundation Nonfiction Fellow, to return summer of 2016. She has taught her biomythography workshop at the Fire and Ink Conference in 2015 and at the Northeast Queer and Trans Conference at NYU. She performs her work at various readings throughout the country and will be reading at her first solo show at Bluestockings Bookstore, Cafe and Activist Center in New York City. She is currently working on a collection of poetry and prose entitled Chronicles of Bipolar Living and is completing her first novel, a biomythography entitled The Liberation of the Black Unicorn. Ashley lives in New York City with her wife, four wild cats and her sweet service dog.

Persons of Interest
2016-06-02 18:00 - 21:00 | NY
PERSONS OF INTEREST, curated by Sam Gordon, 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.

The Bureau is a queer cultural center, bookstore, and event space hosted by The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center in New York City that seeks to excite and educate a self-confident, sex-positive, and supportive queer community by offering books, publications, and art and by hosting readings, performances, film screenings, book discussion groups, and workshops.
Visual AIDS is the only contemporary arts organization fully committed to raising AIDS awareness and creating dialogue around HIV issues today, by producing and presenting visual art projects, exhibitions, public forums and publications – while assisting artists living with HIV/AIDS.
Persons of Interest will remain on view at the Bureau through Sunday, September 4, 2016.
Event image: Raynes Birkbeck, Bad Billy, 2016, clay and mixed media

The Fourth Annual Bisexual Book Awards at Westbeth Artists Housing and Center for the Arts
2016-06-03 06:30 - 17:00 | NY
The Bi Writers Association presents A Multi-Arts Celebration of Bisexual Writing: The Fourth Annual Bisexual Book Awards at Westbeth Artists Housing and Center for the Arts

Readings by finalists of the Bisexual Book Awards, live music and a comic book art presentation capped off with the Bisexual Book Awards Ceremony and an after-party.
The Bureau will be will selling books!
Schedule: 6:30pm book signings, 7-10:30pm stage program, 10:30pm book signings, 11-1 after-party
Tickets: $15 in advance (seating is limited) or at the door
Program:
Host: Sheela Lambert, Director, Bi Writers Association
Author Readings-multiple genres:
Memoir: Kate Evans / Call It Wonder: An Odyssey of Love, Sex, Spirit, and Travel
Biography: Emily Bingham / Irrepressible: The Jazz Age Life of Henrietta Bingham
Speculative Fiction (Fantasy): B.R. Sanders / Ariah
Romance: Francis Gideon / A Winter in Rome
Mystery: Michelle Moore & Reesa Herberth / Peripheral People
Erotic Fiction: Heidi Belleau & Sam Schooler / Dead Ringer
Romance: Megan Mulry / Bound with Honor
Teen/Young Adult: Erica Yang / Bad Idea
Fiction: Redfern Jon Barrett / Giddy Death of the Gays & Strange Demise of Straights
Non-fiction: Sheela Lambert / Bisexuality in Education, edited by Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli
Comic Book Art Presentation: Elizabeth Beier “Bisexual Trials & Errors”
Live Music: Michael David Gordon & “Honeybird” Monique Mizrahi
Bisexual Book Awards Ceremony: Presentation of Awards
After-party: Dinner & drinks at Malaparte Restaurant, 753 Washington St. @ Bethune St. (a few steps away from Westbeth) cash bar/food. No entrance fee.
More performer details
Directions: Option 1-Take A train to 14 St. Walk west to Washington Street. Turn L on Washington and walk down to Bethune. Make R on Bethune.
Option 2-Take #1 train to Christopher St../Sheridan Sq. Walk west on Christopher to Washington St. Make R on Washington and walk up to Bethune. Turn L on Bethune.
Need info on Advance tickets or other questions?
fuscialadybug (at) netzero (dot) com 917-583-1797

PopDaddy: Boy Meets Boy Meets Baby Reading and Q&A
2016-06-04 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
Jeffrey Roach, author of PopDaddy: Boy Meets Boy Meets Baby, will be joined by his husband Ken Manford and their son Jackson as Jeffrey reads from his new memoir. PopDaddy is the true story of boy meets boy meets baby. Ken and Jeffrey’s lives take a sudden and unexpected turn when their best friend announces she’s pregnant. Ken wants a baby too. What follows is a hilarious, heartwarming and intensely personal story of two gay men in their thirties who decide to pursue an international adoption from Guatemala. The story is told from Jeffrey’s perspective and begins with the big announcement in January of 2001 and ends with their son’s first birthday party in October of 2002. In between the boys have to work hard to overcome bad luck, bad karma and Jeffrey’s fat childhood to get to their storybook ending.
PopDaddy has been well received by critics and readers and has drawn comparisons to Dan Savage, David Sedaris and Dan Bucatinsky. Jeffrey’s personal favorite comparison is one made by a reader who called him a gay Erma Bombeck. “The voice of the 50s housewife—that sounds about right,” he says.
To reserve copies of PopDaddy, please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com
Reception with the author to follow the reading. Beer, wine, and sparkling water available for purchase.

Union Square Slam presents: TEXT ME BACK (Melissa Lozada-Oliva & Olivia Gatwood)
2016-06-07 19:30 - 21:30 | NY
Union Square Slam is excited for our Summer reading series, featuring an extended open mic and a phenom featured artist.
This week, we feature the dynamic duo of Melissa Lozada-Oliva and Olivia Gatwood as TEXT ME BACK. Come see what these two have been cooking up as they prepare to launch their summer tour!!
7:30pm: Sign-ups and Socialize
8:00pm: Open Mic
8:45pm: Featured Poet: TEXT ME BACK
All Ages // Wheelchair Accessible
Open Mic // $5
About our Feature:
HI R U THERE? Melissa Lozada-Oliva and Olivia Gatwood are full-time spoken word artists and educators based out of Boston and New York. Collectively, they are National Poetry Slam and Women of the World Poetry Slam finalists and have had their work featured in Glamour Magazine, The Huffington Post and Upworthy. Melissa and Olivia are devoted members of the Crazy Girl Sisterhood, Crop Top Collectors and Mom-Jean Aficionados. They keep their read receipts off. Text them back???????

From Harlem to Broadway: A reading and conversation with two New York novelists
2016-06-08 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
At first glance, these two debut novels don’t seem to have much in common. Richard Taylor Pearson‘s The Role explores the comedy and tragedy that goes on behind the curtain of a contemporary Broadway play, while Joe Okonkwo‘s Jazz Moon presents a personal and artistic odyssey set against the backdrop of the Harlem Renaissance and glittering Jazz Age Paris. However, both books feature tantalizing drama with highly creative protagonists who face challenges in art, life, love, and the pursuit of happiness. Join us for a lively reading and discussion.

Richard Taylor Pearson is a triple threat: author, actor, and attorney. He grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he appeared in many plays and musicals. After graduating from Rhodes College, Richard went on to obtain a law degree from Rutgers School of Law. While he works as an attorney by day, his nights and weekends are spent writing novels and performing in theatrical events all over New York City. Richard lives in Jersey City with his brilliant husband, Brian, and their amazing daughter, Natalie.

Joe Okonkwo is a Pushcart Prize nominee who has had stories published in a variety of print and online venues including Promethean, Penumbra Literary Magazine, Chelsea Station, Shotgun Honey, and Best Gay Stories 2015. In addition to his writing career, he has worked in theater as an actor, stage manager, director, playwright and youth theatre instructor. He earned an MFA in Creative Writing from City College of New York. Jazz Moon is his debut novel.

Bi Book Club discusses Rubyfruit Jungle, by Rita Mae Brown
2016-06-09 18:30 - 20:00 | 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 June 9, The Bi Book Club will discuss:
Rubyfruit Jungle, by Rita Mae Brown
A landmark coming-of-age novel that launched the career of one of this country’s most distinctive voices, Rubyfruit Jungle remains a transformative work more than forty years after its original publication. In bawdy, moving prose, Rita Mae Brown tells the story of Molly Bolt, the adoptive daughter of a dirt-poor Southern couple who boldly forges her own path in America. With her startling beauty and crackling wit, Molly finds that women are drawn to her wherever she goes—and she refuses to apologize for loving them back. This literary milestone continues to resonate with its message about being true to yourself and, against the odds, living happily ever after.
We will be reading this “lesbian classic novel”, that is really quite bisexual in its telling, through a bisexual lense.
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 Rubyfruit Jungle 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)

Reading by Leslie Lawrence from her new book: The Death of Fred Astaire--and Other Essays From a Life Outside the Lines (SUNY Press)
2016-06-10 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
Author Leslie Lawrence will read from her debut collection, The Death of Fred Astaire–and Other Essays from a Life Outside the Lines (SUNY Press).

As a child of the sixties, Leslie Lawrence knew she didn’t want to duplicate her parents lives, yet she never imagined she’d stray so far outside the lines of their and her own expectations. The Death of Fred Astaire opens with the story, both wrenching and funny, of how Lawrence says her goodbyes to the iconic images she’s held since her youth; she then proceeds to bear a child and raise him with her lesbian partner. Some essays in this debut collection reflect on legacies Lawrence inherited from her Jewish family and culture. In others, she searches gamely for a rich, authentic life a voice, a vocation, a community, even a god she can call her own.

Always a seeker, an adventurer resisting fear, Lawrence, a city girl, creates a summer home in the back woods of the Live Free or Die state. She attempts the flying trapeze and takes part in a cross-dressing workshop. Traveling alone to Morocco, she assists a veterinarian tending to an ailing donkey. Teaching in a vocational high school in Boston, she questions her methods and assumptions about race and class. With rare honesty, she confronts the complexities of motherhood, of caring for her ill partner, and of widowhood. In “Wonderlust,” the collection’s most ambitious piece, she explores the role of beauty and creativity in our spiritual lives, revealing how lifelong learning in dance, music, and the visual arts can make us all more alive even as we age.

Leslie Lawrence was raised in Queens and attended New York City’s public schools. A graduate of Oberlin College, Brown University, and Goddard College’s M.F.A. program (now Warren Wilson), Lawrence was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. Her work has been widely published in many journals, periodicals and anthologies including Prairie Schooner, Witness, The Boston Globe, The Women’s Review of Books, Women on Women, Feeding the Hungry Heart, Lesbians Raising Sons et al. She is a world traveller and an active practitioner of contact improvisation.

Bertie Marshall reads From Sleepwalking to Sleepwalking
2016-06-11 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
A reading of From Sleepwalking to Sleepwalking, a new novella by Bertie Marshall.

They are not what you expect, these spiralling invitations to regret…

camera flashes of surprise, sharp insights, luminous imagery. Little trips toward oblivion that are almost the opposite—laments, in fact, about our inability to forget— a stunning tribute to the indestructibility of the creative brain.

Bruce Benderson.

Part artist notebook, part meditation on grieving, From Sleepwalking to Sleepwalking is above all an apparitional soundtrack through memory and 21st century cityscapes that haunts like a dream through waking hours;

Travis Jeppesen.

Union Square Slam presents: The Super Cute and Adorable Book Release of "Depression Cupcakes" By Thomas Fucaloro
2016-06-14 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
Union Square Slam is delighted to roll out our new summer reading series, featuring an extended open mic and a truly stellar featured artist.
This week will be the book release of Thomas Fucaloro‘s Depression Cupcakes by Yes, Poetry
7:00pm: Mingle and socialize
7:30pm: Open mic begins
8:00pm: Spotlight Features
8:45pm: Featured Poet: Thomas Fucaloro
All Ages // Wheelchair Accessible
Open Mic // $5
We will also have some amazing poets for you as well:
Elisabet Velasguez
Aimee Herman
Patrick Roche
Roya Marsh
There will be depression cupcakes there to be eaten backed by the great poet
Trae Durica

About our Feature:
Thomas Fucaloro is an NYC poet. He has 2 books out by three rooms press, his latest one, “It Starts from the Belly and Blooms” has received rave reviews. He has graduated with an MFA at the New School for Creative Writing. He is a co-founding editor of Great Weather for Media and NYSAI press. He is a writing coordinator at the Harlem Children’s Zone. He just recently won a performance grant from the Staten Island Council of the Arts and the NYC Dept. of Cultural Affairs. His new chapbook “Mistakes Disguised as Stars” by tired hearts press was released in March and his next chapbook “Depression Cupcakes” will be released in June through “Yes, Poetry.”

When Your Child Is Gay: Reading, Book Signing, and Q & A with Authors Wesley C. Davidson and Jonathan Tobkes, M.D.
2016-06-15 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
Join us for a reading from When Your Child Is Gay: What You Need to Know, by Wesley C. Davidson and Jonathan L. Tobkes MD, with foreword by Cason Crane. Davidson and Tobkes will read from their book, followed by a Q&A.

About When Your Child Is Gay: What You Need to Know:
Coming out can be fraught with difficulty for both parents and child—but Wesley C. Davidson, a popular blogger on gay rights issues, and Dr. Jonathan Tobkes, a New York City-based psychiatrist, provide a road map so families can better navigate this rocky emotional terrain. Emphasizing communication and unconditional love, Davidson and Tobkes help parents untangle their own feelings, identify and overcome barriers to acceptance, encourage strong self-esteem in their child, handle negative or hostile reactions to their child’s sexual identity, and more. Filled with case studies and interviews, along with useful action plans and conversation starters, this is a positive, progressive guide to raising healthy, well-adjusted adults.

Wesley C. Davidson has written about parenting and health for such publications as Adoptive Families, Good Housekeeping, and Family Fun. The mother of a gay adult son, she has guest blogged for parenting websites on the topic of raising gay children, a subject she tackles in her own blog .https://straightparentgaykid.blogspot.com. She is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors and The Authors Guild. Wesley lives in Vero Beach, Florida. Her web address is www.wesleycullendavidson.com.

Jonathan Tobkes, M.D. is a psychiatrist in Manhattan. His practice includes straight parents who have gay and lesbian children as well as gay children. He teaches and supervises psychiatry residents at The New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan. Dr. Tobkes lives in New York City with his husband and their two children. His web address is www.jonathantobkesmd.com.

20Something Monthly Manhattan Meetup
2016-06-16 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 25: Success
2016-06-17 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.
Success is the theme of the twenty-fifth installment of TELL. Featuring Marcus Hicks, Roni Laytin, Larry Darnell Penn Whitfield, Ashley Young, and Judy Yu.

$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.

Marcus Hicks is a designer/performer living in Brooklyn NY. Originally from Ca. SDNBrooklyn.com

Roni Laytin is an actress, writer, mover, shaker, improviser and lover of story. She graduated from Pace University with a BFA in Acting and additionally pursues film production. Recent credits include “Mother May I?”, “Be Our Guest” feature film, “Mad Full of Dreams” and most proudly a laundry detergent B2B where her hands did all the talking. She’d like to thank Drae for this awesome opportunity and everyone else that is allowing others a glimpse into their world tonight. You can read about creative updates as well as contact her at ronilaytin.com.

Larry Darnell Penn Whitfield is a NYC based actor, writer, singer and aggressive mover. He is creator of Confessions of a Plussizetwink a one man cabaret series. Southern and sassy roots govern his everyday creativity. Live. Love. Create.

Ashley Young is a Queer feminist poet, author and teacher. Her work has been published in three anthologies, Hot and Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love and Fashion (Seal Press), All About Skin: Short Fiction by Women of Color (University of Wisconsin Press) and Glitter and Grit: Queer Performance from the Heels on Wheels Femme Galaxy (Portland Studio). She a contributor at Elixher magazine and has been featured in various online magazines, such as Autostraddle, Rvkvry Journal and more. She is a 2010 Voices of Our Nation’s Foundation Poetry Fellow and a 2011 Lambda Literary Foundation Nonfiction Fellow, to return summer of 2016. She has taught her biomythography workshop at the Fire and Ink Conference in 2015 and at the Northeast Queer and Trans Conference at NYU. She performs her work at various readings throughout the country and will be reading at her first solo show at Bluestockings Bookstore, Cafe and Activist Center in New York City. She is currently working on a collection of poetry and prose entitled Chronicles of Bipolar Living and is completing her first novel, a biomythography entitled The Liberation of the Black Unicorn. Ashley lives in New York City with her wife, four wild cats and her sweet service dog.

Judy Yu writes stories on the number 2 or 3 train from Brooklyn to Harlem, and advocates for LGBTQ youth in the youth justice system at the Juvenile Justice Project of the Correctional Association of NY. She has lived in New York for over 20 years and calls Brooklyn home. She has an MFA in writing from Sarah Lawrence and an MPH from Hunter.
