Book Launch for Jesse Harrod's "Low Ropes Course"
2017-06-03 19:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | NY
Join us for a party to launch the first artist’s book from Philadelphia-based sculptor and installation artist Jesse Harrod, Low Ropes Course.

We’ll hear some of the 70’s and 80’s-era music the book’s several conversations site as inspiration—and which form a distinctive mixtape bundled with the book! Jesse will be engaged in an open conversation with NYC-based artist Chris Bogia and curator Danny Orendorff. And of course we’ll have books for sale! “Low Ropes Course” from Publication Studio Hudson is saturated with Harrod’s vibrant and often riotous and politically charged art works—drawings, Macramé and paracord sculptures, and installation— with a generous spectra of both formal commentary and free-flowing dialogues with fellow artists working in the veins of craft, queerness, the Maximalism aesthetic, and feminist politics. Presented by Publication Studio Hudson.

Artist Jesse Harrod produces both large and mid-scale installations and sculptures out of what she calls “femmy detritus”: brash, colorful, and lowbrow materials – including sequins, fringe, and Sculpey – conventionally associated with hobby crafts and domesticity. Harrod has an MFA from the department of Fiber and Material Studies from the School of The Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University. She is currently the Head of Fibers & Material Studies at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia.

Danny Orendorff is an independent curator, writer, activist, and teacher living where ever he happens to be working now, ngers-crossed. His work explores the intersections of DIY and/or craft-oriented cultural produc- tion, histories of grassroots social-jus- tice activism, and theories of gender and sexuality. Orendorff’s curatorial projects have been presented by the DePaul Art Museum (Chicago, IL), SFCamerawork (San Francisco, CA), Charlotte Street Foundation (Kansas City, MO), The Center for Craft, Cre- ativity & Design (Asheville, NC),Three- walls (Chicago, IL) and Vox Populi (Philadelphia, PA), among others. Find him at DanDannyDaniel.com.

Chris Bogia was born in Wilmington, Delaware in 1977. He studied art at both New York University (BA 00’) and Yale University (MFA sculpture 04’). He has been showing is work in New York and Abroad for over 16 years. Bogia currently lives and works in Queens, New York. Chris Bogia is the co-founder of the Fire Island Artist Residency (FIAR), the first LGBTQ artist residency program located in Cherry Grove, on Fire Island, NY. He teaches at both New York University and Bruce High Quality University. He was awarded both the Alice Kimball Traveling Fellowship and the Larry Kramer Initiative research grant for Lesbian and Gay studies from Yale University.

From one white person to another: workshop
2017-06-04 15:00 - 17:00 | NY
Join us for an afternoon of self reflection and action.

Heather Marie Scholl created “From one white person to another” fill in the blank stickers almost 2 years ago. They have appeared on the streets in NYC and DC. We will be creating short slogans and sayings for these stickers. By centering our discussion around this fun and low stress activity, we will unleash our courage and creativity! To warm up we will be talking about our experiences interrupting racism, what we could do differently.

All stickers created during the workshop will be left with us and we will stealthily place them around town. Your voice will be heard (anonymously).

The focus on this workshop is white people addressing other white people, as we believe it is our responsibility to intervene and to resist racism wherever it appears. However, we do not believe in creating public white only events, all people are welcome!

This is a vulnerable and safe space, things you share and hear may make you uncomfortable. Come as you are, be prepared to share, and to be challenged.

Suggested donation of $10 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Heather Marie Scholl is an artist and activist. Her work examines social justice issues with an embodied and productive emotionality. Currently her main focus is addressing racial justice, white supremacy and anti-blackness

Sophie Ellman-Golan is the Deputy Head of Social Media Strategy and Campaign Outreach at Women’s March. Born and raised in Brooklyn, she’s a proud member of the #JewishResistance.

CopWatch/HateWatch Training
2017-06-04 18:00 - 20:00 | NY
CopWatch is an effective and legal tool for empowering communities, ending police misconduct, unprofessional behavior, and discrimination. You have the right to observe and record all police activities in public places. Learn how to exercise your rights safely and legally. Workshop will be taught by comedian and activist Elsa Waithe. Suggested donation of $5 to $10, but no one will be turned away.

Spread the word!!!

“What to do if you’re stopped by the police”: a handy guide from the New York Civil Liberties Union. Print it out. Share it widely. Keep it with you. And you can find other “know your rights” cards (in English and Spanish) here.

USS presents the poetry of John Paul Davis
2017-06-06 18:30 - 21:30 | NY
We are so excited to have John Paul Davis read his poems for you from his latest collection Crown Prince of Rabbits, published by Great Weather for Media. We are also having a fabulous open mic.
6:30pm: Writing Workshop Itiola Jones
7:30pm: sign-up and socialize
8:00pm: Feature and Show
Suggested Donation: $5
All Ages // Wheelchair Accessible
Heres more about John Paul Davis and his great book:
JOHN PAUL DAVIS was born in Durham, North Carolina, and has lived in Chicago, San Francisco, Ohio, and New York City. He is a graduate of East Carolina University and DePaul University. His writing has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Word Riot, The Journal, MUZZLE Magazine, RATTLE, Four Way Review, and Bat City Review. He is a former poetry editor for Em Literary and Bestiary Magazine. He helped run or host numerous poetry and variety shows including Page Meets Stage and The Encyclopedia Show. John Paul lives with his wife in New York City, where he works as a web developer, makes music and visual art, and writes poems. Crown Prince of Rabbits is his first book of poetry. Check out the digital album for Crown Prince of Rabbits on Bandcamp.
In Crown Prince of Rabbits, John Paul Davis unravels poetic self-portraits, breaking the spine of love and the language of serrated relationships. He shines the moon in his face to capture every angle, which not always flatters, but digs at the roots and rot of endings. This is a book that will feel like a novel, with upheavals and road trips (with music). His exit signs ask questions that even the reader can/should ponder. This is a book to drink with whiskey or strong coffee. This is a book that will leave you meditating on why it is we give our feelings away.

In Talks: Queering Mainstream Media & Creating Art That Matters
2017-06-07 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
Sawyer DeVuyst, Lia Clay, & Sean Santiago will be presenting their work in a series of artist talks, followed by a discussion about queering mainstream media and continuing to make art that matters during this volatile time in history.

Between these three artist, they’ve worked with some heavy-hitting names in fashion, publishing and advertising: Teen Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Barney’s, Thinx, Out Magazine, Candy Magazine, New York Times, MiLK Makeup and HBO Vice.

What is it like to work with such major companies as an out trans person? What can be done to open up the playing field for more trans and gender non-conforming folks to do similar work? Join us Thursday, June 7 at 7pm for a great night of stories of lived personal experiences of these trans and genderqueer media makers followed by a Q&A.

Sean Santiago is a photographer, writer and stylist whose work parses gender through the lenses of style and beauty. The founder of Cakeboy, he can be found in various corners of the internet stanning for Kristen Stewart and sharing way too many selfies. Follow his work at @sean_santiago.

Lia Clay is a transgender portrait and fashion photographer, currently working in New York City. Her work focuses on intersectionality, and portraying trans stories from a trans perspective. Lia’s work presents deeply saturated images with an abandonment of retouching, portraying raw portraiture of peers, ex lovers, and personal muses. Follow her work at @liaclay.

Sawyer DeVuyst is a visual artist, model and actor whose work aspires to empower and humanize otherized communities through visibility and storytelling. You may have seen his work for Thinx in the NYC subway or San Francisco BART, in a music video for A Great Big World, on HBO Vice, for Barney’s, in the Wythe Hotel or daily on instagram as @sawyermine.

Opening Reception: Policing Gender
2017-06-08 18:00 - 21:00 | NY
Policing Gender is an installation of photographs and audio created by artist Lorenzo Triburgo. The photographs in Policing Gender are abstract metaphors on absence and imprisonment and the audio component is a compilation of voices of LGBTQ prisoners with whom the artist has been writing on a long-term basis.
Policing Gender will be on view at the Bureau from June 8 through September 10, 2017

In Policing Gender, as in his previous body of work Transportraits, Triburgo employs visual connotations of landscape and portrait photography to cast a critical lens on notions of the “Natural” and the politics of queer representation, this time in service of prison abolition as a crucial queer issue.

In his art works Lorenzo Triburgo consistently confronts the overlapping ideas of American identity, authenticity, and photography’s critical role in framing and constructing our understanding of identity and reality.
His series, Transportraits, has been exhibited widely in major cities across the United States, Europe and Asia and won first place in the gender category in the international photography competition, the Pride Photo Award in 2012. He was awarded a Project Grant through the Regional Arts and Culture Council of Portland, OR for his current project Policing Gender that examines mass incarceration from a queer perspective. Triburgo exhibits this project at learning institutions throughout the U.S. and hosts workshops regarding the radical, transformative act of becoming a pen pal with community members behind bars.
Triburgo has work in the permanent collection at the Portland Art Museum and has been published and written about in various web and print journals including PDN, Slate, The Huffington Post, and the website for The Transgender Studies Reader 2, edited by Susan Stryker and Aren Aizura, and published by Routledge. He holds a BA from New York University in Photography and Gender Studies and an MFA in Photography and Related Media from the School of Visual Arts. He lives and works in NYC.

Exhibition-related programs:

TELL 35: Policing Gender
Saturday, June 10th, 7—9 PM
TELL is an evening of storytelling from the mouths and minds of queers in NYC hosted by Drae Campbell at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division since February 2014. In conjunction with the exhibition, Policing Gender will serve as the theme of TELL 35. This special edition of TELL will feature stories of justice, resistance, love, and friendship from formerly incarcerated LGBTQ folks, prison abolition activists, and queers impacted by “policing gender.”

Envisioning Our Future
Thursday, September 7th, 6:30—8:30 PM
A panel of experts from a spectrum of perspectives will discuss prison abolition as a political imperative to LGBTQ activism. Panelists will discuss immediate and future abolitionist goals, tangible strategies for resistance, and hope in the vision of a different future.

Since I Laid My Burden Down NYC Launch
2017-06-09 19:00 - 20:30 | NY
Join author Brontez Purnell for a dynamic reading from his debut novel SINCE I LAID MY BURDEN DOWN with q&a at the best bookstore in town (according to The Feminist Press, but who are we to disagree?), Bureau of General Services-Queer Division! With special guests Joseph Whitt and William Johnson!

About Since I Laid My Burden Down:
DeShawn lives a high, creative, and promiscuous life in San Francisco. But when he’s called back to his cramped Alabama hometown for his uncle’s funeral, he’s hit by flashbacks of handsome, doomed neighbors and sweltering Sunday services. Amidst prickly reminders of his childhood, DeShawn ponders family, church, and the men in his life, prompting the question: Who deserves love? A raw, funny, and uninhibited stumble down memory lane, Brontez Purnell’s debut novel explores how one man’s early sexual and artistic escapades grow into a life.

“Brontez Purnell is foul-mouthed and evil. Be warned: this book will make you cackle out loud like you’ve got the Devil inside you then it will break your heart. Be careful where you read it. BUT DO READ IT.” —Justin Vivian Bond

To reserve a copy of Since I Laid My Burden Down and/or Johnny Would You Love Me If My Dick Were Bigger (just re-issued by The Feminist Press) please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com.

Brontez Purnell is author of Johnny Would You Love Me If My Dick Were Bigger and the cult zine Fag School, frontman for his band the Younger Lovers, and founder and choreographer of the Brontez Purnell Dance Company. He lives in Oakland, California.

Joseph Whitt is an artist, writer, and independent curator living and working in New York City. He has performed at MoMA PS1, PPOW, Dixon Place, Eyebeam, Deitch Projects, Envoy Enterprises, and other venues of note. His writings have appeared in Art Papers, ArtUS, Useless Magazine, K48; and his work has been reviewed by The New York Times and Sculpture. He has released five chapbooks of poetry and is currently working on a sixth.

William Johnson is the Program Director for Lambda Literary, an organization dedicated to promoting LGBTQ literature. He is a contributing arts and culture writer for CrushFanazine and the publisher of Mary Literary, a literary journal dedicated to showcasing queer/gay writings of artistic merit.

TELL 35: Policing Gender
2017-06-10 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.

Policing Gender is the theme of the 35th installment of TELL in conjunction with artist Lorenzo Triburgo’s exhibition of the same name at the Bureau, and will features stories of justice, resistance, love, and friendship from formerly incarcerated LGBTQ folks, prison abolition activists, and queers impacted by “Policing Gender.” Featuring Evie Litwok, Tanya Nguyen, and Charles Whitewolf.
$10 suggested donation to support the Bureau and the performers. 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.

Evie Litwok is the Founder and Director of Witness to Mass Incarceration. Witness is a digital library of first-hand in-depth interviews with formerly incarcerated women and men. America’s 40 year history of mass incarceration is detailed through those who were inside prisons, jails and detention centers.

Tanya Nguyen is a prison abolitionist and a member of Black & Pink. She lives in NYC.

Charles Whitewolf, Joker: Charles has been an actor and joker with TONYC since 2013. They have worked with the Ali Forney Center Troupe, and Concrete Justice. Charles is a poet, skateboarder, and has been featured in video projects by Transparent director Silas Howard.

Comix Uprisinig: Tyler Cohen, Marguerite Dabaie, Jennifer Camper, and Beldan Sezen
2017-06-11 15:00 - 17:00 | NY
Comics reading with slide show. Cartoonists Tyler Cohen, Marguerite Dabaie, Jennifer Camper, and Beldan Sezen read from new work that covers politics, sex, humor, strange ideas, and the riddle of human existence. Q&A and book signing to follow.

Jennifer Camper is a cartoonist and graphic artist. Her books include “Rude Girls and Dangerous Women” and “subGURLZ”, and she edited two “Juicy Mother” comics anthologies. Her work appears in numerous publications, comic books, and anthologies, and has been exhibited internationally. She is the founding director of the biennial Queers & Comics Conference.

Tyler Cohen is a cartoonist who uses autobiography and surrealism to explore gender, parenthood, race, and female experience in her book Primahood: Magenta (Stacked Deck Press). Her work has appeared online at PEN America/PEN Illustrated and MuthaMagazine.com and in print in the Ignatz Award-winning anthology, Qu33r, Alphabet, and The Feminist Utopia Project. Primahood: Magenta is a Finalist for the Bisexual Book Awards.

Marguerite Dabaie’s first major comic, The Hookah Girl and Other True Stories–an autobiography about Palestinian-Americans–was awarded two grants. The cultural differences she has felt between Arab and American cultures heavily informs her work. She strives to combine comics with academia, something that dovetailed into her work on A Voyage to Panjikant, a historical-fictional graphic novel about the 7th-century Silk Road (Rosarium Publishing 2018).

Beldan Sezen is a visual storyteller using various conventions of comics and film. In 2008 her animated cartoon From the Diaries of Two Breasts premiered at the Pink Film Days in Amsterdam. Her short comic A Girl Named Halt was published as a matchbox-book in 2009 and has become a collector’s item. In 2011 she won the Three-in-One Chapbook Contest Prize for her graphic short stories “Fear City,” “Girls,” and “Demons.” Her first graphic-murder mystery, Zakkum, was first installed in a museum space, Frauenmuseum Wiesbaden, as a giant walk-though of the book and was published in 2011 by Treehouse Press, London, and listed for the 2012 Lambda Literary Award. Her first work as a comic reporter, #Gezi Park, was listed for the 2014 Lambda Literary Award. Her second graphic novel, Snapshots of a Girl, was published in 2014 and named to the American Library Asssocation’s Over the Rainbow List for the best LGBT books for adult readers in 2015. She was awarded a 2015 Global Arts Fund Award by the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice. Her recent books are represented by Booklyn, and institutional collectors include The New York Public Library, Grinnell College, University of Delaware, Stanford University, and the Library of Congress.

Project X takes over Union Square Slam
2017-06-13 18:30 - 21:30 | NY
We are so excited for this show. Project X will be taking over our show with grand poets, live art, Bronx merchandise, and other beautiful conduits that will inspire and expand your heart. Here’s more about the show and who is reading, this is an Open Mic as well.

6:30pm: Writing Workshop w/ Itiola Jones
7:30pm: sign-up and socialize
8:00pm: Feature and Show

Suggested Donation:
Workshop or Show: $5

Hosted by Sabrina Cedeño and Jeremy Rios

More about Project X:
Project X is an arts organization dedicated to elevating and re-centering the Bronx through open mics, workshops, community programming, and the Bronx’s own Slam Series to produce its first all Latinx Slam Team headed to Nationals 2018.

Join the Project X Community on IG @bxproject.x
Bronx Merch sold by Bronx Native! IG @thebronxnative

More about our Features:

Keren Abigail is a dynamic singer-songwriter born and raised in the Bronx, New York. She identifies as an Afro-Dominicana and writes R&B/soul music that is fueled by self-love, the search for identity, and the need to communicate with others. While getting a BA in French at Yale University, Keren participated in various theatrical productions and musical ensembles, most notably the Shades of Yale, an a cappella group that sings music of the African diaspora and the African-American tradition, and Whim ‘n Rhythm, Yale’s all-female, world-traveling a cappella group. Since moving back to New York, she’s performed at many storied venues such as Harlem’s Silvana, the Sidewalk Café, and the Bowery Electric. You can find her on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @kerenabreumusic.

Bronx born and raised, Mayte Lisbeth is an AfroDominicana poet. Writing since the moment she could hold a pen, she developed her voice while performing with Babel, Temple University’s poetry collective which afforded her the opportunity to collaborate as well as share the stage with some revered poets. Currently she’s working on her first book while simultaneously gauging the digital landscape. You can find her on twitter @mespi5 trying to get her life together in 140 characters or less or through email at espinal.mayte@gmail.com.

Peggy Robles-Alvarado is a tenured New York City educator, a CantoMundo, Home School, and Academy for Teachers Fellow as well as a two time International Latino Book Award winner and author of Conversations With My Skin and Homenaje A Las Guerreras/ Homage to the Warrior Women. She is a planning committee member for The Bronx Book Fair and began her MFA in Performance and Performance Studies at Pratt Institute fall of 2016. She is a 2014 BRIO performance poet award winner and in 2016 she was named one of the 25 Most Influential Women of the Bronx, a BCA Arts Fund and Spaceworks Bronx Community Artist grant recipient. Her poetry will be included in the forthcoming collection of Afro-Latino Poets published by Arte Publico Press. Peggy has been published in 92Y.org #wordswelivein, NACLA, Letras by the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, The Bronx Memoir Project, The BX Files Anthology, Luna Luna Magazine, Hyperallergic.com, Upliftt.com, Dealmas.net and Sofrito For Your Soul. She has been featured on HBO Habla Women, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Poets and Writers Fifth Annual Connecting Cultures Reading, and The BADD!ASS Women Festival as well as other culturally notable venues. Determined to build a legacy within the arts, she is continuously creating and supporting literary events and workshops through Robleswrites Productions. For more information please visit Robleswrites.com. Or find her on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @Robleswrites.

"You're in the Wrong Bathroom!": Debunking 21 misconceptions about Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming People
2017-06-16 19:00 - 20:30 | NY
Laura Erickson-Schroth in her new book (with co-writer Laura A. Jacobs), “You’re in the Wrong Bathroom!” debunks the twenty-one most common myths and misperceptions about transgender issues.

From Laverne Cox and Caitlyn Jenner to Thomas Beatie (“the pregnant man”) and transgender youth, coverage of trans lives has been exploding—yet so much misinformation persists. Bringing together the medical, social, psychological, and political aspects of being trans in the United States today, “You’re in the Wrong Bathroom!”: And 20 Other Myths About Transgender and Gender-Nonconforming People unpacks the twenty-one most common myths and misconceptions about transgender and gender-nonconforming people. Authors Laura Erickson-Schroth, MD, a psychiatrist, and Laura A. Jacobs, LCSW-R, a psychotherapist, address a range of fallacies:

Trans People Are “Trapped in the Wrong Body”
You’re Not Really Trans If You Haven’t Had “the Surgery”
Trans People Are a Danger to Others, Especially Children
Trans People Are Mentally Ill and Therapy Can Change Them
Trans People and Feminists Don’t Get Along

To reserve a copy of “You’re in the Wrong Bathroom!”: Debunking 21 misconceptions about Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming People please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com.

Laura Erickson-Schroth, MD, MA (New York, NY), is a psychiatrist working with LGBTQ people in New York City. She is the editor of Trans Bodies, Trans Selves, a resource guide written by and for transgender people.

Office Hours Poetry Workshop Spring Showcase
2017-06-17 19:00 - 20:30 | NY
Writers from the first annual Office Hours Poetry Workshop give a spring reading to showcase new poetry developed over the course of six workshop sessions. The workshop welcomes all poets, especially people of color, LGBTQ+, and those who are female-identified. Our name derives from our side hustle. Many of us are freelance, adjunct instructors, who continue to thrive in the margins of academia. Come check out our cohort and see if you’d like to join!
Featuring Michael H. Broder, Paco Márquez, Sarah Sala, Liv Lansdale, and Caitlin Grace McDonnell.
Check out the Office Hours website:
https://www.sarahsala.com/office-hours/

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 numerous publications and anthologies. He holds a BA from Columbia University, an MFA from New York University, and a PhD in Classics from The Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Broder lives in Brooklyn with his husband, the poet Jason Schneiderman, and a backyard colony of stray and feral cats.

Originally from México and Northern California, Paco Márquez’s work has appeared in Apogee, Ostrich Review and Huizache, among others. His chapbook, Portraits in G Minor, will be published by Folded Word Press in October. He was featured in “I Know No Country,” a short film directed by Antonio Salume which won NYU’s Spring 2016 Sight & Sound Documentary Film Festival. Recipient of fellowships from New York University, The Center for Book Arts, and the Squaw Valley Writer’s Workshop, he holds and MFA in poetry from NYU, where he was poetry editor of Washington Square. Currently, he is poetry editor at OccuPoetry, and lives in New York City with his partner of 11 years.

SARAH SALA is a poet and educator with roots in Brooklyn, Michigan. Her poem “Hydrogen” was featured in the “Elements” episode of NPR’s hit show Radiolab in collaboration with Emotive Fruition. The Ghost Assembly Line, a chapbook of her selected poetry, was published by Finishing Line Press in Spring 2016. Her awards and honors include: an Academy of American Poets Prize, the Marjorie Rapport Award for Poetry, an Avery Hopwood Award for Nonfiction, and a Roy W. Cowden Memorial Fellowship. She earned her MFA in Poetry from New York University, and is a 2016 Home School Fellow. She reads poetry for Epiphany Magazine and co-curates the Lamprophonic Emerging Writers Series. Her poems appear in Wreck Park, Atlas Review, and The Stockholm Review of Literature among others. Visit her website at SarahSala.com.

Liv Lansdale is an MFA candidate in fiction at Columbia University and the assistant managing editor of Guernica Magazine.

Caitlin Grace McDonnell was a New York Times Fellow in poetry at NYU and has received fellowships from Yaddo, Blue Mountain Center and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. Her poems and essays have been published widely, and she has two published books of poems “Dreaming the Tree” (belladonna 2003) and “Looking for Small Animals” (2012). Currently, she’s an English teacher and lives in Brooklyn with her eight-year-old daughter.

Categorically Queer: A Reading featuring Lauren Clark, David Eye, & Jerome Murphy
2017-06-21 19:00 - 20:30 | NY
Featuring Lauren Clark, David Eye, and Jerome Murphy. It’s a reading, but we’re queering it up: Audience members choose the themes and the poets respond. Will you draw “Femme Realness”? Or “Love and Other Body Fluids”? Or “My Dad’s an Asshole?” Et cetera.

Lauren Clark’s first collection of poems, Music for a Wedding, was selected by Vijay Seshadri for the 2016 AWP Donald Hall Prize in Poetry. It will be published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in 2017. They work as Program & Development Coordinator at Poets House in New York City and collaborate with Etc. Gallery in Chicago.

David Eye is the author of Seed (The Word Works, 2017), chosen by Eduardo C. Corral. He will attend the 2017 Sewanee Writers’ Conference as a Walter E. Dakin Fellow. He was awarded a scholarship to Sewanee in 2014 and was a finalist for the 2015-16 Tennessee Williams Poetry Contest, selected by Yusef Komunyakaa. David earned an MFA from Syracuse University in 2008.

Jerome Murphy received an MFA in 2011 from the Creative Writing Program at New York University, where he currently serves as Undergraduate Programs Manager. His critical writing has been featured in LA Review of Books, The Brooklyn Rail, Lambda Literary, and American Poets. His poetry has appeared in The Awl and in the Emotive Fruition poetry performance series curated by Thomas Dooley, recorded for NPR’s Radiolab, and is also forthcoming in Narrative Magazine.

The Political is Personal: A Conversation with Anne-christine d’Adesky and Masha Gessen
2017-06-22 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
Join activist and journalist Anne-christine d’Adesky, author of the new memoir The Pox Lover: An Activist’s Decade in New York and Paris (University of Wisconsin Press, 2017) and Masha Gessen, a Russian and American journalist, author, and activist, for a conversation about the success of HIV & LGBTQ activism of the 1990s, and the lessons they have taught us about today’s world.

For more information about The Pox Lover, please click here.

To reserve a copy of The Pox Lover, please write to the Bureau at contact@bgsqd.com.

Copies of Masha Gessen’s The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin (2012) and Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot (2014) will also be available for purchase.

Anne-christine d’Adesky is an investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker who reported on the global AIDS epidemic for New York Native, OUT, The Nation, and The Village Voice. She received the first Award of Courage from amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research. She was an early member of ACT UP and cofounder of the Lesbian Avengers. Her books include Beyond Shock: Charting the Landscape of Sexual Violence in Post-Quake Haiti, Moving Mountains: The Race to Treat Global AIDS, and a novel set in post-Duvalier Haiti, Under the Bone.

Photograph by Lee Towndrow
Masha Gessen is a journalist and the author of ten books of nonfiction, most recently The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia, to be published in October 2017. She is also the author of the national bestseller The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin (2012). She is a contributing opinion writer to The New York Times and a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books, among other publications. She has received numerous awards, including a 2017 Guggenheim Fellowship, a Carnegie Millennial Fellowship (2015-2016), a Nieman Fellowship (2003-2004), and the 2017 Overseas Press Club Award for Best Commentary. She serves as vice-president of PEN America.
Gessen was born in Moscow and immigrated to the U.S. with her family in 1981, at the age of 14. She returned to Moscow as a correspondent ten years later and stayed, becoming a Russian-language journalist in addition to her work for American magazines. She re-immigrated to the United States in 2013, after her family was targeted by Putin’s antigay campaign. She lives in New York City.

LGBT San Francisco - The Daniel Nicoletta Photographs - author talk & book signing with Daniel Nicoletta in person
2017-06-23 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
Published in 2017 by Reel Art Press – LGBT: San Francisco – The Daniel Nicoletta Photographs is the first book dedicated to photographer Daniel Nicoletta’s archive of powerful images from the burgeoning lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender mecca that was San Francisco in the 1970s through its ongoing journey to the present.
Foreward by Gus Van Sant, introduction by Chuck Mobley, edited by Tony Nourmand and designed by Joakim Olsson.

7 PM reception
7:30 PM presentation & Q & A
8:30 – 9:30 reception and book signing continues

Copies of LGBT San Francisco – The Daniel Nicoletta Photographs will be available for purchase. To reserve a copy please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com.

Daniel Nicoletta has been a leading chronicler of the LGBT civil rights movement over the last 40 years. His images are a vivid and intimate record of the people who came together to change the world: queens, dykes, transgender people, activists, celebrities, politicos, artists, and their allies.
In 1975, 20-year-old Nicoletta worked at Harvey Milk’s camera store in the Castro District of San Francisco, one of the first gay neighborhoods in the United States. Nicoletta is perhaps best known for his iconic images of Milk, the persuasive, charismatic human rights leader who became one of the first openly gay elected officials in the world.

“The value of Daniel Nicoletta’s work lies in its inerrant service to the history of the LGBT
movement in twentieth century America; forming an invaluable chronicle of a specific time and place. And, most especially: the people who created it.” – Chuck Mobley
LGBT: San Francisco is an essential history and a stunning photographic work that is not to be missed.
Reel Art Press R|A|P stands for exceptional style and a unique curatorial eye. It stands for luxury and class, the highest production values, and a sensitivity to an eclectic selection of subject matter and material. It stands for rare, unpublished and unusual work including subjects with mass appeal and limited editions with unlimited potential. The company has made headlines around the world with its previous releases, which include: Disco: The Bill Bernstein Photographs, The 2001 File, Brigid Berlin Polaroids, Unseen McQueen and Billy Name: The Silver Age.

https://www.facebook.com/lgbtsanfranciscodanielnicoletta/

Daniel Nicoletta is available for interviews
please contact publicist Lisa Baker;
Lisa Baker Associates Ltd
Email: lisa@lisabakerltd.com
Tel: + 44 (0)7768 310038
Tel: + 44 (0)203 286 2820
www.lisabakerltd.com

for more information about Daniel Nicoletta
https://www.dannynicoletta.com/

The Bureau is closed for Pride! Happy Pride, beloved queers!
2017-06-25 | NY

USS presents Trace DePass and an Open Mic
2017-06-27 18:30 - 21:30 | NY
Union Square Slam is spending the summer showcasing our fire 2017 Slam Team, as they prepare for the National Poetry Slam in Denver this August. Each team member will lead a workshop before their feature, so don’t miss your chance to engage with these brilliant writers and performers! All proceeds go directly to the artists.
First up: Trace DePass!!!
Residing in Queens, NY, Trace DePass is an Urban Word NYC alumnus, juror and consultant at the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, and was the 2016 Teen Poet Laureate for the Borough of Queens.
Cheryl Boyce-Taylor, mother of Phife Dawg from A Tribe called Quest, awarded him the first-ever Phife Dawg ‘Styles-on-Styles’ award for poetry. After which, he then went on to perform for the unveiling of Phife Dawg’s street in Queens, NY, and for the grand opening for The Langston Hughes’ home in Harlem. He received a National Gold Medal from Scholastic for his writing portfolio, “Black Boyhood,” wherein one piece was published in Scholastic’s Best Teen Writing of 2015. His poetry has been featured online for BET’s Next Level, Motion Poems, Nowness, & Billboard, and can be read at literary homes – Entropy Magazine, Poetry Magazine, Split This Rock, & Penmanship Books’ “East Coast Voices”.
Trace is also currently the editor of Best Teen Writing of 2017, and a member of the 2017 Union Square Slam Team, and working on curriculum for his upcoming residency at The Langston Hughes Home.

SHOW DETAILS:
6:30pm: Workshop
7:30pm: Sign-ups and Socialize
8:00pm: Open Mic
9:00pm: Feature

We are located at the Bureau of General Services — Queer Division, inside the LBGT Center (208 W 13th St, #210)

Our venue is all ages and wheelchair accessible.
Workshop: $5
Open Mic and Feature: $5
No one is turned away for lack of funds.

Dolly on Dolly: Presentation and Signing with Randy L. Schmidt
2017-06-28 19:00 - 20:30 | NY
Join Randy L. Schmidt as he presents and signs copies of his latest book, Dolly on Dolly: Interviews and Encounters with Dolly Parton, new from Chicago Review Press in the Musicians in Their Own Words series. After a reading/presentation, Schmidt will answer your questions and sign copies of the book. Copies will be available for sale.
Suggested donation of $10 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds. Free for ages 18 and under!
To reserve a copy of Dolly on Dolly: Interviews and Encounters with Dolly Parton please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com.

ABOUT THE BOOK:
“Nobody knows Dolly like Dolly,” declares Dolly Parton.
Dolly’s is a rags-to-riches tale like no other. A dirt-poor Smoky Mountain childhood paved the way for the buxom blonde butterfly’s metamorphosis from singer-songwriter to international music superstar. The undisputed “Queen of Country Music,” Dolly has sold more than 100 million records worldwide and has conquered just about every facet of the entertainment industry: music, film, television, publishing, theater, and even theme parks. It has been more than fifty years since Dolly Parton arrived in Nashville with just her guitar and a dream. Her story has been told many times and in many ways, but never like this.
Dolly on Dolly is a collection of interviews spanning five decades of her career and featuring material gathered from celebrated publications including Rolling Stone, Cosmopolitan, Playboy, and Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine. Also included are interviews which have not been previously available in print. Dolly’s feisty and irresistible brand of humor, combined with her playful, pull-up-a-chair-and-stay-awhile delivery, makes for a fascinating and inviting experience in down-home philosophy and storytelling. Much like her patchwork “Coat of Many Colors,” this book harkens back to the legendary entertainer’s roots and traces her evolution, stitching it all together one piece at a time.
“Dolly on Dolly magnificently encapsulates Dolly Parton’s career through her own words. It’s a must read for fans of all ages.” —Gary and Larry Lane, actors and filmmakers (Hollywood to Dollywood)
“Six decades into her career, Dolly continues to be a fountain of songwriting creativity. Randy L. Schmidt’s Dolly on Dolly reflects all of this. The book chronicles journalists’ encounters with this force of nature over forty-seven years. I was charmed by its very early stories, written when she was just beginning to establish her image. But I was equally enthralled by the stories written about Dolly as I know her today, as an American popular-culture icon. Love her. Love this book.” —Robert K. Oermann, music journalist
“Dolly on Dolly is an indulgent journey through Dolly’s life and career, giving fans a chance to relive interviews they haven’t seen in decades, but moreover it is a study in excellent interview technique. Dolly Parton is one of the world’s most skilled interview subjects, expertly navigating reporters’ questions with humor and wit, remaining in control of the interview at all times and gently steering if where she wants it to go. Dolly on Dolly offers a fascinating overview of how her natural interview talent grew over time to a level that few in the public eye can match.” —Duane Gordon, publisher, dollymania.net
“This polished tribute will be candy for Parton fans, while readers with a casual interest in pop culture will find it highly browsable and full of good humor.” —Library Journal
“You don’t need to be a Dolly Parton devotee to appreciate these 25 in-depth interviews, spanning 1967 to 2014, which chronicle the journey of a talented woman coming into her own.” —BUST magazine

Randy L. Schmidt is the author of the acclaimed bestselling biography Little Girl Blue: The Life of Karen Carpenter and the editor of Judy Garland on Judy Garland and Yesterday Once More: The Carpenters Reader. He has also written articles for the Advocate and the Observer. He teaches music in Denton, Texas.

Bureau closed for Independence Day weekend!
2017-07-01 08:00 - 2017-07-04 17:00 | NY

OLNY's Poly Movie Night: Angels of Sex/El sexo de los ángeles
2017-07-05 18:30 - 21:30 | NY
Open Love NY presents Poly Movie Night, a FREE series of feature films that focus on the portrayal of consensual / ethical non-monogamy in cinema. This month we’ll be at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division.

Please join us for Angels of Sex/El sexo de los ángeles (2012), directed by Xavier Villaverde and starring Astrid Bergès-Frisbey, Álvaro Cervantes, and Llorenç González.

We’ll meet at 6:30 pm at The Bureau (in room 210 of The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center at 208 West 13th Street) for pre-screening socializing and start the movie at 7 pm. The more people come, the more likely we’ll continue the event! The event is free, although a $10 suggested donation to help fund future events is much appreciated.

Synopsis: Student photographer Carla struggles with the change in her relationship to boyfriend Bruno when he falls for another man, charming dancer/martial artist Rai. Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes. In Spanish with English subtitles.

Please note: The Bureau will open at 6 PM on Wednesday, July 5th.

Bureau closed on July 6th
2017-07-06 | NY
We will be closed on Thursday, July 6th. We will re-open on Friday, July 7th.

Please note our summer hours for July and August: Wednesdays-Saturday, 1 to 7 PM.

We will be closed Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays.

Bureau closed Sundays and Tuesdays in July and August
2017-07-09, 2017-07-11, 2017-07-18, 2017-07-23, 2017-07-25 | NY
The Bureau will be closed on Sundays and Tuesdays in July and August. Our summer hours are Wednesdays through Saturdays, 1 to 7 PM.

Bureau closed Sundays and Tuesday in July and August
2017-07-16 | NY

Anti-Fascist Book Club Reads Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed
2017-07-22 14:00 - 16:00 | NY
A reading group for those fighting fascism!
Hopefully our readings will inspire thoughtful and informed activism.
Join us for our third meeting on Saturday, July 22nd, from 2 to 4 PM. We will discuss Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed.
Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed is available for purchase at the Bureau. Please support the Bureau and purchase your copy from us. Thanks!
In our first meeting in April we discussed the first 100 pages of Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism.
In our second meeting in May we discussed James Baldwin’s Going to Meet the Man.
Questions? Ideas for future readings?
Write to Grey Vild: greyvild@gmail.com

USS presents Liv Mammone
2017-07-25 18:30 - 21:30 | NY
Union Square Slam is spending the summer showcasing our fire 2017 Slam Team, as they prepare for the National Poetry Slam in Denver this August. Each team member will lead a workshop before their feature, so don’t miss your chance to engage with these brilliant writers and performers! All proceeds go directly to the artists.
Tonight’s feature: Liv Mammone

Liv Mammone is an editor and poet from Long Island, New York; where she lives with her parents, brother, and family of feral cats. She has previously taught creative writing at Hofstra University and Queens College. Her poetry has appeared in wordgathering, Wicked Banshee, The Medical Journal of Australia, Rogue Agent, QDA: a Queer, Disabled Anthology, Grabbing the Apple and Typo Magazine. As a spoken word poet, she has featured at Sarah Lawrence, Artists Without Walls, Stonybrook University, and Union Square Slam. She is the first visibly disabled person to be on a New York City slam team. She’s a two time nominee for 2016’s Best of the Net poetry anthology.

SHOW DETAILS:
6:30pm: Workshop
7:30pm: Sign-ups and Socialize
8:00pm: Open Mic
9:00pm: Feature

We are located at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, inside The LGBT Community Center (208 W 13th St, #210)
Please note: the Bureau is closed on Tuesdays in July and August. We will open at 6 PM for Union Square Slam events.
Our venue is all ages and wheelchair accessible.

Workshop: $5
Open Mic and Feature: $5
No one is turned away for lack of funds.

Queer Lives/Fault Lines
2017-07-29 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
The Bureau of General Services-Queer Division hosts this multi-genre reading of poets exploring intersectional identities and cultural violences that are experienced in a queer context. We may also speak of joy.

Suggested donation of $10 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds

We will have a brief reception from 7:00-7:30 with readings beginning at 7:30. There will be non-alcoholic beverages available. There will be a brief intermission. The event will end by 9:30
The Bureau is wheelchair accessible. All-gender bathrooms are available down the hall.

The Readers:

George Abraham (they/he) is a Palestinian-American Poet, Activist, and Engineering PhD Candidate at Harvard University. His chapbook, al youm: for yesterday & her inherited traumas, was a winner of the Atlas Review’s 2016 chapbook contest. He is a recipient of the Lois Morrell Poetry Prize, the Favianna Rodriguez Award for Artistic Activism, and the honor of “Best Poet” at the 2017 College Union Poetry Slam Invitational. His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Vinyl, Apogee, Thrush, Kweli, Hawai’i Review, Winter Tangerine, and anthologies such as Bettering American Poetry 2016, the Nepantla Anthology for Queer Poets of Color, and the Ghassan Kanafani Palestinian Literature Anthology.

Hannah Ingram (she/her) has been teaching in public and private schools in New York and California since 2005. During that time, Hannah has also taught in higher education around issues of inclusivity, intersectionality and queering curriculum in elementary contexts. Hannah has been writing since she could form letters, and her practice has been built through poetry workshops in college and graduate programs, and most recently, workshops through Brooklyn Poets. Most importantly, Hannah makes poems with children.

Kira Garcia (she/her) is a writer living in Brooklyn. She has published Shouts & Murmurs for the New Yorker, as well as personal essays, humor pieces and interviews for Lenny, Jezebel, and the Hairpin. She is old enough to remember when Ellen Degeneres was presumed to be straight.

Nicole Goodwin (she/her) is the 2017 EMERGENYC Hemispheric Institute Fellow as well as the 2013-2014 Queer Art Mentorship Queer Art Literary Fellow, and the winner of The Fresh Fruit Festival’s 2013 Award for Performance Poetry. She published the articles “Talking with My Daughter…” and “Why is this Happening in Your Life…” (Personal essay/Review for award-winning documentary Tough Love) in the New York Times’ parentblog Motherlode. Additionally, her work ‘”Desert Flowers” was shortlisted and selected for performance by the Women’s Playwriting International Conference in Cape Town, South Africa.

Jake Matkov (he/him) received a scholarship to the first grade. He was cast in Annie Get Your Gun, as The Gun and had nightmares ever since. A recipient of a 2017 New York Foundation for the Arts poetry fellowship and a 2015-16 Queer / Art / Mentorship literary fellowship, his poems have been published in The Blueshift Journal, fields magazine, voicemail poems, and others. You can find him in Brooklyn or on Twitter and Instagram @ooohjakie.
