BGSQD

Reading of Hands On: Stories of Sexuality Work, Intimacy, and Healing (in person & live-streaming)
2025-06-20 19:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Hands On: Stories of Sexuality Work, Intimacy, and Healing is an anthology of stories highlighting compassion in sex work. Join us for an evening of readings and discussion by authors JoJo Bear, Eva Alio, Emme Witt-Eden, e.b. cotenord, Don Shewey, and Remi Newman.
To reserve a copy of Hands On: Stories of Sexuality Work, Intimacy, and Healing (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, April 21, 2025, paperback, $19.95), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve Hands On for June 20 event” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd

The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

TELL: Movie Stars (in person & live-streaming)
2025-06-21 19:00 - 20:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
TELL is a monthly queer storytelling show hosted and curated by Drae Campbell. It is the longest running event at the Bureau! 10 years and going. Each month there is a different theme and a different line up of queer artists who tell true stories from their lives on a theme.
The theme for June is Movie Stars, featuring storytellers Carolyn Connolly, Emilio Garcia, Glenn Marla, and Swetha Regunathan.

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation to benefit the storytellers and the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Drae Campbell is the host and curator of TELL, an award winning podcast that can be found anywhere you listen to podcasts.
Theater: The Nosebleed (Lincoln Center Theater, Woolly Mammoth Theater & National Tour, Lortel Nominated), Jesus Hopped The ‘A’ Train (Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater), Only You Can Prevent Wildfires (Teatro Circulo), My Old Man (Dixon Place), Storm Still (DirectorFest, Drama League), La Cage Aux Folles (Barrington Stage Company).
Film and TV:Senior Escort Service, Blunderpuss, It’s Very Common, TOW.
TV: Bull, New Amsterdam.
BFA, The University Of The Arts
Ig @draebiz and @tellqueerz

Carolyn Connolly is a blue collar jill of all trades. Sex educator, poet, mountain climber and Carpenter. Carolyn came out in 1989 in blue collar Brooklyn. Carolyn has spoken across the US and Canada on queer/trans, anti racist and US foreign policy. She has been quoted in the New York Times, GQ, The Wall Street Journal The Advocate on our backs and the book whipping girl. Carolyn has performed in the HERE theater series New York and radar Productions in the Bay Area.

A born Michigander, Emilio Garcia has spent the last four years pursuing the arts in New York City. With a fresh degree from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, a proclivity for poetry and a love for history, Emilio is thrilled to find himself where he is today.

A mostly Hudson Valley and very often Brooklyn based theater artist, puppet maker and art therapist, Glenn Marla‘s performance work focuses on themes of body liberation, gender, queerness, fat, and shifting cycles of trauma. Glenn sun and moon are in aquarius with leo rising.

Swetha Regunathan is a writer and filmmaker based in NYC. Her work has screened at festivals internationally, including Aspen Shortsfest, Nitehawk Shorts Festival, True/False Film Festival, Tribeca, New Orleans Film Festival, and on platforms like NOWNESS, NoBudge, and Short of the Week. She produced the Oscar-shortlisted documentary Between Earth & Sky (2023) and is currently developing her debut feature-length film. She has also had writing published in Huffington Post, n+1, Guernica, and other outlets. Starting Fall 2025 she will be Assistant Professor in the Visual Studies program at Haverford College.

Fire, Water, and Other Queer Subjects: The Sea Gives Up the Dead and Self Portrait of Icarus as a Country on Fire (in person & live-streaming)
2025-06-22 15:00 - 16:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Debut author Molly Olguín will be in conversation with Jason Schneiderman about her story collection The Sea Gives Up the Dead and his book of poems Self Portrait of Icarus as a Country on Fire. Both authors will read from their work and answer audience questions.
To reserve a copy of The Sea Gives Up the Dead (Red Hen Press, April 29, 2025, paperback, $16.95) and/or Self Portrait of Icarus as a Country on Fire (Red Hen Press, August 13, 2024, paperback, $17.95), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve book(s) for June 22 event” in the subject line and let us know which title(s) you’d like us to reserve in the body of the email.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd

The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Molly Olguín is a queer writer, educator, and monster enthusiast. Her debut collection The Sea Gives Up the Dead was selected by Carmen Maria Machado for the 2023 Grace Paley Prize, and is out now with Red Hen Press.

Jason Schneiderman is the author of five poetry collections, most recently Hold Me Tight (Red Hen, 2020), and including the forthcoming Self Portrait of Icarus as a Country on Fire (Red Hen, 2024). He edited the anthology Queer: A Reader for Writers (Oxford UP 2016). His poems and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. His awards include the Emily Dickinson Award, the Shestack Award and a Fulbright Fellowship. He is longtime co-host of the podcast Painted Bride Quarterly Slush Pile and a guest host for The Slowdown. He is Professor of English at the Borough of Manhattan Community College and teaches in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.

The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity (in person & live-streaming)
2025-06-23 18:00 - 19:30 | Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Sarah Schulman will read and discuss her new book: The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity.
To reserve a copy of The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity (Thesis, April 22, 2025, hardcover, $30), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve a copy of The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity for June 23rd event” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE BUREAU IS CLOSED ON MONDAYS AND TUESDAYS. WE WILL OPEN AT 5:30 PM ON MONDAY, JUNE 23, FOR THIS EVENT.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

About The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity :
From award-winning writer Sarah Schulman, a longtime social activist and outspoken critic of the Israeli war on Gaza, comes a brilliant examination of the inherent psychological and social challenges to solidarity movements, and what that means for the future
For those who seek to combat injustice, solidarity with the oppressed is one of the highest ideals, yet it does not come without complication. In this searing yet uplifting book, award-winning writer and cultural critic Sarah Schulman delves into the intricate and often misunderstood concept of solidarity to provide a new vision for what it means to engage in this work–and why it matters.
To grapple with solidarity, Schulman writes, we must recognize its inherent fantasies. Those being oppressed dream of relief, that a bystander will intervene though it may not seem to be in their immediate interest to do so, and that the oppressor will be called out and punished. Those standing in solidarity with the oppressed are occluded by a different fantasy: that their intervention is effective, that it will not cost them, and that they will be rewarded with friendship and thanks. Neither is always the case, and yet in order to realize our full potential as human beings in relation with others, we must continue to pursue action towards these shared goals.
Within this framework, Schulman examines a range of case studies, from the fight for abortion rights in post-Franco Spain, to NYC’s AIDS activism in the 1990s, to the current wave of campus protest movements against Israel’s war on Gaza, and her own experience growing up as a queer female artist in male dominated culture industries. Drawing parallels between queer, Palestinian, feminist, and artistic struggles for justice, Schulman challenges the traditional notion of solidarity as a simple union of equals, arguing that in today’s world of globalized power structures, true solidarity requires the collaboration of bystanders and conflicted perpetrators with the excluded and oppressed. That action comes at a cost, and is not always effective. And yet without it we sentence ourselves to a world without progressive change towards visions of liberation.
By turns challenging, inspiring, pragmatic, and poetic, The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity provides a much-needed path for how we can work together to create a more just, more equitable present and future.

OUTspoken: The Publishing Triangle’s Reading Series, June Edition (in person & live-streaming)
2025-06-25 19:00 - 20:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
The Publishing Triangle presents its monthly OUTspoken Reading Series as host Rob Byrnes welcomes Alfred Doblin, Lauren Melissa Ellzey, Sarah G. Levine, and Vincent Traughber Meis.

Join us in-person or watch the live-stream to hear from some of queer literature’s most dynamic established and up-and-coming voices.

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Visible Voices Fest - Creative Lane Workshop & Authors' Showcase
2025-06-26 15:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Welcome to the Creative Collective Workshop & Authors’ Showcase—an extraordinary dual experience that invites you to explore the world of creativity. Join the esteemed Seven King as he leads an engaging workshop, where he will share tactical approaches to creative project development and his unique methods of art production. This is your chance to be part of a dynamic, interactive experience!
Join us for the workshop from 3:00 to 4:30 PM, followed by the Author Exposition, where from 5:00 to 9:00 PM, you’ll have the splendid opportunity to meet and connect with talented authors.
This event is a celebration of diverse voices and a tribute to the literary creatives who illuminate our world. Come be a part of this vibrant community!

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

The Bureau will solicit donations at the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Rebel Satori Annual Pride Reading (in person & live-streaming)
2025-06-28 15:00 - 16:00 | Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Since 2002, Rebel Satori has been committed to releasing cutting edge fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction, with a focus on amplifying LGBTQIA+ voices and promoting diversity through its press and imprints Queer Mojo, Queer Space, Arabi Manor, and the Library of Homosexual Congress. Please join a bevy of our writers as they read work new and recently resurrected.

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd

The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Closed for Pride
2025-06-29 | NY
The Bureau will be closed
on June 29 for Pride.
Happy Pride, friends!!!

Closed for July 4th
2025-07-04 | NY
The Bureau will be closed on Friday, July 4th.
Happy holiday!

EMOTICON LOVER. A performative event. (in person only)
2025-07-09 18:30 - 19:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Celebrating the release of his zine EMOTICON LOVER, artist John Hanning invites the audience back to 1983—to remember, reflect, and honor those we’ve loved and lost.
Rooted in memory and shaped by the legacy of AIDS candlelight marches, the evening offers space for remembrance, resistance, and connection. The event opens with spoken words by Camilo Godoy.
Copies of the zine will be available for purchase.

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

A Reading with Leigh Curran ("Going Nowhere Sideways") and Richard Willett ("A Friend of Dorothy's") (in person & live-streaming)
2025-07-13 14:00 - 15:30 | Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Playwrights Leigh Curran and Richard Willett, longtime friends and colleagues, read from their first novels, each set back in time.
About Going Nowhere Sideways:
August, 1969. Molly Williams is young, conservative and inexperienced when she discovers her boyfriend necking with his male roommate in a Greenwich Village restaurant. She freaks out, hitches a ride to Woodstock, does drugs for the first time and winds up in a medical emergency tent in the arms of Johnson, a gentle, spiritual Asian-American. When things don’t work out with Johnson, Molly becomes emotionally, physically, and artistically involved with her former sister-in-law, Nancy, in a relationship full of fire. In Leigh Curran’s Going Nowhere Sideways, Molly survives twenty years of emotional adventure and emerges a full-blooded, middle-aged woman with her sense of humor and authenticity intact.
About: A Friend of Dorothy’s
It’s 1986 in New York City and 27-year-old Eric Summerfield knows that “yuppies” are supposed to be obnoxious, easily dismissed, but he envies the clarity of their delusions, their seeming ability to keep mortality at bay. He yearns, in fact, to be one of them. The catch: He’s no Wall Street insider, but instead the underpaid employee of a Canadian chain bookstore in Midtown Manhattan, a Canuck himself, and gay, and AIDS suddenly seems to be everywhere, including in the body of his flamboyant friend and coworker Dale, who inexplicably singles out a reluctant Eric to be his chief caregiver. It’s an experience that will change both of them. Richard Willett’s A Friend of Dorothy’s is a timeless, universal coming of age novel, in which the crucible of illness compels one young man to reach for something greater.

To reserve a copy of A Friend of Dorothy’s (Magic Show Press, June 15, 2025, paperback, $17.99), and/or Going Nowhere Sideways (Fithian Press, 1999, paperback, $14.95) please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve a book(s) for July 13 event” in the subject line and specify titles in the body of the email.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Leigh Curran is an award-winning playwright, novelist, poet and teacher. Her first novel, Going Nowhere Sideways, looks at the coming of middle age when the struggle to stay the same is no longer an option. It was published by Fithian Press and is now available through on-line bookstores.

Canadian-American Richard Willett is best known as an award-winning playwright and screenwriter whose plays have been produced in New York, Los Angeles, and internationally. He wrote his only novel, A Friend of Dorothy’s, when he was in his twenties. Excerpts appeared in the legendary gay literary magazine Christopher Street and in Permafrost at the University of Alaska, as well as being short-listed for New American Library’s Men on Men: Best New Gay Fiction, but the novel itself was never published before now.

Robert W. Fieseler discusses his new book AMERICAN SCARE: Florida's Hidden Cold War on Black and Queer Lives (in person & live-streaming)
2025-07-16 18:00 - 20:00 | Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join award-winning journalist and author Robert W. Fieseler as he discusses his new book AMERICAN SCARE: Florida’s Hidden Cold War on Black and Queer Lives. A vital exposé for both our history and our present day, AMERICAN SCARE tells the riveting story of how the Florida government destroyed the lives of Black and queer citizens in the twentieth century—with chilling parallels to today.
Robert Fieseler will be joined in conversation by author and critic Bill Goldstein.
This event is presented in partnership with The American LGBTQ+ Museum‘s book club, The Lavender Literary Society
To reserve a copy of AMERICAN SCARE: Florida’s Hidden Cold War on Black and Queer Lives (Dutton, June 17, 2025, hardcover, $34), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve American Scare for July 16 event” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Robert W. Fieseler is a journalist investigating marginalized groups and a scholar excavating forgotten histories. A National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association Journalist of the Year and recipient of the Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship, his debut book Tinderbox won seven awards, including the Edgar Award, and his reporting has appeared in Slate, Commonweal, and River Teeth, among others. Fieseler graduated co-valedictorian from the Columbia Journalism School and is pursuing a PhD at Tulane University as a Mellon Fellow. He lives with his husband on the gayest street in New Orleans.

Bill Goldstein reviews books and interviews authors for NBC’s Weekend Today in New York, and was the founding editor of The New York Times books website. A graduate of the University of Chicago, Goldstein received a PhD in English from the City University of New York Graduate Center. He is writing a biography of Larry Kramer, to be published by Crown, and was awarded a 2024-25 Public Scholars grant by the National Endowment for the Humanities to support his work on the book. He is the author of The World Broke in Two: Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, D. H. Lawrence, E. M. Forster, and the Year that Changed Literature, published in 2017.

Drag Story Hour with Lil Miss Hot Mess, author of MAKE YOUR OWN RAINBOW: A DRAG QUEEN'S GUIDE TO COLOR (in person only)
2025-07-20 15:00 - 16:00 | The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center, 208 West 13th Street, Room 101, New York, 10011, United States
Join author and drag queen Lil Miss Hot Mess for a very special Drag Story Hour, as we celebrate her recently-released book Make Your Own Rainbow: A Drag Queen’s Guide to Color. Kids of all ages are also invited to sing and dance along as she reads her classics If You’re a Drag Queen and You Know It and The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish. Bonus points to those who attend dressed in their most colorful and fabulous looks, as drag is all about letting your inner light sparkle brightly on the outside!
Please note:
This event will take place in person at The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011. The Bureau currently features a very adult exhibition of photographs, so this event will take place in a kid-friendly room on the second floor of The Center.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Reserve a copy of Make Your Own Rainbow (Running Press Kids, May 13, 2025, hardcover, $18.99) or any Lil Miss Hot Mess book by writing to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve Make Your Own Rainbow for July 20th event” in the subject line. If you’d like to reserve other titles, please just let us know in the body of the email.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

About Make Your Own Rainbow: A Drag Queen’s Guide to Color :
By Lil Miss Hot Mess, Illustrated by Olga de Dios
Running Press Kids, 2025 (more info)
Explore a kaleidoscope of colors beyond the rainbow in this celebratory and empowering book by Drag Story Hour storyteller Lil Miss Hot Mess!
Drag queens love to dance to their own beat, speak their minds, and let their best selves shine. They love all the colors of the rainbow—as well as all the colors beyond!
From scarlet, marigold, lemon, and emerald, to azure, periwinkle, Byzantium, and onyx, the world’s diverse range of colors allows drag queens and kings to be authentic and creative. And you, too, can use any color or hue to express yourself and your fierce imagination! Travel through a colorful, playful, and uplifting world with Drag Story Hour superstar Lil Miss Hot Mess and whimsical illustrator Olga De Dios in their latest inclusive picture book.

Lil Miss Hot Mess is the author of the children’s books Make Your Own Rainbow: A Drag Queen’s Guide to Color, If You’re a Drag Queen and You Know It, and The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish, and has written essays for HuffPost, Slate, and Wired. She serves on the board of Drag Story Hour, and has appeared on world-class stages like SFMOMA, Stanford University, and Saturday Night Live. Follow her on social media @LilMissHotMess, and learn more at lilmisshotmess.com.

A Gathering of the Tribes Presents: THE STOOP PROJECT: NO SUCH THING AS WRITER’S BLOCK Facilitated by: UGBA (in person only)
2025-07-21 18:30 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
NO SUCH THING AS WRITER’S BLOCK
Facilitated by: UGBA
This is a generative writing workshop, open to all skill levels.

$5 DONATION, RESERVE YOUR SPOT – MONDAY, JULY 21

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP
In this session, I will be sharing tools gathered over my 15+ year career as a professional writer and writing-workshop facilitator to equip writers (both novice and veteran) with the confidence to quiet that little voice in their head that says: I’ve gone as far as I can. I haven’t got anything left. It’s a lie! There are always more words—sometimes you just need an instructor willing to teach you how to find them: I am that instructor!

THE STOOP PROJECT: SUMMER SERIES 2025
Hosted by A Gathering of the Tribes, The Stoop Project: Summer Series 2025 features a curated selection of generative writing workshops by bearded poet Thomas Fucaloro. Sessions are open to all skill levels and will be held in person every third Monday from June through August 2025 at The Center’s bookstore, Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, in NYC. Each workshop will be led by a different facilitator and focus on a unique theme. A $5 donation reserves your spot — see calendar for all event listings.
In tandem with the workshops, each month Tribes will select a featured book from the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division.
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Please note: the Bureau is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. We will open at 6 PM on Monday, July 21st, for this workshop, which will begin at 6:30 PM.

THE HISTORY OF THE STOOP
The Stoop Poetry Workshop (1991–1995) was established and facilitated by Tribes’ founder Steve Cannon with fellow Lower East Side poet Bob Holman. Conceived on the stoop of Cannon’s East 3rd Street residence, the workshop served as a creative incubator held before the Nuyorican Poets Café’s Friday Night Slams — allowing poets to refine their work and perform it the same evening. An extraordinary roster of poets participated in the Workshop, including reg e. gaines, Edwin Torres, Tracie Morris, Dana Bryant, Mia Hansford, Keith Roach, Paul Beatty, Willie Perdomo, Dael Orlandersmith, Ed Morales, Ra, and Mike Tyler.
Building on Cannon’s ethos of “Each one, teach one,” The Stoop Project expands the original vision of the Workshop by inviting a wide array of guest facilitators to carry forward its spirit of collective growth, experimentation, and intergenerational exchange.

ABOUT THE FACILITATOR
UGBA (‘oog ba’) Ungrateful Black Artist (pronoun inclusive) is a queer poet, rapper, playwright, actor, and activist based out of Brooklyn, NY. UGBA is the founder/host of CEREMONIES—a Brooklyn-based monthly Black-Queer artist showcase held in honor of Essex Hemphill. UGBA is also the founder of “Dark-Skin Support Group,” a virtual support network for dark-skin Black Americans in need of a space to discuss the realities of colorism. In 2020, UGBA was named a “Black LGBTQ+ playwright you need to know ” by Time Out NY. UGBA is the former script assistant for the Pulitzer Prize-winning and 5 time TONY nominated Broadway show “Fat Ham.” He is an alumnus of the Public Theater’s #BARS program and Emerging Writers Group 2020-2023 cohort.

The Wicker/Johnson Papers Party! (in person only)
2025-07-23 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
The Wicker/Johnson Papers Party!
All are invited to come join us at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division for a night of celebration!
Since 1976, Randy Wicker has collected an archive of activism and gay love in his Hoboken home, where Marsha P. Johnson and many other queer New Yorkers lived over the past 50 years. While running his business Uplift Lighting in the Village for 30 years, Wicker opened their home to countless queer friends and lovers whilechampioning progressive causes. Johnson, a Stonewall Riots veteran and co-founder of Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, shared his home and participated in many campaigns during their time together. In processing since 2021, Randy & Marsha’s papers are now available for researchers to tell the stories of the Uplift family. This collection preserves Randy & Marsha’s work as activists, and also the lives of their extended gay family of lovers, friends, street people, activists, Uplift Lighting employees, and residents of Hoboken’s legendary “Hotel Wicker” apartment.
Share this invitation with any friends of the family, and join us in celebrating their lives!
Come ready to share your favorite memories and enjoy ephemera, photos, & films from the archive—and footage shot for the documentary currently in production directed by Devlyn Camp, archivist of the collection & host of the podcast Queer Serial: American LGBTQ+ History Before Stonewall.
**This event will be filmed as part of that documentary!**
This event is hosted by archivist Devlyn Camp and The LGBT Community Center National History Archive in collaboration with the Bureau.
RSVP free at wickerjohnsonparty.eventbrite.com

The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD
Contact Devlyn ourhistorypod@gmail.com or the Bureau contact@bgsqd.com with any questions.

A Gathering of the Tribes Presents: THE STOOP PROJECT: WRITE BAD: POEMS THAT BREAK THE SILENCE Facilitated by: Roya Marsh (in person only)
2025-08-18 18:30 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
WRITE BAD: POEMS THAT BREAK THE SILENCE
Facilitated by: Roya Marsh
This is a generative writing workshop, open to all skill levels.
ABOUT THE WORKSHOP
This workshop space will inspire writers to confront their fears and doubts with unapologetic courage and creativity. Write Bad is the space to be your most daring self and write the thing you’ve been running from. We will look at the work of Barbara Fant, Donte Collins, and KB Brookins. Participants will be called to continue writing beyond the session, reminding them that the act of writing boldly is an ongoing practice. Courage is the most important tool in our writing toolkit.
$5 DONATION, RESERVE YOUR SPOT – MONDAY, August 18

THE STOOP PROJECT: SUMMER SERIES 2025
Hosted by A Gathering of the Tribes, The Stoop Project: Summer Series 2025 features a curated selection of generative writing workshops by bearded poet Thomas Fucaloro. Sessions are open to all skill levels and will be held in person every third Monday from June through August 2025 at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, the independent, all-volunteer queer bookstore in room 210 of The LGBT Community Center, in NYC. Each workshop will be led by a different facilitator and focus on a unique theme. A $5 donation reserves your spot — see calendar for all event listings.
In tandem with the workshops, each month Tribes will select a featured book from the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division.
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

THE HISTORY OF THE STOOP
The Stoop Poetry Workshop (1991–1995) was established and facilitated by Tribes’ founder Steve Cannon with fellow Lower East Side poet Bob Holman. Conceived on the stoop of Cannon’s East 3rd Street residence, the workshop served as a creative incubator held before the Nuyorican Poets Café’s Friday Night Slams — allowing poets to refine their work and perform it the same evening. An extraordinary roster of poets participated in the Workshop, including reg e. gaines, Edwin Torres, Tracie Morris, Dana Bryant, Mia Hansford, Keith Roach, Paul Beatty, Willie Perdomo, Dael Orlandersmith, Ed Morales, Ra, and Mike Tyler.
Building on Cannon’s ethos of “Each one, teach one,” The Stoop Project expands the original vision of the Workshop by inviting a wide array of guest facilitators to carry forward its spirit of collective growth, experimentation, and intergenerational exchange.

ABOUT THE FACILITATOR
Bronx, New York native, Roya Marsh is a poet, performer, educator, and activist. She is the author of dayliGht, a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Poetry and SAVINGS TIME (MCDXFSG). Roya works feverishly toward Queer liberation and dismantling white supremacy. She is the co-founder of the Bronx Poet Laureate, a PEN America Emerging Voices Mentor, Lambda Literary faculty, and the awardee of the Lotos Foundation Prize for Poetry and the 2024 Bronx Recognizes Its Own (BRIO) Grant from Bronx Council on the Arts.

Book Launch - A History of Intimacy Professionals in Entertainment (in person & live-streaming)
2025-09-05 19:00 - 20:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Celebrate the launch of A History of Intimacy Professionals in Entertainment by Brooke M. Haney!
Join us for a reading and conversation with Nicole Callender, Teniece Divya Johnson, Olivia Troy, and author Brooke M. Haney—four trailblazing intimacy coordinators who helped shape the industry.
This groundbreaking book is the first to trace the history of intimacy professionals in film, TV, and theatre—highlighting how they’ve built safer, more respectful creative spaces that enable brave, compelling storytelling. From #MeToo to COVID-19, and union action to global collaboration, it’s a love letter to the movement and the people who made it possible.
Whether you’re a producer, director, actor, educator, student, or simply passionate about safer, more equitable creative spaces and the storytelling of sex, this event offers an inspiring look inside a movement that is transforming the entertainment industry.
To reserve a copy of A History of Intimacy Professionals in Entertainment (Routledge, July 31, 2025, paperback, $48.99) please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve History of Intimacy Professionals for September 5 event” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD
Even better: sign up to make a monthly tax-deductible donation to the Bureau!

Thank you for committing to sustaining this vital project!

The New Negro: 100th Anniversary Celebration (in person only)
2025-09-06 16:00 - 17:30 | Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
OUTWRIGHT LTD and the Bureau present:
The New Negro: 100th Anniversary Celebration
Join us in celebrating the 100th anniversary of the publication of the groundbreaking anthology, The New Negro: An Interpretation (New York: Albert and Charles Boni, 1925), edited by the esteemed philosopher and “Dean of the Harlem Renaissance” Alain Locke. This was the first collection of writings by a cross section of African American essayists, poets, and novelists issued by a major publishing company for a wide American audience. This celebration will discuss the book’s history and impact, as well as some of the key figures involved in its genesis, including Jessie R. Fauset, Georgia Douglas Johnson, and Paul U. Kellogg.
In the words of scholar Henry Louis Gates, the Harlem Renaissance was “surely as gay as it was Black.”
Refreshments! Door Prizes!
Copies of:
The New Negro, by Alain Locke (Scribner Book Company, 1999 [originally published 1925], paperback, $24)
and
The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke, by Jeffrey C. Stewart (Oxford University Press, 2020, paperback, $31.99)

will be available for purchase. To reserve a copy of either/both, please write to us in advance at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve The New Negro and/or the Alain Locke bio for September 6th event” in the subject line.

Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD
Even better: sign up to make a monthly tax-deductible donation to the Bureau!

Thank you for committing to sustaining this vital project!

Compulsory Heterosexuality: an Introduction to Adrienne Rich (in-person only/registration required)
2025-09-08 18:30 - 21:30, 2025-09-15 18:30 - 21:30, 2025-09-22 18:30 - 21:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Is heterosexuality a coercive institution that aids and abets the oppression of women? So argues Adrienne Rich in her famous essay “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence,” which gave voice to a nascent lesbian liberation movement in search of alternatives to heterosexual feminism. A major poet, Rich was also one of the key theoretical and literary voices of the women’s liberation movement, and her prose work is by now canonical in the field of gender studies. And with her poetry, Rich created a body of verse that investigated social, cultural, and political conditions for women in the last half of the twentieth century, as well as the personal toll of feminist politics. Her writings have been at the heart of numerous feminist controversies, from trans exclusionary radical feminism to pornography, but have nonetheless continued to shape lesbian feminist discourse into the present day. How can we understand Rich’s unique corpus of poetry and feminist theory? How, for Rich, does one inform the other? And what is the problem with heterosexual feminism? How do gender, sexuality, reproduction, and liberation relate?
In this course, we will explore Adrienne Rich’s complicated legacy as theorist, activist, and poet by reading her work alongside the work of her fiercest critics and allies in the feminist movement, including Mary Daly, Susan Sontag, Andrea Dworkin, Michelle Cliff, and Audre Lorde. Beginning with Rich’s foundational theorization of compulsory heterosexuality, we will read her essays on sexual violence, lesbian love, women’s education, motherhood, pornography, and racism alongside key poems from her oeuvre spanning the crucial years of women’s liberation. In what ways have women’s bodies historically been viewed as being at the service of men, and how has heterosexuality instantiated that belief? What would it mean to build a “women’s culture” and how might this further feminism’s aims? What political potentials lie in viewing motherhood as an institution, rather than an innate desire or calling? What role might anger, disagreement, and even violence play in the feminist fight to end patriarchal oppression?
Instructor: Hannah Leffingwell
Course Schedule
Monday, 6:30-9:30pm ET
September 08 — September 29, 2025
4 weeks
$335.00
Three scholarship spaces are reserved for each course, because we realize that not everyone can afford to pay the full fee. Students who cannot pay the full fee should email us at info@thebrooklyninstitute.com to learn about our scholarship options. We will not ask questions about your financial situation, but we do ask that you use the system in good faith and consider the needs of other students and faculty members.
Register here: https://thebrooklyninstitute.com/items/courses/new-york/adrienne-rich/
If you experience difficulties entering your card at checkout, please feel free to call 718-422-7767 or email info@thebrooklyninstitute.com for assistance.
The course meetings will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011. The Bureau is closed on Mondays, but will open for these meetings at 6 pm on the scheduled Mondays.

AUTHOR EVENT: "The Lightning People Play" | Tim Cummings in conversation with Paul Sparks (in person & live-streaming)
2025-09-10 19:00 - 20:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join award-winning actor & author Tim Cummings (Alice the Cat) and Emmy-nominated actor Paul Sparks (House of Cards) as they crack open Tim’s new novel, The Lightning People Play, about a crew of brilliant teens who put up a play to raise money for a seizure-alert dog and their play opens an unexpected portal. Author Gayle Brandeis (The Art of Misdiagnosis) calls it “a breathtaking celebration of creativity and neurodivergence and connection” and Jeff Zenter (Morris-award winner for The Serpent King) says, “Cummings weaves vivid, gripping tales filled with heart and irreverent humor, and told in an electric, irresistible voice.”
To reserve a copy of The Lightning People (Black Rose Writing, June 26, 2025, paperback, $21.95), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve The Lightning People for September 10 event” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD
Even better:
sign up to make a monthly tax-deductible donation to the Bureau!

Thank you for committing to sustaining this vital project!

Tim Cummings: Tim’s debut novel, Alice the Cat (Fitzroy Books) was chosen as an American Book Awards ‘Best Book’ Finalist for 2023, received a Bronze Medal in the 2024 Feathered Quill Book Awards, and is a Finalist in both the 2024 National Indies Excellence Awards for Teen Fiction and the Independent Author Network’s Book of the Year Awards. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles and a BFA from NYU/Tisch School of the Arts. He has appeared in 200+ projects across theatre, film, television, voice-over, and new media. Recent publications include F(r)iction, Scare Street, Lunch Ticket, MeowMeow PowPow, From Whispers to Roars, Drunk Monkeys, Hare’s Paw, Lit Angels, The Wax Paper, Excerpt, and Critical Read/RAFT, for which he won the ‘Origins’ contest for his essay, “You Have Changed Me Forever.” Tim is an octopus and spider enthusiast. He goes wild for anything with eight legs. He possesses enviable collections of stickers, labradorite, night-sky projector lights, vintage vinyl, and rare first-edition hardcover copies of some of his favorite novels. No one has ever made a better vat of chili, and his lasagna is infallible. He teaches writing for UCLA Extension Writers’ Program.

Paul Sparks: Paul is currently shooting THE STALEMATE opposite Ben Foster. He recently completed production on THE MORTUARY’S ASSISTANT, based on the popular horror video game, as well as Sterlin Harjo’s new series, THE LOWDOWN, starring Ethan Hawke. Sparks appears in Michael Shannon’s directorial debut, ERIC LARUE and in the upcoming Amazon limited series, THE BETTER SISTER, opposite Elizabeth Banks and Jessica Biel. Recent theatre appearances include Samuel D. Hunter’s latest, GRANGEVILLE at Signature Theatre and WAITING FOR GODOT opposite Michael Shannon at Theatre for a New Audience. Paul starred in 3 seasons of the Apple+ series PHYSICAL opposite Rose Byrne. Additional series credits include JOE PICKETT and WACO for Paramount+, Stephen Kings’ CASTLEROCK for Hulu, HBO’s THE NIGHT OF and BOARDWALK EMPIRE, Netflix’s HOUSE OF CARDS, Starz’ THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE and SWEETBITTER. He has received SAG and Emmy Award nominations for his work in television. Among his many films are THOROUGHBREDS; THE GREATEST SHOWMAN; MIDNIGHT SPECIAL; MUD; SPARROWS DANCE; BLACKBIRD. Sparks’ distinguished work on stage has earned him seven Drama Desk Awards nominations as well as three Outer Critics Circle, two Lucille Lortel and a Drama League Award nomination.

Questioning AI, Louffa Press Anthology Book Launch (in person & live-streaming)
2025-09-12 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Louffa Press is pleased to present a new anthology of critical essays, artwork, fiction and poetry on the theme of Queer-y-ing or Questioning Artificial Intelligence (AI). What can we learn from studying AI using a queer lens? A feminist lens? An inclusive lens? A democratic lens? A socio-political lens? An egalitarian lens? A moral lens? To what extent does AI know about feminist/LGBTQ/POC perspectives? These and other inquiries are at the heart of this publication.
Readers include Beatriz Albuquerque, Rae Armantrout, Rebecca Goodman, Robert Anthony Gibbons, Jee Leong Koh, Paco Marquez. Hosted by publisher of Louffa Press, David Moscovich.
This event is funded in part by Poets & Writers with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
For more information, visit www.louffapress.net

To reserve a copy of Questioning AI, edited by David Moscovich (Louffa Press, July 17, 2025, paperback, $) please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve Questioning AI for September 12 event” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD
Even better: sign up to make a monthly tax-deductible donation to the Bureau!

Thank you for committing to sustaining this vital project!

Biographies of participants:
Beatriz Albuquerque (Porto, Portugal) is an artist, performer, teacher and researcher (they/them). They hold a Doctorate from Columbia University in New York with a Foundation for Science and Technology Scholarship and a Fulbright/Luso-American Foundation Scholarship. They completed their Master of Fine Arts at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Prizes and awards include the Myers Art Award from Columbia University, the Revelation Award from the 17th Cerveira Biennial and the Ambient Series Performance Award, PAC/edge Performance Festival, Chicago. They have held several individual and collective exhibitions including Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago, Chicago Cultural Center; Chelsea Art Museum, The Kitchen, Emily Harvey Foundation, Anthology Film Archives, Queens Museum, MoMA PS1 in New York; Istanbul Biennial; Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art; Brazilian Museum of Sculpture and Ecology in São Paulo; Museum of Contemporary Art of Bogota; Museum of Contemporary Art of Caracas; Museu Vila Velha in Vila Real, Graça Brandão Gallery, Serralves Museum, Nuno Centeno Gallery, among others. www.beatrizalbuquerque.com

Describing the poems in Rae Armantrout’s latest book, Go Figure, Library Journal says, “she has honed enduring art on the ephemera that constitute a consciousness in motion through the present.” Charles Bernstein says, “Her sheer, often hilarious, ingenuity is an aesthetic triumph.” Armantrout’s 2018 book, Wobble, was a finalist for the National Book Award that year. In 2010, Versed won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and The National Book Critics Circle Award. Her poems have appeared in many anthologies and journals including Poetry, Conjunctions, Lana Turner, The Nation, The New Yorker, The London Review of Books, Harpers, The Paris Review, Postmodern American Poetry: a Norton Anthology and several editions of The Best American Poetry. She is Professor Emerita at UC San Diego.

Robert Anthony Gibbons has been published in over thirty literary magazines and in several notable anthologies. His first collection, Close to the Tree, was published by Three Rooms Press in 2012. His chapbook, Flight, was published by Poets Wear Prada in 2019. You Almost Home, Boy, was published by Harlequin Creatures (2019). With Brooklyn based artist, Amy Williams, Some Little Words was published by 440 Gallery, Brooklyn (2021), then Whom the Higher Gods Forgot (2022.) He has received funding from the Puffin Foundation, United States Artists, the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Brooklyn Council of the Arts. A native Floridian, Robert came to New York City in search of his muse Langston Hughes and found a vibrant contemporary poetry community at the Cornelia Street Cafe, the Green Pavilion, Nomad’s Choir, Brownstone Poets, Hydrogen JukeBox, Saturn Series, and Phoenix, among other venues.

Rebecca Goodman is the author of Forgotten Night (Spuyten Duyvil 2023), Aftersight (Spuyten Duyvil, 2015) and The Surface of Motion (Green Integer 2008). She teaches Creative Writing at Chapman University.

Jee Leong Koh is the author of Steep Tea (Carcanet), named a Best Book of the Year by UK’s Financial Times and a Finalist by Lambda Literary in the USA. His hybrid work of fiction, Snow at 5 PM: Translations of an insignificant Japanese poet, won the Singapore Literature Prize in English fiction. He was also shortlisted for the prize for The Pillow Book (Math Paper Press/Awai Books), Connor and Seal (Sibling Rivalry), Sample and Loop (Bench Press), and Inspector Inspector (Carcanet). Koh’s work has been translated into Japanese, Chinese, Malay, Vietnamese, Russian, and Latvian. Originally from Singapore, Koh lives in New York City, where he heads the literary non-profit Singapore Unbound.

Paco Márquez poetry has appeared in Fence, The Literary Review, Apogee, Philosophy and Global Affairs and Huizache, among others. His chapbook Portraits in G Minor was published by Folded Word Press in 2017. Originally from Mexico, Paco moved to California with his family at the age of 13. In college, he studied philosophy and literature at UC Berkeley. At age 42, he acquired an MFA in creative writing poetry from New York University. Paco has served as poetry editor at Washington Square, OccuPoetry, and 128 Lit. www.pacomarquez.net

David Moscovich (it/its) is the Romanian-American author of four novels: You Are Make Very Important Bathtime, LIFE+70[Redacted], Blink if You Love Me, and Manhattan Other. Workday [CAPTCHA Poems] will be released by BlazeVOX in 2025. Moscovich runs Louffa Press, a small press publisher of chapbooks and artist books.

lesbian book club reads The New Fuck You (in person only)
2025-09-13 11:00 - 12:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
We’ll be reading fiction and non-fiction — classic, contemporary, revealing and visionary. As a group we will decide what to read each month, focusing on lesbian authors and/or related topics. Co-founded by lesbian book lovers Judi Komaki and Piper Olsen.

For our September 13th meeting, we’ll read The New Fuck You: Adventures in Lesbian Reading, edited by Eileen Myles and Liz Kotz (Semiotext(e), paperback, 1995, $14.95). Purchase a copy before September 13th, and receive a 15% discount ($12.70 instead of $14.95). Just mention the lesbian book club when making your purchase.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required.

Double Take: Two Voices, One Night: An Evening of Readings and Conversation with Franklin Abbott and Vinny Cusenza (in person & live-streaming)
2025-09-13 15:00 - 16:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join us for an evening of readings and conversation with Franklin Abbott and Vinny Cusenza
Franklin Abbott will celebrate his poetic memoir My Ordinary Life
My Ordinary Life is as therapeutic as it is poetic with an affirmation of trauma that begins to allow it to surface and be healed.
Interwoven are stories of friends who were lost, the pain and fear of isolation, the confusion of the world opening and closing again. Abbott interweaves his own aging, the deaths of both of his parents and the growing awareness and appreciation of the simple gifts of everyday life.
Vincent Cusenza celebrates the publication of his historical/thriller/romance debut novel Blood and Soil.
The only things that closeted Columbia undergrad Tony has in common with Jake, a mixed-race mountaineer with bad love luck, are his bone-bred biases and a raw attraction that defies his notions of happiness.
They meet in August 1960 in the Highlands, a hidden outpost of Appalachia on Manhattan’s doorstep, where summer colonists from the city, struggling locals, and an insular mountain tribe uneasily coexist. Eddie, a troubled rebel, has just lost his girl to Jake’s brother, and chafes under the thumb of his white-nationalist uncle, Sheriff Schmidt, who is locked in a racially charged reelection battle.
Three mysterious murders and the sheriff’s cover-up of the crimes upend Tony and Jake’s lives and roil their clannish world. The two men find themselves pitted against Schmidt in a high stakes search for the truth, and must confront their mutual distrust and the Highland’s Nazi past to save their bond and their very lives.

To reserve a copy of My Ordinary Life (RFD Press, April 23, 2025, paperback, $19.95) and/or Blood and Soil (Pen and Pencil Press, July 1, 2025, paperback, $18.95) please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve My Ordinary Life and/or Blood and Soil for September 13 event” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
You can also purchase both books (click on titles below) on our online shop at bookshop.com/shop/bgsqd:
My Ordinary Life
Blood and Soil

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD
Even better: sign up to make a monthly tax-deductible donation to the Bureau!

Thank you for committing to sustaining this vital project!

Vinny Cusenza co-wrote his first novel, The Adventures of Pen and Pencil, in fourth grade with his best friend Steve Drayzen. Besides novels, he writes personal and travel essays, memoir, and epistolary meditations on his place in the world. He has won awards for his photography, founded a small New England inn, sang with Liza Minnelli onstage in Central Park, and herded rhinos. Vinny lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn with husband Steve and Neko, their transsexual cat.

Franklin Abbott is the editor of three anthologies on men and masculinity, a CD of original songs and poetry and 3 collections of poetry including his latest, My Ordinary Life, from RFD Press. He is an original radical faerie, a long-time community activist and founded the Atlanta Queer Literary Festival. Abbott worked for over 40 years as a psychotherapist in private practice with special interest in spirituality, medical trauma, relationships and group dynamics. A native Southerner he lives in Atlanta’s Decatur community.

I'm Prancing As Fast As I Can Conversation with Jon Kinnally, Hosted by Blair Fell (in person & live-streaming)
2025-09-17 18:30 - 19:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Jon Kinnally celebrates the publication of his memoir I’m Prancing As Fast As I Can: My Journey from a Self-Loathing Closet Case to a Successful TV Writer with Some Self-Esteem.

Host Blair Fell will lead a conversation with Jon Kinnally with some selected readings from Jon.
WARNING: Those who don’t remember my past are doomed to repeat it.
I’m Prancing As Fast As I Can is a coming of Gay story that takes us from a scared, self-hating kid who spends most of his time under his desk staring at the hunky man on the Doan’s Pills box, to becoming a writer on Will & Grace, helping to make it a little easier for other scared, self-hating kids who might also be hiding and staring at their secret desire. It’s a journey through Olympic mustaches and when Chér’s name had an accent and losing your virginity to a trucker and chasing Gay bashers in six-inch heels dressed as a drag bunny and a terrible virus and memorials and memorials and memorials and ACTing UP and using the word “lover” and having a fan who’s also a serial killer and Gay penguins and spreading your boyfriends’ ashes with your new boyfriend and Prop 8 and getting to write lines for divas on Ugly Betty and Gay marriage and more stuff like that and in the end ketamine therapy to help it all make sense.
This event is co-sponsored by The Other Side of Silence:
“As NYC’s oldest and longest-producing LGBTQ+ theater company, The Other Side of Silence (TOSOS) is dedicated to an honest and open exploration of the life experience and cultural sensibility of the LGBTQ+ community and to preserving and promoting our literary past in a determined effort to keep our theatrical heritage alive.”

To reserve a copy of I’m Prancing as Fast as I Can (Permuted Press, August 12, 2025, paperback, $18.99), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve I’m Prancing for September 17 event” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
You can also purchase I’m Prancing as Fast as I Can on our online shop at bookshop.com/shop/bgsqd.

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Even better: sign up to make a monthly tax-deductible donation to the Bureau!

Thank you for committing to sustaining this vital project!

Jon Kinnally was born in Syracuse, New York, and went to college at Oswego State, before moving to a then-affordable Manhattan, where he pursued acting and performed with his writing partner, Tracy Poust, in their comedy group Loud Blouse.
After relocating to Los Angeles, they got a job on a new show called Will & Grace and stayed with it for it’s entire eight seasons, eventually running it and returning for the reboot. Over the years, there were many Emmy nominations as well as a Writers Guild Award for Outstanding Writing in Episodic Comedy in 2018.
He has also worked on several other shows with Tracy, including Ugly Betty—Emmy and NAACP award nominations—and The Crazy Ones which they ran, and had the privilege to write for the great Robin Williams.
He currently lives in Spain with his husband, Chris, and their cats, Howard Bannister and Elliott.

Blair Fell writes and lives in New York City. Blair’s television work includes Queer as Folk, and the Emmy Award–winning California Connected. He’s written dozens of plays including the award-winning plays Naked Will, The Tragic and Horrible Life of the Singing Nun, and the downtown cult miniseries Burning Habits. His personal essays have appeared in HuffPost, Out, Daily News (New York), and more. He’s a two-time winner of the prestigious Doris Lippman Prize in Creative Writing from the City College of New York, including for his early unfinished draft of The Sign for Home. Concurrently with being a writer, Blair has been an ASL interpreter for the Deaf since 1993, and has also worked as an actor, producer, and director.

OUTspoken: The Publishing Triangle's Reading Series, September Edition (in person & live-streaming)
2025-09-18 18:30 - 20:00 | Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
The Publishing Triangle presents the September edition of its monthly OUTspoken Reading Series as host Rob Byrnes welcomes Franklin Abbott, Vincent Cusenza, Liza Flum, Jon Kinnally, Finn Mott, and Kara Zajac.
Join us in-person or watch the live-stream to hear from some of queer literature’s most dynamic established and up-and-coming voices.

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Even better: sign up to make a monthly tax-deductible donation to the Bureau!

Thank you for committing to sustaining this vital project!

TELL: Misunderstood (in person & live-streaming)
2025-09-20 19:00 - 20:30 | Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
TELL is a monthly queer storytelling show hosted and curated by Drae Campbell. It is the longest running event at the Bureau! 11 years and going. Each month there is a different theme and a different line up of queer artists who tell true stories from their lives on a theme.
The theme for September 2025 is Misunderstood, featuring storytellers Rudy Ramirez, Dusty Childers, and Everett Bragg.

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation to benefit the storytellers and the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Drae Campbell is the host and curator of TELL, an award winning podcast that can be found anywhere you listen to podcasts.
Theater: The Nosebleed (Lincoln Center Theater, Woolly Mammoth Theater & National Tour, Lortel Nominated), Jesus Hopped The ‘A’ Train (Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater), Only You Can Prevent Wildfires (Teatro Circulo), My Old Man (Dixon Place), Storm Still (DirectorFest, Drama League), La Cage Aux Folles (Barrington Stage Company).
Film and TV:Senior Escort Service, Blunderpuss, It’s Very Common, TOW.
TV: Bull, New Amsterdam.
BFA, The University Of The Arts
Ig @draebiz and @tellqueerz

Dusty Childers (Dust Tea Shoulders/ @duddylynn) is a multi-disciplinary artist (and self proclaimed style icon) who directs, provides dramaturgy, curates, hosts, conjures costumes, styles, speaks their truth in front of audiences, drags it up, dances, twirls flags and fans, and instructs the future via the public school classroom. Dusty’s body and body of work has graced the likes of Sundance, SXSW, True/False, The Guggenheim, St. Anne’s Warehouse, The Whitney, BAM, Parsons, International Center of Photography, Signature Theater, Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia, Town Hall, Joe’s Pub, Abrons Art Center, NY Live Arts, The Wild Project, Dixon Place, Irving Plaza, The Knockdown Center (Bushwig), The PIT, Don’t Tell Mama, Rockwood Music Hall, The Slipper Room, Judson Memorial Church,The MIX NYC Queer Experimental Film Festival, La MaMa, Metropolitan Bar, Sid Gold’s Request Room,The Delancey, Bureau Of General Services Queer Division, Starr Bar, Wise Men, Governor’s Ball, Club Cumming, The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, This n’ That, C’mon Everybody, Nowhere Bar, House of Yes, Bushwick Bazaar, Drom, The Deep End, and the Soho Playhouse (NY Fringe Festival). He has worked alongside MacArthur Genius Taylor Mac, acclaimed writer/performer Justin Sayre, performance artist Machine Dazzle, artist Nayland Blake, pop star and DJ Ana Matronic, director Silas Howard, Bitch (of Bitch and Animal),drag artist Charlene Incarnate, performance artist/puppeteer Glenn Marla, rapper Mister Wallace, singer Big Dipper, director Stephen Winter, performance artist/writer Dan Fishback, filmmaker/drag performer Sequinette Jaynesfield, choreographer/singer Miguel Gutierrez, burlesque star World Famous *BOB*, professional clown Eric Schmalenberger and singer Amber Martin (among countless others). Dusty and his work have appeared in Art In America, Artforum,OUT Magazine, Electric Dirt (by Queer Appalachia), TimeOut NY, Velour Magazine, Next Magazine, Aljazeera, NY Times, OutThere Magazine (UK) and Ud & Se (Dutch).

Rudy Ramirez is a director, writer and teaching artist specializing in the development of new work and new artists. They have directed and developed work for a number of organizations around the country, including the Contemporary American Theater Festival, The Lark, Latino Theater Company, National Queer Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, New York University, Octopus Theatricals, The Playwrights’ Center, Signature Theatre, and the University of Texas at Austin. They are the Associate Artistic Director of The VORTEX in Austin, TX, where they were named Best Director of 2017 in the Austin Chronicle Readers Poll. They have written and performed two autobiographical shows, Promised Land: A Radical Queer Revival and Footnotes for People Who Don’t Speak Spanish. They have an MA in Performance Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and an MFA in Directing from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. They are currently the Benedetti Resident Artist at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts where they will be working on their musical about the life of Emma Goldman, Emma When You Need Her.

Everett Bragg is an Austin Texas native. He is a Transmasc comedian, videographer and host of DEI Comedy in Austin. Everett’s comedy is a unique perspective on the misunderstanding of being a Trans Man in the state of Texas while the threat of reproductive rights and trans rights are being stripped away. Not only does his comedy make audiences laugh but teaches native Texans that Trans people are not a threat and deserve equality everywhere.

Crime Ink: Iconic—Queer Crime Fiction Inspired by Icons | New York Launch Party (in person & live-streaming)
2025-09-24 19:00 - 20:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join us for an evening celebrating the groundbreaking anthology Crime Ink: Iconic (An Anthology of Crime Fiction Inspired by Queer Icons), edited by award-winning novelist John Copenhaver and Bywater Books publisher Salem West. This vibrant collection reclaims space for LGBTQ+ voices in crime fiction, a genre that has too often sidelined queer writers.
The need for Crime Ink: Iconic is clear: a 2023 study of thirty major crime anthologies revealed that, of 517 stories published, fewer than one percent were written by LGBTQ+ authors.
Responding to this gap, Crime Ink: Iconic gathers more than two dozen celebrated queer writers who draw inspiration from cultural icons such as James Baldwin, Radclyffe Hall, Oscar Wilde, Candy Darling, and Laverne Cox. The result is a collection that spans cozy mystery, noir, psychological thriller, and procedural—placing queer voices and characters firmly at the center.
For this event, Copenhaver will be joined by contributors Robyn Gigl, award-winning author and a leading voice in contemporary legal thrillers; Ann Aptaker, Lambda Literary Award–winning novelist and noted figure in queer noir; and Christopher Bollen, acclaimed author of psychologically rich crime fiction. Together, they will discuss the anthology’s origins, the icons who inspired their stories, and the importance of ensuring LGBTQ+ perspectives are represented in one of the world’s most enduring literary genres.

To reserve a copy of Crime Ink: Iconic (Bywater Books, September 2, 2025, paperback, $23.95) please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve Crime Ink for September 24 event” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
You can also purchase Crime Ink: Iconic (click on title below) on our online shop at bookshop.com/shop/bgsqd:
Crime Ink: Iconic

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD
Even better: sign up to make a monthly tax-deductible donation to the Bureau!

Thank you for committing to sustaining this vital project!

ANN APTAKER’s Cantor Gold Crime series has been the recipient of Lambda Literary and Golden Crown Literary Society’s Goldie Awards. Her short stories have appeared in the anthologies Fedora, Mickey Finn: 21st Century Noir, Private Dicks & Disco Balls, Scattered, Smothered, Covered & Chunked, Our Happy Hours: LGBT Voices from the Gay Bars, Switchblade Magazine, Black Cat Mystery Magazine, the Guns & Tacos novella series, and the online zine Punk Soul Poet.

CHRISTOPHER BOLLEN is the author of six literary thriller novels, including Havoc, The Lost Americans, and A Beautiful Crime. He writes for a number of publications including the New York Times, Vanity Fair, and Interview Magazine. He lives in New York City.

JOHN COPENHAVER is an award-winning author whose latest novel, Hall of Mirrors, was named a New York Times Crime Novel of the Year. His debut, Dodging and Burning, won the Macavity Award, and The Savage Kind earned the Lambda Literary Award. A founding member of Queer Crime Writers, he teaches at Virginia Commonwealth University, mentors in the University of Nebraska MFA program, and lives in Richmond, VA, with his husband, artist Jeffery Paul Herrity.

ROBYN GIGL is the author of four novels featuring Erin McCabe, a transgender criminal defense attorney. Time magazine selected her novel, Survivor’s Guilt, as one of the 100 best Mystery/Thriller books of All Time. It was also named as one of the best crime novels of 2022 by the New York Times, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, and won the Publishing Triangle’s Joseph Hansen Award for LGBTQ+ Crime Writing. Her fourth novel, Nothing But the Truth, was selected by the New York Times as one of the best crime novels of 2024.

Quill R Kukla: Sex Beyond "Yes" with Avgi Saketopoulou (in person & live-streaming)
2025-09-25 19:00 - 20:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Philosopher Quill R Kukla questions traditional notions of consent in this honest, humanistic reimagining of what it means to have pleasurable, ethical, and respectful sex.
Every discussion of sexual ethics revolves around consent, but is this notion enough to help us understand good sex? How does the dominance of consent help or prevent us from negotiating the complexities of intimacy and pleasure?
Georgetown professor Quill R Kukla argues that the idea that consent is the gatekeeper between the realms of good and bad sex does not give us the tools we need to navigate pleasure and intimacy. They claim that traditional discussions of consent make no room for the reality that we can have good sex even though we may get drunk or high, or become forgetful with age, or be limited by social pressures and power relationships.
Kukla explores the ambiguous realms in which sexual agency requires much more than the ability to just say “yes” or “no” to sex. They confront moments of discomfort: How does consent work for people with dementia, a condition that is also associated with increased libido? Or in sex work, where sexual contracts challenge our traditional conceptions of ethical sex? How can we express our agency when exploring new kinks, where our hesitations and ambivalence are part of the thrill? Or even in everyday sex—where partners inevitably differ in enthusiasm, power dynamics, and experience?
Combining rigorous research and universal lessons that apply both in and out of the bedroom, Kukla approaches the concepts of sexual agency, sexual pleasure, and consent with unapologetic verve. Challenging readers to think beyond reductive concepts of consent, gender, and freedom, Sex Beyond “Yes” reframes the communication and social support we need to establish sexual relationships founded on genuine respect, open discourse, and unhindered joy.
To reserve a copy of Sex Beyond “Yes” (W. W. Norton & Company, September 2, 2025, hardcover, $24), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve Sex Beyond ‘Yes’ for September 25 event” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
You can also purchase Sex Beyond “Yes” on our online shop at bookshop.com/shop/bgsqd.
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD
Even better:
sign up to make a monthly tax-deductible donation to the Bureau!

Thank you for committing to sustaining this vital project!

Quill R Kukla lives in Washington, DC, and Berlin. They are Professor of Philosophy and Disability Studies at Georgetown University, and the Editor-in-Chief of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal. They are also an amateur competitive boxer and powerlifter, the parent of a young adult, and the devoted caretaker of a corgi and two cats. This is their fourth book.

Avgi Saketopoulou is a Cypriot and Greek psychoanalyst in NYC, and a member of the faculty of NYU’s Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. She is the author of Sexuality Beyond Consent: Risk, Race, Traumatophilia and a lover of queers and of motorcycles.
