On Sabbatical
2019-04-10 19:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Writers Jonathan Alexander and A.W. Strouse are On Sabbatical.

Out to Lunch.

Gone Fishin’.

They will perform their enchanting, exquisite literary adventures.

Jonathan Alexander is the author, co-author, or editor of twelve previous books. A frequent contributor as essayist and reviewer to the Los Angeles Review of Books, he’s also Chancellor’s Professor of English at the University of California, Irvine and lives in Southern California.

A.W. Strouse teaches medieval literature at The New School, and has published a wide variety of creative works, including My Gay Middle Ages (punctum, 2015) and with Patty Barth, Transfer Queen (punctum, 2018).

Image: Henry Scott Tuke, The Bathers, 1888, oil on canvas, H 116.8 x W 86.3 cm, Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds Museums and Galleries, UK.

Book Launch & Party for Victoria Noe’s Fag Hags, Divas and Moms
2019-04-11 19:00 - 21:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
A book launch and party to mark the publication of Fag Hags, Divas and Moms: The Legacy of Straight Women in the AIDS Community by Victoria Noe.

The history of the AIDS epidemic has largely been told from the perspective of gay men: their losses, their struggles, and contributions. But what about women – in particular, straight women? Not just Elizabeth Taylor and Princess Diana, but thousands whose accomplishments have never been recognized?

Drawing on personal interviews and archival research, Fag Hags, Divas and Moms: The Legacy of Straight Women in the AIDS Community is the first book to share the stories of women around the world, throughout the epidemic. Victoria Noe assures their place in women’s history, for their determination to educate and advocate, to end the epidemic once and for all.

She will be in conversation with one of the women in the book, Krishna Stone.

Victoria Noe is an award-winning Chicago author, speaker and activist. In 2006, she promised a dying friend that she’d write her first book about people grieving the death of a friend. That book turned into six-book series, including Friend Grief and AIDS: Thirty Years of Burying Our Friends. Her essay “Long-Term Survivor” won the 2015 Christopher Hewitt Award from A&U Magazine. She is a member of ACT UP/NY since 2013 and sits on the planning committee for the Chicago AIDS Garden.

Krishna Stone, one of the women featured in the book, is the Director of Community Relations for GMHC, where she has been a valuable staff member for over 25 years. In 2017, she served as a grand marshal for the NYC Pride March and will be honored next month with the Sam Ciccone Community Service Award from GOAL NY.

Baby Gay at the Bureau with Pamela Sneed & Gail Thacker!
2019-04-12 19:00 - 20:30 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Claire Fleury and Alesia Exum Present BABY GAY at Bureau of General Services—Queer Division! Hosted by Dusty Childers!
Baby Gay is a night of Queer Stories centered around those early days of budding Queerness. This, our second installment, features the incredible line up of Pamela Sneed and Gail Thacker.

About Pamela Sneed:
Pamela Sneed is a New York-based poet, writer, performer and emerging visual artist. She is author of Imagine Being More Afraid of Freedom than Slavery, KONG and Other Works and a chaplet, “Gift” by Belladonna. She has been featured in the New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Time Out, BOMB, VIBE, and on the cover of New York Magazine. She has appeared in Art Forum, The Huffington Post and Hyperallergic. In 2017, she was a Visiting Critic at Yale and Columbia University. She is a Visiting Professor at Columbia University’s School of the Arts for 2017/18. She is online faculty at Chicago’s School of the Art Institute teaching Human Rights and Writing Art and has also been a Visiting Artist at SAIC in the MFA summer low-res program for 3 consecutive years. She has performed at the Whitney Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Poetry Project, NYU and Pratt Universities, Smack Mellon Gallery, The High Line, Performa, Danspace, The Bessies, Performance Space, Joe’s Pub, The Public Theater, SMFA, BRIC and was an artist- in- residence at Pratt University, Denniston Hill and Poet-Linc, Lincoln Center Education.

About Gail Thacker:
Gail has been exhibited at the Museum of the City of New York, the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art; Centro Gallego de Arte Contemporáneo (CGAC), Spain; Boston University’s Stone Gallery, Daniel Cooney Fine Arts, Elizabeth Dee Gallery, Howl and Grey Art Gallery in New York, and others. Gail’s Polaroid work is in numerous collections such as The Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston, MA), Museum of the City of New York, the Fotomuseum Winterthur (Switzerland), CGAC (Spain), The New York Public Library, and The Polaroid Collection (Massachusetts). Publications, not including press-include Between the Sun and the Moon Gail Thacker’s Polaroids (City University of New York),The Polaroid Book (Taschen), Mark Dirt (Paper Chase Press), Tabboo! The Art of Stephen Tashjian (Damiani), There Was A Sense of Family; The Friends of Mark Morrisroe (Moderne Kunst Nürnbergsa), Gail Thacker Fugitive Moments (Howl) and Frontiers Journal of Women Studies (University of Nebraska Press).

Social Sculpture for Individual Goals
2019-04-13 11:00 - 13:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Social Sculpture for Individual Goals is an opportunity to check in with others about your personal goals.
The way it works is very simple: A group of individuals gathers together, and, depending on how many individuals are present, together we decide on a specific amount of time that each person will be allotted to speak to the group about their personal goals. We ask for one person to volunteer as a timekeeper, and that person keeps track of time, letting the person who is speaking know when they have one minute remaining, and when their time is up.
As each one of us takes our turn to speak, the group listens quietly and gives us an opportunity to speak from the heart about our personal goals. This process of personal goal-related sharing can go in many different directions, and each person who speaks is welcome to use this time in whatever way feels most helpful to them. This process provides an opportunity for the speaker to sort out their thoughts, to gain clarity around personal goals, to share setbacks and successes, and to be accountable to others. As we listen to others, it is an opportunity for us to practice deep listening and to receive inspiration from others.
While this is not an overly rule-bound process, we do ask that attendees keep the following guidelines in mind:
– When it is someone else’s turn to speak, others in the group do not interrupt or query that person. We allow the person who is speaking to have ‘the stage’ to themself during their turn.
– During your own turn, keep the focus on yourself, and do not give feedback to others who have already spoken (note: it is okay to reference something someone else said, for example, something that inspired you–as long as you are mentioning it in relation to your own goals and your own process).
– Nobody is required to share. It is okay to attend and just listen to others, without sharing anything yourself. Also, it is okay if someone wants to speak for less than their allotted time.
– Please keep in mind that this is an open community forum; therefore, information that attendees choose to share is not considered confidential or anonymous.
This project is a collaboration between the Bureau and Ben G. Adams, a psychologist and artist whose work focuses on approaching tropes of personal and social transformation as art forms. The term ‘social sculpture’ was originally developed by 20th century conceptual artist Joseph Beuys in reference to the idea that all human beings are artists, and that all aspects of life can be approached as art forms. Ben’s previous work includes an art book and dieting system titled The Creative Process Diet, mixed media works in printmaking and sculpture, and another (currently ongoing) iteration of Social Sculpture for Individual Goals developed in collaboration with the Religious Society of Friends of Truth (a.k.a. ‘Quakers’) beginning in January 2017.

There is no required cost to attend Social Sculpture for Individual Goals, which is being very generously sponsored by the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, an independent organization that is operated entirely by volunteers. During the meeting we will pass around a bowl so that everyone who attends will receive an opportunity to make a voluntary donation to support the Bureau. The suggested donation is $10, and we ask attendees to be as generous as possible in their support of the Bureau, which generously sponsors Social Sculpture for Individual Goals and many other community-building projects.

Turn dreams into stories! Myths, Magic & Imagination
2019-04-13 19:00 - 20:30 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Author and founder of Jaguar Luna Cultural Arts Collective, C. Huilo C. will talk about creating your own personal mythos and how the stories that come from this can influence how well we are treated in both the queer and the hetero worlds. In an evening in conversation with Stonewall-legacy author Perry Brass, Huilo will share their experiences living queerly within the majestic complexity of Mexico and Costa Rica. Huilo’s adventures in Latin America led to their writing and illustrating Tales of a Jaguar Magician – a new queer mythology. Huilo and Perry will talk about queer folk as the keepers of magic and healing and why are we feared? What is really behind our own magical side that few people talk about? How can we move from being tolerated to being celebrated as an integral and necessary part of a healthy society? Books and original illustrations will be available for sale and autographing.

Mythologist, visionary and full-spectrum artist, C. Huilo C. has published 5 books, art films, numerous art installations, experimental theatre presentations, is the founder of an arts & ecology center in Central America, owner of Teatro Jaguar Luna, Jaguar Moon Press, and leads an earth-ark reforestation project in Southern Costa Rica.
flight.jaguar@gmail.com
www.jaguarmoonpress.com
www.artistecologyresidency-jaguarluna.com
www.jaguarlunart.com
www.deep-woods-art.com

Activist, poet, and author Perry Brass has published 19 books, was a member of the Gay Liberation Front and co-editor of Come Out!, world’s first gay liberation newspaper, and co-founded the Gay Men’s Health Project Clinic, first clinic for gay men on the East Coast, now operating as Callen-Lorde Community Health Services, and the Rainbow Book Fair, the largest lgbt book event in the U.S.
belhuepress@earthlink.net
www.perrybrass.com

TELL 53: 420
2019-04-20 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.
420 is the theme of the 53rd installment of TELL. Featuring stories by Renair Amin, Cara Francis, Joey Kipp, and Arianne “Bozo” Lombardi.
$10 suggested donation to support the Bureau and the performers. No one turned away for lack of funds.
Photograph by Grace Chu

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 the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division. Check her out online! www.draecampbell.com.

Becoming a vessel of healing wasn’t an easy process for the Pink Love Specialist, Renair Amin. The person she is today has survived addiction, family tragedy, sexual assault, depression, grief, divorce, religious trauma and domestic violence. From those experiences, Renair penned four books – Mental Silhouette, Domestically Cursed, Pit Crew: How to Survive a Spiritual Pit Stop and Come with Me, Love: A 21-Day Journey into the Song of Solomon for couples. A life and relationship coach, she has also had the privilege of speaking across the nation helping others find Pink Love in their lives. In 2018, she was given the esteem honor of being named “Miss Full-Figured USA Miss Congeniality.” Renair just completed her Doctor of Ministry degree from New York Theological Seminary and is excited to walk down the aisle in May 2019.

Cara Francis is a writer, performer and a comedian. An ensemble member of The New York Neo-Futurists from 2008-2017, she designed and performed in The Complete and Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O’Neill, Vol 1 and 2 and The Soup Show. Her installation work includes “Stand” (Brooklyn Museum, IPA), “Remote” (Trouw, Amsterdam, NE, New Museum, New York for AUNTSisdance, First Person View, The Knockdown Center) and “Happy To See You” (Print Screen Festival, Tel Aviv, Automata Arts, Collapsable Hole, Dixon Place, The Wild Project). She regularly writes and performs original music as Fantasy Grandma (Bushwig, NY Comedy Festival at Carolines, Catch Performance Series). She is currently writing Dugout, a queer musical adaptation of A League Of Their Own as well as writing, directing and producing a series of short films with Julian Klepper about the people of New York City.

Joey Kipp is an NYC Dancer and performer.

Arianne “Bozo” Lombardi is a queer visual artist and musician from the Bronx. She is in the process of organizing her own songs into EP format, as she has spent her last 3 years primarily performing with local Bronx band “Brooks Thomas.” By daytime she is a bartender, and by side job she is a free-lance locksmith.

Bespoke Spring '19 Edition: April is the Coolest Month!
2019-04-23 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
BESPOKE: It’s April! The cruelest month? Make that the COOLEST month! Join us for the resurrection of our most garish garments and frighteningly fashionable attire as Tuesday April 23 the Bureau features Jericho Brown, Mariah MacCarthy, and Dima Mikhayel Matta at Bespoke, a bimonthly queer series where featured readers dress fun, fancy, or flirtatious. This sinfully sartorial series presents fashionable femmes, dapper dykes, chic twinks, trendy trans* folk, & frothy FTMs. Featured writers are encouraged to suit up or dress down: readers’ choice.

Open mic readers (2 minutes each): whose name shall be drawn from the rainbow top hat this month? General attendees: which incredible edibles from Dylan’s Candy Bar will find their way to the insatiate maws of our deviant demimonde?

Your Bespoke hosts are Christina Quintana “CQ” (writer/ playwright/ dyke about town), Tim Murphy (longtime LGBTQ journalist, activist and author of the novels Christodora and Correspondents) and Jerome Ellison Murphy (poet, critic and NYU Creative Writing Program administrator). This twinkling trio invites you to turn out in your Tuesday best (dressing up is welcome & encouraged, not mandatory) every other month for drinks and chat before & after our reading.

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

Jericho Brown is the recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award and fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Brown’s first book, Please (2008), won the American Book Award. His second book, The New Testament (2014), won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was named one of the best of the year by Library Journal, Coldfront, and the Academy of American Poets. He is also the author of the collection The Tradition (2019). His poems have appeared in Buzzfeed, The Nation, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The New Republic, Time, and The Pushcart Prize Anthology, and several volumes of The Best American Poetry anthologies. He is an associate professor and the director of the Creative Writing Program at Emory University in Atlanta.

Mariah MacCarthy is a nonbinary creatrix and an award-winning writer, performer, and birth mother. They’ve written for BuzzFeed, Yes! magazine, LOOK magazine, The Brooklyn Rail, and others. Their plays have been performed all over the world, and the New York Times called their immersive party play Mrs. Mayfield’s Fifth-Grade Class of ’93 20-Year Reunion “a lot of fun.” They live in Astoria with their cat, Sophie. Squad is their first novel.

Dima Mikhayel Matta is a Beirut-based university instructor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Balamand, a writer, and an actress. She received a Fulbright scholarship and completed her MFA in creative writing at Rutgers University in 2013. She has been acting for the stage since 2006 and has worked with directors such as Lina Abyad, Sahar Assaf, and Aliyah Khalidi. In 2014, she founded Cliffhangers, the first bilingual storytelling platform in Lebanon, and hosts monthly storytelling events along with parallel events such as storytelling workshops and performances. Cliffhangers is a non-profit initiative that aims to give a platform for marginalized voices and serves as a safe space for people to share their stories. In May 2018, she curated the first LGBTQ+ art exhibition in Lebanon, titled “Love Letters to Meem”. She is currently working on her first play that is scheduled to premiere in Beirut in Fall 2019.

Publishing Triangle Awards Finalists Reading 2019
2019-04-24 19:00 - 21:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Join twelve of the best LGBT writers of 2018 on Wednesday, April 24, at 7 PM, at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division as they read from their work, all of which are finalists for the prestigious Publishing Triangle and Ferro-Grumley awards to be announced on Thursday, April 25, at the Publishing Triangle Awards Ceremony & Reception, at The New School, 66 West 12th Street, in Greenwich Village, New York.
Copies of the nominated books are available for purchase at the Bureau. To reserve a copy of one or more of the books please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com. Please support the Bureau by buying books from us. Thank you!
Featuring the authors of the following nominated books:

Autobiography of a Wound, by Brynne Rebele-Henry (University of Pittsburgh Press)

Drapetomania, by John Gordon (Team Angelica).

Eden, by Andrea Kleine (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

‘
Forgive the Body This Failure, by Blas Falconer (Four Way Books)

High Ground Coward, by Alicia Mountain (University of Iowa Press)

How to Write an Autobiographical Novel, by Alexander Chee (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

The Lesbian South: Southern Feminists, the Women in Print Movement, and the Queer Literary Canon, by Jaime Harker (University of North Carolina Press)

Mosaic of the Dark, by Lisa Dordal (Black Lawrence Press)

Rest, by Margaree Little (Four Way Books)

The Soul of the Stranger, by Joy Ladin (Brandeis University Press)

That Was Something, by Dan Callahan (Squares and Rebels)

Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation, by Robert W. Fieseler (Liveright/W. W. Norton)

Todd Sweeney: The Fiend of Fleet High - David Pratt Reads
2019-04-25 19:00 - 20:00 | NY
David Pratt reads from his wild, wicked and wonderful Todd Sweeney: The Fiend of Fleet High, a hilariously touching and instructive update of the bloody marvelous penny dreadfuls of old, the seamy, overheated, heart-tugging genre that gave us Sweeney Todd. This new Todd is a bi guy who, with his girlfriend, Nellie, is out to save his gay pal, Toby, from the horrors of conversion camp. Will Todd succeed? What do the cops know? Will they figure out Nellie’s creative way of making evidence disappear? Read Todd Sweeney and find out. And be sure to suck up the juices!

Copies of Todd Sweeney: The Fiend of Fleet High are available for purchase at the Bureau. To reserve a copy please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com. Please support the Bureau by buying books from us. Thank you!

David Pratt is the author of Bob the Book (Lambda Literary Award winner), My Movie, Looking After Joey and Wallaçonia.

Queer Mental Health, Queer Clinical Theory: a Conversation
2019-04-26 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
Join authors Esther Rapoport, PsyD, Stephanie Schroeder, JD, and Teresa Theophano, LCSW for a discussion of LGBTQ mental health and their respective newly published books.

Dr. Rapoport is the author of From Psychoanalytic Bisexuality to Bisexual Psychoanalysis: Desiring in the Real (Routledge, June 2019). Bisexuality was one of the foundational concepts of Freud’s theory – but unlike his other foundational concepts related to gender and sexuality, and despite the increasing visibility of bisexual lifestyles in contemporary society, it has received little critical attention within the psychoanalytic community. From Psychoanalytic Bisexuality to Bisexual Psychoanalysis is the first book to assess bisexuality through a range of psychoanalytic and critical (feminist and queer) perspectives, highlighting both the issues faced by bisexual people in contemporary society and the challenges that can be presented by bisexual clients within a clinical setting. In her talk, Esther Rapoport will critique the logical errors inherent to, and the ideological underpinnings of, the Freudian concept of bisexuality, and outline the development (or lack thereof) of this concept in post-Freudian psychoanalysis. She will then offer some alternative ways to conceptualize bisexual subjectivities through the lenses of contemporary psychoanalytic theories. Clinical vignettes will be used to explore the issue of widespread negative countertransference responses in the clinical setting and to comment on the social pressures facing bisexuals of various genders, and the resultant psychological effects.

Schroeder and Theophano’s Headcase: LGBTQ Writers and Artists on Mental Health and Wellness (Oxford University Press, February 2019) is a groundbreaking anthology comprised of creative nonfiction, visual art, poetry, and more from the points of view of queer and trans people with lived experience of health care–some peers, some providers, and some who fall into both categories. Schroeder, a peer counselor and independent LGBTQ mental health advocate and Theophano, a licensed social worker and community organizer–both of them writers and editors with previously published LGBTQ books and essays–will discuss their work with and long-term involvement in NYC’s queer and trans communities. They will read from their own contributions to Headcase and foster a discussion of approaches to queer mental health.

Copies of Headcase: LGBTQ Writers and Artists on Mental Health and Wellness are available for purchase at the Bureau. (Esther Rapoport’s From Psychoanalytic Bisexuality to Bisexual Psychoanalysis will be published by Routledge in June 2019). To reserve a copy of Headcase for purchase at the event, please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com. Please support the Bureau by purchasing books from us. Thank you for your support!

Stephanie Schroeder is a freelance writer and grassroots mental health activist in NYC. Also a certified peer specialist, she works with women ages 45+ who are homeless and living with mental health issues. Stephanie’s writing has been widely anthologized and she is the author of the memoir Beautiful Wreck: Sex, Lies & Suicide (Creative Evolution, 2012). See her website for more info: www.stephanieschroederauthor.com

Teresa Theophano, LCSW, is a social work supervisor and freelance writer/editor who works full-time at an LGBT nonprofit serving older adults. Teresa has contributed to numerous anthologies and websites in addition to authoring Queer Quotes (Beacon Press, 2004). She co-founded the NYC Queer Mental Health Initiative in 2014, has taught as an adjunct professor at CUNY, and currently serves on the board of directors of the NYC-based queer homeless youth program Trinity Place Shelter.

Esther Rapoport, Psy.D is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalytic candidate practicing in Tel Aviv. She has worked extensively with queer, bisexual and trans clients, and frequently lectures on clinical work with people from these communities in various mental health, academic and community settings in Israel. From Psychoanalytic Bisexuality to Bisexual Psychoanalysis is her first book; her prior work was published in psychoanalytic journals and edited volumes as well as the Journal of Bisexuality and the anthology Bisexuality and Queer Theory: Intersections, Connections and Challenges (Lambda Award finalist for 2012). She is a political activist with the Israeli groups Coalition of Women for Peace and Psychoactive – Mental Health Professionals for Human Rights.

NYC Queer Comic Fair 2019
2019-04-27 13:00 - 19:00, 2019-04-28 13:00 - 19:00 | NY
The NYC Queer Comic Fair the only fair in NYC geared entirely towards queer sequential art (comics, graphic novels, illustrated stories, photo-comics, or any other interesting take on the medium of still-visual narrative storytelling). The event is organized by WabiSabiZinez and Carmine Street Comics and hosted by the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division.
The event will be hosted by the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division (BGSQD) on Saturday and Sunday, April 27th-28th, from 1-7pm each day.
The Bureau is located on the second floor of The LGBT Community Center NYC (208 W 13th Street), room 210.

OLNY Poly Movie Night: Design for Living
2019-05-01 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 our regular venue, the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division.

On May 1st, the third anniversary of Poly Movie Night, please join us for a re-viewing of Design for Living (1933), written by Ben Hecht (based on the Noel Coward play), directed by Ernst Lubitsch and starring Gary Cooper, Miriam Hopkins, and Fredric March.

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 event is free, although a $10 suggested donation to help fund future events is much appreciated.

Synopsis: Gilda Farrell, a commercial artist living in Paris, falls in love with a painter and a playwright, two old friends who are sharing an apartment. When she can’t make up her mind which one of them she prefers, she proposes a “gentleman’s agreement”: She will move in with them as a friend and critic of their work, but they will never have sex. But when Tom goes to London to supervise a production of one of his plays, leaving Gilda alone with George, how long will their gentleman’s agreement last? Running time: 1 hour 31 minutes.

Opening Reception for Greetings from Cherry Grove: Works by the Residents of the 2018 Fire Island Artist Residency
2019-05-03 18:00 - 21:00 | NY
Greetings from Cherry Grove: Works by the Residents of the 2018 Fire Island Artist Residency is an exhibition of art by the five artists who were selected to participate in the FIAR summer 2018 residency. Anna Campbell (New York) will be debuting an enormous new photographic work of athletic bodies in the sun created alongside the artist’s rigorous study of our collective queer past. Jose Figueroa (Oakland) will be exhibiting evidence of his daily text and image observational recordings of his days in Cherry Grove, from clothing optional beach blankets to intimate community gatherings. During residency, Kiarash K (Germany) mined his internal psychoanalytic response to being submerged in an LGBTQ enclave to begin a series of haunting paintings and drawings, a selection of which will be included in our exhibition. Brooklyn’s Leeanne Maxey’s own observational beach drawings, assembled still lives, and more recent paintings explore her close relationship to communities both intolerant and inclusive, allowing them to clash and coalesce in paintings that blur the lines between photographic and magical realism. Finally, Montgomery Perry Smith melds the body, specifically orifices, with the flora of Fire Island in a series of delicate, meticulously crafted experiential sculptures that assert the beauty of queer sexuality.

Greetings from Cherry Grove: Works by the Residents of the 2018 Fire Island Artist Residency will be on view at the Bureau from Friday, May 3, through Sunday, June 2, 2019.
Opening Reception: Friday, May 3, 6 to 9 PM

Fire Island Artist Residency (FIAR) is an organization founded in 2011 which brings lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer identifying emerging visual artists and poets to Fire Island, a place long-steeped in LGBTQ history, to create, commune, and contribute to the location’s rich artistic history.
Each summer FIAR provides free live/work space to five visual artists and three poets who work, socialize, and immerse themselves in the Fire Island community for four weeks, during which time they are visited by a handful of renowned figures from the visual art and writing communities who interact with residents through intimate visits, dinners, and discussions, providing support and feedback. The greater Fire Island community as well as visitors from New York and Long Island are invited to attend free public lectures by these esteemed guests. This has been made possible through a partnership with Arts Project Cherry Grove, who invite FIAR to hold our programming in the historic Cherry Grove Community House, a landmarked LGBTQ historic site. In this way, FIAR hopes to bring both new creative perspectives and prestigious art professionals together in this extraordinary location to foster the creation—and preservation—of queer art-making in contemporary art.

This exhibition is made possible with the support of the following major sponsors:
New York State Council on the Arts
Between Bridges

Image: Jose Figueroa, Cherry Grove Beach Front, 2018

"LOTUS MINK" Film Screening and Performance Event
2019-05-04 18:00 - 21:00 | NY
Join @newfest alum filmmaker @derricklmiddleton, director of Shape Up: Gay in the Black Barbershop as he premieres an exclusive sneak peek of his upcoming film Lotus Mink, a documentary about his start in drag! Film Screening with live performances from Lotus Mink, Egyptt LaBeija & Thee Suburbia America followed by Q&A! 6pm Saturday, May 4th at @bgsqd

Derrick L. Middleton is a Harlem born filmmaker/performance artist. His directorial debut Shape Up: Gay in the Black Barbershop world premiered at President Obama’s White House in 2016 and won the Audience Choice Award at Newfest. His follow-up film titled Lotus Mink is at once a meditation on the construct of black masculinity and a documentary about the creation of his drag persona Lotus Mink.

NYC Gay Guys' Book Club Discusses Rabih Alameddine's Angel of History
2019-05-07 19:00 - 21:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
NYC Gay Guys’ Book Club is a group of gay guys of all ages who meet the first Tuesday of every month. We usually meet at the Jefferson Market branch of the public library on 6th Avenue & West 10th Street, but we’ll meet at the Bureau while the library is being renovated. We read an eclectic range of books from classics to newly-released works. We don’t necessarily read books with a gay theme or characters and always open to suggestions. Very easy going; more social than academic. You don’t necessarily have to commit to coming every single month, just whenever your schedule or reading tastes permit.

This month (May 7th) we are discussing Rabih Alameddine‘s Angel of History.

On Tuesday, June 4th, we’ll discuss Joan Dempsey‘s This Is How It Begins.

Both Rabih Alameddine‘s Angel of History and Joan Dempsey‘s This Is How It Begins (and many other titles!) are available for purchase at the Bureau. Please support the Bureau by buying books from us. Thank you for your support!

This event is free, but donations to support the Bureau are much appreciated!

Office Hours Spring 2019 Showcase Reading
2019-05-09 19:00 - 20:30 | NY
Check out sizzling new writing at the Office Hours Spring 2019 Showcase! The workshop provides post-MFA poets access to continued support for manuscript-development and everyday writing, culminating in a public reading each fall and spring to showcase stellar new work. We welcome all poets, especially people of color, LGBTQ+, and those who are femme-identified. Our name derives from our side hustle. Many of us are freelance, adjunct instructors, who continue to thrive in the margins of academia.

Featuring:
Laura Cresté, Linda Harris Dolan, Emily Hockaday, Francisco Márquez, Paco Márquez, Holly Mitchel, Madeleine Mori, Dacota Pratt-Pariseau, and Noel Sikorski.

Laura Cresté holds an MFA in Poetry from NYU. She is the winner of Breakwater Review’s 2016 Peseroff Prize, and her work has appeared in No Tokens Journal, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, Powder Keg Magazine, and Bodega Magazine.

Linda Harris Dolan is a poet and editor. She holds an M.A. in English & American Literature from NYU, and an M.F.A in Poetry from NYU, where she was a Starworks Creative Writing Fellow. She’s taught writing at The King’s College and NYU. Linda’s work appears in The Grief Diaries, Roanoke Review, and Blood and Thunder: Musings on the Art of Medicine, and she was a 2016 Best of the Net nominee.

Emily Hockaday is a Queens-based poet and editor. Her newest chapbook, Beach Vocabulary, is forthcoming from Red Bird Chaps. She is author of Space on Earth (Grey Book Press), Ophelia: A Botanist’s Guide (Zoo Cake Press), What We Love & Will Not Give Up (Dancing Girl Press), and Starting a Life (Finishing Line Press). Her poems have appeared in numerous journals, most recently Newtown Literary, The Maine Review, and Salt Hill. She is Associate Editor of Analog Science Fiction & Fact and Asimov’s Science Fiction, and she can be found on the web at www.emilyhockaday.com and @E_Hockaday.

Francisco Márquez is a Venezuelan poet with work appearing in The Brooklyn Rail, Bennington Review, and Narrative magazine. He has received honors from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, The Poetry Project, and Letras Latinas. He lives in Brooklyn.

Paco Márquez is author of the chapbook Portraits in G Minor (Folded Word Press, 2017). His poetry can be found in Apogee, Ostrich Review, Live Mag! and Huizache. As Spanish Editor for William O’Daly, he assisted in translating Pablo Neruda’s initial book, Crepusculario, for the first time into English, Book of Twilight (Copper Canyon Press, 2017). Originally from México and Northern California, Paco lives in Manhattan, where he helps run Office Hours! He lives with his partner of 13 years. More at: pacomarquez.net

Holly Mitchell is a poet from Kentucky, now based in New York. A winner of an Amy Award from Poets & Writers and a Gertrude Claytor Prize from the Academy of American Poets, she received an MFA in Creative Writing from New York University. Her poems have appeared in Baltimore Review, Juked, and Narrative, among other journals.

Madeleine Mori is a Japanese-American poet originally from San Francisco. She received a bachelor’s degree in winemaking from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and an MFA from New York University, where she served as a Poetry Editor of Washington Square Review. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in BOAAT, Cosmonauts Avenue, Salt Hill, Sixth Finch, Neck, and The Cincinnati Review, among others. She is the Poetry Editor at Pigeon Pages and lives in Brooklyn.

Dacota Pratt-Pariseau is a Vermont poet. She has an MFA from NYU and has been published in Prelude and Bodega Magazine. She currently lives in Harlem.

Noel Sikorski is a Senior Lecturer in the Expository Writing Program at NYU. Her poems have appeared in American Poets Magazine, Georgetown Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, and The Bellevue Literary Review.

Jerry The Marble Faun of Grey Gardens Book Signing & Reading
2019-05-10 19:00 - 20:30 | NY
Jerry the Marble Faun of Grey Gardens (Jerry Torre) will read from his book The Marble Faun of Grey Gardens: A Memoir of the Beales, the Maysles Brothers, and Jacqueline Kennedy, nominated for a Lambda Literary Award for Gay Memoir/Biography. Jerry will sign books following the reading.

The Marble Faun of Grey Gardens: A Memoir of the Beales, the Maysles Brothers, and Jacqueline Kennedy is Jerry Torre’s touching and at times haunting memoir about his teenage days as caretaker of Grey Gardens, the now-celebrated mansion chronicled in the iconic documentary Grey Gardens and two feature-length films. The book is a behind-the-scenes look at “Big Edie” and “Little Edie” and their bizarre and reclusive life of squalor amidst the tremendous wealth of East Hampton, the family bond that developed between Jerry and them, and the afternoon everything was turned upside down forever with the arrival of documentary filmmakers Albert and David Maysles.

Copies of The Marble Faun of Grey Gardens are available for purchase at the Bureau. To reserve a copy please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com. Please support the Bureau by buying books from us. Thank you!

Keetje Kuipers, Meg Day, & Jason Schneiderman
2019-05-12 18:00 - 19:30 | NY
Join poets Keetje Kuipers, Meg Day, and Jason Schneiderman for a reading of their work at the Bureau!

Keetje Kuipers currently teaches at Hugo House in Seattle and serves as Senior Editor at Poetry Northwest, where she is the author of the literary recipe mash-up Line Cook and curator of the series On Failure. Keetje lives with her wife and daughter on an island in the Salish Sea. She is currently at work on a novel set in Wyoming, as well as a memoir about the seven months she spent living alone and off the grid, two hours down a dirt road from the nearest human being.

Meg Day is the 2015-2016 recipient of the Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship, a 2013 recipient of an NEA Fellowship in Poetry, and the author of Last Psalm at Sea Level (Barrow Street 2014), winner of the Barrow Street Poetry Prize and the Publishing Triangle’s Audre Lorde Award, and a finalist for the 2016 Kate Tufts Discovery Award from Claremont Graduate University. Day is Assistant Professor of English & Creative Writing at Franklin & Marshall College and lives in Pennsylvania. www.megday.com

Jason Schneiderman is the author of Hold Me Tight (forthcoming from Red Hen in 2020); Primary Source (Red Hen 2016);Striking Surface (Ashland Poetry Press 2010); and Sublimation Point (Four Way 2004); as well as the editor of Queer: A Reader for Writers (Oxford UP 2016). He is an Associate Professor of English at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY.

Heelz on Reelzzz: Short Film Screening
2019-05-17 19:30 - 21:30 | NY
Fabulous evening of queer short films featuring femmes, queens, hustlers and other magical creatures! Curated by Heather María Ács
Doors 7:30, Screening 8pm $5-$15, NOTAFLOF (No one turned away for lack of funds)

Starring:
Bad Ally Web Series
Ariel Mahler and Daquisha Jones

Mouth Wide Open
Writer/Director Siobhan Aluvalot
Featuring Fanciulla Gentile, Shawna Shawnté & Stevie Ann DePaola

QUEER HABITS
Documentary by Drew Denny

Work by Celeste Chan

Flu$h
Writer/Director Heather María Ács
Featuring Tanisha Thompson Christine Davitt Morgan Sullivan Minerva Summer And MORE!!!

Accessibility: The Bureau is located at the LGBT Center. ADA compliant. Elevators. Ramps. Armless chairs.

Office Hours Craft Class & Reading With Candace Williams
2019-05-18 11:00 - 14:30 | NY
Office Hours Poetry Workshop presents: “Generative Erasure Poetry”— a FREE craft class and reading with author Candace Williams.

The craft class takes place from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM. A public reading with Candace Williams, Omotara James, and Safia Jama will follow from 1:30 PM-2:30 PM.

Spaces for the craft class are limited to 15 persons so please RSVP in advance to sarahmariesala@gmail.com and include your full name, relationship to writing, and a brief bio.

“Generative Erasure Poetry”
How can erasure poetry be a means for confrontation and dialogue? What makes a good erasure poem? After analyzing a few erasure poems, we will discuss the process for selecting source texts and surfacing poetry in those texts via erasure. Readings include work by Chase Berggrun, jayy dodd, Solmaz Sharif, M. NourbeSe Philip, and Srikanth Reddy. Students can bring their own source texts to erase. Candace will also supply a few texts.

Office Hours Poetry Workshop provides post-MFA poets access to continued support for manuscript-development and everyday writing. The workshop culminates in a public reading each fall and spring to showcase sizzling new work. We welcome all poets, especially people of color, LGBTQ+, and those who are woman-identified. Our name derives from our side hustle. Many of us are freelance, adjunct instructors, who continue to thrive in the margins of academia.

Safia Jama was born to a Somali father and an Irish-American mother in Queens, New York. A Harvard graduate and a Cave Canem fellow, she has poetry appearing or forthcoming in Ploughshares, Boston Review, BOMB, Cagibi, and RHINO. Safia is a Pushcart-nominated poet and her manuscript was a semi-finalist in the Pleiades Press Editors Prize for Poetry. She was the subject of a “Shades of U.S.” documentary about her life and work (CUNY TV). Safia teaches in the English Department at Baruch College.

Omotara James is the author of the chapbook, “Daughter Tongue,” selected by African Poetry Book Fund, in collaboration with Akashic Books, for the 2018 New Generation African Poets Box Set. Born in Britain, she is the daughter of Nigerian and Trinidadian immigrants. Her honors include a 92Y/Discovery Prize, a Nancy P. Schnader American Academy of Poets Prize and being shortlisted for the Brunel International African Poetry Prize. Her poetry has appeared in Academy of American Poets, Literary Hub, Poetry Society of America, Winter Tangerine, Nat.Brut and elsewhere. She has been awarded fellowships from Lambda Literary and the Cave Canem Foundation. She is an MFA candidate poetry at NYU and edits poetry for American Chordata.

Candace Williams is a black queer nerd living a double life. By day, she is a progressive middle school humanities educator and robotics coach. By night and subway ride, she’s a poet. Her first full-length manuscript futureblack is a finalist in the 2018 National Poetry Series open competition. Candace’s first chapbook, Spells for Black Wizards (The Atlas Review), is a winner of the TAR Chapbook Series, and sold out of its first print run on the day of its launch.

TELL 54: That Time Of The Month. Period.
2019-05-18 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.
That Time Of The Month. Period. is the theme of the 54th TELL, Co-presented by Brooklyn Performance Space, JACK.
Queer stories and perspectives on queeriods, periods, menstruation and that time of the month.
Featuring stories by Mariam Bazeed, Bloom Davis, Renée Imperato, Evie Litwok, Kiera Nagle, and Kei Williams.
We ask that you arrive with an offering of tampons, pads, panty liners, disposable wipes and any other menstrual hygiene products to be donated to the Hetrick-Martin Institute, an organization that provides community, basic needs, health, education, and career services to LGBTQ youth. There is also a $10 Suggested donation for Hetrick-Martin Institute Inc. and the Bureau.
No one turned away for lack of funds.
RSVP on Facebook and keep an eye on the invite for updates and info!

Photograph by Grace Chu

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 the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division. Check her out online! www.draecampbell.com.

Mariam Bazeed is an Egyptian immigrant, writer, and performance artist living in a rent-stabilized apartment in Brooklyn. They have an MFA in Fiction from Hunter College. An alliteration-leaning writer of prose, poetry, plays, and personal essays, Mariam is a current fellow at the Center for Fiction, and a past fellow at the Asian American Writers Workshop and the Lambda Literary Foundation. As a performance artist, Mariam has been a fellow of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics at NYU, and Needing It! by the Helix Performance Network. Mariam’s work has been supported by residencies from Hedgebrook, Marble House Project, the Millay Colony, the Kimmel Nelson Harding Center for the Arts, and Art Omi. Mariam’s first play, Peace Camp Org, was staged at La Mama Theater, NYC (2017) in the Squirts Festival of Queer Performance Art; the Arcola Theatre, London (2018), in its inaugural festival of International Queer Playwrights; and The Wild Project, NYC (2018), in the Fresh Fruit Festival, and is available in anthology from Oberon Books, UK.
To procrastinate from facing the blank page, Mariam curates and runs a monthly(ish) world-music salon and open mic in Brooklyn, and is a slow student of Arabic music.

Bloom Davis is a producer and performer from Austin Texas. You can catch them upside down performing acro drag burlesque, rightside up with their sketch comedy team Boogiemanja, and inside out producing queer and trans events.

Renée Imperato is a Stonewall Era Veteran, Chairperson of The SAGE Advisory Council and a member of Peoples Power Assembly.

Evie Litwok is the Founder and Executive Director of Witness to Mass Incarceration (WMI). A non-profit organization devoted to raising public awareness of conditions within the nation’s prisons and ending mass incarceration, WMI uses documentation, leadership development, grassroots organizing and advocacy to make impact.
Litwok left prison homeless, jobless, and penniless in 2014. Despite the lack of resources, she began speaking out about her experiences there and formed WMI in 2015.
Besides catalyzing a national conversation about mass incarceration, WMI works to eliminate sexual violence in prisons and guarantee emergency evacuation of incarcerated people during times of disaster. She also created the Suitcase Project, which gives newly released people essential items such as a mobile phone, laptop computer and gift cards to ease reentry.
A veteran of the women’s and gay rights movements, Litwok puts the voices of formerly imprisoned women and members of the LGBTQIA+ community at the center of the conversation as she works to change their narratives from invisibility and victimization, to empowerment.
Her work has led to a growing network. Litwok is a part of the National LGBT/HIV Criminal Justice Working Group, which meets regularly with the Bureau of Prisons to discuss increasing safety and dignity for LGBTQIA+ prisoners. WMI is also part of the Raising the Bar Coalition and attends regular meetings with the Justice Department’s Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) Management Office.
It is her hope that educating the public and developing initiatives will result in policy reform, a radical change in conditions of confinement, and meaningful re-entry.
Litwok formerly worked in the financial industry and holds an MA degree in Psychology from Temple University.

Kiera Nagle, is a queer NY native, artist, writer, educator, and licensed massage therapist. She recognizes her privilege in working with people to facilitate their own healing, which she believes is a body-mind-spirit process, whatever medium it takes. https://meridianmassagenyc.com

Kei Williams is a queer transmasculine identified designer, writer, and public speaker. A founding member and former organizer with Black Lives Matter Global Network, the aims of Kei’s work is to transform global culture from the individual into a systemic analysis of structural racism. As Movement NetLab’s Strategic Network Mobilizer, Kei has helped to develop powerful conceptual and practical tools that facilitate the growth and effectiveness of the most dynamic, emerging social movements of our time.
As lead-organizer on campaigns such as Safety Beyond Policing, Swipe It Forward, and Trans Liberation Tuesday, Kei uses their platform to bring in the voices of those most marginalized by society — those who are queer, gnc, and transgender, and those living with mental illness. Recently, Kei completed their two-year residency at Civic Hall as an Organizer-in-Residency.
Passionate about their city – Kei invites you to check out the Black Gotham Experience, an immersive visual storytelling project that celebrates the impact of the African Diaspora on New York City since 1625. Kei currently serves as BGX Studio’s Culture Producer & Designer.

Chalkboard
2019-05-24 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
Buzz Slutzky and Greg Newton present Chalkboard.

No grades.
No degrees.
No goals.

All are welcome.
No prerequisites.

Art histories
Humor as critique
Silence as strategy
Failure
Impotence
Insincerity
Inauthenticity
Queers

Buzz explores comedic critiques of history. What role does humor play in art? Does humor strengthen art’s power, or do punchlines trivialize meaning? How have artists used humor to question power and make our own narratives? Why would one be historically accurate when one can be ~hysterically~ accurate?

Greg explores anti-expressive tendencies in the art world of 1950s-60s New York and the lives of the artists who chose not to express themselves. Getting personal with silent (quiet) subjects. The appeal of the negative, then and now.

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

Chalkboard has the potential to become a series.

Buzz Slutzky is a non-binary transgender artist, writer, and performer whose practice incorporates drawing, painting, sculpture, and video. Their visual art and writing often play between autobiographical and historical content. As a performer, Buzz has mixed stand-up comedy and musical comedy under the persona Stoni Butchell, among others. Buzz studied visual art and social movement histories at Sarah Lawrence College and received their MFA from Parsons Fine Arts. They currently teach film and visual art at CUNY College of Staten Island and SUNY Purchase College.

Greg Newton studied religion and art history at Hunter College. He completed his coursework and examinations for a doctorate degree in art history at CUNY Graduate Center. After having his dissertation topic approved—”The Emergence of Monochrome Painting in 1950s New York”—Newton aborted his pursuit of the degree and a career in academia. He co-founded the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division in 2012 with his partner, Donnie Jochum.

Friends of Dorothy—Gay Oz Fan Panel and Book Signing
2019-05-29 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
Dee Michel will present his book, Friends of Dorothy: Why Gay Boys and Gay Men Love The Wizard of Oz, which is based on questionnaires filled out by over 100 gay Oz fans. Three respondents, Atticus Gannaway (Senior Writer, NYU School of Law’s Office of Communications; Former Editor-in-Chief, The Baum Bugle), Erick Neher (Vice President/Marketing, Hearst Magazines; Culture Editor-at-Large, The Hudson Review), and Joe Yranski (Film Historian; former Senior Film and Video Librarian, New York Public Library), will discuss what Oz means to them individually and also what messages stories set in the Marvelous Land of Oz have for gay boys and gay men in general. Info about book at www.deemichel.info.

Copies of Friends of Dorothy: Why Gay Boys and Gay Men Love The Wizard of Oz will be available for purchase at the Bureau. To reserve a copy please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com. Please support the Bureau by buying books from us. Thank you!

Dee Michel has just written Friends of Dorothy: Why Gay Boys and Gay Men Love The Wizard of Oz and has given many talks on the Oz–gay connection. He served as a volunteer at Boston’s Gay Community News and as the first male co-chair of the Gay Task Force of the American Library Association.

A Pre-Lambda Awards Reading of Queer Nonfiction
2019-06-02 16:00 - 17:30 | NY
Join us for an afternoon reading of queer nonfiction before the Lambda Awards. Lesbian Memoir/Biography nominees Barrie Jean Borich (Apocalypse, Darling), Sandra Gail Lambert (A Certain Loneliness), and Zahra Patterson (Chronology) will read from their newly published books, and LGBTQ Nonfiction nominee Ria Brodell will present from their art book, Butch Heroes.

Copies of the nominated books will be available at the Bureau. To reserve copies please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com.
Please support the Bureau by buying books from us. Thank you for your support!

Barrie Jean Borich is author of Apocalypse, Darling which PopMatters said “… soars and seems to live as a new form altogether. It’s poetry, a meditation on life as ‘the other,’ creative non-fiction, and abstract art.” Her memoir Body Geographic won a Lambda Literary Award and her book-length essay, My Lesbian Husband won the Stonewall Book Award. Borich teaches at DePaul University where she edits Slag Glass City, a journal of the urban essay arts.

Ria Brodell is a non-binary trans artist, educator and author based in Boston. Their work addresses issues of gender identity, sexuality, religion and contemporary culture. Brodell attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and received a BFA from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle and an MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University. Brodell has had solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States, is a Lambda Literary Award Finalist, a recipient of an Artadia Award, a Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowship and an SMFA Traveling Fellowship. Their work has appeared in the Guardian, ARTNews, The Boston Globe, the CUT and New American Paintings, among other publications. Brodell’s book, Butch Heroes, was released in 2018 via MIT Press.

Photo Credit- Adrianne Mathiowetz

Sandra Gail Lambert is the author of the Lammy-nominated memoir A Certain Loneliness and a novel, The River’s Memory. She has upcoming work in The New York Times and has been published in The Paris Review, The Southern Review, Brevity, and LitHub. Lambert is the co-editor of the anthology Older Queer Voices: The Intimacy of Survival.

Zahra Patterson is a writer and educator. She is the author of Chronology (Ugly Duckling Presse 2018), which has been listed as a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award. Her short pieces have been published in The Felt, Kalyani Magazine, and unbag (forthcoming). Her work includes the creation of Raw Fiction, a one-time (twice-done) youth literary arts project. She holds an MFA in Writing from Pratt Institute.

NYC Gay Guys' Book Club Discusses Joan Dempsey's This Is How It Begins
2019-06-04 19:00 - 21:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
NYC Gay Guys’ Book Club is a group of gay guys of all ages who meet the first Tuesday of every month. We usually meet at the Jefferson Market branch of the public library on 6th Avenue & West 10th Street, but we’ll meet at the Bureau while the library is being renovated. We read an eclectic range of books from classics to newly-released works. We don’t necessarily read books with a gay theme or characters and always open to suggestions. Very easy going; more social than academic. You don’t necessarily have to commit to coming every single month, just whenever your schedule or reading tastes permit.

On Tuesday, June 4th, we’ll discuss Joan Dempsey‘s This Is How It Begins.

Joan Dempsey‘s This Is How It Begins (and many other titles!) are available for purchase at the Bureau. Please support the Bureau by buying books from us. Thank you for your support!

This event is free, but donations to support the Bureau are much appreciated!

OLNY Poly Movie Night: Lutine
2019-06-05 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 our regular venue, the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division.

On June 5th, please join us for a viewing of Lutine (2016), a very self-referential docu-comedy about polyamory directed by and starring Isabelle Broué.

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 event is free, although a $10 suggested donation to help fund future events is much appreciated.

Synopsis: Simultaneously a documentary about polyamory, a making-of the documentary, and a comedic fiction about the director’s life and loves, the project appears to be having an identity crisis while the characters (or are they the actors?) try to figure out what this polyamory thing is. Running time: 1 hour, 38 minutes. In French with English subtitles.

Living in this Queer Body Podcast Celebration with Morgan Bassichis / Cyree Johnson / Amelia Bande / Lee Relvas
2019-06-08 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
A night for RITUAL and RELATIONSHIPS

Please join Living in this Queer Body Podcast host Asher Pandjiris in celebrating the podcast launch. We will have performances by Morgan Bassichis, Cyree Johnson, Amelia Bande, and Lee Relvas! Also, bring your hopes and dreams for the podcast and your queer bodies. We will assemble these hopes in queer ritual, generate a space to talk feelings and meet some past and future podcast interviewees.

LITQB seeks to embody and share the principles of intersectional, trans-affirming, gender nonconforming, and sex-worker affirming feminisms and support liberatory social movements.

Reception at 7 PM
Performances at 7:30 – 9pm
9-9:30 Mingle

Morgan Bassichis is a comedic performer whose shows have been described as “out there” (by Morgan’s mother) and “super intense” (by Morgan). Recent performances include Klezmer for Beginners at Abrons Arts Center (2019), Damned If You Duet at the Kitchen (2018), More Protest Songs! at Danspace Project (2018), and The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions: The Musical at the New Museum (2017). Morgan has presented work at The Whitney Biennial (2019), Hirshhorn Museum, MoMA PS1, the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, and the Whitney Museum, and has received support from Art Matters, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. Morgan lives in New York City, and has contributed writing to Artforum, Radical History Review, Captive Genders, and other anthologies.

Cyrée Jarelle Johnson is a poet and librarian from Piscataway, New Jersey. SLINGSHOT, his debut book of poetry, will be published by Nightboat Books in September. Find Cyrée online at cyreejarellejohnson.com or @cyreejarelle on social media.

Amelia Bande is a Brooklyn-based artist, writer and performer from Chile. Her solo and collaborative work has been shown at Artists Space, The Poetry Project, Pratt Manhattan Gallery, Adult Contemporary, Storm King Arts Center, Tang Museum, MoMA Library, MIX NYC, Abrons Arts Center, Participant Inc., BOFFO Performance Festival, and more. She has been an artist in residence at WORM Filmwerkplaats, The Shandaken Project and Yaddo. She was co-editor of Critical Correspondence, an online publication of Movement Research. Her chapbook The Clothes We Wear was published by Belladonna in 2017. Amelia also teaches Spanish at CUNY and NYU. Amelia is a queer dyke, a writer, performer, music maker, teacher. I create live capsules of intimacy. Low-fi musicals. She performs alone and with others.

Lee Relvas is an artist and writer living in New York. She is a recipient of the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program award 2018-2019, and received the Rema Hort Mann Foundation Emerging Artist Grant in 2016. She has had recent solo exhibitions at Callicoon Fine Arts in New York and Artist Curated Projects in Los Angeles, and has also exhibited and performed at venues including The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum, The Hammer Museum, ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives, Various Small Fires, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, and Art in General.

Queer Brooklyn in Conversation: Narrating Tides and Cities: A Talk between Hugh Ryan and Benjamin Shepard
2019-06-09 16:00 - 17:30 | NY
Join us for a conversation with Hugh Ryan, author of When Brooklyn Was Queer, and Benjamin Shepard, author of Illuminations on Market Street and Brooklyn Tides: The Fall and Rise of a Global Borough (with Mark Noonan).

Hugh Ryan’s When Brooklyn Was Queer is a groundbreaking exploration of the LGBT history of Brooklyn, from the early days of Walt Whitman in the 1850s up through the queer women who worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard during World War II, and beyond. Not only has Brooklyn always lived in the shadow of queer Manhattan neighborhoods like Greenwich Village and Harlem, but there has also been a systematic erasure of its queer history―a great forgetting. That Ryan unearths. Shepard’s work explores similar themes of cultural erasure as spaces of difference are forced to contend with seas of identical details encroaching. What will become of Brooklyn? Tracing the emergence of Brooklyn from village outpost to global borough, Brooklyn Tides investigates the nature and consequences of global forces that have crossed the East River and identiﬁes alternative models for urban development, providing an ethnographic reading of the literature, social activism, and ever ebbing tides impacting this transforming space. The formation of the Brooklyn we know today is inextricably linked to the stories of the incredible people who created its diverse neighborhoods and cultures. Ryan and Shepard will discuss a few of these narratives, comparing Brooklyn with historically queer spaces such as Manhattan and San Francisco, unpacking the cross currents and cultural tides from Brooklyn to Greenwich Village, East Coast to West, Fulton to Market Street.

Copies of Ryan’s When Brooklyn Was Queer and Shepard’s Illuminations on Market Street are available for purchase at the Bureau. To reserve copies please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com. Please support the Bureau by buying books from us. Thank you!

Words and music by Gregg Shapiro and Jill Sobule
2019-06-11 19:00 - 21:15 | NY
Poet Gregg Shapiro and singer/songwriter Jill Sobule present an evening of poetry and song. Shapiro will be reading from his new book More Poems About Buildings and Food (Souvenir Spoon Books, 2019). Sobule will perform songs from her new album Nostalgia Kills (Pinko Records), and favorites from her songbook.
