BGSQD

Rumipalooza! Trolling for Dick in Argentina (in person & live-streaming)
2026-01-22 19:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
A rare and fleeting consciousness-lowering event celebrating Trolling for Dick in Argentina — the outrageous, tender, and unfiltered story of Rumi Missabu, a crazy gender bending, radical performer and Cockette who refused to say no and lived at the end of his imagination. For 35 years, Rumi didn’t have a driver’s license or a Social Security number. He only carried a library card that said Rumi Missabu. Join us for a reading and an exploration of his archive, which offers a glimpse into the glittering chaos, radical love, and constant self-invention that shaped his life. Readers include: August Bernadicou, Jackie Rudin, Agosto Machado, Mike Payne, and MORE!

To reserve a copy of Trolling for Dick in Argentina (paperback, $15) please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve Trolling for Dick in Argentina for January 22 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!

Queer Junk Journal Swap & Scrap Meet Up (in person only)
2026-01-24 12:30 - 14:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Calling all queer paper nerds, collage queens, sticker gremlins, and crafty babes! This 18+ LGBTQ+ junk journal social is part art hangout, part swap meet, part serotonin. Bring your journal, your scissors, your glue, and your chaotic hoard of paper ephemera. We’re crafting together, hyping each other’s pages, and hosting a de-stash table to swap washi, stickers, scrapbook paper, and any art supplies you want to pass on. No rules, no pressure — just chill vibes, creative play, and swapping shiny bits like the crafty girls, gays, and theys that we are. 💖 ✂ ✨

Space is limited to the first 16 people who arrive.
The Bureau normally opens at 1 pm, but we will open at 12 PM on Saturday, January 24th, for this event.

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 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 facilitator:
Michael Williams is a New York–based photo editor and visual storyteller whose career spans editorial portraiture, performing arts publicity, and celebrity event coverage. Born into a farm family in small-town Iowa, he began photographing professionally in high school and earned his BA in Journalism & Mass Communication from the University of Iowa, with a minor in French and study abroad in Lyon. His path has included an MFA stint at Columbia College Chicago, a fellowship in Amsterdam, and roles at Gamma Liaison, Getty Images, and now Everett Collection, where he directs entertainment photo assignments. Outside of work, Williams continues to photograph—especially his vintage Barbie collection, featured in LIFE and PEOPLE—and leads creative workshops in junk journaling and stationery arts for the LGBTQ+ community.

Closed due to snowstorm!
2026-01-25 | NY
The Bureau will be closed on Sunday, January 25th, due to the expected snowstorm.
We have postponed our scheduled event, My Studio is a Dungeon is The Studio: Jarrett Earnest and Nayland Blake in Conversation (in person only), until Sunday, February 1, 3 PM.

The Bureau joins the National Shutdown!
2026-01-30 | NY
The Bureau joins the National Shutdown on Friday, January 30th, 2026, to call for the abolition of ICE!!!
Individuals and organizations can pledge to join the shutdown here:
nationalshutdown.org
“The people of the Twin Cities have shown the way for the whole country – to stop ICE’s reign of terror, we need to SHUT IT DOWN. On Friday, January 30, join a nationwide day of no school, no work and no shopping.
“The entire country is shocked and outraged at the brutal killings of Alex Pretti, Renee Good, Silverio Villegas González, and Keith Porter Jr. by federal agents. While Trump and other right wing politicians are slandering them as “terrorists”, the video evidence makes it clear beyond all doubt: they were gunned down in broad daylight simply for exercising their First Amendment right to protest mass deportation. Every day, ICE, Border Patrol and other enforcers of Trump’s racist agenda are going into our communities to kidnap our neighbors and sow fear. It is time for us to all stand up together in a nationwide shutdown and say enough is enough!”

Queer Kids Bloom: Stories of Early Queer Love, Triumph, and Transformation (in person only)
2026-01-31 15:00 - 16:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Come out to the Bureau to celebrate the release of two new boldly queer books for young readers: Sabertooth by Robin Gow and Brady Mason’s Perfect Fit by Nicole Melleby. Robin and Nicole will discuss their new releases, writing for queer youth, and their creative process, moderated by Taylor Tracy, author of Pasta Girls.

To reserve a copy/copies of Sabertooth (Amulet Books, January 27, 2026, hardcover, $18.99), Brady Mason’s Perfect Fit (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, January 13, 2026, hardcover, $17.99) and/or Pasta Girls (Quill Tree Books, September 9, 2025, hardcover, $19.99), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve books for January 31 event” in the subject line and let us know which titles you’d like us to hold for you in the body of the email.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
You can also purchase Sabertooth, Brady Mason’s Perfect Fit, and Pasta Girls (click on titles below) on our online shop at bookshop.com/shop/bgsqd:
Sabertooth
Brady Mason’s Perfect Fit
Pasta Girls

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

My Studio is a Dungeon is The Studio: Jarrett Earnest and Nayland Blake in Conversation (in person only)
2026-02-01 15:00 - 16:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
For four decades, artist, writer, curator, and teacher Nayland Blake has been at the center of discussions of queer aesthetics and contemporary art. Their work has examined racial hybridity, the ins and outs of the BDSM world, and the importance of self-representation. From interviews and critical essays to performance scripts and collage pieces, My Studio Is a Dungeon Is the Studio gathers forty years of Blake’s groundbreaking thought and writing on their personal explorations of kink and creativity as well as on the making, teaching, and curating of art and queer culture. Whether delving into furry fandom or analyzing art, Blake bridges the art and queer kink communities. Join Blake and editor Jarrett Earnest as they discuss art, race, kink and queer futures in the midst of the newest culture war.
Note: this event was originally scheduled for January 25th. Due to the weather forecast we have rescheduled the event for February 1st.
To reserve a copy of My Studio Is a Dungeon Is the Studio (Duke University Press, October 21, 2025, paperback, $28.95) please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve My Studio for February 1 event” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
You can also purchase My Studio Is a Dungeon Is the Studio (click on title below) on our online shop at bookshop.com/shop/bgsqd:
My Studio Is a Dungeon Is the Studio

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

Jarrett Earnest is a writer, editor and curator living in New York City. He is the author of What it Means to Write About Art: Interviews with Art Critics (2018) and Valid Until Sunset (2023). Earnest’s criticism has been published in catalogs and books around the world, and appears regularly in the New York Review of Books.

Nayland Blake is an artist, writer, educator and curator, whose works on race, sexuality and gender have been exhibited throughout the United States and Europe. Their career retrospective “No Wrong Holes – 30 years of Nayland Blake” opened in 2019 at the Institute for Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and closed in 2021 at the MIT LIst Center. They are the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. They are currently the co-director of the studio art program at Bard College, and serve on the board of VisualAIDS.

Cristy Road Carrera's Sink Or Burn: Book Launch (in person & live-streaming)
2026-02-08 15:00 - 17:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join Author + illustrator Cristy Road Carrera of Sink Or Burn for a reading + visual slideshow to celebrate the recent release of SINK OR BURN (Row House Press).
Sunday, February 8, 2026 @ 3PM, at the Legendary Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, in Room 210 of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St. NYC
In Sink Or Burn, the year is 2121, and fascism has overthrown a once-thriving utopia.
Amid the ashes of a fallen nation, Cheap Glitter—a queer, punk rock band—becomes the voice of resistance. As they tour across a fractured America, raising funds for the fight against a brutal regime, they navigate wildfires, sunken landscapes, and the terrifying laws of a collapsing society.
At the heart of their journey is CT, a lovelorn survivor whose romantic entanglement with a fellow bandmate—a survivor of a different war—complicates their quest for both personal healing and social revolution. As the band balances the weight of trauma with the urgency of their fight, they discover that love, however chaotic, may be their greatest weapon.
A punk rock anthem and a manifesto for the broken-hearted— Sink Or Burn tells the story of a tortured artist’s evolution into a divine healer. Cristy Road Carrera, a punk rock icon and queer Latina artist, weaves together individual survival with the broader struggle for liberation, through autobiographical fiction and hand drawn illustrations.
Copies of SINK OR BURN will be available for purchase at The Bureau alongside hundreds of tools for reclaiming our power from state violence and indoctrination.
To reserve a copy of Sink or Burn (100 Block by Row House, February 3, 2026, paperback, $18.99) and/or Next World Tarot: Pocket Edition: Deck and Guide (2nd edition), (Silver Sprocket, November 10, 2021, $25) please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve Sink or Burn and/or Next World Tarot for February 8 event” in the subject line, and let us know which of these items you’d like to purchase in the body of the email.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

You can also purchase Sink or Burn (click on title below) on our online shop at bookshop.com/shop/bgsqd:
Sink or Burn

And you can purchase Next World Tarot: Pocket Edition directly from Silver Sprocket by clicking on the title above.

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

Unsung cult hero Cristy Road Carrera is a first-generation Cuban-American artist, writer, and musician. She is the creator of three illustrated novels and the revolutionary Next World Tarot, and has been illustrating for cultural and social movements for over 25 years. While exploring race, gender, sexuality, punk rock, and survival, Road creates a visual and audible soundtrack for a broken world.
Learn more about the author at www.croadcore.org

Radical Queer Reading Group: Resisting Borders and Technologies of Violence (in person only)
2026-02-11 19:00 - 20:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join us as we read radical leftist texts with a focus on queer liberation, anti-capitalism, and anti-colonialism. For February 11th, we’re reading Resisting Borders and Technologies of Violence, edited by Mizue Aizeki, Matt Mahmoudi, and Coline Schupfer (Haymarket Books, February 13, 2024, paperback, $22.95).

We’ll meet on Wednesday, February 11th, at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division in room 210 of The LGBT Community Center in the West Village, 7-8 PM.

Copies of Resisting Borders and Technologies of Violence, edited by Mizue Aizeki, Matt Mahmoudi, and Coline Schupfer (Haymarket Books, February 13, 2024, paperback, $22.95) are available to purchase at the Bureau. Purchase the book before February 11th and receive 15% off ($19.51 instead of $22.95). Just mention the Radical Queer Reading Group when you check out.

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.
​
Our next meeting will take place on: ​March 11th

lesbian book club: February edition (in person only)
2026-02-14 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 February 14th meeting, we’ll read All Girls Be Mine Alone, by Sophie Strohmeier (Joyland Editions, October 14, 2025, paperback, $17).
The Bureau does not have copies of this book in stock, but you can place an order directly from Asterism Books:
https://asterismbooks.com/product/all-girls-be-my-alone-sophie-strohmeier

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.

OUTspoken: The Publishing Triangle’s Reading Series, February Edition (in person & live-streaming)
2026-02-19 18:30 - 19:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
The Publishing Triangle presents another session of its OUTspoken Reading Series as host Rob Byrnes welcomes Julie Averill—Chief Impact Officer (forthcoming from 8080 Books), Andy Barrow—Peter in Progress (forthcoming from Atmosphere Press), Reuben “Tihi” Hayslett—Orbital Bebop (forthcoming from Rize Press), and Russ López—Provincetown Stories (forthcoming from Shawmut Peninsula Press). Join us as in-person or remotely 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

Queer Histories Cyanotypes Workshops (in person only)
2026-02-28 10:00 - 14:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join Rhiannon Adam and artists from The Garden exhibition (curated by Jeanette Spicer) for a FREE participatory cyanotype workshop celebrating queer legacies.
Bring your memories, your archive, images of those that we have loved and lost, and yourself – together we will build a living wall of collated histories, made permanent through the cyanotype photographic process. A blueprint for an alternative future.
Queer elders are particularly welcomed.

Rhiannon Adam will conduct two workshops on
Saturday, February 28th:
1st: 10 AM to 12 PM

2nd: 12:30 to 2:30 PM

Please note that workshops are capped at 15 participants total,
but only 10 spaces are available for reservations.
5 spaces will be held for walk-ins.
To reserve a spot for the 10 AM workshop, please click here.
To reserve a spot for the 12:30 PM workshop, please click here.

Both workshops will take place at the
Bureau of General Services—Queer Division
Room 210 of
The LGBT Community Center
208 West 13th Street
NYC
10011

Please arrive 10 minutes prior to the scheduled start time.

Book Launch: AIDS, Art & the Origins of the Culture War by Robert Atkins (in person & live-streaming)
2026-03-01 13:00 - 14:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join Visual AIDS for a conversation with Visual AIDS co-founder Robert Atkins on the occasion of his new book, AIDS, Art & the Origins of the Culture War: Selected Writings of Robert Atkins. He will be joined by Sarah Schulman and Jackson Davidow to discuss the Culture War, defined as a Christian Nationalist assault on the increasingly multicultural society and liberal ethos that emerged in the 1960s in the new form of attacks by Americans on other Americans. Media-savvy politicians and religious figures took advantage of relatively new and little-known groups–artists, queers, and people with AIDS. Despite their initial lack of support, members of these groups soon applied their art and media practices to effectively oppose authoritarian inroads on the Constitution’s First-Amendment guarantees of free expression. “But,” Atkins wonders,” “have we already slid too far back from the future to avoid another full-scale medical crisis?”
AIDS, Art & the Origins of the Culture War presents three-and-a-half decades of articles and essays stemming from these contentious assaults on the rights of individuals, institutions, and, by extension, all Americans. A staff columnist for the Village Voice during the 1980s and 90s, Atkins produced both eye-witness reporting and thoughtful analysis from 1987 and the debut of the AIDS Memorial Quilt in Washington, DC to the most recently published piece collected for the book, his 2019 review of Benjamin Moser’s biography of Susan Sontag. The book also features When the Culture War Became the Culture, his lengthy, recently written cultural history of the past half century in the US against which the book’s narrative plays out.

To reserve a copy of AIDS, Art & the Origins of the Culture War please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve AIDS, Art & the Origins of the Culture War for March 1 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 Atkins is a UC Berkeley-trained art historian, journalist, curator, and educator. A former columnist for The Village Voice, he has written for more than 100 publications worldwide. Among his many books is Censoring Culture: Contemporary Threats to Free Expression, published by the New Press. He has curated exhibitions in far-flung venues from Sao Paolo, Brazil to New York and co-curated From Media to Metaphor: Art About AIDS, the first international traveling exhibition of AIDS art. A pioneer of online art production and commentary, he is a fellow of the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University and producer of Artery: the AIDS Arts Forum. He is also a founder of Visual AIDS, the producers of Day With(out) Art and the Red Ribbon.

Jackson Davidow is a writer, curator, and art historian.

Sarah Schulman is a novelist, playwright, nonfiction writer, screenwriter, and AIDS historian.

Radical Queer Reading Group: Perfect Victims (in person only)
2026-03-11 19:00 - 20:00 | NY
Join us as we read radical leftist texts with a focus on queer liberation, anti-capitalism, and anti-colonialism. For March 11th, we’re reading Perfect Victims: And the Politics of Appeal, by Mohammed El-Kurd (Haymarket Books, February 11, 2025, paperback, $17.95).

We’ll meet on Wednesday, March 11th, at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division in room 210 of The LGBT Community Center in the West Village, 7-8 PM.

Copies of Perfect Victims: And the Politics of Appeal, by Mohammed El-Kurd (Haymarket Books, February 11, 2025, paperback, $17.95) are available to purchase at the Bureau. Purchase the book before March 11th and receive 15% off ($15.26 instead of $17.95). Just mention the Radical Queer Reading Group when you check out.

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.
​

lesbian book club: March Edition
2026-03-14 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 March 14th meeting, we’ll read With Teeth, by Kristen Arnett (Riverhead Books, May 31, 2022, paperback, $16).
Purchase a copy of With Teeth before March 14th, and receive a 15% discount ($13.60 instead of $16). 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.

TELL: My Favorite Story (in person only)
2026-03-21 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! 12 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 March 21, 2026 is My Favorite Story, featuring storytellers Lisa Davis, Heather Lynn Johnson, and Jilberto Soto.

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.

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

With a PhD in Comparative Literature, Lisa Davis taught Hispanic Languages and Literatures at SUNY Stony Brook and York College CUNY. She also collaborated with the Center for Puerto Rican Studies (Hunter College, CUNY) and Areito, a publication of the New-York based Circulo de Cultura Cubana. Her novel Under the Mink (2001, 2015) re-creates the 1940s world of Village nightclubs that featured drag shows and strip acts. Her non-fiction chronicle of the career of lesbian FBI informant Angela Calomiris (who testified for the prosecution at the 1949 trial of the National Board of the American Communist Party) is called Undercover Girl (Charlesbridge Publishing, 2017). Both books are available. Other highlights of her career include meeting Fidel Castro and almost drowning in the Colorado River.

Heather Lynn Johnson (she, they) is an artist and poet living in Brooklyn whose work is characterized by its lyricism and cultural critique. Centering queer and Black American liberation with an emphasis on outsiders, rebels, and lost histories into an autobiographical framework, Heather’s formal approach to the narrative, whether visual or poetic, is distinguished by her willingness to lay bare her own existence. Their paintings have recently been in a two-person exhibition at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, NY (2026), and in exhibitions for Pace Gallery’s project space 125 Newbury Gallery, NY (2025), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY (2024), Canada Gallery, NY (2023) and at her solo exhibition, “The Essence We Leave Behind” at Nesto Gallery, MA, (2022). Heather has exhibited internationally for the Queer Arts Festival in Antwerp, Belgium, (2020) and published poems in the Panorama Journal of the Association of Historians of American Art, Pique Magazine, Pine Magazine, and Facility Magazine. They have been invited to read poems for Experiments & Disorders at Dixon Place, Ford Foundation, Segue Reading Series at Artists Space, Knockdown Center, and the Brooklyn Arts Book Fair. Heather was a co-curator for Queer|Art|Film from 2020-23, the 2019 Leslie-Lohman Museum Fellow, and the 2017 Literary Fellow for Queer|Art|Mentorship. She is also the author of The Survival Guide For Queer Black Youth (Inpatient Press, 2017) and received an MFA with honors from the Rhode Island School of Design.

Jilberto Soto is a first gen. Mexican American stand up comedian. He began comedy in London and moved to NYC during the pandemic. He co-produces two shows: Purple Park Comedy- showcasing upcoming POC/female comics and Mariposas Comedy – a curated all queer line up. Alongside co-producing, he also hosts his own podcast: I hope this ages well, which centers around the interesting lives of senior members around NYC.

Queering Family Legacies: A Reading with Poets J Brooke, Jendi Reiter, and Brad Richard (in person & live-streaming)
2026-03-22 15:00 - 17:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
How do our queer identities both complicate and creatively expand the family roles we have inherited? Brad Richard’s Turned Earth explores who he is as a husband, mentor, and nurturer of the land, in the shadow of his mother’s death. In J Brooke’s debut collection, I Can Tell You the Version That Will Make You Take My Side, they push against expectations of social class and misplaced assumptions of gender to craft their own language for being a partner and parent. Jendi Reiter’s Introvert Pervert grapples with violent American ideologies of the family, using both satire and tenderness to depict how they and their loved ones have grown through their gender transition.

To reserve a copy of any of the featured titles please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve book(s) for March 22 event” in the subject line, and let us know which of the 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

J Brooke’s full-length poetry book, I Can Tell You the Version That Will Make You Take My Side, is forthcoming in 2026 from Driftwood Press. The collection won the Editor’s Choice Prize at Driftwood and was a Finalist for Ashland Press’s 2025 Richard Snyder Poetry Prize. Brooke has received two Pushcart Prize nominations and a 2025 Best of the Net nomination, and was a Finalist for the 2025 Iowa Review Nonfiction Prize. Their autobiographical essay “HYBRID” won Columbia Journal’s 2020 Special Issue Nonfiction Award. They have work in The Rumpus, Electric Lit, The Normal School, The Sun, Maine Review, Harvard Review and elsewhere. Brooke is Prose Book Reviews Editor at The Rumpus, former Nonfiction Editor at Stonecoast Review, and former guest faculty at USM (where they received an MFA in 2019).
About the book:
J Brooke’s fiercely political and tender exploration of their American trans experience, I Can Tell You the Story That Will Make You Take My Side, begins in a rich and specific New York City childhood full of binaries, then catapults into a fully realized, self-aware adulthood where the speaker experiences parenting, a breast cancer scare, and the complicated questioning of top-surgery.

Brad Richard’s books include Turned Earth (Louisiana State University Press, 2025), Motion Studies (The Word Works, 2011; 2nd expanded edition, 2025), Butcher’s Sugar (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2012), and Parasite Kingdom (The Word Works, 2019). He has also published several chapbooks, including In Place (Seven Kitchens Press, 2022). A 2015 Louisiana Artist of the Year and 2002 winner of the Poets & Writers Exchange Award in Poetry (selected by Reginald Shepherd), he taught creative writing to talented high school students in New Orleans for twenty-eight years. A faculty member of the Kenyon Review Writing Workshops and an independent teacher and editor, he lives, writes, and gardens in New Orleans.
About the book:
Turned Earth, Richard’s fifth collection, offers a portrait of the artist as a grieving son who is also a husband, teacher, gardener, and attentive witness to our precarious world. Navigating life after his mother’s death, the speaker uses memory and imagination to understand, as one poem’s title declares, “How I Came to This.” Tender and trenchant, elegiac yet often livened by humor, Richard’s poems affirm the sustaining power of hope and love.

Jendi Reiter is the author of the novels Origin Story and Two Natures, both from Saddle Road Press; the short story collection An Incomplete List of My Wishes (Sunshot Press); and five poetry books and chapbooks, including Made Man and Bullies in Love, both from Little Red Tree Publishing. Their awards include a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship for Poetry, the New Letters Prize for Fiction, the Oscar Wilde Poetry Prize from Gival Press, and two awards from the Poetry Society of America. They are the editor of WinningWriters.com, an online resource for markets and contests for creative writers. They live in Western Massachusetts with their husband and son and an extroverted cat.
About the book:
Introvert Pervert, published by The Word Works in 2026, uses news stories, humor, and the surreal to depict parenting with childhood trauma, how a long-term marriage shifts to accommodate gender transition, and the irony of political rhetoric casting queer people as a threat to children, juxtaposed with the real threats of climate change and gun violence.

Radical Queer Reading Group: Chain-Gang All-Stars (in person only)
2026-04-08 19:00 - 20:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join us as we read radical leftist texts with a focus on queer liberation, anti-capitalism, and anti-colonialism. For April 8th, we’re reading Chain-Gang All-Stars, by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, January 23, 2024, paperback, $18).

We’ll meet on Wednesday, April 8th, at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division in room 210 of The LGBT Community Center in the West Village, 7-8 PM.

Copies of Chain-Gang All-Stars, by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, January 23, 2024, paperback, $18) are available to purchase at the Bureau. Purchase the book before April 8th and receive 15% off ($15.30 instead of $18). Just mention the Radical Queer Reading Group when you check out.

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.

Growing Up Golem Relaunch! Donna Minkowitz with Griffin Hansbury (in person & live-streaming)
2026-04-09 19:00 - 20:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join us for the republication of Donna Minkowitz’s masterful 2013 memoir Growing Up Golem, in which queer journalist Minkowitz “presents herself as a golem, created and controlled by her wacky, needy, and sexually abusive mother” (Julie R. Enszer). Golem, which was shortlisted for both a Lambda Literary Award and for the Publishing Triangle’s Judy Grahn Nonfiction Prize, tells the story of Minkowitz’s attempts to transform from golem to human, and to be “a servant no longer for her mother, her sister, or the women she dates” (Enszer).
The late celebrated novelist Ellis Avery said, “In Growing Up Golem, Donna Minkowitz comes to the unlikely, brilliant conclusion that she must have been her mother’s golem, a manikin formed from clay and garbage and sacred letters… Exciting, startlingly fresh. Donna Minkowitz takes a dazzling leap of fancy and then writes a new bridge into being behind her for the rest of us to follow.”
Copies of the new edition of Growing Up Golem will be available for purchase at the event. To reserve a copy please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve Growing Up Golem for April 9 event” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by buying 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

Donna Minkowitz is a writer of memoir, journalism, and fantasy. Back in the day she served as the Village Voice’s main columnist and reporter on queer politics and culture. She is the author of the Lambda Literary Award-winning memoir Ferocious Romance: What My Encounters with the Right Taught Me about Sex, God, and Fury, which was about covering the antigay Christian right undercover as a radical lesbian journalist. She also wrote DONNAVILLE, a novel Chills at Will called “a master class in world-building” and which Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore said “shocks the senses to open the gates between myth and belonging.” She has also written for the New York Times Book Review, The Nation, Slate, Salon, and New York magazine. She is the winner of a GLAAD Media Award.

Griffin Hansbury is the author of Some Strange Music Draws Me In (winner of the Stonewall Award), Feral City (finalist for the Lambda Literary Award), and Vanishing New York, as well as The Nostalgist and Day for Night, a collection of poems. A trailblazer in the field of psychoanalysis, he was also the first analyst to practice and publish as openly transgender.

This Queer Arab Family - NYC Book Launch (in person & live-streaming)
2026-04-19 15:00 - 17:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
On 19 April, the Bureau will host journalist & writer Elias Jahshan for the NYC launch of his latest book, THIS QUEER ARAB FAMILY – a celebratory book that explores how queer Arab communities reimagine family beyond traditional expectations. Edited and compiled by Elias Jahshan, the book features ten queer writers from across the Arab world and diaspora, with stories that honour chosen kinship, everyday acts of care and the creativity and resilience that sustain queer Arab communities. In many Arab cultures, family roles are tightly defined, often prioritising unity over individual desire. This Queer Arab Family questions what happens when queer Arabs challenge those norms and build a family on their own terms. Fierce, vibrant and unapologetic, This Queer Arab Family celebrates community, survival and joy against all odds.
Elias Jahshan will be in conversation with Afeef Nessouli, followed by an audience Q&A and author signings. Copies of the book will be available to purchase at the event.

To reserve a copy of This Queer Arab Family (Saqi Books, October 14, 2025, paperback, $21.95) or This Arab Is Queer: An Anthology of LGBTQ+ Arab Writers (Saqi Books, October 18, 2022, paperback, $21.95), both edited by Elias Jahshan, please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve book(s) for April 19 event” in the subject line, and let us know which of the 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

Elias Jahshan is a Lebanese-Palestinian journalist and writer, and the editor of groundbreaking anthologies THIS ARAB IS QUEER (2022) and THIS QUEER ARAB FAMILY (2025), both published by Saqi Books. This Arab Is Queer was a 2023 Lambda Literary Awards finalist in the USA and shortlisted for the 2023 Bread & Roses Award in the UK, and has been translated into Italian and soon in French. He has had short memoirs published in several anthologies and has been published in The Guardian, The New Arab, Gay Times, Attitude, My Kali, and more. A former editor-in-chief of Star Observer, Australia’s longest-running LGBTQ+ media outlet, Elias was born and raised in Sydney, Australia and now lives in London, UK.

Afeef Nessouli is a journalist and host of “With Afeef Nessouli” a weekly livestream about suppressed news, and monthly interview show featuring journalists and sources. He recently spent nine weeks in Gaza as a humanitarian aid worker with Glia International and as a reporter with The Intercept. He is a recipient of the 2025 FIJ and Pulitzer Center grant awards. Afeef previously worked for Spotify and The Wall Street Journal’s daily news podcast, “The Journal,” The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, CNN, and as a legal adviser to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture. His current reporting focuses on US politics, the Middle East, and queer stories around the world.

First Epistle to the Amphibians: Brazilian Poetry Book Launch (in person only)
2026-04-24 19:00 - 20:30 | Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join World Poetry at the Bureau for a reading featuring acclaimed Brazilian poet Ricardo Domeneck and his translator Chris Daniels, joined by James Loop, to celebrate the publication of First Epistle to the Amphibians. In this first selected volume of Domeneck’s work to appear in English, the poet constructs a hyperbolic spiral of artifice, rage, and tenderness, introducing a dense corporeal lyricism salted with camp at its high and low limits into contemporary Brazilian experimental poetry. Brian Teare writes, “Domeneck appears in English as a masterful performer whose use of form, style, tone, and allusion transforms literature into costume.”
The reading will be hosted by World Poetry’s publisher Peter Constantine.

To reserve a copy of First Epistle to the Amphibians (World Poetry Books, April 29, 2026, paperback, $24), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve First Epistle to the Amphibians for April 24 event” in the subject line, and let us know which of the 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.

Brazilian poet and writer Ricardo Domeneck has published ten collections of poems and two of short prose in Brazil and Portugal. Selected volumes of his poems have appeared in German, Dutch and Spanish, and his most recent poetry collection, Cabeça de galinha no chão de cimento (Chicken Head on a Concrete Floor) won two of Brazil’s most prestigious literary awards, the Prêmio Jabuti and the Prêmio Alphonsus de Guimaraens. Domeneck has lived and worked in Berlin for the past two decades. Working with sound and performance, he has presented work in several museums and galleries such as Museu de Arte Moderna (Rio de Janeiro), Museo Experimental El Eco (Mexico City), Emalin The Clerk (London) and Studio Hanniball (Berlin). First Epistle to the Amphibians is the first book of his poetry to appear in English translation.

Chris Daniels is a feral translator of global Lusophone poetry. He has published seven books of translations: On the Shining Screen of the Eyelids by Josely Vianna Baptista, with artwork by Francisco Faria (Manifest Press); Collected Poems of Alberto Caeiro and Collected Later Poems of Álvaro de Campos by Fernando Pessoa (Shearsman); The Hammer by Adelaide Ivánova (Commune Editions); un cuerpo negro / a black body by Lubi Prates (Nueva York Poetry Press), co-translated with Grace Holleran; One Impossible Step: Selected Poems of Orides Fontela (Nightboat); and Sometimes I Wonder If Fred Was Happy Here by Adelaide Ivánova (Tripwire).

James Loop is a writer from Central New York, the author of several chapbooks, and Metronome, his debut poetry collection published by Winter Editions. His work has appeared in the Brooklyn Rail, Harp & Altar, Hot Pink, Hyperallergic, Lambda Literary, Prelude, and elsewhere. He lives in Brooklyn and works as the Publicity Director for World Poetry.

The Past Is a Very Trans Place: a reading and conversation with Aurora Mattia and Cat Fitzpatrick
2026-05-02 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
RSVP TO THIS EVENT
This event brings together Cat Fitzpatrick and Aurora Mattia, contemporary trans writers whose work often draws upon medieval and early modern motifs, forms, genres and styles, to read from their work and discuss transhistorical literary lineages with scholars participating in the Early Modern Trans Studies conference at Queens College (April 30-May 2nd).
Tickets: $0-10 at the door, NOTAFLOF

lesbian book club: May Edition
2026-05-09 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 May 9th meeting, we’ll read Ntozake Shange’s book, Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo

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.

Rainbow Book Fair Readings at the Bureau
2026-05-09 14:00 - 18:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Three featured readers from the Rainbow Book Fair 2026 speaking in-person at the Bureau!
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2PM – Cat Sebastian is an award-winning author of queer romance. Cat’s books include We Could Be So Good and You Should Be So Lucky, and have received starred reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and Booklist. We Could Be So Good won a Lambda Literary Award in 2024. In her spare time, she acquires too many houseplants and misplaces things.
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3PM – Lydi Conklin is an Assistant Professor of Fiction at Vanderbilt University. Previously they were the Helen Zell Visiting Professor in Fiction at the University of Michigan. They’ve received a Stegner Fellowship in Fiction at Stanford University, a Rona Jaffe Writer’s Award, four Pushcart Prizes, a grant from the Elizabeth George Foundation, a Creative & Performing Arts Fulbright to Poland, and fellowships from MacDowell, Yaddo, Djerassi, Hedgebrook, Sewanee, Bread Loaf, the James Merrill House, the Vermont Studio Center, VCCA, Millay, Jentel, Lighthouse Works, Brush Creek, Caldera, the Sitka Center, and Harvard University, among others. They were the 2015-2017 Creative Writing Fellow in fiction at Emory University. Their fiction has appeared in The Paris Review, One Story, American Short Fiction, VQR, and elsewhere. They have drawn graphic fiction for Lenny Letter, Drunken Boat, and the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago and cartoons for The New Yorker and Narrative Magazine. Their story collection, Rainbow Rainbow,was longlisted for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Award and The Story Prize. Their novel, Songs of No Provenance,was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize.
5PM – Julián Delgado Lopera is the author of The New York Times acclaimed novel Fiebre Tropical (Feminist Press 2020), the Winner of the 2021 Ferro Grumley Award and a 2021 Lambda Literary award; a finalist of the 2020 Kirkus Prize in Fiction and the 2021 Aspen Literary Prize. Julián is also the author of ¡Cuéntamelo! (Aunt Lute 2017) an illustrated bilingual collection of oral histories by LGBT Latinx immigrants which won a 2018 Lambda Literary Award and a 2018 Independent Publisher Book Award.

In Conversation: Chani Nicholas with Molly Crabapple - HERE WHERE WE LIVE IS OUR COUNTRY
2026-05-10 15:00 - 16:30 | The LGBT Community Center Room 301, 208 West 13th Street Room 301, New York, NY, 10011, United States
RSVP TO THIS EVENT!
Join world-renowned astrologer, co-founder of the CHANI App, and New York Times best-selling author, Chani Nicholas, and artist, activist, and author, Molly Crabapple, for an IRL conversation about her new book and national bestseller, Here Where We Live Is Our Country: the Story of the Jewish Bund. The discussion will focus on what we can learn from this radical movement that has been largely destroyed, and how we can use those lessons to combat the political violence we’re up against today to build a better, more just world.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Here Where We Live Is Our Country: the Story of the Jewish Bund reanimates a band of idealists who broadened our global political imagination. As we once again contend with nationalism, repression, and the struggle for belonging, the Bund’s remarkable story and message—that liberation, dignity, and solidarity must begin where we stand—reaches across time as a guide to our own urgent moment.
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This event will take place in person on the third floor (room 301) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
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The event will also be live-streamed to the public at YouTube.com/@BGSQD
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A book signing will be held afterwards at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, in Room 210 on the second floor of the Center. Both Chani Nicholas and Molly Crabapple will sign books.
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This event is free and open to the public. Tickets are required to attend. Three ticket tiers are available: (1) Free General Admission; (2) Book Ticket that includes a copy of Here Where We Live Is Our Country; (3) Donation to the Bureau.
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Molly Crabapple is an artist and writer based in New York. She is the author of three books, Drawing Blood and Brothers of the Gun (with Marwan Hisham), which was long-listed for a National Book Award in 2018, and Here Where We Live is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund. Her reportage is the 2022 winner of the Bernhard Labor Journalism Award, and has been published in The New York Times, New York Review of Books, The Paris Review, Vanity Fair, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker and elsewhere. Her art is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art. Her animations have won two Emmys and an Edward R. Murrow Award. She was a 2024 fellow at the Cullman Center at the New York Public Library researching Here Where We Live is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund, which was published by Random House in April 2026.
Chani Nicholas is the New York Times best-selling author of You Were Born for This: Astrology for Radical Self-Acceptance and the world-renowned astrologer behind the CHANI app. She is known for blending ancient astrological wisdom with mindfulness, psychology, and practical tools that support purpose-driven living, community wellbeing, and mutual aid, giving 5% of her company’s revenue to survivors of gender-based violence. Her weekly podcast, Astrology of the Week Ahead with Chani Nicholas, is top-ranked in the Spirituality/Astrology category, and she has served as the resident astrologer for Oprah Daily and been featured in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, and multiple Netflix series.

Big Gay Send-Off Queer Division
2026-05-13 18:00 - 21:00 | The LGBT Community Center Room 301, 208 West 13th Street Room 301, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join us for a celebration of the Bureau and a farewell party for Donnie & Greg, who, after 13-plus years of stewarding the Bureau, are soon leaving for the greener and gayer pastures of Portland! There will be eating, there will be drinking, there will be dancing, and there will be a raffle to support Hive Mind Books’ ongoing effort to take over from Donnie & Greg and keep the Bureau alive! And most importantly there will be you all – queer people who love queer culture, queer books, and queer community!
RSVP TO THE PARTY!

Radical Queer Reading Group: Let This Radicalize You (in person only)
2026-05-13 19:00 - 20:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join us as we read radical leftist texts with a focus on queer liberation, anti-capitalism, and anti-colonialism. For May 13th, we’re reading Let This Radicalize You, by Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba (Haymarket Books, May 16, 2023, paperback, $17.95).

We’ll meet on Wednesday, May 13th, at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division in room 210 of The LGBT Community Center in the West Village, 7-8 PM.

Copies of Let This Radicalize You, by Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba (Haymarket Books, May 16, 2023, paperback, $17.95) are available to purchase at the Bureau. Purchase the book before May 13th and receive 15% off ($15.25 instead of $17.95). Just mention the Radical Queer Reading Group when you check out.

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.

BOOK LAUNCH – Queer and Muslim: On Faith, Family, and Healing
2026-05-16 16:00 - 18:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
RSVP TO THIS EVENT
Celebrating the launch of Queer and Muslim, a powerful collection of works by and for LGBTQ+ Muslims.
Please join us for a special New York City launch of Queer and Muslim, featuring co-editor Rahim Thawer in conversation with moderator Anthony Abd-al Shafi Rosado.
Rahim will be joined by contributor Robbie Ahmed for an evening of readings, reflection, and dialogue. Together, they will celebrate the essays, poems, letters to past and future selves, and more that make up Queer and Muslim. The collection explores the emotional and spiritual dimensions of queer Muslim life and challenges the perception that faith and queerness are inherently incompatible.
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Moderator
Anthony Abd-al Shafi Rosado is an Amefricano Boricua Muslim cultural curator and art historian native to Bushwick, Brooklyn. He curates interactive exhibitions and literary anthologies, calling people to invest in preserving local stories and conserving cultural traditions. Rosado has earned a B.A. in Theater & Dance and an M.A. in American Studies from Trinity College. More here: https://linktr.ee/abdalshafirosado
Co-Editor & Contributor
Rahim Thawer is a queer social worker, psychotherapist, speaker, and writer. His work centers LGBTQ+ experiences and clinical education for therapists and service providers. He teaches full time at The University of Alabama where he is also enrolled in a doctoral program. He is a co-editor and contributor for Queer and Muslim: On Faith, Family, & Healing (University of Regina Press, 2026). More here: https://allmylinks.com/thepoliticizedpractitioner
Contributor
Robbie Ahmed is a New York/Toronto-based songwriter/producer, media writer, educator, and researcher whose work explores cultural studies, music tech, mental health, spirituality, and trans representation in media. Drawing on life across Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Bangladesh, he brings a rich diasporic perspective to art, advocacy, and community conversation. He is currently a Master’s candidate in Music Technology at NYU finishing his research in Global pop and technology. More: https://www.robbieahmed.com
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Books will be available for purchase and signing.
This event is free and open to the public.

Soulmate As A Verb: Poems by Kelsey L. Smoot
2026-05-17 15:00 - 17:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
RSVP TO THIS EVENT
Poet Kelsey L. Smoot, author of the debut DOPAMINE collection SOULMATE AS A VERB performs his powerful lyrical work and talks with visual artist/performer/print maker and curator Lo Smith about the evolution and lived experience of artistry for Black queer artists across mediums.

Entangled States: A Life According to Quantum Physics
2026-05-20 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
RSVP TO THIS EVENT
Join us for a discussion with debut author Karmela Padavic-Callaghan and Sevan Rasmussen about Entangled States: A Life According to Quantum Physics.
Padavic-Callaghan is a science writer currently on staff writer at New Scientist where they report on physics, materials science, and quantum technology. Each chapter examines a moment in Karmela’s life through the lens of a physics concept. Knot theory becomes a lens for the story of Karmela visiting a Croatian healer. Ultracold atom labs lead to a meditation on societal expectations that women be unfailingly warm and nurturing. And the workings of an electron microscope become a framework for Karmela’s evolving relationship with cosmetics as they realized they are nonbinary.
Padavic-Callaghan writes conversationally about seeing themselves in Freddie Mercury’s queer masculinity and power, what it means to be a queer teacher to young people, and overall how “Queerness, as I have come to understand it, is always future-oriented, always a state of becoming.”

In Conversation: Leo Herrera
2026-06-17 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
RSVP TO THIS EVENT
Join Leo Herrera, author of Analog Cruising, in-person at the Bureau for a reading and conversation with a panel of TBA speakers.
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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
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The event will also be live-streamed to the public at YouTube.com/@BGSQD
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This event is free and open to the public. Tickets are required to attend. Four ticket tiers are available: (1) Free General Admission; (2) Book Ticket that includes a copy of Analog Cruising; (3) Book Bundle Ticket that includes copies of Analog Cruising, Sentences, and Post; (4) Donation to the Bureau.

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Leo Herrera is a queer Mexican artist who explores queer and immigrant experiences through the lenses of sex, technology, and history. His work centers on themes of disease and stigma, always searching for utopia in LGBTQ history’s darkest chapters. Herrera is director of Fathers, a multimedia project which imagines the world if AIDS never existed. He is author of Analog Cruising, a manual for modern sex outside of our phones.
