Trebor Healey Reading and Q&A for new book, Eros & Dust
2016-10-07 19:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | NY
A reading and q&a for Eros & Dust, a new collection of short stories by Trebor Healey, the author of the Ferro-Grumley Fiction Award-winning novel, A Horse Named Sorrow.
To reserve a copy of Eros & Dust, please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com.

Trebor Healey will conduct an erotic writing workshop at the Bureau on the morning of Saturday, October 8th. Details here.

Trebor Healey is the recipient of a Lambda Literary award, two Publishing Triangle awards and a Violet Quill award. He is the author of three novels (A Horse Named Sorrow, Faun, and Through It Came Bright Colors) a book of poetry (Sweet Son of Pan) and a previous collection of stories (A Perfect Scar & Other Stories). He co-edited (with Marci Blackman) Beyond Definition: New Writing from Gay and Lesbian San Francisco and co-edited (with Amie M. Evans) Queer & Catholic. www.treborhealey.com.

Eros & Dust Erotic Writing Workshop with Trebor Healey
2016-10-08 10:00 - 12:00 | NY
What are the challenges of writing good erotic prose and poetry? Is erotic writing a separate genre or can it be an integral part of all genres? If so, how do we get past the trap of the subjective and build erotic voices grounded in our various characters, setting and voice? How can using humor, bad sex or even problematic sex lend themselves to a fuller – and yes hotter – interaction between two characters? Ultimately what is the relationship between sex and literature and how can we make it naturally fit in the flow of a good story?
Suggested donation of $10.
Please bring pen and paper.
Limited to 15 participants.
Please write to Trebor Healey to sign up for the workshop: treborhealey@gmail.com

Trebor Healey is the recipient of a Lambda Literary award, two Publishing Triangle awards and a Violet Quill award. He is the author of three novels (A Horse Named Sorrow, Faun, and Through It Came Bright Colors) a book of poetry (Sweet Son of Pan) and a previous collection of stories (A Perfect Scar & Other Stories). He co-edited (with Marci Blackman) Beyond Definition: New Writing from Gay and Lesbian San Francisco and co-edited (with Amie M. Evans) Queer & Catholic. www.treborhealey.com.

Rumi Missabu hosts: Six Twisted Views from The Left Coast
2016-10-08 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
The legendary Original Cockette Rumi Missabu returns to the Bureau from San Francisco with Donna Personna, Trangela Lansbury, Roxanne Redmeat, Bruja, Hayley Nystrom, and HRH Lee Mentley, joined by New York’s own Nicholas Gorham!
Photo credits:
Nicholas Gorham, photograph by James Miille
Bruja, photograph by David Wilson
Rumi Missabu, photograph by Fletcher Oakes
Donna Persona, photograph by Keith Gemerek
Roxanne Redmeat, photograph by David Wilson
Trangela Lansbury, photograph by Sloane Kanter

Sex of the Oppressed. What About Sex in Russia Under Putin.
2016-10-09 18:00 - 20:00 | NY
Join us for the NYC launch of Sex of the Oppressed and a conversation with artist and activist Nikolay Oleynikov, author of the book. Oleynikov will be joined by Jonathan Brooks Platt (translator of the book, author of the foreword, Professor of Slavic Studies at Pittsburgh University) and Yevegeniy Fiks (artist, NY).
This book is an experiment in introspection about sexualities, gender and radical sensibilities in Soviet and Post-Soviet culture. It speaks to a grass-roots politics focused on the historical/hysterical conditions of the Putin era. Why has “sex never happened” in Russia, why does it “not exist” and why will it probably never work? How is it that in contemporary late-Putinite Russia there is such incredible rage whipped up against the queer, gay and feminist theories and practices? What brought Russia to implement outrageous proto-medieval anti-gay laws? And how for fuck’s sake is it possible that there have been only few cases in the whole history of modern Russia, in which the questions of sexuality have reached the daylight of half-sane public debate.
Join us for a night with the author of the project, Nikolay Oleynikov, a recognized Russian left-wing activist and artist, member of Chto Delat collective, and originator of numerous important cultural initiatives. In SEX of the OPPRESSED, Oleynikov busily sets about answering these questions in dialogue with his close friends. These include the philosopher and poet Keti Chukhrov; Oxana Timofeeva, also a philosopher and a member of Chto Delat; the queer activist and scholar Grey Violet; and Kirill Medvedev, the renowned poet, translator, radical socialist activist and frontman of the Arkadiy Kots band.
SEX of the OPPRESSED is composed of four sincere dialogues in four modes: a “kitchen-table talk” with Keti Chukhrov on Soviet and post-soviet culture; a “police interrogation” with Grey Violet on queer activism, including her [he/she/its] personal account of working with Voina and Pussy Riot; an “intimate epistolary” with Oxana Timofeeva on animals and femininity; and a “question-question session” with Kirill Medvedev on male feminism. The edition also includes three new series of graphic works by Nikolay Oleynikov.
Translated into English by Jonathan Brooks Platt thanks to Musagetes (Canada), originally published in 2013 by The Free Marxist Press, an independent activist publishing house based in Moscow, SEX of the OPPRESSED it’s now published by Publication Studio Guelph and available here:
www.publicationstudio.biz/books/330
To reserve a copy of Sex of the Oppressed, please write to contact@bgsqd.com.

Union Square Slam presents Sweet Action
2016-10-11 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
While the slammers are away at IWPS, the quieter side of Union Square Slam is taking over! Join workshop facilitator Sara Emily Kuntz as she hosts readings by her very special workshop crew! Come workshop with us, come read on the open mic, we might even bring snacks!
All Ages // $5 // Wheelchair Accessible
6pm: Free Writing Workshop with Sweet Action members!
7pm: Open Mic Sign-Ups
7:30pm: Open Mic
8:15pm: Readings from: Emily Blair, Mirielle Clifford, Betsy Guttmacher, Julie Hart, Phoebe Lifton, Cory Nakasue, Amy Klein
Sweet Action Poetry Collective was founded in 2014 by Mirielle Clifford and Julie Hart. The group is based in Brooklyn, and was originally named not for the beer, but for a line in a poem that references the beer. Now, to us at least, “Sweet Action” means gathering to share our poems with each other and the public. https://sweetactionpoetry.com/

Bios
Emily Blair’s poetry has appeared in The Boiler, Sixth Finch, The Mississippi Review and others. She received a New York Foundation of the Arts Fellowship in Poetry in 2014 and in Fiction in 2006, and is the author of the illustrated chapbook Idaville (Booklyn Artists’ Alliance, 2010). Also a visual artist, she creates multimedia books and collaborates on community-based projects with social practice artist Michelle Illuminato. More of her work can be seen at emilyblair.com and nextquestion.org
Mirielle Clifford is originally from Texas, but she now lives and writes in Crown Heights. She is a co‑founder of the poetry collective Sweet Action, and she couldn’t ask for a better source of feedback and encouragement. She is working on a chapbook, entitled I Follow Beyoncé: A Valentine.
Marine Cornuet’s poetry has appeared in Handsy Lit, Yellow Chair Review (forthcoming), and Cactus Calamité (a French poetry magazine). She works at a Brooklyn not-for-profit exhibition and performance space that she loves, curates exhibitions, and is the production director of the Sonic Room, a group of music-lovers who organize concerts in unconventional places.
Betsy Guttmacher lives in Brooklyn NY where she is currently the Director of Volunteer Programs for a local non-profit organization. She likes taking pictures of found hearts on the sidewalk (@gumloveetc) and encourages everyone to look down more. She is relatively new to reading and writing poetry and is digging it!
Originally from Minnesota, Julie Hart has lived in London, Zurich and Tokyo and now in Brooklyn Heights. Her work can be found in Five Quarterly, Denim Skin, PANK Magazine, The Rumpus, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Floor Plan Journal, Blue Lyra Review, Yellow Chair Review and at juliehartwrites.com.
Amy Klein is a poet, writer, and songwriter living in Brooklyn. Her work has appeared in the Believer, Prelude, Asymptote, and Podium. Her poetry has received an Academy of American Poets Prize, an Edward Eager Award, and two Lloyd McKim Garrison Prizes. She was a two-time fellow of the Home School for poets and artists. Fire, her newest album of original songs, was released in June 2016 on the punk label Don Giovanni Records.
Sara Emily Kuntz has a BA in English from the University of Pittsburgh and a MFA in Creative Writing from Carlow University. Sara is a workshop facilitator and organizer for Union Square Slam, a weekly reading series in New York City. She has been published in the Mom Egg Review, Rivet, Stone Highway Review, Cabildo Quarterly, Rust + Moth, and Cactus Heart. Sara lives in Brooklyn with a big grey cat named Miso, like the soup.
Phoebe Lifton lives in Brooklyn, NY and studied Indigenous Rights and Creative Writing in college. She now works at the Museum of Modern Art and spends most Wednesday nights going to ‘church’ at the Poetry Project in St. Marks. She is a helpful woman.
Cory Nakasue is a dance and theatre artist. She works as a movement teacher, therapist, and astrological guidance counselor. She recently co-founded Gemini Hill in the Hudson Valley, a community farm and arts incubator. Poetry is a new love that has been nurtured by the talented group at Sweet Action poetry. More: www.corynakasue.com

20Something Monthly Manhattan Meetup
2016-10-12 20:00 - 21:30, 2016-11-09 20:00 - 21:30 | NY
If you are new to the city, recently out, just looking for friends, or whatever experiences brought you to us – we offer a safe space where we can mingle and talk about our experiences as an LGBT person in New York City. We recommend this 20Something Meetup to anyone who is looking for a more casual space to explore their sexual/gender identity. There will be light refreshments. Bring friends!
Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau and 20Something. No one turned away for lack of funds.
20Something is the largest social events organization for young lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in New York City, aged 21 to 30. We hold a monthly social, and two monthly icebreaker/discussion groups at the Brooklyn Pride Center and at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, the queer cultural center and bookstore on the second floor of The LGBT Community Center, in Manhattan. With more than 2,500 members, we engage young adults across all 5 boroughs with a safe, confidential, and respectful platform to meet other LGBT folk. Many of our members have made long lasting friendships, relationships, and have been connected to important LGBT services and resources. Whether you are new to the city, recently out, or just looking to make friends – 20Something offers a space for you to pave the way to your own adventures in New York City – and make living here a little easier. Become a member: meetup.com/20SomethingNYC

Bi Book Club discusses Girlfag by Janet W. Hardy
2016-10-13 18:30 - 20:00 | NY
Our book for Oct: Girlfag: A Life Told In Sex and Musicals is a memoir by Ethical Slut co-author Janet W. Hardy, focussing on her relationships with men and women. It was a finalist of the first year of the Bisexual Book Awards, published in 2011.
Come and join the discussion, even if you haven’t read the book. We take turns reading passages aloud from the book and discuss them–anyone can participate! As usual, we’ll be using the text as a jumping off point to further discussion of bisexual issues and personal experiences.
If you have read the book: pick out some phrases, paragraphs or scenes that you’d like to discuss, give us your critique of the book: what worked, what didn’t, how was bisexuality represented?
RSVP: to Bi Meetup
Join Bi Meetup: to get announcements about Bi Book Club and other bi groups & events in the NYC area.
Next Book: TBA
Directions: Take A,C,E,L,1,2,3 train to 14 St.
Questions? Email fuscialadybug (at) netzero (dot) com or call 917-583-1797.

Show & Tale: MWMF (aka MichFest)
2016-10-14 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival was part of our lesbian herstory & culture for 40 years. Now what?
Did you keep your wrist band? Handmade sign? A piece of art you created there or bought? A book, poster or tape/CD with one of the performers autographs? And of course the photos & scars/ink and many other objects holding part of your story….. Every Thing has a story!
Show & Tell or Look & Listen! Everyone & Every Thing WELCOME.

Young QTPOC Professionals Sip and Mingle
2016-10-16 15:00 - 19:00 | NY
Do you start to ever feel isolated in the workplace and in this city? This event is a chance for us to network and socialize together as young queer/trans professionals of color. Let’s take this opportunity to share our expertise and experiences with each other over some light refreshments. Cash bar. Free event.

Union Square Slam: Billy Tuggle, Wil Gibson and Open Slam #2
2016-10-18 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
Union Square Slam is super excited to host our second of six chances to qualify for our Team Selection Finals in April. To boot, we have an exciting feature for you: The Griot and Troubadour tour, Wil Gibson and Bill Tuggle!!!
6pm: Free Writing Workshop
7pm: Sign-ups and Socialize
8pm: Slam Round One (8 poets)
8:30pm: Features
9pm: Slam Rounds 2 and 3 (5 and 3 poets, respectively)
$5 Admission // All Ages // Wheelchair Accessible
About Our Features:
Wil Gibson is a writer that has lived in a lot of places or passed through them at some point, but has only called a few of them home. He currently lives in Humboldt County, California where the trees are big. He has had 4 collections published by kind people, and has been included in a number of anthologies and lit mags both online and in print. He was a founding member of Port Veritas in Portland, Maine, has been featured on Button Poetry, and has been on 7 National Poetry Slam teams from coast to coast.
You can find links to books and more info at wilgibson.com
Billy Tuggle a.k.a. Karma Threesixty is a vocalist, performance poet, mentor, student, and HipHop culturalist. Since 2004, he has been a member of the Chicago multimedia arts collective PolyRhythmic and, in 2009, co-founded the Chicago Four Star Poetry Club with Andi Kauth. Billy has co-hosted “In One Ear” at the Heartland Café since 2008 with Pete Wolf. As of 2010, Billy is a member of the Arkansas Grand Slam organizing committee.
Billy has been published in such anthologies as The Columbia Poetry Review #14, The 16th & Mission Review, Minglewood Haiku and Learn Then Burn. His first chapbook, Conscience Under Pressure, was published by Fractal Edge Press. Since 2004, he has recorded and released 3 CDs: Flawed Glory (Live Mental Graffiti), Syllabalistics 101 with DJ Risky Bizness, and Turnstyles. In the independent film Urban Poet [New Film Productions, 2002], he played himself.
Billy has been active in the Temple of HipHop for over a decade. Music and poetry have led him to share stages with Brother Ali, Pevin Everett, the Large Professor, Denizen Kane of Typical Cats, DJ Spinna, Jesse De La Pena, Saul Williams, KRS-ONE and “American Idol” finalist Crystal Bowersox.
Billy has represented the Chicago area at the National Poetry Slam 7 years running. Other slam accomplishments include Rustbelt Regional champion- 2006, finalist 2008; Chicago Grand Slam Champion- 2008; NPS semifinalist 2006, 2008; Arkansas Grand Slam finalist and Grand Haikuster- 2009; Lethal Poetry/Chicago Grand Slam Champion 2010. Other teammates and collaborators have included Def Poets Nikki Patin, Marty McConnell, Alvin Lau and Death From Below plus Tristan Silverman, Jon Sands, Laura Yes Yes and JW Baz; all inter/national slam competition finalists. Billy has been a regular volunteer for the Women of the World Poetry Slam, Louder Than A Bomb, the Chicago youth slam, and Brave New Voices.
Billy has also appeared in the educational video Literature Launchers for McGraw-Hill. He has performed, facilitated workshops or has just plain spoken to students at or for the University of Chicago; Columbia College (Chicago); Northwestern University; the University of Minnesota; the University of Connecticut; Hampshire College (Massachusetts); the University of California-Santa Cruz; Humboldt State University, and, in addition to other colleges across America, middle and high schools all over Chicagoland.

‘My Son Wears Heels’ Book Launch: Julie Tarney in Conversation with JamesMichael Nichols, and her son, Harry James Hanson (aka Amber Alert).
2016-10-19 19:00 - 20:30 | NY
The Bureau presents the book launch of MY SON WEARS HEELS, a memoir by Brooklyn author Julie Tarney about her experiences raising a gender-nonconforming child of the ‘90s and what she learned from him along the way about gender identity, gender expression and self-acceptance. She’ll be joined in conversation by JamesMichael Nichols, Deputy Editor of Queer Voices at the Huffington Post, and her son, Harry James Hanson (aka Amber Alert).

“Tarney does an exceptional job of tracing the zigzagging line of [her child] Harry’s self-identity and recalling the inevitable questions asked along the way.” —New York Times Book Review

“A memorable account of one young person’s journey toward self-identity and a valuable parenting guide for a new era of gender awareness and acceptance.”—Foreword Reviews

“An exciting, exhilarating account of parenting a remarkably savvy and self-possessed girly-boy.” —Will Fellows, author of Farm Boys

“A fearlessly open and frank memoir.” —Kirkus Reviews

Julie Tarney is a board member for the It Gets Better Project, blogs for the Huffington Post Queer Voices page, and is a contributing writer for My Kid Is Gay and the True Colors Fund’s Give a Damn Campaign. She volunteers for the PFLAG Safe Schools Program. Julie lives in Brooklyn, where she’s also her drag artist son’s biggest fan. Visit julietarney.com

JamesMichael Nichols is a queer writer and cultural critic living and working in New York City. He is the Deputy Editor for the Huffington Post Queer Voices section, with his work focusing heavily on gender, sexuality, art, performance and the many ways of being in the world across the spectrum of queer and trans identity. Hailing from the South, he is committed to both elevating the voices of the marginalized and to helping build a world that we all want to actually live in. Twitter: @jamesmichael

Harry James Hanson is an artist known for his powerful imagery, compelling compositions and provocative interviews. Whether working in photography, video or the written word, his desire to tell stories and affirm individualistic beauty reveals a sublime vision of the world. Harry and his work have been featured in The New York Times, The Huffington Post, MTV News, The Village Voice, The Daily Mail, Paper Magazine and numerous independent publications. By night, she can often be found on stage in Brooklyn as drag artist Amber Alert. Visit harryjameshanson.com

Juicy Fruits: A Pack of Lesbian Writers
2016-10-20 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
You don’t have to be a woman to read women writers, a poet to read poetry, or a chewer of Juicy Fruit gum to happily listen to a pack of lesbian writers read their fabulous work. “Juicy Fruits: A Pack of Lesbian Writers” is an evening of celebration – of dykes with pens and laptops. We are prsenting excellent poets and writers, including Donna Minkowitz, Ana Božičević, Candace Williams, Sarah Sarai, and Mariel Reyes. ALL are welcome.

Art: Pearl Blauvelt, All Sizes Both Silk and Cotton, ca. 1940.

Donna Minkowitz is the author of the memoir Growing Up Golem, which Kirkus lauded for bringing “a defiant, playful energy to her difficult and dark past.” She won a Lambda Literary Award for her first memoir, Ferocious Romance: What My Encounters with the Right Taught Me About Sex, God, and Fury. Minkowitz has also written for The New York Times Book Review and The Nation, and was a columnist for the Village Voice for eight years. She is the restaurant columnist for Gay City News.

Candace Williams is a Brooklyn Poets Fellow and her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Sixth Finch, Bennington Review, Lambda Literary Review, Copper Nickel and elsewhere. She earned her MA in Elementary Education at Stanford University and has taken workshops at Cave Canem and Brooklyn Poets. She lives in Brooklyn with a pit bull named Madonna and tweets a little too often (@TeacherC). www.candace-williams.com.

Ana Božičević’s chapbooks include Morning News and Document. Her first book-length collection, Stars of the Night Commute, was a Lambda Literary Award finalist, and her second book Rise in the Fall won a Lambda Literary Award. Joy of Missing Out will be published this Fall. She was born in Zagreb, Croatia; emigrated to New York City; studied at Hunter; recently worked on renovations at the Ruth Stone House in Vermont.

Sarah Sarai’s chapbooks include The Risen Barbie, I Feel Good, and Emily Dickinson’s Coconut Face. Geographies of Soul and Taffeta was published this year by Indolent Books. Her poems are in Painted Bride Quarterly, Barrow Street, Boston Review, Threepenny Review, and others; her fiction in Devil’s Lake, South Dakota Review, Tampa Review, and so on. She reviews for Lambda Literary; is a freelance editor of poetry collections, fiction, and pharmaceutical advertising. She has an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and a Twitter account—@SarahSarai.

Mariel Reyes has always been a mad scientist weirdo nerd. Not a doctor, lawyer or engineer, but instead letting herself get sucked into storytelling, hoping be as engaging as her grandmother someday. She’s performed on stages at The Brooklyn Museum, BAX, Dixon Place & BGSQD. You’ve can see her online in funny web videos or in the film Appropriate Behavior. She’s 5’2 and finally understands the appeal of a runny egg.

A Brief History of Gay Porn from 'Boys in the Sand' to Bel Ami Revised and Updated
2016-10-21 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
Join us for the revised and updated version of the brief history of gay porn that Kyle Renick originally presented at the Bureau in May!
This time the event is ticketed, so you’re guaranteed a seat! Purchase here for $5:
https://www.artful.ly/store/events/10250
Almost every guy who has made a pornographic film or video is referred to as a “gay porn star”. He isn’t of course; but occasionally he is. Starting with the moment of Casey Donovan emerging from the waters off Fire Island in 1971 and commencing the Classic Era of modern gay porn, through the Budapest boys of Bel Ami and the tattooed hunks of New York’s Cocky Boys proclaiming the merger of gay porn with reality television, the brief modern history of gay porn can best be understood with a look at the boys and men who made it popular, and the consumers who told them what they wanted.

KYLE RENICK served as Executive Director of WPA Theatre (Workshop of the Players Art Foundation, Inc.) for 25 years, producing more than one hundred Off-Broadway plays and musicals, including such long-running successes as Little Shop of Horrors by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, and Steel Magnolias by Robert Harling. He produced new works by Yoko Ono, Larry Kramer, Charles Busch, Paul Rudnick, Larry Ketron, Doug Wright, Israel Horovitz and Reynolds Price, as well as revivals by Tennessee Williams, Lillian Hellman and Edward Albee. Born and raised in St. Louis, he attended Tufts University in Boston and graduated Phi Beta Kappa with degrees in Drama and Music. Mr. Renick has been a consultant for both the New York State Council on the Arts and National Endowment for the Arts, and served for 12 years on the Board of Directors of the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York. He has written extensively on movie music for Film Score Monthly, and has had articles published in Theatre Times and Back Stage, among other publications. Mr. Renick is a Charter Member of Early Music America, and he does volunteer work for the Boston Early Music Festival. He is currently writing a book about actors, writers and other artists he worked with at WPA Theatre.
Event image: Bel Ami’s Lukas Ridgeston and Johan Paulik, photography by Kyle Renick

New York Queer Zine Fair 2016
2016-10-22 13:00 - 19:00 | NY
New York Queer Zine Fair returns to the Bureau for two days! On Saturday, October 22, join:
David Macke www.davidmodel.com
Headmaster Magazine www.headmastermagazine.com
Jason Haaf
STH https://straight-to-hell.com
Black Lesbian DIY Fest @blklezdiyfest (twitter)
Creeps Annual www.creepsannual.com
Warefamos https://warefamos.tumblr.com
Selfish www.girlsgetselfish.com
Daily Life Storage https://www.dailylifestorage.com
Posture Magazine https://posturemag.com
Anthony Malone anthonymaloneisalive.tumblr.com
Cakeboy Magazine https://cakeboymag.com
Cameron Dailey
Stephen Grebinski www.stephengrebinski.com
Raw Meat www.rawmeatcollective.com
Wabisabizinez www.wabisabizinez.storenvy.com
HOMOCATS/James Morrison www.j-morrison.com
Anxiety-Dreams https://anxiety-dreams.com

New York Queer Zine Fair 2016
2016-10-23 13:00 - 19:00 | NY
Join us for day 2 of the New York Queer Zine Fair 2016, featuring:
Pink Mince https://www.pinkmince.com/
Belladonna* Collaborative https://www.belladonnaseries.org/
Arno Mokros https://arno-press.tumblr.com/
3 DOT ZINE www.3dotzine.com
Authorized to Work in the US Press https://authorizedtowork.us/
Doable Guys doableguys.tumblr.com
Pegacorn Press www.carolinepaquita.com
Lorelei Ramirez https://www.pileoftears.com/
Brusque Babe www.BrusqueBabe.com
La Chambra Press https://lachambapress.tumblr.com/
Learned To Swim In A Murky Pool www.bobcivil.com
Cameron Dailey
Stephen Grebinski www.stephengrebinski.com
Raw Meat www.rawmeatcollective.com
Wabisabizinez www.wabisabizinez.storenvy.com
HOMOCATS/James Morrison www.j-morrison.com
Anxiety-Dreams https://anxiety-dreams.com/

Union Square Slam presents K Sloan!
2016-10-25 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
*Mark your calendars: the last Tuesday of every month will feature a local musical performer.*
Join us for a night of musical magic with the incomparable K Sloan!!
About our Show:
6:00pm: Free Workshop with I.S. Jones
7:30pm: Sign-ups and Socialize
8:00pm: Open Mic (Music + Poetry Are Welcomed Here!)
8:45pm: K Sloan
All Ages // Wheelchair Accessible
Open Mic // $5
About our Feature:
K Sloan is a Singer- Songwriter born and raised in the city of Detroit, Michigan. Her music is a fusion of Jazz, Funk, Motown and lots of Soul with inspirations from such influential/conscious artists like Lianne LaHavas, Laura Mvula, Janelle Monae and Jill Scott. As a musician and in life she makes it her mission to promote peace through her music and create value, to demonstrate that a love and appreciation for artistry is enough to transform society.
For more about K: https://www.facebook.com/musicbyksloan/

Reading with Poets Michael Klein and Jen Levitt
2016-10-26 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
Join us for a wonderful poetry reading with readings by Michael Klein (When I Was a Twin, Sibling Rivalry Press, 2015) and Jen Levitt (The Off-Season, Four Way Books, 2016).

Michael Klein‘s most recent book of poetry and prose is When I Was a Twin. He is a five-time Lambda Literary Award finalist and has won the award twice for poetry. Recent work appears in Provincetown Arts, Los Angeles Review of Books Quarterly and Ploughshares. He is working on a manuscript called The Early Minutes of Without and teaches in the graduate writing program at Goddard College and at Hunter College.

Jen Levitt received her MFA from NYU. Her poems have appeared in Boston Review, Tin House, Sixth Finch, The Literary Review, CutBank, No, Dear and elsewhere. She lives in New York City and teaches high school students. The Off-Season, published by Four Way Books in 2016, is her first book.

TELL 28: Horror Stories
2016-10-28 19:00 - 21:30 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
TELL is an evening of story telling from the mouths and minds of queers in NYC hosted by Drae Campbell at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division since February 2014.
Horror Stories is the theme of the twenty-eighth installment of TELL. Featuring Erica Cardwell, Gabriella Belfiglio, Imani Keith Henry, and Reese.

$10 suggested donation – no one turned away for lack of funds

Drae Campbell is a writer, actor, director, story teller, dancer, and nightlife emcee. Drae has been featured on Late Night with Conan O’Brien and on stages all over NYC. Drae’s directing work has appeared in Iceland, NYC, Budapest and in the San Francisco Fringe Festival. The short film Drae wrote and starred in with Rebecca Drysdale, YOU MOVE ME won the Audience Award for Outstanding Narrative Short at OUTFEST 2010 and has been shown in festivals globally. Drae won the grand prize at the first annual San Miguel De Allende Storytelling Festival in Mexico. She once reigned as Miss LEZ and also got dubbed “the next lezzie comedian on the block” by AfterEllen.com for her comedic stylings on the interwebs. Campbell hosts and curates a monthly queer storytelling show called TELL at BGSQD. Check her out online! www.draecampbell.com.

Reese is a 34 year old Lesbian from a ghost town in the mountains of New Mexico. She came to New York eight years ago after volunteering for the Peace Corps in El Salvador. Reese is a filmmaker by day and a dance floor demolisher by night.

Imani Keith Henry is a longtime activist in the anti-police brutality, anti-war and LGBTQ movements in the US. He is a #BlackLivesMatter organizer with The Peoples Power Assembly. In 2013, Imani founded The Equality for Flatbush Project (E4F), which does grassroots anti-police repression, affordable housing and anti-gentrification organizing in the East Flatbush and Flatbush communities of Brooklyn, NY. In February 2015, Equality for Flatbush, initiated The Brooklyn Anti-Gentrification Network. Imani has a Masters in Social Work from New York University Silver School of Social Work and a Masters in Public Administration from The Wagner School of Public Service. Under the brand, OD For the People, Imani is an Organizational Development Consultant and Diversity Trainer who provides change management services specifically for nonprofits and universities.

Erica Cardwell is a writer and radical educator. Her essays and reviews have appeared in Hyperallergic, Sinister Wisdom, the Lightwork Annual, The Feminist Wire, Bitch Media, and EMERGE: An Anthology of the 2105 Lambda Literary Fellows. Erica hopes to complete a draft of her first book, Stone Fruit- a collection of personal essays by December.

Gabriella M. Belfiglio lives in Brooklyn, NY with her wife and four cats. Her guilty pleasure is watching bad reality tv. If you make friends with her she might cook you a delicious dinner. She’s a teacher and poet and if you are a book publisher her manuscript needs a good home.

How to Stop Worrying about Food & Fall in Love with Your Body—A Queer Body Love Workshop
2016-10-30 17:00 - 19:00 | NY
Do your feminist, body positive beliefs feel out of whack with your real, lived experience? Do you feel like you know how to talk the talk but you don’t know how to walk to the walk? Are you sick of wasting time, energy and money on guilt, shame and anxiety about what you did or didn’t do with your body?
If you know that you’re ready to make a shift towards radical self acceptance, once and for all, stepping towards feeling sane around food and confident in your body, I invite you to join us for this powerful Queer Body Love workshop. You will learn strategies and mindset shifts you can take home and apply for the rest of your life.
Experience the possibility of freedom and deep love for yourself, and take home ideas and tools to support you:
● Feel great naked.
● Eat without worry.
● Stop dieting & trust yourself and your body.
● Deepen a sense of confidence in yourself as a powerful, beautiful human being
You deserve to shine, feeling strong & beautiful, inside and out.
This is your moment. Come join me for an afternoon of inspiration, insight, & support to begin a sustainable shift towards radical self-love, once and for all.
Please register in advance at https://bit.ly/NYC-QBL if possible. Walk-up registration may be available at the door but isn’t guaranteed.

Elizabeth Cooper founded her own company, Queer Body Love Coaching, to support folks find freedom from struggles with food, body image and self worth so they can live into the power and beauty of who they are. She studied yoga intensively in 2008 at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health. This provided the personal development framework for her to heal my own relationship to food, her body and herself. She has been an active and serious student of Buddhism since the fall of 2011, when she lived at a Buddhist monastery and nunnery in India. That along with studying the cultural politics of the body, feminism and queer theory, in Princeton and in life, provide the basis for her work. She’s excited to bring this workshop, popular in the Bay Area, where it’s been presented a dozen times, to New York!

Union Square Slam presents Joanna Hoffman and WOWPS Qualifier #2
2016-11-01 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
Union Square Slam is hosting our second of three qualifiers for the Women of the World Poetry Slam, held in Dallas, TX this March. The top two winners of the night will qualify for a spot in our WOWPS Finals December 14th. AND THEN THERE’S OUR FEATURE, 15-year slam veteran and all-around bomb-ass Unicorn, Joanna Hoffman!!
6pm: Free Writing Workshop
7pm: Sign-ups and Socialize
8pm: Slam Round 1 (2 minute round; 8 poets)
8:30pm: Feature
9pm: Slam Rounds 2 and 3 (1 minute/5 poets; 4 minute/3 poets)
$5 Admission // All Ages // Wheelchair Accessible
About Our Feature:
Joanna Hoffman (www.joannahoffman.com) is a spoken word poet and teaching artist based in Brooklyn, NY. She is a 15 year veteran of slam, or competitive performance poetry, who has competed on 5 National Poetry Slam teams, ranked 4th at the 2012 Women of the World Poetry Slam and was the 2012 champion of Capturing Fire, an international LGBTQ poetry competition. Her full-length book of poetry, Running for Trap Doors (Sibling Rivalry Press) was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award and featured in the American Library Association’s list of recommended LGBT reading for 2014. She was recently named a White House Champion of Change for LGBT advocacy through art. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming on Upworthy, Buzzfeed, Winter Tangerine, decomP, PANK, The Offing, Union Station Magazine, The Legendary, Sinister Wisdom and in the Write Bloody Publishing anthologies We Will be Shelter and Multiverse.

Heather Love and Sarah Schulman in Conversation on the publication of Sarah's New Book: Conflict Is Not Abuse
2016-11-05 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
Heather Love and Sarah Schulman in conversation on Schulman’s new book: Conflict Is Not Abuse: Overstating Harm, Community Responsibility, and the Duty of Repair.

Heather Love is Associate Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania. Her work includes Feeling Backward: Loss and the Politics of Queer History (Harvard) and the editor of a special issue of GLQ on Gayle Rubin (“Rethinking Sex”) and the co-editor of a special issue of Representations (“Description Across Disciplines”). She has written on topics including comparative social stigma, compulsory happiness, transgender fiction, spinster aesthetics, reading methods in literary studies, and the history of deviance studies. She is currently completing a book on practices of description in the humanities and social sciences after World War II.

Sarah Schulman is a novelist, nonfiction writer, playwright, screenwriter, journalist and AIDS historian. She is co-founder of the MIX: NY Queer Experimental Film Festival (now in its 29th season), The ACT UP Oral History Project www.actuporalhistory.org, is on the Advisory Board of Jewish Voice for Peace, and is Faculty Advisor to Students for Justice in Palestine at the College of Staten Island where she is a Distinguished Professor. Conflict Is Not Abuse, is her 18th book.

Union Square Slam presents an evening with Jersey City Slam
2016-11-08 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
Union Square Slam is committed to exposing all the poetry this city has to offer. We want communities to merge and form into bigger communities. For this show we are happy to have the great literary/slam organization Jersey City Slam.
Here’s a little more about JC:
Jersey City Slam was founded in 2010 and has since become a pillar in New Jersey’s poetry community. J.C. Slam provides a platform for New Jersey’s best poets to showcase their skills and talent on a national level. It also is a way for the community to connect to Jersey City’s vibrant and thriving art community. By putting the power in the hands of the judges picked at random from the audience J.C. Slam lets the community decide who represents Jersey City at the annual National Poetry Slam, Women of the World Poetry Slam and the Individual World Poetry Slam. Jersey City Slam is a live event that offers local performers to participate in the open mic segment and judge Slam poets performances.
JC Poets:
Ann Marie Manso
Chris Rodriguez
Erin Anastasia
Rashad Wright
6;00pm: Free Workshop with I.S. Jones
7:30pm: Sign-ups and Socialize
8:00pm: Open Mic
8:45pm: Jersey City Slam
All Ages // Wheelchair Accessible
Open Mic // $5

Nicolas Moufarrege DUETS Book Launch, with Dean Daderko and Elaine Reichek
2016-11-09 18:00 - 19:30 | NY
To launch the latest volume of Visual AIDS’ DUETS publication series, curator Dean Daderko and artist Elaine Reichek will discuss the art and life of Nicolas Moufarrege (1947–1985) in a conversation moderated by Visual AIDS Programs Director Alex Fialho. An Egyptian-born Lebanese raised in Beirut, Moufarrege lived briefly in Paris before landing in New York in the early 1980’s. He molded a complex mixture of his cultural roots into idiosyncratic embroidered artworks and a distinct curatorial and critical writing sensibility that are highlighted in the DUETS publication through an interview between Daderko and Reicheck. Artist LJ Roberts writes the publication’s foreword and archivist Sur Rodney (Sur) contributes the afterword.

Visual AIDS initiated DUETS to foster dialogue between artists, writers and activists about their creative process and issues around HIV/AIDS, including maintaining the legacies of those like Moufarrege lost too early to AIDS.

Event image: Nicolas Moufarrege, Banana Pudding, c. 1982. Thread and paint on needlepoint canvas and mixed media, 10 x 12 inches. Collection of Laura Skoler

Dean Daderko is curator at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. Daderko first encountered Moufarrege’s work in the exhibition The Downtown Show: The New York Art Scene, 1974–1984 and was entranced. After researching his work and contacting the artist’s family members, Daderko included a selection of Moufarrege’s works in SIDE X SIDE an exhibition he guest curated for Visual AIDS at La MaMa La Galleria. His recent exhibitions include Double Life (2015); LaToya Ruby Frazier: Witness (2014), which traveled to the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; and Parallel Practices: Joan Jonas and Gina Pane (2013). In 2008, Daderko guest-curated SIDE X SIDE for Visual AIDS at La MaMa Galleria, an exhibition that included paintings by Nicholas Moufarrege, alongside works by Scott Burton, Kate Huh, Martin Wong, and Carrie Yamaoka.

Elaine Reichek is an artist based in New York. Reichek and Nicolas Moufarrege were artist colleagues and dear friends, and Reichek was one of the curators of Nicolas’s memorial exhibition at the Clocktower, the Institute for Art and Urban Resources, in 1987. Reichek has exhibited extensively in the United States and abroad for more than forty years, including solo shows at New York’s Museum of Modern Art and the Jewish Museum; Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels; Tel Aviv Museum; Stichting De Appel, Amsterdam; and the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin. Her work is in the collections of New York’s Museum of Modern Art; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Museum, Philadelphia; and the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, among many others. Her most recent solo exhibitions include “Minoan Girls” at Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Santa Monica (2016), and “Swatches” at Zach Feuer Gallery, New York (2015).

Matchers4Men
2016-11-11 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
Matchers is a Friday night event for gay men who are in the dating scene, who want to find a partner without the frustration and lack of success in meeting guys online or in bars. It’s a room full of approximately 35 eligible men, seated so they can see each other.
Each guy wears a nametag, but instead of his name, it’s a code (#001, 002, etc.). He’s also given paper and pen to take notes about the guys he’d like to meet, as well as a printed sheet for him to fill in the codes of the guys he’d like to meet.
The event is like a talk show, but instead of a panel of guests, it’s the audience which discusses various current events topics, like politics and social issues. The moderator guides the discussion, and tries to ensure that as many attendees as possible get to add their proverbial two cents (or more).
This is an effective, alternative way to meet people, rather than talking about oneself for a minute or two. It’s much more interesting and provocative, and gives participants a more accurate sense as to who is a better match.
This segment lasts 90 minutes, after which there’s a 30-minute social period, where guys can get to know each other, one-on-one.
Finally, guys fill out and submit to the moderator the sheet with their choices of guys they’d like to go on a date with. Participants are informed the following day of the guys who also chose them, their matches.
The event is FREE!
For more information, please contact Scott at matchers4men@gmail.com and/or visit the blog, matchers4men.blogspot.com

Fire Island Artist Residency Presents: Tyler Ashley, Matthew deLeon, and Donald C. Shorter Jr.
2016-11-12 18:00 - 20:00 | NY
Fire Island Artist Residency Presents:

An evening of performance with Tyler Ashley, Matthew deLeon, and Donald C. Shorter Jr.

The three artists, whose work is on display in the Bureau’s current exhibition, Coney Island Babies, will perform original works at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division!

An Evening of Sex & Culture with Carol Queen
2016-11-13 18:00 - 20:00 | NY
Usually found holding down the fort in San Francisco, Carol Queen joins us for a night of sex-positivity, pomosexuality, and possibly some brainiac-level smut. She’ll read from her body of work and follow it up with lively chat with attendees—maybe even some discourse!

Carol Queen PhD [www.carolqueen.com] is a cultural sexologist and co- founder of the Center for Sex & Culture in San Francisco. She is a noted erotic writer and essayist whose work has appeared in dozens of anthologies. She’s written four books: the essay collection Real Live Nude Girl: Chronicles of Sex-Positive Culture; erotic novel The Leather Daddy and the Femme; Exhibitionism for the Shy, which explores issues of erotic self-esteem and enhancement; and most recently (with Shar Rednour) The Sex & Pleasure Book: Good Vibrations Guide to Great Sex for Everyone. She’s also edited several volumes of erotica and essays and has appeared in several explicit educational videos, notably “Bend Over Boyfriend: An Adventurous Couple’s Guide to Male Anal Pleasure.” Queen works as staff sexologist at Good Vibrations, the women-founded sex shop, where she has worked since 1990. Queen has been speaking publicly about queer sexualities for over 40 years. Her perspective in addressing sexual diversity incorporates personal experience, accurate sex information, and informed cultural commentary. She has addressed many conferences, including the International Condom Conference, the International Conference on Prostitution, and the International Conference on Pornography; she frequently addresses college as well as general and specialized audiences. In February 2009 she debated the question of promiscuity (“Virtue or vice?”) for the Oxford Union at Oxford University, England.

Union Square Slam presents Emily Eastman and Open Slam #3
2016-11-15 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
Well, America. Thanks for giving us ever more reason to gather together and write, create, read, scream poems into microphones. Come get held/witnessed/free this Tuesday with our 3rd qualifying slam of the season, and none other than the Wicked Queer Glitterbomb of Love, Emily Eastman!!!
6pm: Free Writing Workshop
7pm: Sign-Ups
7:30pm: Slam Round One
8:15pm: Feature
8:45pm Slam Rounds 2 and 3
$5 // All Ages // Wheelchair Accessible
About our Feature:
Emily Eastman is a genderqueer poet & organizer who hails from Manchester; New Hampshire’s loudest middle child. A longtime community & staff member of the Slam Free or Die poetry series, they have helped to facilitate countless events & workshops on both a local & national level. They have performed, hosted, shouted, bout managed, & wept their way across the country, from classrooms to concert halls, and several barrooms in between. They have competed & represented Slam Free or Die at many national tournaments, including the Individual World Poetry Slam (2014, 2015) the Women of the World Poetry Slam (2015, 2016) and the National Poetry Slam (2015, 2016.) Interests include strong coffee, dismantling the white supremacist heteropatriarchy, & spending dinner dates talking about radical softness. Their greatest review to date came as a text from their 11-year-old sister: “Adequate.”
About our Slam:
There are six opportunities to compete for the Union Square Slam National Team. The top two winners of each Open Slam have secured their spot in Finals, pending participation in a Specialty Slam.
Each open slam will :
– consist of up to 8 poet competitors
– have a 3 min time limit for each round with a 10-second grace period
– will go from 8 in the first round to 5 in the second round and 3 in the third round (this is subject to change depending on the number of competitors that night — see below)
– be scored cumulatively — the winner of the night will have the highest cumulative score from all three rounds.
Union Square Slam Nationals Qualifiers (Open Slams) are on the following dates:
September 20th
October 18th
November 15th
January 17th
February 21st
March 21st
Union Square Slam National Team Selection Finals will be held on April 18th.
In order to represent Union Square Slam at any National Competition, you must meet the following requirements:
– Be 18 years old or older (all ages can compete in our slams! You just won’t be able to rep us at PSI events)
– Be an active member of PSI at the time of competition (register at www.poetryslam.com you cover your annual registration fee of $20 — questions? Talk to Cecily or the current slam manager)
– Read, sign, and adhere to the PSI Code of Conduct
– Participate in at least one Specialty Slam during the 2016-7 season. Specialty Slams include WOWPS qualifiers, Nerd Slams, Petty Slams, Iron Poet Slams, etc.

CopWatch Training
2016-11-16 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
CopWatch is an effective and legal tool for empowering communities, ending police misconduct, unprofessional behavior, and discrimination. You have the right to observe and record all police activities in public places. Learn how to exercise you rights safely and legally. Workshop will be taught by comedian and activist Elsa Waithe. Suggested donation of $5, but no one will be turned away.

Switch n' Play
2016-11-17 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
Switch n’ Play offers an evening of queer performance from members K.James, Nyx Nocturne, (wo chan) Pearl Harbor, and Vigor Mortis. Following the performances, the performers will hold a Q&A panel discussion of drag, gender, community, and the politics of embodiment.
Switch n’ Play is a Brooklyn drag collective, established in 2006. Queer in every sense of the word, Switch n’ Play spans the gender spectrum in life and onstage. Twice nominated for the Brooklyn Nightlife Awards in the Best Drag Performance Show and Best Burlesque Show categories, SnP and its members have also been featured in the Huffington Post, Posture Magazine, Vice Broadly, and Velour Magazine. They produces shows at Branded Saloon in Prospect Heights Brooklyn every 2nd and 4th Saturdays.
