Physique Pictorial Volume 46 Release Party
2018-10-06 18:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York)
Come celebrate the release of Physique Pictorial, photographer Bob Mizer’s art journal that fought censorship laws back in the day — and freed up the nude male physique throughout American culture.

The new Physique Pictorial relaunched last year and you can help us celebrate the release of the latest volume with The Bob Mizer Foundation and the Bureau of General Services-Queer Division.

Come and meet Physique Pictorial’s spokesperson, Ross Collab, who is hosting the event in the incredible space that is the Bureau. Enjoy queer art, conversation, drinks, music, vintage Bob Mizer films, and even a chance to win a copy of the new Physique Pictorial V46!

From Self-Harm to Self-Discovery: A Workshop
2018-10-07 15:00 - 16:00
In this workshop, lesbian twins Marissa LaRocca (bestselling author of Starving in Search of Me: A Coming-of-Age Story of Overcoming an Eating Disorder and Finding Self-Acceptance) and Kristy LaRocca, LGBTQ+ therapist and founder of Live Your Truth Counseling, share about their own personal experiences with self-harm, and how they transformed those experiences into self-awareness and healing others.

The twins will discuss some of the unique challenges faced by the LGBTQ+ community, as well as some tips for managing anxiety, overcoming denial, and living authentically.

We ask that participants bring a pen and a journal to the event, as we will be doing a few optional writing exercises in addition to a group share.

Please arrive by 2:45 PM at latest, so that we can close the door and begin the workshop promptly at 3 PM. Thank you!

The Bureau will be closed during the workshop: 3 to 4 PM.

Marissa LaRocca is the bestselling author of Starving in Search of Me: A Coming-of-Age Story of Overcoming an Eating Disorder and Finding Self-Acceptance (Mango, 2018). She is an award-winning writer, speaker, LGBTQ activist, and YouTube personality. Additionally, Marissa is an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach, having received her training from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, and she’s a contributing educator for The Institute for Integrative Nutrition’s upcoming Emotional Eating Course. Marissa’s work has been featured in Go Magazine, on Glam.com, and on Topic.com. To find out more, visit marissalarocca.com.

Kristy LaRocca, MA, LMHC is an integrative therapist and founder of Live Your Truth Counseling located in New York City. She completed her internship at the Institute for Human Identity, one of NYC’s leading training programs for LGBTQ-affirmative psychotherapy, and has served the queer community as a Staff Therapist and Coordinator of the Intern Training Program there for several years. Kristy received her Masters in Mental Health Counseling from Brooklyn College and has taught psychology courses as an Adjunct Professor at Brooklyn College.

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Bespoke: Fall Fanfare Edition
2018-10-11 19:00 - 21:00
BESPOKE: It’s ostentatious October! Join us for the resurrection of our most garish garments and frighteningly fashionable attire as Thursday, October 11 the Bureau features Sarah Schulman, Heather Lynn Johnson, and Yanyi at Bespoke, a bimonthly queer series where featured readers dress fun, fancy, or flirtatious, while supporting the Bureau and resisting fascism. This sinfully sartorial series presents fashionable femmes, dapper dykes, chic twinks, trendy trans* folk, & frothy FTMs. Featured writers are encouraged to suit up or dress down : readers’ choice.

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

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

Sarah Schulman is the 2018 recipient of the Publishing Triangle’s Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement, for her renown as a novelist, nonfiction writer, playwright, screenwriter, and AIDS historian. Among her novels are The Cosmopolitans, The Child, and Rat Bohemia (winner of the 1996 Ferro-Grumley Award for Lesbian Fiction). Her works of nonfiction include Conflict Is Not Abuse (winner of last year’s Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction), The Gentrification of the Mind, and Ties That Bind: Familial Homophobia and Its Consequences. Schulman’s nineteenth book, the novel Maggie Terry, will be published in September 2018 by the Feminist Press. She serves on a number of advisory boards including Jewish Voice for Peace, Research on the Israeli/American Alliance, and Claudia Rankine’s Racial Imaginary Institute. Schulman has received Guggenheim in playwriting, a Fulbright in Judaic studies, and two American Library Association Stonewall Awards. A fellow at the New York Institute for the Humanities at New York University, she is distinguished professor of the humanities at CUNY/College of Staten Island.

Heather Lynn Johnson is a poet, photographer and a performance artist living in Brooklyn. She is the author of The Survival Guide For Queer Black Youth (Inpatient Press, 2017) and the 2017 literary fellow for the Queer|Art|Mentorship program. Johnson’s work is characterized by its lyricism and cultural critique. Her formal approach to the narrative, whether visual or poetic, is distinguished by her willingness to lay bare her own existence. Johnson received an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and her BA from Columbia College Chicago both in Photography.

Yanyi is a poet and critic. In 2018, he won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize, awarded by Carl Phillips, for his first book, The Year of Blue Water (Yale University Press 2019). Currently, he is an associate editor at Foundry and an MFA candidate at New York University. He formerly served as Director of Technology and Design at The Brooklyn Institute for Social Research, senior editor at Nat. Brut, and curatorial assistant at The Poetry Project. He is the recipient of fellowships from Asian American Writers Workshop and Poets House. Find his recent work in VIDA, Reservoir, and Memorious.

Queer Zines / Queer Art Opening Reception
2018-10-12 18:00 - 21:00
The NY Queer Zine Fair, Knowsgay, and the Bureau of General Services-Queer Division are proud to present QUEER ZINES / QUEER ART, an exhibition to accompany the 2018 NY QUEER ZINE FAIR.

The exhibition will be in three parts:

A HISTORY OF QUEER ZINES. In collaboration with QZAP – The Queer Zine Archive Project (www.qzap.org) we will showcase a timeline of queer zines (before Myspace).

QUEER ZINES / QUEER ART. An exhibition of selected work from NYQZF participants. Artists include: Aaron Krach, Anthony Cahudy, Anthony Malone, Chris Moody, Ian Lewandowski, JB Brager, Justin Corriveau, Keiff Jones, Love Case (Jason Haaf & Kyle Anderson), JP Anne Giera, Sam Rosenthal, Stephen McDowell, Steven Harwick, Voxigma Lo and Will Yunshu Chen.

KNOWSGAY No7. A display of work from a new and special edition of KNOWSGAY. Limited edition of 30 and 75% of all sales will go to help cover the extra costs of putting on the NYQZF and the remaining 25% will benefit New Alternatives NYC (www.newalternativesnyc.org).

Public Opening Reception:
Friday 12 October 2018, 6-9 PM

Exhibition:
5 October 2018 – 5 January 2019

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

The exhibition will be in the Bureau of General Services-Queer Division (Room 210 of The LGBT Community Center, 208 West 13th St., NYC 10011)

image credit: Keiff Jones “T.O.N.Y Tiger” 2018

New York Queer Zine Fair Queer Collage Party
2018-10-13 12:30 - 14:30
Heidi Dorow will host a special edition of the Bureau’s Queer Collage Party in conjunction with the 2018 New York Queer Zine Fair. All materials will be provided: glue sticks, scissors, paper, pictures, etc, and of course feel free to bring your own images, too. Each person can make their own collage(s), or team up with others. Attend for part or all of the event. Before you leave, your collage(s) will be scanned and made into a collaborative zine which you can pick up the next day at the NYQZF (or we can mail it to you). The spirit here is about fun and sharing.

Join us!!!

Kelli Dunham: Laughter is a Revolutionary Gesture: Humor as Self-Care
2018-10-13 15:30 - 16:30
Kelli Dunham: Laughter is a Revolutionary Gesture: Humor as Self-Care is a NY Queer Zine Fair event taking place during the fair in the Bureau of General Services-Queer Division. The event is FREE.

Laughter is a Revolutionary Gesture: Humor as Self-Care (Kelli Dunham): The nature of our work as intersectional activists and life as queer folks is intense and that, combined with passion, can sometimes contribute to depression and burnout as well as a single focus on movement work/our passion that is neither healthy for us as individuals nor effective. Yet there is a notable historical precedent for intersectional activism using humor as both a strategy in communication and a tool for personal empowerment. This workshop explores how we can reclaim humor and use it to relieve stress, communicate better, subvert the rigid gender binary and build resilience. You don’t have to consider yourself “a funny person” to participate in this workshop. It’s about discovering our own unique sense of humor. We’ll have fun and NO ONE will make you wear a clown nose, promise.

Straight To Hell slideshow illustrating the 45 years of S.T.H.
2018-10-13 17:00 - 18:00
Straight To Hell slideshow illustrating the 45 years of S.T.H. followed by a panel discussion

In 1973, Boyd McDonald virtually invented queer zine culture with Straight to Hell, the no-holds-barred circle jerk of reader-written true tales of men’s real sexual adventures in– as Bernard Welt puts it in “One Man’s Meat”—“the unacknowledged corners of life where repression is not lifted, but exploded to bits . . . In the world of STH, every barracks shower is an orgy room; every Boy Scout jamboree is a festival of sexual initiation; every conservative politician and clergyman pays male hustlers for sex. Everything men do to bond or compete in sports, war, and politics is a sublimation of, if not a substitute for, homosexual desire.” Gore Vidal, Allen Ginsberg, Tennessee Williams, and Christopher Isherwood all proclaimed themselves fans and admirers.

McDonald proposed that pornography usually promotes mainstream ideology that stigmatizes gay sex even as it charges admission for it—while the publication of the truth of sexual life liberates desire from the pressure to justify, excuse, or normalize.

Straight To Hell slideshow is a 2018 NY Queer Zine Fair event taking place during the fair in the Bureau of General Services-Queer Division. The event is FREE.

Billy Miller, STH’s editor since 1989, joins critic Bernard Welt, storyteller extraordinaire Grady Turner, and Kevin Allison, creator of the ground-breaking RISK!Podcast, for a discussion of how sharing the truth of our lives really does set us free.

Kevin Allison is the author of RISK! True Stories People Never Thought They’d Dare To Share (Hachette, 2018), based on the wildly popular podcast. Grady Turner is an arts writer, inaugural curator of the Museum of Sex, and Moth-winning storyteller who produced Bare! True Stories of Sex, Desire and Romance. Bernard Welt is the author of Mythomania: Fantasies, Fables, and Sheer Lies in Contemporary American Popular Art. Billy Miller is an artist and independent curator, and the editor of Straight to Hell.

Karl Marks Children's Hour Puppet Workshop
2018-10-14 13:00 - 15:00
Karl Marks Children’s Hour is a traveling puppet show and crafting workshop featuring two dimensional paper puppets of famous and infamous historical and public figures. Attendees of the workshop will conceive and execute a puppet design using construction paper, scissors, paper lunch sacks and glue. Step-by-step written instructions will be provided to each participant and assistance and general instruction will be available from the workshop leader, artist, and performer, Karl Marks. The suggested theme for puppets in this workshop is “Figures in Queer History” but other subjects will be welcomed and encouraged. Attendees should bring their own pair of scissors. Glue and paper will be provided.

Karl Marks Children’s Hour Puppet Workshop is a 2018 NY Queer Zine Fair event taking place during the fair in the Bureau of General Services-Queer Division. The event is FREE.

Karl Marks is a Brooklyn-based queer artist and performer. He has performed throughout New York City, Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Maryland at a range of performance venues and museums.

Belladonna* Roll Call Reading Series
2018-10-14 16:30 - 17:30
Join the Belladonna* Collaborative at the New York Queer Zine Fair for an afternoon of new work presented by Anaïs Duplan and Yumi Dineen Shiroma. The reading will take place at the Bureau.

Belladonna* presents the work of two exciting and boundary-pushing poets as part of our ongoing reading series And / With, now nearing its 20th anniversary year. As with every Belladonna* reading, chaplets of the work presented will be published to coincide with its presentation, and will be available for sale from our table at the New York Queer Zine Fair, along with many other delicious Belladonna* titles.

Belladonna* is a feminist avant-garde collective, founded in 1999 by Rachel Levitsky. Our mission to promote the work of writers who are adventurous, experimental, politically involved, multi-form, multicultural, multi-gendered, impossible to define, delicious to talk about, unpredictable and dangerous with language. Belladonna* has featured nearly 300 writers of wildly diverse age and origin, writers who work in conversation and collaboration, in and between multiple forms, languages, and critical fields.

About the readers:
Anaïs Duplan is the author of a full-length poetry collection, Take This Stallion (Brooklyn Arts Press, 2016) and a chapbook, Mount Carmel and the Blood of Parnassus (Monster House Press, 2017). Their poems and essays have been published by Hyperallergic, PBS News Hour, the Academy of American Poets, Poetry Society of America, Bettering American Poetry, and Ploughshares. Their music criticism has appeared in Complex Magazine and THUMP. Duplan is a curator who has facilitated artists’ projects and exhibitions in Chicago, Boston, Santa Fe, Reykjavík, and Copenhagen. Duplan’s video art has appeared or is forthcoming in exhibitions at Flux Factory, Daata Editions, the 13th Baltic Triennial in Lithuania, and the Institute of Contemporary Art in L.A. Duplan is the founder of the Center for Afrofuturist Studies, an artist residency program for artists of color, and is currently a joint Public Programs Fellow at the Museum of Modern Art and the Studio Museum in Harlem.

Yumi Dineen Shiroma is a PhD student in English at Rutgers University. Her poetry has previously appeared in BOMB Magazine and is forthcoming in Nat. Brut. She may or may not be writing the great Asian American novel.

TELL 47: All About My Mother
2018-10-20 19:00 - 21:30 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
TELL is an evening of story telling from the mouths and minds of queers in NYC hosted by Drae Campbell at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division since February 2014.
All About My Mother is the theme for the 47th installment of TELL. Featuring Sasha Kolodkin, Sa’dia Rehman, and David Reyes.

$10 suggested donation to support the Bureau and the performers. No one turned away for lack of funds.

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

Sasha Kolodkin is a Baltimore-bred, Brooklyn-based playwright, poet, and performer. A recent graduate of SUNY Purchase, she spends her days writing, studying drama, and devising new ways to degrade and destabilize the more dastardly departments of the United States Government (when she isn’t daydreaming at her disinteresting day job). She is also a dramaturgical consultant for The Cameri Theatre, and a school ambassador with PFLAG.

Sa’dia Rehman is a multidisciplinary artist whose work is fueled by a critical exploration of Muslim American affinity and how it intersects with race, power and gender. Through performance, video, installation and large-scale wall drawing, Rehman pulls apart and puts together “images of consumption” — family photographs, mass media and art historical images. She has shared her work internationally and nationally. sadiarehman.com

David Reyes is a Latinx American comedian from New Jersey. By day, he helps people regain control of their sexual health as a lead on Roman’s Care Team, a health start up that helps people suffering from erectile dysfunction. By night, he’s telling jokes and performing improv wherever they’ll let him. He enjoys long walks on the beach and watching people trip.

Office Hours Poetry Workshop Craft Class with Aldrin Valdez
2018-10-27 11:00 - 14:30
Office Hours Poetry Workshop presents: a FREE craft class and reading with author Aldrin Valdez.
The craft class takes place from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM.
A public reading (free and open to all) with Aldrin and members of the Office Hours Workshop will follow from 1:30 PM-2:30 PM.
Spaces for the craft class are limited to 15 persons so please RSVP in advance to sarahmariesala@gmail.com.
Please bring a notebook and pen/pencil in addition to your technological device in case of cross-genre prompts.

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

ALDRIN VALDEZ is a Pinoy writer and visual artist whose debut poetry collection ESL or You Weren’t Here (Nightboat Books) is available October 2018. They grew up in Manila and Long Island and currently live in Brooklyn. Aldrin has been awarded fellowships from Queer/Art/Mentorship and Poets House. Their poetry & visual art appear in The Felt, Femmescapes, Nat Brut, Poor Claudia, and The Recluse. Aldrin has also presented work at Dixon Place, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Poetry Project. Collaborating with writer & organizer Ted Kerr, Aldrin co-organized Foundational Sharing (2011-2015), a salon series of readings, performances, & visual art. Most recently, they’ve co-curated two seasons of the Segue Reading Series with fellow poet Joël Díaz.

Carrying.On (Queer Narratives On Life and Death)
2018-11-01 19:00 - 21:00
“Carrying.On” is a special edition the monthly queer storytelling show, TELL. Hosted and curated by Drae Campbell. TELL has been featured on “This American Life” and is the longest running series at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division. “Carrying.On” features two powerhouse storytellers: Pooya Mohseni and Elsa Waithe. They will be sharing their own true stories and or narratives around the themes of life , death and carrying on. In the LGBTQ community, as with most marginalized communities, we go to a lot of memorials. The way in which we honor Queer people’s lives in life and death belongs to us just as our stories do. There will also be an opening musical set by Vie Paula. TELL is an event that seeks to give space to queer individuals to own their narratives around large themes. A chance to “snatch back the narrative“ and tell their stories on their own terms.

“Carrying.On” is one of the over 250 events during Reimagine End of Life, a week of exploring big questions about life and death. The five boroughs of New York City are joining together to create over 250 events exploring death and celebrating life…from all perspectives.

Pooya Mohseni is an Iranian/American actor, Transgender activist and writer. Pooya appeared in an award winning one woman show, titled “One Woman”, in United Solo Festival at The Theatre Row, written by Cecilia Copeland & directed by Joan Kane. Her other recent stage performances include “The Good Muslim” by Zakiyyah Alexander, directed by William Carden at Ensemble Studio Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage’s “The White Snake”, directed by Natsu Onoda Power, Madame in The OUTLIERS’ production of “The Maids” directed by Ben Gunderson and the title role in “Death of a Persian Prince” at NYMITF & SAIPAF, directed by Dewey Moss. She’s a recurring guest star on the new crime drama “Big Dogs” produced by Choice Films & Theatricals, directed by Mathew Penn and Tony Glazer, to be released in 2018. She’s also a recurring guest star in the first season of the USA network’s “Falling Water”. Follow @Pooyaland on Twitter/Instagram

Elsa Waithe is a comedian and activist from Norfolk, Va, currently residing in Brooklyn, NY. Her comedy is a mix of lighthearted but critical jabs at homosexuality and race, but she mainly just talks about herself and weed. She’s taken home 1st place and “fan favorite” 3 times at the Virginia Beach FunnyBone in 2013. She appears on Internet Action Force. NBC Stand-Up Semi-Finalist. She was also featured on NPR’s “This American Life” in Oct. 2015. Elsa is a regular at Greenwich Village Comedy Club in Manhattan and The Experiment Comedy Gallery in Brooklyn.

South Bronx bred, performance fed, Vie Paula is a Caretaker, Thing Maker, Singer/Songwriter, and Licensed Massage Therapist striving to learn how to tell the whole truth and spend as much time as possible with their roommate’s cat. With night life entertainment in the far away past and a recent foray into all things extra, Vie wants to see you and be seen by you. They are currently working on staying connected and engaged, figuring out what fun is, and creating a life worth staying awake for.

Drae Campbell is an actor, storyteller, curator and emcee. She received a BFA in Theater from the University of The Arts in Philadelphia. Drae has been spotted on IFC.Com, Conan. Refinery29 and numerous films. Look for her in the forthcoming, DINETTE which was just featured at Tribeca Film Fest, 2018. Some theater credits : Only You Can Prevent Wildfires, Ricochet Collective, Non-Consensual Relationships With Ghosts, La Mama, My Old Man, Dixon Place, Oph3lia at HERE. She appeared as a radical lesbian in Taylor Mac’s 24 Decade History Of Popular Music at St. Ann’s Warehouse. Also, she once reigned as Miss LEZ. www.draecampbell.com

New Books on Trans Childhoods
2018-11-02 19:00 - 21:00
Join authors Gayle Salamon and Tey Meadow for a reading and discussion of two new books that trace different trajectories of contemporary trans childhoods. Tey Meadow will read from her book, Trans Kids: Being Gendered in the Twenty-First Century, an ethnographic study of a generation of families actively supporting children through gender transitions. Gayle Salamon will read from her book The Life and Death of Latisha King: A Critical Phenomenology of Transphobia, in which she examines the case of 15-year-old Latisha King, a trans girl who was shot and killed by a classmate and misidentified as a gay boy in the subsequent murder trial. The authors will explore the roles of racial and class stratification in the emergence of trans lives, and chronicle the ways parents, teachers, doctors and lawyers–in giving or withholding gender from trans kids–shape how livable trans lives can be.

Reading and discussion will be followed by a reception and book signing.

To reserve copies of Trans Kids: Being Gendered in the Twenty-First Century and/or The Life and Death of Latisha King: A Critical Phenomenology of Transphobia, please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com. Thank you for supporting the Bureau!

Tey Meadow is assistant professor of sociology at Columbia University. She is the author of Trans Kids: Being Gendered in the Twenty-First Century, and the co-editor of Other Please Specify: Queer Methods in Sociology.

Gayle Salamon is professor of english and studies of women, gender and sexuality at Princeton University. She is the author of Assuming a Body: Transgender and Rhetorics of Materiality, and The Life and Death of Latisha King: A Critical Phenomenology of Transphobia.

Trophy Boy NYC screening and cast Q & A
2018-11-03 19:00 - 20:00
A special screening of the award wining short film Trophy Boy (run time 13 minutes). Followed with a Q & A with some of the cast

Devon born British actor Emrhys Cooper has done incredibly well for himself – not only did he bag himself the lead role in the Emmy nominated drama series Vanity starring alongside Denise Richards & Karrucehe Tran. As well as achieving a career in film & television appearing in many top US shows including Desperate Housewives, CSI:NY, Blackish and Person of Interest, Emrhys has also featured in several West End musicals and worked as a dancer for a variety of musical superstars including Madonna, Christina Aguilera and the Pussycat Dolls. He was also the first Western actor to star in a Bhutanese film and achieved an award for outstanding performance from a leading actor at the IndieFest film festival for his role in Kushuthara. But it’s his directional debut Trophy Boy which is really setting him apart from the crowd. Using his own social media experiences and witnessing how detrimental it can be to ones self awareness, promoted him to not only; write, produce, direct and star in the film that recently premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. On the success of the short film, Cooper is now developing Trophy Boy into a TV series through his own production company EmCo Entertainment.

OLNY Poly Movie Night: (A)sexual and The Open Photo Project
2018-11-07 18:30 - 21:30
Open Love NY presents Poly Movie Night, a FREE series of feature films that focus on the portrayal of consensual / ethical non-monogamy in cinema. This month we’ll be at our regular venue, the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division.
On November 7th, please join us for (A)sexual (2011), a documentary directed by Angela Tucker, and a pre-movie multi-media screening of The Open Photo Project.
We’ll meet at 6:30 pm at the Bureau (in room 210 of The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center at 208 West 13th Street) for pre-screening socializing and start the movie at 7 pm. The event is free, although a $10 suggested donation to help fund future events is much appreciated.

THE OPEN PHOTO PROJECT
Erika Kapin presents a screening of her ongoing work, The Open Photo Project. This multi-media screening features a slideshow of photographs from a diversity of people in consensually non-monogamous relationships along with audio excerpts of them speaking about their relationships. Running time: approximately 45 minutes.

(A)sexual Synopsis: People who experience little or no sexual attraction seek to define their identity and build new relationship models. Running time: 1 hour 15 minutes.

Trans Figured Reading and Signing with Brian Belovitch
2018-11-10 19:00 - 21:00
Brian Belovitch shares his true story of life as a gender outlier and his dramatic journey through the jungle of gender identity in Trans Figured: My Journey from Boy to Girl to Woman to Man. Brian has the rare distinction of coming out three times: first as a queer teenager; second as a glamorous transgender woman named Tish, and later, Natalia Gervais; and finally as an HIV-positive gay man surviving the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. His book is a no-holds-barred memoir of a chaotic era and his candid journey through identity. He will be reading selected passages from the book as well as signing copies.

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

Brian Belovitch is a former editor at People magazine. A 2000 GLAAD award nominee for his play Boys Don’t Wear Lipstick, Belovitch is a founder of Queer Stages, an LGBT-themed dramatic series, and a guest storyteller with the Generations Project. Belovitch is currently in a master’s program for mental health counseling at Hunter College. Today he works as an addiction professional and lives in Brooklyn with his husband of fifteen years.

Book launch and reading: The Pr0n Series
2018-11-11 15:00 - 16:30
Gay comedy fetish writer Mark Boyd will read from one of his latest stories, The Collared Master, and share a free book sampler with several of the stories in his forthcoming Pr0n Series collection. Comedian James Angelo will MC and share his humorous take on navigating the gay fetish scene.

Mark Boyd is a writer who regularly publishes in European fetish magazine Alphatribe. His comedy fetish fiction has been shared at events like Folsom Europe in Berlin and he has performed his work around the globe in cities like Barcelona.

Office Hours Poetry Workshop Craft Class with Yanyi
2018-11-17 11:00 - 14:30
Office Hours Poetry Workshop presents: “The Seat of Sensation: Concession as Pleasure and Memory”— a FREE craft class and reading with author Yanyi.
The craft class takes place from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM. A public reading with Yanyi and members of the Office Hours Workshop will follow from 1:30 PM-2:30 PM.
Spaces for the craft class are limited to 15 persons so please RSVP in advance to sarahmariesala@gmail.com and include your full name, relationship to writing, and a brief bio.

The Seat of Sensation: Confession as Pleasure and Memory
In this workshop, you will be asked to write for your life, your life being time, your body, and the practice of noticing pleasure, a communication with the self. Through generative exercises, we will write through the senses and then practice writing with and toward desire through memory. You will need something to write with and on.

Yanyi is a poet and critic. In 2018, he won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize, awarded by Carl Phillips, for his first book, The Year of Blue Water (Yale University Press 2019). Currently, he is an associate editor at Foundry and an MFA candidate at New York University. He formerly served as Director of Technology and Design at The Brooklyn Institute for Social Research, senior editor at Nat. Brut, and curatorial assistant at The Poetry Project. He is the recipient of fellowships from Asian American Writers Workshop and Poets House. His work was most recently published in LA Review of Books and The Margins. Find him at yanyiii.com.

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

TELL 48: EXTRA
2018-11-17 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.
EXTRA is the theme for the 48th installment of TELL, guest-hosted by Melissa Rocah. Featuring Glo Butler, Maya Eilam, Ryan Houlihan, Sammie James, and Rachel Kaly.

$10 suggested donation to support the Bureau and the performers. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Melissa Rocha is a Brooklyn based comic with a performance art background. She’s been on the scene for about three years producing her own shows and entertaining at venues such as: Club Cumming, Union Hall, Gotham Comedy Club, & Littlefield. Most recently, she’s come on as a producer & comic for Savage Comedy— a weekly show that’s been successfully running for four years. She’s currently working on her first film: How’s My Lipstick?— featuring an all women & queer people of color crew. She’s cried on stage three times this year. 🙂 t: @melisshious ig: @melsideponytail

Glo Butler says: originally from Charleston, South Carolina. Started comedy in DC then moved to Brooklyn, NY where I reside currently. I’ve been featured on on Wendy Williams, timeout Magazines “LGBTQ POC We’re obsessed with right now.”
I currently host/ Produce 2 shows in Brooklyn, and I also have a webseries “Glo in the City”(featured on IMDb, funny or Die, and YouTube). I have performed all over the country.

Maya Eilam is ready when you are. She is a karaoke regular, facilitates freeform vocalization, and believes no sounds are out of bounds.

Ryan Houlihan is a comedian, writer, and fake ginger from New York. He’s worked on the shows Billy on the Street, Difficult People, and at Teen Vogue. You can stream his podcast “Tomorrow” if you want another loud gay person in your life.

Sammie James is a comedian and story teller from New Jersey. She is host and producer of the LGBT showcase Queerly Comedic and The Uncomfortable comedy show. Sammie performs all over the tri state area and is soon to be your favorite disabled, nerdy, butch trans woman in comedy.

Rachel Kaly (she/they) is a queer NYC-based comedian, and writer. She is a contributing writer for ClickHole and has studied at the Annoyance Theater, Second City, and at UCB as a diversity scholar. She’s performed at all those venues, plus Joe’s Pub, iO, and Union Hall and whatever da fuk else will convince you she’s legit. She performs regularly with Ladies Who Ranch and hosts her own show, “The Ellen Show But Violent” every month. She graduated from Wesleyan University in 2017, and founded the Absurd Comedy Collective in 2016 in an effort to make more inclusive spaces for marginalized comics.
twitter: @rachel_kaly / ig: @rachel.kaly / www: rachelkaly.com

Girl Tales Live Reading and 2nd Season Fundraiser!
2018-11-18 15:00 - 18:00
Who? You and the kids in your life!
What? A live reading of The Literate Mermaid by Christina Quintana, and a fundraiser for a second season! We’ll have a silent auction of a bunch of goodies, face painting by Maggie Allen, a coloring station and a feminist photo booth!
Where? Bureau of General Services—Queer Division @ The Center 208 West 13th Street Room 210 NY, NY 10011
When? Sunday, November 18th @ 3pm
Why? Girl Tales is a podcast featuring reimagined fairytales. Damsels in distress? Princesses in need of protection? You won’t find those here. The girls in our stories take control of their own destinies, turning your favorite fairytales into exciting new adventures.

Girl Tales offers a feminist twist on classic fairytales, fables, and myths. With energetic voice actors and professional sound design, these radio plays burst to life at the touch of a button.
We’ve just ended out first season and have reached over 10,000 listeners all around the world. We want to celebrate that with you and make sure we’re ready to get a second season up and running! Will you join us? Will you help us?
Cost: The Bureau is donating our space for this event because we believe in Girl Tales! If you are able to support the Bureau with a donation we would very much appreciate it! But no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Panel Discussion & Signing with Sasha Velour | VELOUR: The Drag Magazine
2018-11-18 18:00 - 21:00
Join Sasha Velour, international drag superstar and winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 9, for the release of her hardcover art book, Velour: The Drag Magazine [Collector’s Edition] with a discussion at The LGBT Community Center on Sunday, November 18th at 6PM followed by a signing in the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division.

Sasha Velour will be joined by Velour editor and panel moderator, Johnny Velour for an exclusive discussion with long-time Velour: The Drag Magazine collaborators: Miss Malice, Pearl Harbor, Ohni Lisle, and Lady Quesa’Dilla. A signing with Sasha Velour will take place following the panel at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division — just upstairs in room 210!

The panel discussion is a free event with registration. Books will be on sale at the Bureau following the panel. The signing is free and open to the public.

At 296 pages, entirely ad-free, Velour: The Drag Magazine [Collector’s Edition] compiles all three volumes of Sasha’s critically-acclaimed magazine, Velour (House of Velour, 2015-2017). It is designed from cover to cover by Velour herself, in her unique signature style, and features illustrations, collages, fashion editorials, poems, interviews, and essays by over 75 queer artists and drag performers from around the world. Since its inception, the magazine has been dedicated to showcasing the work of drag queens and drag kings, queer, trans, AFAB (assigned female at birth), and non-binary drag artists from all backgrounds.

The pieces collected in this coffee table book are as varied and valid as the drag artists they depict. “There is ‘no right way’ to do, or even define drag,” Sasha Velour insists, “We seek to celebrate it all.”

REGISTER FOR A FREE SEAT HERE.

Fighting for Trans Lives: Mizz June's War Call
2018-11-20 19:30 - 20:30
There’s no getting around it, the current political climate is a battleground. Add rising murders of Transgender women (specifically, Transwomen of color) to the already increasing issues being faced by the TLGBQ community, and it’s no wonder a song like War Call was created.

War Call, the debut single and music video from NYC based trans hip hop artist Mizz June, addresses these issues using powerful visuals and rhythmically layered beats. Directly following the screening of the music video, there will be a panel/discussion with the artist and representatives from community organizations who’re taking action around bettering the lives of Transgender people.

Organizations such as FIERCE! NYC – a membership based TLGBQ youth of color organization in The Bronx that empowers its members through youth led campaigns and leadership development programs; House of GG – the first national retreat site, educational, and historical center dedicated to Transgender people in the USA, and New Alternatives a non-profit geared towards empowering homeless TLGBQ youth by providing them with valuable tools such as education and basic life skills trainings that will ensure self sufficiency beyond the NYC shelter system- will discuss how we can support each other, and move forward during these intense times. Show up, and learn how.

This event is FREE!

From the Lower East Side of Manhattan and The Bronx, Mizz June, the musical persona of NYC based Actor Julienne Brown- got her start in Musical Theater and Activism. A protegee of luminary public figures Octavia St. Laurent and Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, she was the first out Black Transwoman to be a guest cast member on a daytime soap opera (“All My Children”)

She has appeared in music videos and, performed on various well known stages in NYC and around the U.S. Her debut single, “War Call” can be found here: www.theonetheonlymizzjune.com/music
And, here:
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2SiLxQe
iTunes: https://apple.co/2Pk42oO
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2z51AYX
Google Play Music:https://bit.ly/2yGuzDf
Bandcamp: https://mizzjune.bandcamp.com/

Crime For The Holidays: Inside and Outside the Law
2018-11-29 19:00 - 21:00
Two award winning authors of crime fiction–Ann Aptaker and Cheryl Head–discuss their Lesbian protagonists’ relationship to the Law: one choosing to live as an outlaw, the other working within the Law.

Native New Yorker Ann Aptaker‘s Cantor Gold crime series (Bold Strokes Books) has been honored with Lambda and Goldie Awards. The current book in the series, “Flesh and Gold,” examines issues of sex work and sex trafficking in pre-Castro Havana. Aptaker’s short stories have appears in two issues of the “Fedora” anthologies, the online zine “Punk Soul Poet,” and is featured in the November special issue of Switchblade: Stiletto Heeled. In addition to her life as an author, Aptaker has been a curator at museums and galleries and is a professor of Art History at New York Institute of Technology.

Cheryl Head is the award winning author of the Charlie Mack Motown Mysteries (Bywater Books). The first book in the series, “Bury Me When I’m Dead,” was a 2017 Lambda Literary Awards finalist. The current book is “Wake Me When It’s Over,” released in May 2018, with book three, “Catch Me When I’m Falling,” scheduled for March 2019. Her book “Long Way Home: A World War II Novel,” was a 2015 Next Generation Indie Book Awards finalist in the Historical Fiction, and African-American Literature categories. Head is the Director of Inclusion for the Golden Crown Literary Society. She lives in an historic 1870 rowhouse in Washington, D.C.

Charlie Bondhus, Kevin Hinkle, and Dean Kostos Poetry Reading
2018-11-30 19:00 - 21:00
Come see poets Charlie Bondhus, Kevin Hinkle, and Dean Kostos read their latest work. Books on sale and drinks on tap!

Charlie Bondhus is the author of Divining Bones (Sundress, 2018) and All the Heat We Could Carry (Main Street Rag, 2013), winner of the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry. He received his MFA in creative writing from Goddard College and his Ph.D. in literature from UMASS Amherst. His work has appeared in Poetry, The Missouri Review, Columbia Journal, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Nimrod, and Copper Nickel.
He has received fellowships from the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, the Sundress Academy for the Arts, and the Hawthornden Castle International Retreat for Writers (UK). He is associate professor of English at Raritan Valley Community College (NJ). More at: https://charliebondhus.com.

Kevin Hinkle of Asbury Park is a photo-based artist whose work has been exhibited in juried art shows including, locally, the Center for Contemporary Art (Bedminster, NJ), Montclair Art Museum’s Affordable Art Fair, the Center for Visual Arts (Summit, NJ) the Perkins Center for the Arts (Moorestown, NJ), as well as in exhibits in New York (where he received an Honorable Mention in Soho Photo’s Small Works exhibit), Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and at the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, California.
Hinkle’s work has also appeared in literary and arts journals such as The Tishmann Review, The Baltimore Review, Tupelo Quarterly, The Tulane Review, Grey Sparrow, The Pedestal Magazine, and Utter, several of these in conjunction with the poetry of Charlie Bondhus.
In addition to being part of numerous private collections, Hinkle’s work can be found in the corporate art collection of PNC Bank.

Dean Kostos’s memoir—The Boy Who Listened to Paintings—is forthcoming. His most recent collection of poems is Pierced by Night-Colored Threads. His previous books include This Is Not a Skyscraper (recipient of the Benjamin Saltman Poetry Award, selected by Mark Doty), Rivering, Last Supper of the Senses, The Sentence That Ends with a Comma, and the chapbook Celestial Rust. He coedited Mama’s Boy (a Lambda Book Award finalist) and edited Pomegranate Seeds (its debut reading was held at the United Nations).
His poems and personal essays have appeared in over 300 journals and anthologies, such as Boulevard, Chelsea, Cimarron Review, The Dos Passos Review, The Good Men Project, Mediterranean Poetry (Sweden), New Madrid, Memoir Journal, Southwest Review, Stand Magazine (UK), Storyscape Journal, Western Humanities Review, and on Oprah Winfrey’s website Oxygen.com. His choral text, Dialogue: Angel of War, Angel of Peace, was set to music by James Bassi and performed by Voices of Ascension. His literary criticism has appeared on the Harvard UP website and elsewhere. A multiple Pushcart-Prize nominee, he served as literary judge for Columbia University’s Gold Crown Awards and received a Yaddo fellowship.
He has taught at Wesleyan, The Gallatin School of NYU, and The City University of New York. His poem “Subway Silk” was translated into a film by Jill Clark and screened at Tribeca and at the San Francisco Indiefest. He presented his paper “Schemes and Schemata: Endless Play” and read his poems at Harvard’s Mahindra Humanities Center.

Office Hours Poetry Workshop Craft Class with Catherine Barnett
2018-12-01 11:00 - 14:30
Office Hours Poetry Workshop presents: a FREE craft class and reading with Catherine Barnett. The craft class takes place from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM at the Bureau.
A public reading with Catherine Barnett, Jen Levitt, and Paco Marquez will follow from 1:30 PM-2:30 PM.
Spaces for the craft class are limited to 15 persons so please RSVP in advance to sarahmariesala@gmail.com. Please bring a notebook and pen/pencil in addition to your technological device in case of cross-genre prompts.
Improv for Poets: In this workshop we’ll practice improvisational writing, adapting theatrical exercises to our work on the page. We’ll also practice the energizing if at times uncomfortable art of not-knowing as we use the often under-explored resources of syntax to carry our poems into new territories. With supporting materials from Layli Long-Soldier, Wislawa Szymborska, Zbigniew Herbert, Ellen Bryant Voigt, Forrest Hamer, William Carlos Williams, Kathleen Peirce, and Larry Levis.
Office Hours Poetry Workshop provides post-MFA poets access to continued support for manuscript-development and everyday writing. The workshop culminates in a public reading each fall and spring to showcase sizzling new work. We welcome all poets, especially people of color, LGBTQ+, and those who are woman-identified. Our name derives from our side hustle. Many of us are freelance, adjunct instructors, who continue to thrive in the margins of academia.

Catherine Barnett‘s third collection, Human Hours, was just published by Graywolf Press in early fall 2018. She is the author of Into Perfect Spheres Such Holes Are Pierced and The Game of Boxes, winner of the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets. Her honors include a Whiting Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She teaches at NYU and Hunter and works as an independent editor in NYC.

Jen Levitt is the author of The Off-Season (Four Way Books, 2016). She received her MFA from NYU, and her poems have appeared in Boston Review, The Literary Review, Sixth Finch, Tin House and elsewhere. She lives in New York City and teaches high school students.

Paco Márquez is author of the chapbook Portraits in G Minor (Folded Word Press, 2017). His work has appeared in Apogee, Ostrich Review, Live Mag! and Huizache, among others. As Spanish Editor for William O’Daly, he assisted in translating Pablo Neruda’s initial book, Crepusculario, for the first time into English, Book of Twilight, (Copper Canyon Press, 2017). His work has been supported by New York University, The Center for Book Arts, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Originally from México and Northern California, Paco lives in New York City with his partner of 12 years. More at: pacomarquez.net

LSTW magazine issue 3 NYC launch
2018-12-01 19:00 - 21:00
Join us on Saturday, December 1st from 7PM – 9:30PM at the Bureau of General Services-Queer Division in celebrating the launch of LSTW Issue 3!

Published annually, LSTW is an intimate exploration of lesbian communities across Canada. The bilingual print magazine, based in Montreal, Quebec, celebrates diverse and authentic queer voices from coast to coast to coast.

Meet founder & publisher Florence Gagnon and other members of the Lez Spread The Word team to discuss the creation of the magazine, and its third issue, which includes: An in-depth profile of Emmy-winning writer, producer and actor Lena Waithe. Other highlights include an investigation into conversion therapy in Canada today, a conversation between Muslim writers of color Fariha Róisín and Samra Habib, a photo essay about Mexico City Pride and a look at how virtual reality is queering the porn industry.

The 230-page magazine is the result of efforts by more than 20 women keen to bring about positive change. Working from a desire to broaden access to LGBTQ+ communities, lstw honors role models, promotes diversity and shines a spotlight on lesbian culture in a new way.

+ beauty bar at the event by @fluidebeauty!

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

lstw‘s appeal transcends borders. The magazine is distributed in over 20 cities across North America and Europe, with key retail sites that include Casa Bosques Mexico City, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, magCulture London, Athenaeum Nieuwscentrum Amsterdam, Artbook @ Hauser & Wirth LA, and McNally Jackson Books and Artbook @ MoMA PS1 in New York.

Launched in Montreal in 2012, Lez Spread the Word is an LGBTQ+ organization devoted to producing content by and for queer women. Its first project was an eponymous news and entertainment website, followed by the awardwinning web series Féminin/Féminin, which aired on Radio-Canada in Quebec and France Télévisions in Europe, and through Amazon and Hulu in the United States. A dramedy that looks at the intersecting lives of a dozen or so queer characters, Féminin/Féminin recently wrapped its second season. Other notable initiatives include the bimonthly party Où sont les femmes?; #12, a beer co-created with Montreal’s Brasserie Harricana; and the sold-out play Coco. In the fall of 2016, Lez Spread the Word published the first issue of lstw, a bilingual print magazine committed to fighting queer invisibility.

OLNY Poly Movie Night: Café au Lait
2018-12-05 18:30 - 21:30
Open Love NY presents Poly Movie Night, a FREE series of feature films that focus on the portrayal of consensual / ethical non-monogamy in cinema. This month we’ll be at our regular venue, the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division.

On Wednesday, December 5th, please join us for Café au Lait (1993), written and directed by Matthieu Kassovitz, starring Julie Mauduech, Hubert Koundé, and Mathieu Kassovitz.

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

Synopsis: A young woman introduces her two boyfriends (a wealthy African Muslim law student and a poor Jewish bike messenger) to each other on the same day she reveals that she is pregnant. Running time: 1 hour 34 minutes. In French with English subtitles.

New Poems from the Bathhouse
2018-12-06 19:00 - 21:30
subway hookups, bathhouse encounters, and missed connections:
we present new work
(seedy and/or psychedelic)
from Youtube prophet
MessiahSez
and poets
Kyle Dacuyan
and A.W. Strouse
Suggested donation of $10 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.
Event image: Charles Demuth, Turkish Bath with Self Portrait, 1918 (Public Domain)
Kyle Dacuyan is a poet in Brooklyn, NY.
A.W. Strouse is a poet who teaches medieval literature.
Messiah Sez is a YouTube sensation.

Keith Taylor Presents.. Version 2.0
2018-12-07 19:30 - 21:30
Performances by LGBT artists Trance, Durrty Hanna, Rockstar Sissy, Vermex Van Croix, Baller Brown, Fabiola Blonde, & Keith Taylor.

Followed by the premiere screening of “Silence” 3rd music video from THE STAGE Remixed & Revamped! EP

This event is a fundraiser for New Alternatives

Suggested donation of $10 to benefit New Alternatives. No one turned away for lack of funds.

New Alternatives provides a range of services designed to help LGBTQ+ youth succeed in transitioning to stable adult lives and welcomes all youth as they are with no barriers to entry.

Feminist Data Set Workshop
2018-12-08 19:00 - 21:00
Please join Caroline Sinders and Dilettante Army for a workshop and discussion of Feminist Data Set. This session coincides with the launch of Dilettante Army’s newest online issue, Plot, which includes an essay by Sinders. For an initial discussion of queer aesthetic data points, Sinders will be joined by her fellow Plot contributor Rebecca Ariel Porte and by artist LJ Roberts.
This session will investigate varying methods of creating a feminist data set. What is feminist data inside of social networks, algorithms, and big data? A feminist data set queers the archive, the spreadsheet, and the data set. It moves beyond a white and male space, forcing the technology to reflect the community. A feminist data set acts as a means to combat bias and introduce the possibility of data collection as a feminist practice, aiming to produce a slice of data to intervene in larger civic and private networks. Exploring its potential to disrupt larger systems by generating new forms of agency, the session asks: can data collection itself function as an artwork? How can we create data to be an act of protest against algorithms?
Participants are invited to name digital content such as images, gifs, videos, sound, music and texts, which they feel is feminist and queer in nature, to feed into the data set, which teaches an AI system to recognize such. Queer data is art, interviews, and writing by queer and trans folx, with special attention paid to the work of people of color data (examples: the Combahee River Collective’s “A Black Feminist Statement,” “I Want a Dyke for President,” the sculptures of Simone Leigh, Janet Mock’s Redefining Realness, etc.). This process raises questions concerning qualitative data collection and requires the group to reflect on categories supposed to capture feminism.
If possible, please bring your own laptop! This will help you research data points and share any files you find.

Caroline Sinders is a machine learning design researcher and artist. For the past few years, she has been focusing on the intersections of natural language processing, artificial intelligence, abuse, online harassment and politics in digital, as well as conversational spaces. Caroline is the principal designer and founder of Convocation Design + Research, a design and research agency focusing on the intersections of product design, user research, AI, emerging technology and public good.
Caroline has held fellowships with the Yerba Buena Centers of the Arts, Eyebeam, the Studio for Creative Inquiry and the International Center of Photography. Her work has been featured at MoMA PS1, the Houston Center for Contemporary Art, Slate, Quartz, the Channels Biennale, as well as others. Caroline holds a masters from New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program.

Rebecca Ariel Porte (Ph.D., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor) is a member of the Core Faculty at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research, where she teaches a spectrum of courses in literature, philosophy, and theory across centuries, cultures, and canons. She is currently at work on a book about paradise, Arcadia, and the Golden Age.

LJ Roberts creates large-scale textile installations, intricate embroideries, artist books, and collages. Their work investigates overlaps of queer and trans politics, activism, protest, narrative, and craft. LJ’s work has been shown at such venues as The Brooklyn Museum, The Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Museum of Arts and Design, Yerba Buena Center of the Arts, The Victoria and Albert Museum, The 8th Floor, Vox Populi, The Orange County Museum of Art, The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, The Oakland Museum of California, The DePaul Art Museum, The ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, The Bowdoin College Museum of Art, and The Museum of the City of New York.
LJ has been the past recipient of The Fountainhead Fellowship at Virginia Commonwealth University, and residencies at IASPIS-Stockholm, The MacDowell Colony, QueensLab, Ox-Bow School of Art, ACRE, The Textile Arts Center, and The Bag Factory in Johannesburg, South Africa.
In 2015 LJ was one of nine recipients of The White House Champions of Change Award for LGBTQI Artists.
LJ lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
