BGSQD

Words & Music: an evening of queer poetry & song with Gregg Shapiro & Jim Andralis (in person & live-streaming)
2023-08-16 19:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Queer poet Gregg Shapiro reads from his new book Refrain In Light (Souvenir Spoon Book, 2023). Shapiro will be sharing the stage with queer musician Jim Andralis who will be performing songs from his most recent album I Can’t Stop Trying.
Copies of both Gregg’s Refrain In Light and Jim’s I Can’t Stop Trying will be available for purchase at the event!
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming at YouTube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work.
All are welcome to attend, with or without donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @bgsqd.

Gregg Shapiro is the author of nine books including Refrain in Light (Souvenir Spoon Books, 2023). Recent/forthcoming lit-mag publications include San Pedro River Review, BarBar, Otherwise Engaged Literature and Arts Journal, The Penn Review, RFD, Gargoyle, Limp Wrist, Mollyhouse, Impossible Archetype, confetti, BP Review, and Panoplyzine, as well as the anthology Let Me Say This: A Dolly Parton Poetry Anthology (Madville, 2023). An entertainment journalist, whose interviews and reviews run in a variety of regional LGBTQ+ and mainstream publications and websites, Shapiro lives in South Florida with his husband Rick, and their dog Coco.

Originally born and raised in Pennsylvania, New York City-based Jim Andralis has proudly entrenched himself within the New York music community. He went from member of queer NYC punk band The Isotoners to featured performer in Joe’s Pub monthly variety show, Our Hit Parade. His 2016 solo debut, Your Dying Wish Come True, garnered critical acclaim with The Miami Herald christening it, “One of the best solo debut discs of the year.” Shut Up Shut Up [2018] and My Beautiful Enemy [2020] integrated lush harmonies courtesy of the Syntonics, adding layers of humanity and beauty to his tender and (and occasionally rauncy) songs. They had the pleasure of opening for Bikini Kill at Irving Plaza last summer. Among various collaborations, Andralis teamed up with Bridget Everett [Somebody Somewhere, Love You More, Patti Cake$] on “Hit The Ground Fuckin’” and lent his voice to Champagne Jerry’s The Champagne Room alongside the likes of Adam “Ad Rock” Horovitz [The Beastie Boys], Erin Markey, and Murray Hill. In addition, he works as a trauma-focused psychotherapist in private practice and co-hosts country music variety show Grand Ole Pubry at Joe’s Pub. Andralis is releasing a stripped EP this September, and with the Syntonics is currently recording Ghosts, an LP to be released in 2024.

VIRTUE, NYC REVIVAL OF LANDMARK QUEER FILM
2023-07-27 18:30 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join us for a screening of VIRTUE (1999), the historical experimental queer film, followed by Q&A with director Camera Obscura, moderated by August Bernadicou (The LGBTQ History Project).
A quarter-century after its release, Virtue reflects the historical moment during the 1990s in S.F. when the two worlds of tech and queer/punk collided. As a result, Virtue was received as a perplexing anomaly. On the one hand, it was a campy, polymorphously perverse satire with music. On the other hand, it was a scathing critique (exceedingly rare at the time) of Silicon Valley’s techno-utopian vision. Neither fish nor fowl, the film defied genre.
The story, reminiscent in tone of a Twilight Zone allegory, involves a strange woman with an odd accent (Hundée) who loses her husband in a graphically depicted scene of auto-erotic asphyxiation. To cope with her loss, she seeks a virtual-reality substitute (a “man chip” as she calls it). This pursuit leads her into the prurient world of tech addicts who rely on chip pushers (the drug metaphor is obvious).
The film is chock full of cameos by bohemian icons of the day, including The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Jello Biafra, Elvis Herselvis, Phillip R. Ford, and Miss X. Also included are interviews with futurists Timothy Leary, William Gibson, R.U. Sirius, and John Perry Barlow.
Director Q/A to follow moderated by August Bernadicou (The LGBTQ History Project)
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Suggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work.
All are welcome to attend, with or without donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @bgsqd.

SEX WORKER STORY HOUR (in person only)
2023-06-29 19:00 - 20:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Scratch the surface of any sizeable gathering of gay men and you will find a number of guys who have engaged in one form of sex work or another at some time in their lives: erotic massage, escorting, sacred intimacy, go-go dancing, stripping, camming for cash, appearing in adult videos (porn), OnlyFans/JustForFans, hosting sex parties, selling used underwear online, etc. And we all have stories to tell. What circumstances brought you into sex work, and what made you cycle out of it? What did you learn about yourself in the process? What were memorable triumphs or debacles for you?
Bring a story to tell, or let yourself be interviewed by Tomik Dash, founder and publisher of Fag Rag magazine, and Don Shewey, author of the just-published memoir Daddy Lover God: a sacred intimate journey (Joybody Books). Connoisseurs of sex workers also welcome to share.
Copies of Daddy Lover God will be available for purchase and signing. Copies of Fag Rag NYC will be available free of charge.
Reserve a copy of Daddy Lover God by writing to us at contact@bgsqd.com
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

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

Suggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work.
All are welcome to attend, with or without donation.

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

Biographies of participants:
Tomik Dash is a Black, gay, left-handed, near-sighted, outspoken entrepreneur, writer, activist, and sex worker. At least three of those attributes got him scholarships into college. He publishes a regional brand of fine art, LGBTQ magazines called Fag Rag that currently have editions in NYC, Fire Island, and Provincetown. He is also the President of a nonprofit called the Black and Brown Equity Coalition that advocates for Black and transgender equity on Fire Island.
www.tomik2point0.com
Instagram: @tomik2point0

Don Shewey is a writer, therapist, and pleasure activist in New York City. As a journalist and critic, he has published three books about theater and hundreds of articles for the New York Times, the Village Voice, and other publications. He has chronicled his psycho-sexual-spiritual adventures in essays for numerous anthologies as well as the book-length The Paradox of Porn: Notes on Gay Male Sexual Culture. An archive of his writing is available online at donshewey.com.
Instagram: @donsheweynyc

Images:
Cover of Daddy Lover God
Don Shewey headshot: Liam Cunningham Photography
Cover of Fag Rag NYC, featuring art work by Gio Black Peter
Tomik Dash headshot: Erik Carter

We Made It: The Testimony of Black Queer Writers with David Santos Donaldson & Robert Jones, Jr. (in person & live-streaming)
2023-06-28 19:30 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
“We Made It: The Testimony of Black Queer Writers”
A conversation with novelists Robert Jones, Jr. & David Santos Donaldson about their journeys being Black and queer in the world of publishing, activism, and following the legacies of Black queer artists.
Copies of The Prophets & Greenland will be available for purchase at the event. We strongly encourage you to reserve a copy in advance so that we can be sure to have enough on hand. Please email us at contact@bgsqd.com.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming at YouTube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work.
All are welcome to attend, with or without donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @bgsqd.
Robert Jones, Jr. (formerly known as “Son of Baldwin”) is the author of The New York Times bestselling novel, The Prophets, which won the 2022 Publishing Triangle Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction, and was a finalist for the 2021 National Book Award for Fiction. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Essence, Variety, and The Paris Review, as well as in the critically acclaimed anthologies Four Hundred Souls and The 1619 Project. You can subscribe for free to his newsletter, Witness, on Substack.
David Santos Donaldson is the author of the novel Greenland, a finalist for the 2023 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and the 2023 Publishing Triangle Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction. He was raised in Nassau, Bahamas, and has lived in India, Spain, and the United States. Donaldson attended Wesleyan University and the Drama Division of the Juilliard School, and his plays have been commissioned by the Public Theater. His writing has appeared in various magazines including Poets & Writers, Literary Hub, Electric Literature, The Rumpus, and the German literary magazine Geistesblüten.

KNOWSGAY No. 8 Launch Party
2023-06-22 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
KNOWSGAY is back to celebrate it’s 10 year anniversary. Please join us to celebrate and pick up a copy of our latest issue.
KNOWSGAY was created for the Los Angeles Art Book Fair in 2013. An unconventional approach to zine making, KNOWSGAY exists as a lovingly assembled collection of art/ephemera that memorializes fleeting thoughts, queer emotions, and iconic and esoteric queer icons. KNOWSGAY is created by Charlie Welch and Paul Moreno. Charlie and Paul are also the founders of the New York Queer Zine Fair.
KNOWSGAY 8 will be an edition of 50 and will be for sale exclusively at the Bureau.
A portion of all sales will benefit the Bureau.

JesusDevil: New York Launch with Alexis De Veaux and J. Wortham (in person & live-streaming)
2023-06-21 18:00 - 20:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
JesusDevil: The Parables, synthesizes a lifetime of Alexis’s movement through genre, resulting in her boldest statement on form, alternate worldmaking, and black queer life to date. For this New York launch event, Alexis will read from JesusDevil, and then join a discussion with writer J. Wortham about the book and its expansive, black queer imaginings.
Evocative and experimental, JesusDevil: The Parables is a nonlinear tale of black life and spiritual expression. Writing in a style she calls “afiction,” author Alexis De Veaux expands and moves beyond traditional narrative, following the adventures of Fhill, a black, queer spirit who has taken human form. Neither male nor female, Fhill moves fluidly and disruptively across concepts of identity, passing through the nine “parables” that comprise this text. Examining aspects of what it means to be black and human—from a nonhuman perspective—Fhill’s liminal nature redefines social and literary categories, exploring social constructions of blackness as well as themes of desire, memory, sex, revenge, and more.
Copies of JesusDevil: The Parables will be available for purchase at the event. We strongly encourage you to reserve a copy in advance so that we can be sure to have enough on hand. Please email us at contact@bgsqd.com with “Reserve JesusDevil” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming at YouTube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work.
All are welcome to attend, with or without donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @bgsqd.
Alexis De Veaux is a black queer feminist independent scholar whose internationally known work is published in six languages. She has been publishing fiction, poetry, plays, memoirs, and children’s literature since 1973, and her work is anthologized in numerous collections. De Veaux is the author of Yabo and Warrior Poet: A Biography of Audre Lorde; and was tenured faculty at the University at Buffalo, Department of Women’s Studies, for more than twenty years, mentoring a new generation of interdisciplinary scholars of black, feminist, and queer studies.
J Wortham (they/them) is a sound healer, reiki practitioner, herbalist, and community care worker oriented towards healing justice and liberation. They are also a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine, and co-host of the podcast ‘Still Processing,’ With Kimberly Drew, they co-edited Black Futures, a visual anthology and compendium of radical, imaginative, and provocative art by contemporary Black creators.

Book Launch: Drew Pisarra's Periodic Boyfriends (in person & live-streaming)
2023-06-18 17:00 - 18:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join author Drew Pisarra for the launch of Periodic Boyfriends, his new poetry collection inspired by the Periodic Table of Elements and his personal catalog of one- night-stands. A discussion between the author and Capturing Fire Publisher and Nuyorican Poets Café Slam Legend Regie Cabico will follow the reading.
Copies of Periodic Boyfriends ($20) will be available for purchase at the event. We strongly encourage you to reserve a copy in advance so that we can be sure to have enough on hand. Please email us at contact@bgsqd.com with “Reserve Periodic Boyfriends” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming at YouTube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work.
All are welcome to attend, with or without donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @bgsqd.
Drew Pisarra is a grantee of Café Royal Cultural Foundation, Curious Elixirs: Curious Creators, and LMCC as well as the author of the poetry collections Periodic Boyfriends (2023) and Infinity Standing Up (2019) [lauded as “brazen and lusty and often amusing” by The Washington Post] and the short story collections You’re Pretty Gay (2021) [excerpted by Ms. magazine] and Publick Spanking (1996).
Regie Cabico is a spoken word pioneer having won The Nuyorican Poets Cafe Grand Slam and later taken top prizes in three National Poetry Slams. TV credits include TEDx, two seasons of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, and NPR’s Snap Judgement. His new collection of poetry, A Rabbit in Search of a Rolex will be released Sep. 2023 by Day Eight Press. He is the publisher/producer of Capturing Fire Press and resides in DC.

Deep Moon, Pluto (in person and live-streaming)
2023-06-16 18:00 - 18:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Kuba Falk + Zbigniew Bzymek present: Deep Moon, Pluto
A body performance with video monitor working with themes of gay masculinity and superimposition and submission to image.
The Bureau is hosting the performance Deep Moon, Pluto in conjunction with the exhibition The Romance of Entanglement (in the era of the Observer’s Paradox), an exhibition of new work by eleven queer artists curated by participating artists Courtney Webster and Natalie Woodlock. The exhibition opens June 8 and runs through September 10.
Bio
Kuba Falk and Z Bzymek make up the queer art duo INTERHUMAN – making art that explores the diverging needs of individual spiritual growth and community interconnectedness.

@interhuman_interform
@kuba_falk
@zbi_bzym

Book Launch for GENDER WITHOUT IDENTITY, by Avgi Saketopoulou and Ann Pellegrini (in person & live-streaming)
2023-06-15 19:00 - 20:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join authors Avgi Saketopoulou and Ann Pellegrini as they discuss their new book, GENDER WITHOUT IDENTITY. They will be in conversation with psychoanalyst Griffin Hansbury. The event will consist of a reading, discussion, Q&A, and signing, followed by a short reception with food and drink.
About GENDER WITHOUT IDENTITY: At a time of unprecedented legislative attacks on LGBTQ+ people, with gender-affirmative care for trans youth being outright banned in a growing number of states, Saketopoulou and Pellegrini offer an innovative and at times unsettling theory of gender formation. Arguing for abandoning the fiction of “core gender identity” and the fantasy that there is something true or authentic about any gender, Saketopoulou and Pellegrini instead propose that gender is something all subjects (not just trans and queer subjects) acquire. Trauma, they daringly argue, sometimes has a share in that acquisition.
Rooted in the work of French psychoanalyst Jean Laplanche and in conversation with bold work in queer and trans studies, GENDER WITHOUT IDENTITY argues for the ethical urgency of recognizing that wounding experiences and traumatic legacies may be spun into gender. Such “spinning” involves self-theorizations that do not proceed from a centered self, but are nevertheless critical to psychic autonomy.
Saketopoulou and Pellegrini, who are both practicing psychoanalysts, offer theoretical and clinical resources for working with gender complexity and for complexifying (what is seen as) gender normativity. But, above all, GENDER WITHOUT IDENTITY is an impassioned defense of queer and trans life and flourishing.
Copies of GENDER WITHOUT IDENTITY will be available at the Bureau. To reserve a copy, please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming at YouTube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work.
All are welcome to attend, with or without donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @bgsqd.

Avgi Saketopoulou (she/her) is a Cypriot and Greek immigrant and a psychoanalyst based in New York City. She is on faculty at the NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, and works extensively with trans children and their families. She is also the author of Sexuality Beyond Consent: Risk, Race, Traumatophilia, which was published earlier this year by New York University Press.

Ann Pellegrini (all pronouns) is Professor of Performance Studies & Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University, and a psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City. Their books include “You Can Tell Just By Looking” and 20 Other Myths about LGBT Life and People, coauthored with Michael Bronski and Michael Amico (Beacon Press, 2013). Pellegrini is the founding coeditor of the “Sexual Cultures” series at New York University Press.

Saketopoulou and Pellegrini are the recipients of the first Tiresias Paper Award, from the Sexual and Gender Diversity Studies Committee of the International Psychoanalytical Association.

Griffin Hansbury (he/him) is a psychoanalyst in New York City. Under the pen name Jeremiah Moss, he is the author of Feral City and Vanishing New York. His writing on the city has appeared in the New York Times, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and the New York Review of Books.

Boyslut Book Launch with author Zachary Zane and Jordyn Taylor (in person & live-streaming)
2023-06-14 19:00 - 20:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join sex expert and Men’s Health magazine columnist Zachary Zane in celebration of his new book Boyslut: A Memoir and Manifesto at the Bureau on Wednesday, June 14th at 7pm ET! Zach will be in conversation with Jordyn Taylor, executive digital editor at Men’s Health and co-author with Zach of Men’s Health Best. Sex. Ever.: 200 Frank, Funny & Friendly Answers About Getting It On.
Named one of Buzzfeed’s Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Books of 2023, Boyslut is a series of personal and tantalizing essays that articulate how our society still shames people for the sex that they have and the sexualities that they inhabit. Through the lens of his bisexuality and much self-described sluttiness, Zane breaks down exactly how this sexual shame negatively impacts the sex and relationships in our lives and, through personal experience, shares how we can unlearn the harmful, entrenched messages that society imparts to us.
From stories of drug-fueled threesomes and risqué Grindr hookups to insights on dealing with rejection and living with his boyfriend and his boyfriend’s wife, Boyslut is reassuring and often painfully funny—but most potently a testimony that we can all learn to live healthier lives unburdened by stigma.
Copies of Boyslut will be available at the Bureau. To reserve a copy, please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming at YouTube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work.
All are welcome to attend, with or without donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @bgsqd.

Zachary Zane is a Brooklyn-based columnist, sex expert, and activist whose work focuses on sexuality, culture, and the LGBTQ community. He’s the co-author of Men’s Health: Best. Sex. Ever. He currently has two columns: “Sexplain It” the sex and relationship advice column at Men’s Health, and “Navigating Non-Monogamy” at Cosmo, where he shares all the mistakes he’s made in his polyamory journey, so you don’t have to. He is also the founder and editor-in-chief of Boyslut zine, which publishes real sex stories from kinksters worldwide. His work on sexuality and relationships has been published in the New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Washington Post, GQ, OUT, and many others.

Jordyn Taylor is the executive digital editor at Men’s Health magazine and the co-author of Men’s Health Best. Sex. Ever.: 200 Frank, Funny & Friendly Answers About Getting It On.

Celebrate Transgender and NonBinary people and their families in the book Authentic Selves (in person)
2023-06-11 15:00 - 17:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Please join us on Sunday June 11, 2023 at 3:00 p.m. at the Bureau of General Services-Queer Division book store located at 208 West 13th St NY, NY. – Room 210. We are celebrating the book release of Authentic Selves, a collection of stories by Trans and Nonbinary People and their families from across the country.
You will meet authors Josef Burwell, Tamira Burns, Chris Mohn and Jozeppi Angelo Morelli who will discuss their passion for the book and share excerpts from their stories. Our special guest will be Peggy Gillespie Co-Director of Family Diversity Projects and the extraordinary human who interviewed all the authors in the book.
Book signing will follow.
Copies of Authentic Selves will be available for purchase at the event. We strongly encourage you to reserve a copy in advance so that we can be sure to have enough on hand. Please email us at contact@bgsqd.com with “Reserve Authentic Selves” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Suggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work.
All are welcome to attend, with or without donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @bgsqd.
Josef Burwell is a transgender man, Physician Associate, and humanitarian. He currently facilitates a peer support group for trans masculine individuals, and works professionally providing medical care for First American people in Alaska.
Rev. Tamira Burns is a visible and vocal member of the LGBTQI+ community. She has been a human rights and social Justice advocate-activist for over 3 decades, working to affect compassionate policy changes at the local and state level for women, children and the LGBTQI+ community.
Chris Mohn (she/her) is a retired middle school educator, a mom, and a human committed to justice for all. I am honored to be a member of Joey’s chosen family, witnessing and supporting (as I could) his journey to become his authentic self – a proud, confident man, and now a passionate activist for the Trans community.
Peggy Gillespie is the Co-Founder/Director of Family Diversity Projects. She is the Editor-in- Chief of all of Family Diversity Project’s exhibits and books including Authentic Selves, Love Makes a Family: Portraits of LGBT People and their Families. https://www.familydiversityprojects.org
Jozeppi Angelo Morelli is a retired law enforcement officer and 911 WTC First Responder. He is an author, gender educator, activist and public speaker. He is also currently co-producing A Two Spirit Artist Show opening Oct 9,2023 in the East Village at La Sala De Pepe, a gallery and cultural center.

Bushwick Book Club Presents New Songs and Art in Response to Gender Queer (in person only)
2023-06-10 19:00 - 21:00 | The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center, 208 West 13th Street, Room 101, New York, 10011, United States
The Bureau of General Services—Queer Division and The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center Host The Bushwick Book Club Presenting New Songs and Art in Response to Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe.
Featuring performers:
John S. Hall (New Trout)
Don Rauf
Susan Hwang
Boy Meets Pearl
Yva Las Vegass
Anni Rossi
Paula Spiro
Honi Harlow
Hanuel Lee
spiritchild
Endless Arrows
Jason Trachtenburg
Stephanie Larriere
Oksana Horban

Copies of Gender Queer: A Memoir (Oni Press, 2019, paperback, $19.99) will be available for purchase at the event. To reserve a copy please email the Bureau at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve Gender Queer” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

Suggested donation $10 to pay the performers
Please register on Eventbrite by clicking here.
About the Bushwick Book Club:
The Bushwick Book Club began in January 2009 on a dare. Songwriter, Susan Hwang, dared Goodbye Blue Monday owner Steve Trimboli to let her have a night of new songs inspired by literature. He said, “Sure.”
They started with Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions and now meet monthly employing the talents of local songwriters, artists and chefs who plumb the depths of a chosen literary gem to create that rare and beautiful thing – a new song (or visual art, dance, film or snack). These literature-themed live shows have been inspired by everything from Raymond Carver to Charles Darwin to George R.R. Martin to the thesaurus.
The Bushwick Book Club now has several branches all over the world, including Portland, Los Angeles, Seattle, Santa Barbara, New Orleans, Greenville, London and Malmö, Sweden.
The Bushwick Book Club Podcast includes excerpts from the live shows plus interviews with authors and songwriters.

Circuit Party (in person & live-streaming)
2023-06-09 18:00 - 19:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Circuit Party lays bare the electromagnetic substructure of contemporary relations, creating a portalic space using sound, electricity, astrological magic and the hyperobject of technology.
The Bureau is hosting the performance Circuit Party in conjunction with the exhibition The Romance of Entanglement (in the era of the Observer’s Paradox), an exhibition of new work by eleven queer artists curated by participating artists Courtney Webster and Natalie Woodlock. The exhibition opens June 8 and runs through September 10.
Bio:
Forrester is based in San Francisco, CA. Exhibited widely, in both national and international contexts, and with a range of aesthetic interests that include: practices of accumulation, manifestations of power, diaspora, noetic science, new materialisms, discourses around the transcendent and the material relationship between self and world. These encounter fusion around ideas of regenerative relationships to both and land and people, collective liberation, quantum feminisms, queer theory, spiritual and occult praxis and ontology and addressing historical trauma as spiritual practice.

The Romance of Entanglement: Opening Reception
2023-06-08 18:00 - 20:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
The Bureau of General Services—Queer Division is proud to present The Romance of Entanglement (in the era of the Observer’s Paradox), an exhibition of new work by eleven queer artists. The exhibition opens June 8 and runs through September 10.
Join us for the Opening Reception on Thursday, June 8, 6-8 PM
The Romance of Entanglement presents the work of artists working across photography, fiber arts, painting, printmaking, drawing and installation. The work in this exhibit has been made in deep collaboration with larger communities and in communication with queer legacies and histories.
Weaving, quilting and drag are some of the communal and performative traditions artists draw from. These processes speak back to the collaborative art-making traditions of queer and feminist activism and performance. Working with color, pattern, texture and symbols, much of the work in this show signals ecstatic joy and vibrates with abundance.
Other work interrogates capitalist systems and the tropes of representation produced by the dominant culture. This work posits queerness as an act of generative disobedience, offering an alternate lexicon where the erased and invisible become seen, empowered and celebrated.
In an increasingly hostile landscape for LGBTQ+ people, this exhibition offers a utopian re-envisioning of the present and a portal into the future. It chronicles the ways we are creating safety for ourselves, conjuring our utopian visions into existence.
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS
Liz Collins • Dana Robinson • Natalie Woodlock • Courtney Webster • Meg Turner Voxigma Lo • Whit Forrester • Colin Roberson • Theodora Eliezer Katie Kaplan • Amaryllis DeJesus Moleski

2AM Eternal Book Launch with Eric Kostiuk Williams & Ted Kerr (in person & live-streaming)
2023-06-07 19:30 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Come by the Bureau on Wednesday, June 7 for the launch of 2AM Eternal: A Decade of Queer Nightlife Posters + Comics, 2012-2022. Your host, Eric Kostiuk Williams, captures a decade of nightlife in Toronto’s queer community — with detours to San Francisco and NYC — from basements to the backstage to the back rooms. Collecting one hundred event posters from 2012 to 2022, along with short comics and write-ups from the author, the organizers, the performers, and the crowd, 2AM Eternal makes a scene — until last call. The pandemic prompts a series of posters for cancelled events, and a pivot to digital events in the days of lockdown, before the manic, uneasy re-emergence of face-to-face, wall-to-wall living.
Eric will be joined by author and activist Ted Kerr (We Are Having This Conversation Now: The Times of AIDS Cultural Production) for a discussion touching on nightlife in the 2010s, Eric’s posters for NYC Inferno and Queer|Art|Film, and much more.
Praise for 2AM Eternal:
“By linking his lived experience to the ebbs and flows of his clubbing community, Williams creates a unique blend of autobiography and ethnography. A rare feat, this collection informs, entertains, and seduces.” – Publishers Weekly
“Eric Kostiuk Williams’ work has an incredible sense of physicality. Rooms and bodies live, pulse, transform from one thing to another. There’s a fluidity between the tangible and the abstract. At the end of the night, will we return to the familiar or dissolve into the air? I’m so happy this book exists. Toronto is a city that seems hellbent on scrubbing itself of everything interesting about itself. I don’t think it’s hyperbolic to say that this is an incredibly important document and will probably change a few lives too.” – Jillian Tamaki (Roaming, Supermutant Magic Academy, Boundless)
Copies of 2AM Eternal will be available for purchase at the event. We strongly encourage you to reserve a copy in advance so that we can be sure to have enough on hand. Please email us at contact@bgsqd.com with “Reserve 2AM Eternal” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming at YouTube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work.
All are welcome to attend, with or without donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @bgsqd.
Eric Kostiuk Williams is a Toronto-based cartoonist and illustrator. His work deploys a fluid, surreal visual aesthetic to explore ideas surrounding queer culture, gender expression, and urban upheaval. Eric has contributed comics to NOW Magazine, Dazed & Confused, PEN American, and The Believer. He has also created murals, nightlife flyers, harm reduction campaigns, editorial illustrations, album artwork, and music videos. Eric is an Eisner, Doug Wright, and Lambda Literary nominee. Recent illustration clients include Queer|Art|Film, VICE, The Poetry Project, and The Walrus.
Canadian born Theodore (ted) Kerr is a Brooklyn based writer and organizer whose work focuses on HIV/AIDS, community, and culture. In 2022 his book, We Are Having This Conversation Now: The Times of AIDS Cultural Production , with co-author, Alexandra Juhasz, was published by Duke University Press. His writing has also appeared in Women's Studies Quarterly, The New Inquiry, BOMB, CBC (Canada), Lambda Literary, POZ Magazine, The Advocate, Cineaste, The St. Louis American, IndieWire, HyperAllergic, and other publications.

NYC Queer Comic Fair 2023
2023-06-04 13:00 - 19:00, 2023-06-03 13:00 - 19:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
We are BACK! June 3-4, come join us at the Bureau inside the LGBT Center in NYC, where we will be celebrating the wonderful work of local queer comic creators! This year, we have over 30 vendors spanning the entire second floor of the LGBT Center! FREE ADMISSION! 1-7PM, Saturday and Sunday.

Vendors:

Doable Guys
Patrick J. Reilly
Gilesdraws
Miasmatik Art
Slade
Retrosofa
Go Robo Now
Shadow Minis
SquiddySprinkle
DIS PATER
Edward Ficklin
Casey at the Bat
Transoffinland
Lucky Sanford
James Dillenbeck
D De Maglie
Homosuperiorr
Liam Donnelly
Zackery Francis
Greg Lockard
Royal Nightshade Art
Jesse Arbor Illustration
Macspins
Rat Decayy
[GLASS//CUTTER]
Carmen Pizarro
Kate Zimmermann
Vox the devil
Shiny Skunk
The Boy in Pink Earmuffs
Bunnysleepover

WHO NEEDS GAY BARS? Book talk and signing (in person & live-streaming)
2023-05-31 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join author Greggor Mattson and interlocutor Hugh Ryan for a conversation about the past, present, and future of gay bars and LGBTQ+ spaces. Mattson’s new book WHO NEEDS GAY BARS? reports on more than 300 gay bar visits in 39 states and conversations with bar owners and bartenders, drag queens and DJs (Redwood Press May 2023). Samantha Allen, author of Real, Queer America, describes WHO NEEDS GAY BARS? as: “Breathtakingly intimate and yet vast in scope, this passion project balances sharp insights with the kind of lived-in details that make you want to pull up a stool and stay a while.” After a conversation and Q&A, the author will sign copies for purchase at the event.
Copies of WHO NEEDS GAY BARS? will be available at the Bureau. To reserve a copy, please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming at YouTube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work.
All are welcome to attend, with or without donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @bgsqd.
Greggor Mattson is Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Department at Oberlin College & Conservatory where he teaches courses on sexuality, cities, law, and nightlife. He has been gay since 1974, has conducted research in gay bars since 1999, and has published on them in such venues as Slate, Literary Hub, Urban Studies, and Gender, Place, and Culture. He grew up in small-town Washington and lives in small-town Ohio, and tweets @greggormattson.
Hugh Ryan is a writer and curator, and most recently, the author of The Women’s House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison, which won the American Library Association’s Stonewall Book Award for Nonfiction and the W.A. Percy Foundation’s William Johansson Award. His first book, When Brooklyn Was Queer, won a New York City Book Award, was a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and was a finalist for the Randy Shilts and Lambda Literary Awards. He has been honored with the Allan Bérubé Prize from the American Historical Association, multiple grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Duberman Fellowship at the New York Public Library, and residencies at Yaddo and Watermill. He teaches in the MFA Program at Bennington College.

Fact and Fiction: Transgender Issues In the Real World and Through the Prism of Fiction (in person & live-streaming)
2023-05-25 19:00 - 20:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
In 2019, the ACLU of New Jersey, led by attorneys Jeanne LoCicero, Alexander Shalom, and Tess Borden, along with attorney Robyn Gigl of Gluck Walrath LLP, sued the New Jersey Department of Corrections and its officers on behalf of a transgender woman. As part of the settlement of that case, New Jersey adopted a system-wide policy to improve conditions for incarcerated transgender people that included presumptively housing people in custody in line with their gender identity, and not sex assigned at birth. Only a few other states in the nation have such protections in place.
The presentation will feature Jeanne LoCicero, Legal Director of the ACLU-NJ, and Attorney and Author, Robyn Gigl, discussing Doe v. NJ Department of Corrections, the legal strategy, the landmark settlement, and the settlement implications for transgender and non-binary identified people in custody. Robyn will also discuss how her experiences as an attorney and transgender woman have influenced her novels, By Way of Sorrow, Survivor’s Guilt and her most recent novel, Remain Silent, which feature Erin McCabe, a transgender criminal defense attorney and all of which touch on issues involving the incarceration of trans identified characters.
Copies of Robyn Gigl’s Remain Silent(Kensington Publishing, May 23, 2023, hardcover, $27) will be available for purchase at the event (along with earlier titles by Gigl). We strongly encourage you to reserve a copy of any books you plan on purchasing to ensure that we have plenty of copies on hand. Please write to us with “Please reserve a copy of Remain Silent” in the subject line:contact@bgsqd.com.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
This event will take place in person at theBureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming atYouTube.com/@bgsqd

Suggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work.
All are welcome to attend, with or without donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo@bgsqd.
Robyn Gigl, the author of the Erin McCabe legal thrillers, is an attorney, speaker and activist who has been honored by the ACLU-NJ and the NJ Pride Network for her work on behalf of the LGBTQ community. Appointed by the New Jersey Supreme Court to the Court’s Committee on Diversity Inclusion and Community Engagement, she’s practiced law for more than 40 years, representing clients in state and federal courts. She is active in the New Jersey State Bar Association where she is a member of the Women in the Profession Section and a Past Chair of the Bar’s LGBT Rights Section. She also is a member of the Board of Directors of Garden State Equality, NJ’s largest LGBTQ+ Civil Rights Organization. A frequent lecturer on diversity issues, she lives in New Jersey and can be found online at RobynGigl.com or on Twitter @RobynGigl.
Jeanne LoCicero is the Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey. She supervises the litigation program and related advocacy of the ACLU-NJ’s Legal Department and manages its 10+
person staff. Jeanne joined the ACLU-NJ as a staff attorney in 2004 and served as its Deputy Legal Director for ten years prior to becoming legal director in 2018. She has litigated and advocated in a wide range of civil rights and civil liberties cases, with a focus on prison conditions, racial equity, LGBTQ rights, women’s rights, and reproductive health. She recently served on New Jersey’s Transgender Equality Task Force, is a trustee of the Association of the Federal Bar of New Jersey, and serves on other legal and policy committees. Jeanne started her legal career as a legal fellow at the ACLU of Alabama after graduating with highest honors from Rutgers School of Law – Newark. She spent three years in private practice before joining the ACLU-NJ.

Queer Heroes of Myth and Legend with author Dan Jones (in person & live-streaming)
2023-05-21 15:00 - 17:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join author Dan Jones for the launch of Queer Heroes of Myth and Legend: A celebration of gay gods, sapphic saints and queerness through the ages
A discussion and book signing with author Dan Jones and Joshua Mackey, Assistant Editor, INTO

Copies of Queer Heroes of Myth and Legend (Radar, May 2, 2023, hardcover, $19.99) will be available for purchase at the event.
We strongly encourage you to reserve a copy in advance so that we can be sure to have enough copies on hand. Please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “reserve Queer Heroes” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming at YouTube.com/@bgsqd

Suggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work.
All are welcome to attend, with or without donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @bgsqd.

Dan Jones is a best-selling British author living in New York. A onetime magazine editor (i-D Magazine, Time Out London), Dan writes about fashion, grooming, booze, and queer culture.
Joshua Mackey is an editor, writer, interviewer, and culture/film/tv critic whose writing is at the intersection of Black, queer, and nerdy. The assistant editor for LGBTQ-focused publication INTO, his work can also be found in Nerdist, Huffington Post, and Geeks of Color.

Office Hours Spring 2023 Showcase Reading (hybrid in-person/virtual)
2023-05-19 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join us Friday, May 19th, at 7:00 PM EDT for the Office Hours Spring 2023 Showcase Reading, a hybrid event (both in person readers & virtual). Our current fellows will give a brief reading in celebration of another strong semester of poetry making, community building, and surviving in difficult creative times.
In person:
Emily Hockaday
Abba Belgrave
Noel Sikorski
Avia Tadmor
Meghan Pinto
Sarah Sala
Paco Márquez

On Zoom:
James Fujinami Moore
Ryan Dzelzkalns
Annie Wei
Shakeema Smalls
Carrie Hohmann
Register on Eventbrite to join the event on Zoom. Click here to register.
To join the event on Zoom (after you’ve registered), on Friday, May 19th, at 7 PM (EDT), return to the Eventbrite page and click on “Access link” (under “When and Where” and “Location”).
If attending in person, no registration is necessary. Seating is first come first served.
Office Hours Poetry Workshop is a community-based writing workshop for poets who show a demonstrated commitment to writing. The workshop fellowship 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 womxn-identified.
This event is funded in part by Poets & Writers through public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.

Craft Class & Reading with Joan Kwon Glass (virtual)
2023-05-18 18:30 - 20:30 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Join us for a Virtual Craft Class & Reading with Joan Kwon Glass
Form & Wonder: Led by Joan Kwon Glass, poets will use form to empower and serve curiosity. Looking at examples, we’ll explore how form serves the poem; and with writing prompts, we’ll practice being open to form to help in the process of wondering. Forms we may study include hymn, elegy, epistle, pantoum, and erasure.
Registration on Eventbrite is required in order to access the Zoom link for the class. Click here to register.
To join the class on Thursday, May 18th, at 6:30 PM (EDT), return to the Eventbrite page where you registered and click on “Access link” (under “When and Where” and “Location”).

Office Hours Poetry Workshop is a community-based writing workshop for poets who show a demonstrated commitment to writing. The workshop fellowship 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 womxn-identified. Our Craft Classes are free and open to the public with RSVP.
This event is funded in part by Poets & Writers through public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.

Practices: Running and Raving (in person only)
2023-05-17 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Lindsey Freeman, who runs but does not rave, and McKenzie Wark, who raves but cannot run, will read from their books in the new Practices series from Duke University Press. And will talk about queer practices, including the practice of writing.

Copies of Running and Raving are available at the Bureau ($15.95 each). To reserve a copy, please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming at YouTube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work.
All are welcome to attend, with or without donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @bgsqd.

Lindsey A. Freeman is a writer and sociologist interested in endurance, memory, and poetics. Her most recent book, Running, is about practice, love, queerness, and long distance running (Duke University Press). She is now working on a book about soccer, queer joy, and how hard it is to care about things.

McKenzie Wark is the author, among other things, of Reverse Cowgirl (Semiotexte) and Capital is Dead (Verso). She edited the trans | fem | aesthetics issue of eflux journal and co-edited the Black Rave issue. She teaches at The New School.

Poetry Reading: Kevin McLellan, Ed Madden, and Jayson P. Smith (in person & live-streaming)
2023-05-13 16:00 - 18:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Poetry Reading featuring Kevin McLellan, Ed Madden, and Jayson P. Smith, with introductions by Michael Broder.
Copies of Kevin McLellan’s in other words you/ (The Word Works, 2023, paperback, $18) and Ed Madden’s A Pooka in Arkansas (The Word Works, 2023, paperback, $19) will be available for purchase at the event. To reserve a copy of either book, please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming at YouTube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work.
All are welcome to attend, with or without donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @bgsqd.
KEVIN MCLELLAN is the author of: in other words you/ (selected by Timothy Liu for the 2022 Hilary Tham Capital Collection), Hemispheres, Ornitheology (2019 Massachusetts Book Awards recipient), [box] (in the Blue Star Collection at Harvard University and other special collections), Tributary, and Round Trip. Kevin makes videos under the name, Duck Hunting with the Grammarian. His video Dick won Best Short Form Short Film at the LGBTQ+ Los Angeles Film Festival. It also showed in the Flickers’ Rhode Island Film Festival, the Tag! Queer Film Festival, the Berlin Short Film Festival, and the Vancouver Queer Film Festival. https://kevmclellan.com/
ED MADDEN is the author of four other books and four chapbooks of poetry, most recently Ark, a book about his father’s last months in hospice care, and So they can sing, which won the 2016 Robin Becker Chapbook Prize. He is a professor of English and the former director of Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of South Carolina, where he teaches Irish literature, queer studies, and creative writing. Ed served as the poet laureate for the City of Columbia, SC, 2015-2022. He is recipient of an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship and artist residencies at the Hambidge Center in Georgia and the Instituto Sacatar in Itaparica, Brazil.
Jayson P. Smith is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, educator, and curator from the Bronx. Their work has received support from NYFA, The Poetry Project, Poetry Foundation, and Callaloo, among others. Recent performances include Center for Performance Research, Miriam Gallery, and The Guggenheim. In 2016, Jayson founded and continues to host NOMAD Readings. Find them in Brooklyn—listening—or at www.jaysonpsmith.com.

Queer Science: Neil Theise on Notes on Complexity (in person & live-streaming)
2023-05-10 19:00 - 20:30 | NY
Neil Theise and Bureau co-founder Greg Newton in conversation about Neil’s new book, Notes on Complexity.
We strongly encourage you to reserve a copy of Notes on Complexity: A Scientific Theory of Connection, Consciousness, and Being (Spiegel & Grau, May 9, 2023, hardcover, $27) if you plan on purchasing it at the event. Please email us with “Please reserve Notes on Complexity” in the subject line: contact@bgsqd.com
Or purchase a copy from our online store to have a copy shipped to you:

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

About Notes on Complexity: A Scientific Theory of Connection, Consciousness, and Being:
An electrifying introduction to complexity theory, the science of how complex systems behave, that profoundly reframes our understanding and illuminates our interconnectedness.
Nothing in the universe is more complex than life. Throughout the skies, in oceans, and across lands, life is endlessly on the move. In its myriad forms—from cells to human beings, social structures, and ecosystems—life is open-ended, evolving, unpredictable, yet adaptive and self-sustaining. Complexity theory addresses the mysteries that animate science, philosophy, and metaphysics: how this teeming array of existence, from the infinitesimal to the infinite, is in fact a seamless living whole; and it investigates what our place, as conscious beings, is within it. Neil Theise takes us to the exhilarating frontiers of human knowledge and, in the process, restores wonder and meaning to our experience of the everyday.
“An extraordinary book that will change the way you understand yourself and the universe.”
—Deepak Chopra
“A must-read instant classic.”—Robert Thurman

Neil Theise is a professor of pathology at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and a pioneer of adult stem cell plasticity. He is also a longtime student of Zen Buddhism. He lives in New York.

Author Appearance and Book Signing with Adaryll Moore
2023-05-07 15:00 - 17:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Come meet author Adaryll T. Moore at the Bureau on Sunday, May 7th, from 3 to 5 pm. She will have copies of her books I Bring the Glitter Everywhere and God, Forget the Wheel, Please Take the Whole Damn Vehicle for sale and signing.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

East-coast-based Adaryll T. Moore is a Transgendered Female, born leader, advocate for the LGBTQ community, creator, educator, scholar with two degrees in Elementary Education and a Reading minor, mentor, motivational speaker, poet, published award-winning author of five books, with so many other gifts and talents. With her heart of gold, Adaryll strongly desires to liberate others, especially LGBTQ+ children, through her literary works and victim-to-victor life story. Find out more on her website: www.amooreenterprises.org

Past and Future Queers: Mary Ann Cherry in conversation with Mike Albo (in person & live-streaming)
2023-05-06 15:00 - 16:45 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
In celebration of their new books — a nonfiction biography and a speculative Young Adult novel — authors Mary Ann Cherry and Mike Albo will discuss uncovering queer facts and creating queer fictions. Cherry’s Morris Kight: Humanist, Liberationist, Fantabulist is “a story of gay rights and gay wrongs” that traces the life of a LGBTQ pioneer. Albo’s Another Dimension of Us, a “speculative romance” follows queer kids from the past and future who travel to the astral plane to save the ones they love. It has been called “Lucid and thought-provoking” by Booklist.
Copies of Morris Kight: Humanist, Liberationist, Fantabulist and Another Dimension of Us are available at the Bureau. To reserve a copy, please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming at YouTube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work.
All are welcome to attend, with or without donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @bgsqd.
Mary Ann Cherry (she/her) has been based in Los Angeles for 45 years, is a writer with a diverse background in network and syndicated television and independent documentary films. Cherry has worked with non-profit organizations, most recently created the historical archive for AIDS Healthcare Foundation. She befriended and worked with Morris Kight during the last decade of his life which led to Kight giving his blessing for Cherry to write his biography. They shared a friendship and a passion for social justice and activism. She enjoys a second career as an in-demand specialized yoga therapist. maryanncherrywriter.com
Mike Albo is the author of three novels: Hornito, considered one of the 50 Essential LGBT Works of Fiction by Flavorwire, the cult classic The Underminer: The Best Friend Who Casually Destroys Your Life (written with Virginia Heffernan) and Another Dimension of Us, released in 2023. His other works include the The Junket and Spermhood: Diary of a Donor. He has written for the The New Yorker, New York Magazine, TED, Town and Country and numerous other outlets. He has performed nine solo and comedy shows across the US, Canada, and UK. His solo shows include “Spermhood: Diary of a Donor” and “The Junket” which ran Off-Broadway at the Lynn Redgrave Theater in 2014. Mikealbo.net

OLNY Poly Movie Night: Professor Marston and the Wonder Women
2023-05-03 18:30 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
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 in person at our regular venue, The Bureau of General Services—Queer Division and celebrating 7 years of Poly Movie Night!

Please join us for Professor Marston and the Wonder Women (2017), written and directed by Angela Robinson and starring Luke Evans, Rebecca Hall and Bella Heathcote. The movie was widely praised as one of the most positive portrayals of polyamory in modern American film to date.

Wednesday, May 3 – 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm
Bureau of General Services-Queer Division
208 W 13th St, Rm 210
New York, NY 10011

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: Based on the true story of the creator of the character Wonder Woman, Harvard psychologist Dr. William Marston’s polyamorous relationship with his wife and their lover was more provocative than any adventure he had ever written. Running time: 1 hour 48 minutes

A Reading by Queer Poets janan alexandra & Emma Wynn (in person event & live-streaming)
2023-04-30 15:00 - 16:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join queer poets janan alexandra (she/her) and Emma Wynn (they/them) for a joint reading and the NYC book launch of Emma’s first full-length collection, The World is Our Anchor. The event will consist of readings, a Q&A, and book signing.
Copies of The World Is Our Anchor (Futurecycle Press, 2023, paperback, $15.95) are available at the Bureau. To reserve a copy, please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming at YouTube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work.
All are welcome to attend, with or without donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @bgsqd.
janan alexandra was born in Nicosia, Cyprus to a Lebanese mother and an American father. She received her MFA in Poetry from Indiana University. A 2021-2022 Creative Research Fulbright Scholar, janan currently teaches English at the Hotchkiss School in CT. You can find her work in Gulf Coast, Ploughshares, Mizna, Muzzle, The Adroit Journal and elsewhere.
Emma Wynn received their MTS from Harvard Divinity School and teaches Philosophy, Religious Studies, Psychology, and LGBTQI+ U.S. History at the Hotchkiss School in CT. They have been published in a variety of online and print journals and nominated for a Pushcart Prize twice. Their first book, The World is Our Anchor, was published in February by FutureCycle Press.

Book launch of Patrick E. Horrigan's AMERICAN SCHOLAR (in person event & live-streaming)
2023-04-29 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
A party and reading to mark the publication of the novel AMERICAN SCHOLAR (Lethe Press) by Patrick E. Horrigan.
Copies of AMERICAN SCHOLAR (Lethe Press, 2023, paperback, $20) are available at the Bureau.
Planning to purchase a copy at the event?
We strongly encourage you to reserve a copy in advance so that we can be sure to have enough copies on hand. Please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve a copy of American Scholar” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming at YouTube.com/@bgsqd

Suggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work.
All are welcome to attend, with or without donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @bgsqd.
Patrick E. Horrigan is the author of the novels PENNSYLVANIA STATION and PORTRAITS AT AN EXHIBITION, the memoir WIDESCREEN DREAMS: GROWING UP GAY AT THE MOVIES, the play MESSAGES FOR GARY, and the solo sow YOU ARE CONFUSED!, which he co-authored with his husband Eduardo Leanez. Having taught literature for over twenty-five years at LIU Brooklyn, he is currently training to become at docent at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
