BGSQD

Caring for our Precious LGBTQ+ Mental Health
2021-03-06 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Online event, New York, NY, United States
The past year has put our mental health to the test in ways none of us could have imagined, and so many of us are trying to process all that has traumatized us–while much of it is still happening. Please join the Bureau and panelists Geleni Fontaine, Jia Hurd, Isabel Restrepo, and Max Zev Reynolds for a special evening focused on caring for our queer and trans mental health, moderated by Teresa Theophano. We will talk about coping strategies, mutual aid, and peer support, and Geleni will lead a brief tapping/acupressure session to help relieve stress!

Suggested donation to support the Bureau and our panelists is $10, no one turned away for lack of funds.
Registration on Eventbrite is required in order to receive the Zoom link on the day of the event.
Click here to register

The Bureau is offering 15% off books featuring our panelists on our online store (click on titles to view and/or purchase):
Our Work is Everywhere: An Illustrated Oral History of Queer and Trans Resistance by Syan Rose, and featuring panelist Geleni Fontaine, available from the Bureau’s online bookstore for pre-order (release date April 6, 2021). On sale for $14.41 (regularly $16.95) through end of day March 6th.
Headcase: LGBTQ Writers & Artists on Mental Health and Wellness, edited by moderator Teresa Theophano and Stephanie Schroeder. On sale for $24.46 (regularly $29.95) through end of day March 6th.
Trans Bodies, Trans Selves, featuring contributions by panelist Max Zev Reynolds. On sale for $38.21 (regularly $44.95) through end of day March 6th.

Geleni Fontaine (they/them) is a fat, queer and trans, disabled, non-binary, NYC-born, first generation Latinx person of Cuban descent raised and living lifelong in Brooklyn, New York. They’re a holistic healer and registered nurse, and use knowledge of Western allopathic medicine to support a holistic East-Asian practice, helping individuals navigate both healthcare systems. As a disabled healer with chronic pain and illness Geleni is devoted to working with their communities from within their intersections, with a goal to empower individuals and nourish healing toward a more just and loving world for us all. Geleni is affiliated with Third Root Community Health Center and during the pandemic is sharing tapping / acupressure as an accessible and powerful practice for self and community healing. Geleni is featured in the upcoming book Our Work is Everywhere: An Illustrated Oral History of Queer and Trans Resistance by Syan Rose, available from the Bureau’s online bookstore for pre-order (release date April 6, 2021)–15% discount through end of day, March 6th.
Third Root’s Collective Care Fund: Low to no cost care for Black, Indigenous, People of Color prioritizing local Flatbush, Brooklyn residents, trans women and femmes, and disabled and formerly incarcerated community members. https://www.gofundme.com/f/collective-care-fund

Jia Hurd is a Black non-binary femme from the South Bronx leading a COVID-19 response FREE Mental Health project that has served 1,500+ QBIPoC across the USA and around the world.They/She is a Mental Health advocate, suicide attempt survivor, creative, social worker, and community organizer with a focus on art, activism, and wellness. She has six years of events/project management experience in wellness and art for NYC museums, non-profits, art collectives, and universities. She has three years of mental health advocacy experience for NYC grassroots organizations and three artist’s scholarships at The New School. They are currently pursuing a Master’s in Social Work at Hunter College and are a 2020 advocacy fellow of the New York Transgender Advocacy Group. For six years they have helped lead successful social justice movements for Black Womxn and Queer liberation with The New York Transgender Advocacy, Hetrick-Martin Institute, The Audre Lorde Project, BUFU, Equality 4 Flatbush, Sadie Nash, Black Lives Matter, BYP 100, and F2L. It is important to center their/her work around Queer and Trans People of Color, particularly Black and Indigenous people.

Isabel Restrepo, LMSW (she/her), is the Director of the Psychiatric Rehabilitation program (PROS) at The Bridge, a community mental health agency serving individuals diagnosed with severe and persistent mental illness in NYC. Isabel has almost 20 years of experience working in the mental health field as a provider/counselor, and two years of experience as a program director. She also has experience working with LGBTQ+ youth as a former intern at The Hetrick-Martin Institute. A queer Colombian-born butch, Isabel is a practitioner with lived experience and hopes to learn from her fellow panelists as well as from all those who are in attendance.

Rabbi Max Zev Reynolds is a board-eligible chaplain whose work focuses on palliative and end-of-life care, the spiritual and existential care of non-religious and secular people, trauma and moral injury, the spiritual care needs of queer and trans people, and the use of ritual in healing and justice work. Prior to becoming a rabbi, he worked as a direct services provider in queer, trans, and HIV-impacted communities. Max was ordained at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and holds an MA in Philosophy of Religion from Union Theological Seminary.

Teresa Theophano, LCSW (she/her), is a program director and psychotherapist at an NYC geriatric mental health nonprofit and is Editor-in-Chief at The Affirmative Couch (affirmativecouch.com), which provides continuing ed for therapists working with LGBTQIA+, consensually non-monogamous, and kinky clients. Co-editor of Headcase: LGBTQ Writers and Artists on Mental Health and Wellness (Oxford University Press, 2019) and a contributor to numerous anthologies and websites, Teresa identifies as both a clinician and a peer with lived experience. She is a white Jewish cis queer femme who is passionate about ensuring access to LGBTQ+-affirmative mental health care and eliminating stigma and shame. Find the NYC-based online queer mental health resource list she maintains at tinyurl.com/qmhiresources

Sex, Society and the Making of Pornography
2021-03-04 18:00 - 19:30 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Pornography is a unique form of entertainment that combines fantasy and real sex. Join Susie Bright and Jeffrey Escoffier for a conversation about his book, Sex, Society and the Making of Pornography on why pornography matters, how it’s made, what it tells us and how it shapes our lives.

Registration on Eventbrite is required in order to receive the Zoom link on the day of the event.
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $5.
All are welcome to join, with or without a donation.
You can make a donation when you register on Eventbrite.
Click here to register

Purchase Sex, Society and the Making of Pornography on or before March 4, 2021 and receive 25% off!

Jeffrey Escoffier is the author of Bigger Than Life: The History of Gay Porn Cinema from Beefcake to Hardcore, and of American Homo: Community and Perversity. He teaches at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research.

Susie Bright is an author, editor, critic, and publisher— as well as historian of sex in cinema. She was the co-founder of “On Our Backs” magazine and was elected to the Hall of Fame by the X-rated Critics’ Organization for her years of work in erotic screen journalism. Her university class, “The Politics of Sexual Representation,” was the first of its kind.

The painting reproduced on the cover of Sex, Society and the Making of Pornography is by Patrick Angus: Hanky Panky, 1990. Acrylic on canvas, 39 3/4 x 53 1/2 in (101 x 136 cm).

Queer Filmmakers Q&A: Mental Health, Coming Out, and BLOCK The Film
2021-02-25 18:00 - 19:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
On a mission to put a face to queer mental health struggles and in an attempt to work though her own coming out story, Carrie Brennan wrote BLOCK– where she stars as Kit O’Brien: a twenty-something year old who’s internal homophobia literally manifests itself as a cinderblock. In order to face her fears and free herself from BLOCK, she’s got to come out. This is a story of self-acceptance, self-love, mental health, and sisterhood.

The film-now in the film festival circuit-has grown beyond its original medium, creating a platform for Carrie and the BLOCK Team to meet and interact with its surrounding community. Join us as we sit with producer, actor and writer Carrie Brennan and costar and producer Victoria Ratermanis to talk filmmaking, mental health, queer stories, and BLOCK.

Two lucky attendees will receive tickets to the March 4th premiere of BLOCK!
We will pick two names at random from the audience during the event.

Registration on this page is required in order to receive the Zoom link on the day of the event, Thursday, February 25.
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $5.
All are welcome to join, with or without a donation.
You can make a donation when you register on Eventbrite.

Click here to register

***

Get Tickets to the live-streamed virtual Premiere of BLOCK (Thursday, March 4th, 7 PM EST): https://www.blockthefilm.com/tickets
Follow Block on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blockshortfilm
Follow Block on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blockthefilm/

TELL 70: Rose-Colored Glasses, The Seventh-Anniversary Edition!
2021-02-20 18:00 - 19:30 | NY
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.
Rose-Colored Glasses is the theme of the 70th TELL, on Saturday, February 20, 2021, 6 to 7:30 PM (EST). This month’s line-up of storytellers has been curated by Mariel Reyes. Featuring: Yunique, Patric Pardo, Dirty Lola, and Mariel Reyes.
The event will take place on Zoom.
This is a free event, but you must register on Eventbrite in advance of the event in order to receive the Zoom meeting link on the day of the event.
Suggested donation $10 to benefit the storytellers and the Bureau.
But all are welcome to join, with or without a donation.
You can make a donation when you register on Eventbrite.
Click here to register

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

Mariel Reyes is an Queer Afrolatinx performance artist & producer, with works based out of some of your favorite experimental theater spaces in NYC (Dixon Place, Brooklyn Arts Exchange) She has also appeared on screen in the film “Appropriate Behaviour” which premiered at Sundance in 2014 and the award winning web series “The Feels” currently in its third season.

Yunique is an artist and food enthusiast. They show up for the in between the unsaid the unknown and the nuance.

Patric Prado is an epidemiologist working on COVID and HIV, primarily focusing on health disparities here in San Francisco and in the Global South. He is currently working as a data scientist working with COVID mass testing for Latinx Populations, who as we all know have been disproportionately impacted. Working with data, data systems, and dashboards all day; it’s hard to sometimes see the light at the end of the tunnel. Replicating the same lessons on who gets hit the hardest, why they get hit the hardest, and how – seems like public health never goes far enough to solve these structural issues. But if we are doomed to repeat our histories of inequality, oppression, and impacts of racism – What does this mean for our collective and individual resilience?

Dirty Lola is a sex edutainer, speaker, and self-proclaimed dildo slinger. Known for her live sex ed Q&A show Sex Ed A Go-Go and as co-host of New York Magazine’s The Cut’s “Sex Probz” web series, Lola has spent almost a decade working to end stigma and shame surrounding sex and sexuality. Having started her journey sharing personal discoveries with polyamory and kink online, Lola now uses her knowledge, warm candor, and public platforms to teach the masses in-person and to rapt Internet audiences.
In addition to her educational projects, Lola is also the creative director of Spectrum Journal an online magazine offshoot of the female-owned online sex shop, Spectrum Boutique based in Detroit, and has brought her unique brand of sex-positive sex education to brands such as B-Vibe, Spencers Gifts, and Math Magazine.
Website: SexEdAGoGo.com
Twitter: @DirtyLola
Instagram: @DirtyLola
Fetlife: Dirty Lola

Spivy: Unsung LGBTQ Pioneer, Presented by Original Cockette Rumi Missabu
2021-02-13 18:00 - 19:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Original Cockette Rumi Missabu returns to the Bureau (virtually) to regale us with stories of Madame Spivy, unsung LGBTQ pioneer. Featuring film clips and tales of the Brooklyn-born entertainer!
“Madame Spivy was born on September 30, 1906 in Brooklyn, New York, USA as Bertha Levine. She was an actress, known for Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962), The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and All Fall Down (1962). She died on January 7, 1971 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.
“Operated the nightclub Spivy’s Roof, New York City, 1940-1951.” (IMDB)
Check out this cute little teaser for the event on YouTube!
Suggested donation to support the Bureau’s work: $5
But all are welcome to join, with or without a donation.
Registration on Eventbrite required in order to receive the Zoom link on the day of the event.
Click here to register

Kid Division: Storytime with author Kyle Lukoff
2021-02-13 11:00 - 12:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Hear Stonewall-award winning author Kyle Lukoff read some of his books! Open to all ages, children encouraged to join!

Registration on Eventbrite (link below) is required in order to receive the Zoom link on the day of the event.
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $5.
All are welcome to join, with or without a donation.
You can make a donation when you register on Eventbrite:
Click here to register
Kyle Lukoff is the author of the 2020 Stonewall-award winning book When Aidan Became A Brother, as well as several other picture books. His debut middle-grade novel Too Bright To See releases in April. After spending 8 years as an elementary school librarian, Kyle now writes full-time.
Kyle’s books are available for purchase on the Bureau’s online store. Click on any title below to learn more or to make a purchase:
25% off of Kyle Lukoff’s books – This week only!
Last day of sale February 13th

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

TELL 69: Blow It
2021-01-16 18:00 - 19:30 | NY
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.
Blow It is the theme of the 69th TELL, on Saturday, January 16, 2021, 6 to 7:30 PM (EST). Featuring Dusty Childers, Sammie James, and Joey Kipp.
The event will take place on Zoom.
This is a free event, but you must register on the Eventbrite page in advance in order to receive the Zoom meeting link on the day of the event.
Donations for the performers and the Bureau are much appreciated!
Make a donation when you register on the Eventbrite page.
Click here to register

The Bureau will send out a link to the Zoom meeting to all who have registered on the day of the event.
Photograph by Grace Chu
Drae Campbell is a writer, actor, director, story teller, dancer, and nightlife emcee. Drae has been featured on Late Night with Conan O’Brien and on stages all over NYC. Drae’s directing work has appeared in Iceland, NYC, Budapest and in the San Francisco Fringe Festival. The short film Drae wrote and starred in with Rebecca Drysdale, YOU MOVE ME won the Audience Award for Outstanding Narrative Short at OUTFEST 2010 and has been shown in festivals globally. Drae won the grand prize at the first annual San Miguel De Allende Storytelling Festival in Mexico. She once reigned as Miss LEZ and also got dubbed “the next lezzie comedian on the block” by AfterEllen.com for her comedic stylings on the interwebs. Campbell hosts and curates a monthly queer storytelling show called TELL at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division. Check her out online! www.draecampbell.com.
Dusty Childers (Dust Tea Shoulders/ @duddylynn) is a multi-disciplinary artist (and self proclaimed style icon) who directs, provides dramaturgy, curates, hosts, conjures costumes, styles, speaks their truth in front of audiences, drags it up, dances, twirls flags and fans, and instructs the future via the public school classroom. Dusty’s body and body of work has graced the likes of Sundance, SXSW, True/False, The Guggenheim, St. Anne’s Warehouse, The Whitney, BAM, Parsons, International Center of Photography, Signature Theater, Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia, Town Hall, Joe’s Pub, Abrons Art Center, NY Live Arts, The Wild Project, Dixon Place, Irving Plaza, The Knockdown Center (Bushwig), The PIT, Don’t Tell Mama, Rockwood Music Hall, The Slipper Room, Judson Memorial Church,The MIX NYC Queer Experimental Film Festival, La MaMa, Metropolitan Bar, Sid Gold’s Request Room,The Delancey, Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, Starr Bar, Wise Men, Governor’s Ball, Club Cumming, The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, This n’ That, C’mon Everybody, Nowhere Bar, House of Yes, Bushwick Bazaar, Drom, The Deep End, and the Soho Playhouse (NY Fringe Festival). He has worked alongside MacArthur Genius Taylor Mac, acclaimed writer/performer Justin Sayre, performance artist Machine Dazzle, artist Nayland Blake, pop star and DJ Ana Matronic, director Silas Howard, Bitch (of Bitch and Animal),drag artist Charlene Incarnate, performance artist/puppeteer Glenn Marla, rapper Mister Wallace, singer Big Dipper, director Stephen Winter, performance artist/writer Dan Fishback, filmmaker/drag performer Sequinette Jaynesfield, choreographer/singer Miguel Gutierrez, burlesque star World Famous *BOB*, professional clown Eric Schmalenberger and singer Amber Martin (among countless others). Dusty and his work have appeared in Art In America, Artforum,OUT Magazine, Electric Dirt (by Queer Appalachia), TimeOut NY, Velour Magazine, Next Magazine, Aljazeera, NY Times, OutThere Magazine (UK) and Ud & Se (Dutch)

Sammie James is a comedian and story teller from New Jersey; where she hosts and produces The LGBT showcase Queerly Comedic. Sammie also hosts the podcast All Of My Friends Are Animals and The NYC Trans Variety show We Are Trans. She performs all over the country; including past appearances at Cinder Block Comedy Festival, Charm City Comedy Festival and Bechdal Test Fest; and she is soon to be your favorite disabled, nerdy, butch trans woman in comedy.

Joey Kipp is an NYC Dancer and performer.

Office Hours Poetry Broadside Fundraiser
2021-01-09 15:30 - 17:00 | NY
Join us for the Office Hours Poetry Broadside Fundraiser Event! We’ve paired up eight LGBTQ+ poets with visual artists to craft unique broadsides showcasing their remarkable poems. All broadside sales go toward funding the Office Hours Poetry Workshop fellows. The event will include both a poetry reading and a Q & A with the visual artists moderated by Founding Director, Sarah M. Sala.

The broadsides will be available for purchase on the Office Hours virtual gallery, launching on the day of the event.

Suggested donation for this event is $5 to $10. All are welcome to join, with or without donation. All donations and broadside sales go towards funding Office Hours Poetry Workshop fellows.

Registration required.
Click here to register

Office Hours Poetry Workshop provides post-MFA poets 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 femme-identified. Our name derives from our side hustle. Many of us are freelance, adjunct instructors, and creatives who continue to thrive in the margins of academia.

Featured Poets: CAConrad, Marty Correia, Alexis Garcia, Benjamin Garcia, Omotara James, Ricardo Alberto Maldonado, Christina Quintana (CQ), and Crystal Valentine.

Featured Visual Artists: Reba Billips, Esteban Delgado, Sy Klipsch-Abudu, Brandon Menke, Meesh Nah, Umang Antariksh Sagar, and Sherie Weldon

Check out books by or including the featured poets on the Bureau’s online store!

“[Omotara James’s] limited-edition chapbook was selected by Kwame Dawes, Chris Abani, and the African Poetry Book Fund, in collaboration with Akashic Books, for the 2018 New-Generation African Poets Box Set, and I am tickled pink for its release this month. James’s voice is so unique and genuine; she’s definitely a poet to have on your poetdar, and I’m sure this whole collection will be stellar.”
–The Coil, Omotara James’s “Daughter Tongue” included in Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2018 and Most Anticipated April 2018 Books

And Marty Correia’s Pigeon Mothers (paperback, $15) is available from Triple Decker Press!

TELL 68: Hair
2020-12-19 18:00 - 19:30 | NY
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.
Hair is the theme of the 68th TELL, on Saturday, December 19, 2020, 6 to 7:30 PM (EST). Featuring lea robinson, Merrie Cherry, and Fernando Vieira.
The event will take place on Zoom.
This is a free event, but you must register on the Eventbrite page in advance in order to receive the Zoom meeting link on the day of the event.
Donations for the performers and the Bureau are much appreciated!
Make a donation when you register on the Eventbrite page.
Click here to register

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

Merrie Cherry reigns over the Brooklyn drag community with a sweet hand. She hosts, MCs, and plans events in the popping community and beyond. The creator of the Brooklyn Nightlife Awards she was set a new meaning of what is means to be a drag queen. With no plans to stop we can expect so much more from this cherry. Stay tuned!

lea robinson is a queer/transgender/butch/gender non-confirming POC identified actor and writer. lea recently moved to Oakland from NYC, where they were active in both the theater world and film & tv. Lea is currently SAG-AFTRA and AEA and has representation in both L.A. (manager: MadCatch Entertainment) and in San Francisco (MDT). A lover of cats, scary movies and video games.

Fernando Vieira is an Ecuadorian born, New York-based writer, director, and performer. Most of his works document the effect of heteronormativity and misogyny on the lives of women and queer individuals. In 2016, he debuted as a playwright with the monologue “Me voy porque puedo,” (I’m leaving because I can), which he also directed. His latest play “Goodbye, Little George,” explores the subject of gender identity and homophobia. He recently debuted a documented performance titled “Unlabeled”, where he discusses life as a queer non-conforming person. Vieira has been part of artistic cohorts at institutions such as NYFA, Creative Capital, and Leslie-Lohman Museum.

QUEER WRITERS, SPEAKING ACROSS BORDERS
2020-12-17 18:00 - 19:30 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Six authors from four time zones share their writing, and talk about how queerness operates in their work and how this has changed over time.

Join Kiran Bhat, Tom Cho, Farzana Doctor, Jee Leong Koh, Angela Meyer, and Sarah Sala for a group reading and a conversation moderated by William Johnson, Deputy Director of Lambda Literary.

Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division
All are welcome to join, with or without a donation
Registration on Eventbrite is required in order to receive the Zoom link on the day of the event.
Click here to register.

The Bureau’s online store features books by several of the participating authors. See links beneath each person’s biography below for books that you can purchase from our store.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

Kiran Bhat is an Indian-American traveller, polyglot, and author. He is primarily known as author of the English-language story cycle, we of the forsaken world… (Iguana Books, 2020), but he has penned four other books in four different languages, and he has had his writing published at The Brooklyn Rail, The Colorado Review, The Florida Review, Eclectica, Waxwing, The Free State Review, Cha, The Mascara Literary Review, The Chakkar, and several other places. You can currently find him nested in Melbourne, but he calls Mumbai his eternal home.

Tom Cho is the author of the collection of fictions Look Who’s Morphing, originally published in Australia and later released by Arsenal Pulp Press for North America. Tom’s fiction pieces have appeared in Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading and The Best Australian Stories series, among many others. His current fiction project is a novel that mashes up fiction, pop culture, philosophy of religion, and much more besides. tomcho.com

Farzana Doctor is the Toronto-based author of four novels: Stealing Nasreen, Six Metres of Pavement and Seven, which has just been named a Chapters-Indigo Best Book of 2020. The Globe and Mail listed it as a Best Independent Read to Pick Up This Fall, and Ms. Magazine called it “fully feminist and ambitiously bold”. She is also an activist, part-time psychotherapist and amateur tarot card reader. farzanadoctor.com

William Johnson is the Deputy Director of Lambda Literary, an organization dedicated to promoting LGBTQ literature.

Koh Jee Leong is the author of Steep Tea (Carcanet), named a Best Book of the Year by UK’s Financial Times and a Finalist by Lambda Literary in the US. He has published four other books of poems, a volume of essays, and a collection of zuihitsu. His latest book is a work of hybrid fiction called Snow at 5 PM: Translations of an insignificant Japanese poet. He has been translated into Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Malay, Russian, and Latvian. Originally from Singapore, Koh lives in New York City, where he heads the literary non-profit Singapore Unbound and runs the Asian indie press Gaudy Boy.

Angela Meyer is an Australian author and editor. Her debut novel, A Superior Spectre (Ventura Press), was shortlisted for an Aurealis Award, the MUD Literary Prize, an Australian Book Industry Award, the Readings Prize for New Australian Writing and a Saltire Literary Society Award (Scotland). She is also the author of a novella, Joan Smokes, which won the inaugural Mslexia Novella Award (UK), and a book of flash fiction, Captives. She works as a freelance editor and consultant.

Sarah M. Sala is the author of Devil’s Lake (Tolsun Books 2020). The founding director of Office Hours Poetry Workshop, and co-poetry editor for The Bellevue Literary Review, she teaches expository writing at New York University. Her work appears or is forthcoming in BOMB, The Southampton Review, and The Brooklyn Rail. www.sarahsala.com

Patrick Earl Ryan in conversation with Jewelle Gomez
2020-12-12 18:00 - 19:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Join us for a special virtual event – New Orleans native PATRICK EARL RYAN and writer, icon, and activist JEWELLE GOMEZ discuss writing, queerness, and Ryan’s award-winning debut short story collection, IF WE WERE ELECTRIC, winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, the first selected by Roxane Gay as the new editor of the prestigious series.

Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division
All are welcome to join, with or without a donation
Registration is required

Click here to register

Purchase Ryan’s If We Were Electric and/or Gomez’s The Gilda Stories from the Bureau!

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

Praise for IF WE WERE ELECTRIC:
“IF WE WERE ELECTRIC, the debut short story collection from New Orleans’s native Patrick Earl Ryan is, indeed, fiercely electric. These twelve startling fictions have been crafted by a writer with an assured and absolutely original voice and a remarkable understanding of how place is as much a compelling character in a good story as the people who populate it. There are stories here about unrequited love and youthful yearning, the complexities of desire between men, the beginnings and ends of relationships, deaths both inevitable and untimely, the bitter ache of loneliness, the quiet horrors that unexpectedly befall us, and the magic of the ordinary world. With this outstanding collection, Patrick Earl Ryan makes his mark on Southern literature and how!” – Roxane Gay

“Infused with all the mystique and mystery that New Orleans is known for comes this enchanting, hypnotic debut story collection from Patrick Earl Ryan… The stories feature outliers and miscreants trapped in situations that often feel claustrophobic but are impossible to ignore. Ryan is a true natural at weaving textured language and complex characterization into plots that are serpentine and saturated with emotional complexity. This quality is exceptional for a debut author and a definite determinant for a gilded literary career ahead. Addictively gorgeous and mesmerizing, Ryan’s collection of twelve literary gems are meant to be savored, re-read, and reflected upon as readers await his next creation.” – Jim Piechota, the Bay Area Reporter

PATRICK EARL RYAN was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is the author of If We Were Electric, winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. His work has appeared in the Ontario Review, Pleiades, Best New American Voices, Men on Men: Best New Gay Fiction for the Millennium, and the James White Review. He was the founder and editor in chief of the LGBTQ literary journal Lodestar Quarterly.

JEWELLE GOMEZ, playwright, novelist, poet, and cultural worker, is the author of eight books, including the first Black Lesbian vampyre novel, The Gilda Stories. In print more than 25 years, the novel will soon be a television mini-series. Jewelle’s fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in over 100 anthologies. She is playwright-in-residence at the New Conservatory Theatre Center in San Francisco.

Office Hours Poetry Showcase Reading
2020-12-11 19:00 - 20:30 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Office Hours Poetry Fellows from the Fall 2020 cohort will read the innovative poetry they’ve developed over the course of the workshop. Our free workshop provides post-MFA poets access to continued support for manuscript-development and everyday writing. We welcome all poets, especially people of color, LGBTQ+, and those who are femme-identified. Our name derives from our side hustle. Many of us are freelance, adjunct instructors, who continue to thrive in the margins of academia.

Featuring: Madeleine Mori , Carrie Hohmann Campbell, Mary Block, Laura Cresté, Emily Hockaday, Marty Correia, Paco Márquez, Sarah M. Sala, Holly Mitchell, and Linda Harris Dolan.

Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division

All are welcome to join, with or without a donation.

Registration on Eventbrite is required in order to receive the Zoom link for the event.

Click here to register

Madeleine Mori is a white and Japanese-American poet originally from San Francisco. She earned a bachelor’s degree in winemaking from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and an MFA from New York University. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Salt Hill, Sixth Finch, The Cincinnati Review, jubilat, DIAGRAM, and the American Poetry Review, among others. She is the Poetry Editor at Pigeon Pages and lives in Brooklyn.

Mary Block lives and writes in her hometown of Miami, Florida. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Best New Poets 2020, RHINO, Nimrod Journal, and Sonora Review, among other publications. Her work can be found online at SWWIM Every Day, Rattle, Aquifer, and elsewhere. She is a graduate of New York University’s Creative Writing Program, a 2018 Best of the Net finalist, a 2012 finalist for the Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, and a Pushcart Prize nominee. More at www.maryblock.net

Carrie Hohmann Campbell is the author of the chapbooks Drawn to Extinction (Finishing Line Press) and incongruent: someday (dancing girl press). She has degrees from Allegheny College and New York University. She lives in northwestern Pennsylvania where she precariously balances teaching creative writing at Edinboro University, homesteading, and writing, and can be found on the web at www.carriehohmanncampbell.com.

Laura Cresté is the author of You Should Feel Bad, which was selected for a 2019 Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship. She holds an MFA in Poetry from New York University and a BA from Bennington College. The winner of Breakwater Review’s 2016 Peseroff Prize, her poems have appeared in journals including No Tokens, Tinderbox, and Bodega, and she has received support from the Community of Writers.

Emily Hockaday is the author of five chapbooks, including the forthcoming Beach Vocabulary from Red Bird Chaps. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals, and along with Jackie Sherbow she coedited the anthology Terror at the Crossroads. She can be found on the web at www.emilyhockaday.com and @E_Hockaday.

Marty Correia writes memoir and poetry in the East Village where she has lived with conceptual artist Kate Conroy since 1996. A graduate of NYU’s creative writing MFA program, Marty is the author of the novel Pigeon Mothers, and her next project is the genderqueer memoir, Nobody Here Knows Me. www.martycorreia.com @martycorreia

Paco Márquez is a poet based out of Manhattan, author of the chapbook Portraits in G Minor (Folded Word Press, 2017). His poems haven been published by Fence, Apogee, Live Mag! and Huizache, among others. Originally from León, México, Paco has spent most of his life in Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area. pacomarquez.net

Sarah M. Sala is the author of Devil’s Lake (Tolsun Books 2020). The founding director of Office Hours Poetry Workshop, and assistant poetry editor for the Bellevue Literary Review, she teaches expository writing at New York University. Her work appears or is forthcoming in BOMB, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Southampton Review, and The Brooklyn Rail. www.sarahsala.com

Holly Mitchell is a poet from Kentucky, now living in New York. Holly received an MFA in Creative Writing from New York University and has poems in Paperbag, Juked, and Baltimore Review, among other journals.

Linda Harris Dolan is a poet, editor, and educator in Brooklyn. She’s a teaching artist through ArtWorks at Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital, and she holds an M.A. in Literature and an M.F.A in Poetry from NYU, where she was a Starworks Creative Writing Fellow. Her work appears in Barrow Street, The Brooklyn Review, Cordella, and No, Dear, among others. lindaharrisdolan.com.

Shh! I’m listening… Second Edition
2020-12-05 14:00 - 15:30 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
New York Queer Zine Fair and the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division _______ (adverb) present the second edition of
Shh! I’m listening…

Saturday, December 5, 2020 at 2 PM EST, Virtually Everywhere.

This virtual ______ (noun) brings together 3 queer zine makers to ______ (verb) their ______ (noun). Expect some ______ (adjective) visuals and ______ (adjective) text that will be ______ (adjective), ______ (adjective) and maybe even a little ______ (adjective).

*This is an actual event. Our three fabulous zine makers/readers are JB Brager, Tyler Hampton, and Anthony Malone. You are invited to fill out the above Mad Lib and send it to us at instagram.com/nyqzf.

Suggested donation to benefit NYQZF and the Bureau: $5
All are welcome to join! Donation is not required.

But registering on Eventbrite is required in order to receive the Zoom link on the day of the event!
Click here to register

TELL 67: Open Mic and Fundraiser for the Black Voters Matter!
2020-11-21 18:00 - 19:30 | NY
Join us for a special open mic TELL to give voice to where we’re at right now. Preach to your queer comrades! Give us a little sermon on working for justice, fighting for our lives, living with uncertainty, finding joy in the midst of pain, loving ourselves and each other, or whatever else is on your mind and in your heart. Let’s lift each other up as we raise funds for Black Voters Matter in the lead-up to the Georgia Senate runoffs on January 5, 2021!
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.

Show up (on Zoom) at 6 PM EST and sign up for a 5 minute spot to tell a story, rant, lead a song, cry, rage, laugh or try and process 4 Seasons Total Landscaping stories…
Hosted as usual by Drae Campbell
Suggested donation of $12
Pay what you can
95% of all donations for this event will go to the 501c3 arm of Black Voters Matter.
The remaining 5% will go to TELL’s founder and host, Drae Campbell.

This is an online event. Registration is required.
Click here to register

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

Black Voters Matter‘s goal is to increase power in marginalized, predominantly Black communities. Effective voting allows a community to determine its own destiny. We agree with the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. when he said, “Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”

Greg Mania on his debut memoir BORN TO BE PUBLIC, with John Glynn
2020-11-19 18:00 - 19:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Join us on Thursday, November 19th at 6pm EST as Greg Mania discusses his debut memoir, Born to Be Public, with John Glynn.

This event is free, but donations to support the Bureau’s work are very much appreciated! You can make a donation when you register. Thanks for supporting the Bureau’s work!
Registration is required.
Click here to register

Both Born to Be Public and Out East: Memoir of a Montauk Summer are available for purchase on the Bureau’s online store. Click on links below.

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

Greg Mania is a writer, comedian, and award-winning screenwriter based in New York City. His words have been published in The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, O, The Oprah Magazine, PAPER, among other international online and print platforms. His debut memoir, Born to Be Public, is out now from CLASH Books.

John Glynn is a writer and Senior Editor at Hanover Square Press. His writing has appeared in O, The Oprah Magazine, The Daily Beast and The Millions. His first book Out East: Memoir of a Montauk Summer was named a Cosmopolitan Best Book of 2019, an O, The Oprah Magazine Best LGBTQ Book of 2019, a Newsweek Best Book of Summer, and an Indie Next pick. He lives in Manhattan.

Felice Picano and Jim Provenzano on Gay Hollywood
2020-11-12 18:00 - 19:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Best-selling author Felice Picano and Lambda Literary Award-winning author Jim Provenzano will discuss gay writers, actors and directors in Hollywood framed through their two novels, Picano’s Justify My Sins: A Hollywood Novel in Three Acts (Beautiful Dreamer Press, 2019) and Provenzano’s Finding Tulsa (Palm Drive Publishing, 2020).
With two similar yet unique perspectives on the filmmaking industry told in gay fiction, the two authors will share the inspiration for their new and recent novels. Both fully explore the behind-the-scenes process of film industry success –and failure– via two very different narrators.
Along with his prolific authorship, Picano has given PowerPoint lectures about historic LGBT figures in Hollywood more than a dozen times at colleges, historical societies, religious groups, and major libraries across the U.S. and also in Canada.
In addition to being an author, Provenzano has been a photographer and journalist in LGBT media for three decades. His film experience includes production work on short films and numerous music videos in the 1980s. He also wrote and directed several plays and choreographed dozens of dance and multimedia works.
This is a free event, but donations of any amount to support the Bureau’s work are very much appreciated! You can make a donation when you register for the event. Thank you for your support!
Registration is required

Click here to register

Both Finding Tulsa and Justify My Sins are available for purchase on the Bureau’s online store! Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

Felice Picano is the author of 35 books of poetry, fiction, memoirs and nonfiction. His work is translated into 15 languages; several titles were national and international bestsellers, including ‘The Lure,’ ‘Like People in History’ and ‘The Book of Lies.’ Four of Picano’s plays have been produced. He’s considered a founder of modern gay literature, along with other members of the Violet Quill. His most recent works include ‘True Stories: Portraits from My Past’ (2011), ‘Contemporary Gay Romances’ (2011), and ‘Twelve O’Clock Tales’ (2012). www.felicepicano.net
Jim Provenzano is the author of seven novels, including ‘Finding Tulsa,’ the 2012 Lambda Literary Award winner ‘Every Time I Think of You,’ its sequel, ‘Message of Love’ (a Lammy finalist), and the stage adaptation of his debut novel, ‘PINS.’ His short fiction collection, ‘Forty Wild Crushes’ was published in 2016. Degrees include a BFA in dance from Ohio State University and an MA in English from San Francisco State University. Born in New York City and raised in Ohio, he lives in San Francisco. A journalist in LGBT media for three decades, he also wrote the award-winning syndicated Sports Complex column for ten years. He is currently Culture Editor for the Bay Area Reporter. www.jimprovenzano.com

Anaïs Duplan & Joshua Escobar
2020-11-06 18:00 - 19:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Anaïs Duplan & Joshua Escobar read from their new books, Blackspace: on the Poetics of an Afrofuture and Bareback Nightfall.
This is a free event, but donations to support the Bureau’s work are very much appreciated! You can make a donation when you register for this event. Thank you for supporting the Bureau!
Click here to register

Anaïs Duplan is a trans* poet, curator, and artist. He is the author of a book of essays, Blackspace: On the Poetics of an Afrofuture (Black Ocean, 2020), 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). He has taught poetry at the University of Iowa, Columbia University, Sarah Lawrence College, and St. Joseph’s College. His video works have been exhibited by Flux Factory, Daata Editions, the 13th Baltic Triennial in Lithuania, Mathew Gallery, NeueHouse, the Paseo Project, and will be exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Art in L.A in 2021. As an independent curator, he has facilitated curatorial projects in Chicago, Boston, Santa Fe, and Reykjavík. He was a 2017-2019 joint Public Programs fellow at the Museum of Modern Art and the Studio Museum in Harlem. In 2016, he founded the Center for Afrofuturist Studies, an artist residency program for artists of color, based at Iowa City’s artist-run organization Public Space One.

Joshua Escobar is the author of the chapbooks Caljforkya Voltage and xxox fm. He was a 2019 Shandaken: Storm King Fellow, the Dean’s Fellow in Writing at the MFA Program at Bard College, and a Merit Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. He is a Regional Chair (California) for CantoMundo, and he teaches at Santa Barbara City College.

The Kudzu Crossroads: Queer, Southern, Artist — A Panel Discussion on Identity and Aesthetics
2020-10-28 18:00 - 19:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Bronski Beat’s “Small Town Boy” is an anthem to the liberation of a young gay man as he runs away to the safety of the city. The chorus echoes the words, “run away, run away, run away.” Some say this story is counterproductive, and leaving no longer serves the queer community. At The Kudzu Crossroads, artists will share their art and personal experience on the topic of leaving and staying, and on how and why they made their choice. Additionally, the artists will discuss the possibility of a queer souther aesthetics, the responsibility of artists to represent and face down the history of the South, and what ghosts they carry with them from the region.
This is a free event, but donations to support the Bureau’s work are very much appreciated! You can make a donation when you register for this event. Thank you for supporting the Bureau!
Click here to register

Moderator/Organizer: Dudgrick Bevins is a queer interdisciplinary artist who infuses poetry into all other forms of art, including film, fiber, painting, and publishing. He is an MA candidate at Kennesaw State College in American Studies and an MFA candidate in Poetry at City College of New York. He is the author of the collaborative chapbooks Georgia Dusk with luke kurtis (bd studios), Pointless Thorns with Nate DeWaele (Kintsugi Books), the books Vigil (bd studios, forthcoming) and Route 4 Box 358 (bd studios), and the solo chapbook My Feelings Are Imaginary People Who Fight for My Attention (Poet’s Haven). You can follow his endeavors at www.dudgrickbevins.com.

Panelists:
Jill Fredenburg is an author and filmmaker from Memphis, Tennessee. Her first book, LGBTQ+ Revolution 2.0, is a celebratory collection of narratives from queer-identifying individuals who have yet to see adequate representation in traditional media. She now runs A Sign on the Door, a digital publication by and for folks who want to share in productive cultural critique. You can find her book in stores and online and reach out to @JillFredenburg on most social media platforms

Marie Hinson is an artist cultivating care and insurrection in poetry, performance and documentary cinematography. Raised in rural Appalachia, she lived in Philadelphia for almost ten years after college. Her recent chapbook, Please Remit My Qubits (The Operating System, 2020) shakes at the lines between her trans embodiment and extractive technologies in placemaking and imagination. In 2019 she debuted her first full length, site transformative performance, Stop on the object / move on the image, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Her verite documentary work focuses on portraits of artists and places. Marie’s upcoming directorial debut, Frank Bey, was supported by the 2019 IFP Documentary Lab and the 2019 Chicken and Egg Nest Knight Fellowship. Her first documentary feature as a cinematographer, Queer Genius, premiered at Frameline43.

Kyle Jackson is an educator, writer and actor currently spending the bulk of his time between New York, New York and London, England. He is an active member of both the bear and leather communities and is a proud member of the MidAtlantic Chapter of ONYX.

Jeff Mann grew up in Covington, Virginia, and Hinton, West Virginia, receiving degrees in English and forestry from West Virginia University. His poetry, fiction, and essays have appeared in many publications, including Arts and Letters, Prairie Schooner, Shenandoah, Willow Springs, The Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide, Crab Orchard Review, and Appalachian Heritage. He has published three award-winning poetry chapbooks, Bliss, Mountain Fireflies, and Flint Shards from Sussex; five full-length books of poetry, Bones Washed with Wine, On the Tongue, Ash: Poems from Norse Mythology, A Romantic Mann, and Rebels; two collections of personal essays, Edge: Travels of an Appalachian Leather Bear and Binding the God: Ursine Essays from the Mountain South; three novellas, Devoured, included in Masters of Midnight: Erotic Tales of the Vampire,Camp Allegheny, included in History’s Passion: Stories of Sex Before Stonewall, and The Saga of Einar and Gisli, included in On the Run: Tales of Gay Pursuit and Passion; five novels, Fog: A Novel of Desire and Reprisal, which won the Pauline Réage Novel Award, Purgatory: A Novel of the Civil War, which won a Rainbow Award, Cub, Country, and Salvation: A Novel of the Civil War, which won both a Lambda Literary Award and the Pauline Réage Novel Award; a book of poetry and memoir, Loving Mountains, Loving Men; and three volumes of short fiction, Desire and Devour: Stories of Blood and Sweat, Consent: Bondage Tales, and A History of Barbed Wire, which won a Lambda Literary Award. In 2013, he was inducted into the Saints and Sinners Literary Festival Hall of Fame. He teaches creative writing at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Karlié Rodríguez is a writer, translator, and theorist from Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. Their work has appeared in American Book Review, Rogue Agent, Sabanas Magazine, and a/b: Auto/Biography Studies. It is also forthcoming in El humor es cosa seria, a Puerto Rican anthology of humorous writing. Their geographical time is split between Georgia, Florida, and Puerto Rico.

Poor Queer Studies: Matt Brim in Conversation
2020-10-23 18:00 - 19:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Join Matt Brim (Professor of Queer Studies, College of Staten Island, CUNY) for a conversation about his new book, Poor Queer Studies: Confronting Elitism in the University, with Melissa Maldonado-Salcedo (Department of Anthropology, NYU), Justin T. Brown (Executive Director of CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies, CUNY Graduate Center), and Greg Newton (co-founder of the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division).
In Poor Queer Studies Matt Brim shifts queer studies away from its familiar sites of elite education toward poor and working-class people, places, and pedagogies. Brim shows how queer studies also takes place beyond the halls of flagship institutions: in night school; after a three-hour commute; in overflowing classrooms at no-name colleges; with no research budget; without access to decent food; with kids in tow; in a state of homelessness. Drawing on the everyday experiences of teaching and learning queer studies at the College of Staten Island, Brim outlines the ways the field has been driven by the material and intellectual resources of those institutions that neglect and rarely serve poor and minority students. By exploring poor and working-class queer ideas and laying bare the structural and disciplinary mechanisms of inequality that suppress them, Brim jumpstarts a queer-class knowledge project committed to anti-elitist and anti-racist education. Poor Queer Studies is essential for all of those who care about the state of higher education and building a more equitable academy.
This is a free event, but donations to support the Bureau’s work are always welcome! You can make a donation when you register for the event. Thank you for your support!
Click here to register

Matt Brim is professor of queer studies at the City University of New York’s College of Staten Island and The Graduate Center. He writes about queer class and race relations in the academy, as well as queer literature and culture. His most recent book, Poor Queer Studies: Confronting Elitism in the University (Duke UP, 2020), reorients the field of queer studies away from exclusionary institutions of higher education and toward working-class colleges, students, theories, and pedagogies.

Melissa Maldonado-Salcedo is a medical anthropologist, experimental ethnographer, and artist who writes about Latin America and Latinx communities. Her work intersects gender and sexuality, health, justice, and art with a focus on immigrant/diasporic communities and identity. She earned her doctorate from The Graduate Center, CUNY, and currently teaches in the NYU department of anthropology and in the department of Technology, Culture, and Society (Tandon School of Engineering).

Justin T. Brown, PhD, MPH , is the executive director of CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies at The Graduate Center, CUNY. He is an associate professor of health sciences at LaGuardia Community College, CUNY, as well as Program Director for the Public & Community Health Program. Brown teaches courses in public health and human services. His collaborative research focuses on addressing health inequities among persons of color, LGBTQ, and youth.

Greg Newton co-founded the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division with his partner, Donnie Jochum, in 2012. Together they have worked with volunteers to continuously operate this queer bookstore, event space, and cultural center in New York City. Prior to establishing the Bureau, Newton completed his coursework and examinations for a PhD in art history at the CUNY Graduate Center while serving as an instructor and coordinator of the first year writing course at Parsons The New School for Design.

Story Time and Conversation with Lisa Robinson and Lauren Simkin Berke
2020-10-22 19:00 - 20:00 | NY
Join us for story time with author Lisa Robinson and illustrator Lauren Simkin Berke of the new picture book Were I Not A Girl: The Inspiring and True Story of Dr. James Barry.
This unique picture book biography illuminates a lesser known 19th century figure important to LGBTQ+ history. Dr. James Barry, a transgender British military surgeon, was a tireless advocate for improving health care for marginalized individuals, performed one of the first documented cesarean sections in which both mother and child survived, and ultimately achieved the title Inspector General of Hospitals. Assigned female at birth, James chafed at the constraints of the time that prevented him from going to school, owning property, and becoming a doctor or soldier. At the age of 19 James cut his hair, changed from a dress into a suit, and left his earlier life and identity. He went on to attend medical school and made his childhood dreams come true of becoming a surgeon in the British Army.
Backmatter includes additional details about Dr. Barry’s personal and professional life as well as a brief discussion of the concept of gender as a spectrum.
This is a free event, but donations of any amount to support the Bureau’s work are very much appreciated! You can make a donation when you register for the event. Thank you for your support!
Registration on Eventbrite is required.
Click here to register

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

LISA ROBINSON is a physician and psychotherapist who lives near Boston. She is also the author of two fiction picture books, Pirates Don’t Go to Kindergarten and Pippa’s Night Parade, as well as another nonfiction picture book, Madame Saqui, Revolutionary Ropedancer. Visit her at author-lisa-robinson.com.

LAUREN SIMKIN BERKE is an award-winning illustrator, working with clients such as The New York Times, Smithsonian magazine, and Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance. Berke’s artwork has graced covers of books such as Katie Rain Hill’s Rethinking Normal, the Paris Review’s The Writer’s Chapbook, and the first edition of Susan Stryker’s Transgender History. This is their first picture book. Visit them at simkinberke.com.

TELL 66: Shiny Objects
2020-10-17 18:00 - 19:30 | NY
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.
Shiny Objects is the theme of the 66th TELL, on Saturday, October 17, 2020, 6 to 7:30 PM (EST). Featuring Caresse Fernandez, Dima Mikhayel Matta, Kate McDonough, and Zo Tipp.
The event will take place on Zoom.
This is a free event, but you must register on the Eventbrite page in advance of the event in order to receive the Zoom meeting link.
Donations for the performers and the Bureau are much appreciated!
Make a donation when you register on the Eventbrite page.
https://tinyurl.com/y5vpjqcz

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

Caresse (kuh·reese) Fernandez is a storyteller currently residing on unceded Tongva territory in Long Beach, CA. She has had poetry and prose featured in publications such as MERCADO VICENTE and is currently working on telling stories through film and TV. Her experiences as a queer Filipina-American inform much of her writing around themes of identity in the diaspora and mental health.
When she isn’t writing, Caresse can be found telling stories through dance, desperately tending to the many house plants she had ambitiously accumulated in quarantine, or creating superfluous portmanteau puns (much to her partner’s dismay).

Dima Mikhayel Matta is a Beirut-based writer and actress. She received a Fulbright scholarship and completed her MFA in creative writing from Rutgers University in 2013. She has been acting for the stage since 2006. In 2014, she founded Cliffhangers, the first bilingual storytelling platform in Lebanon, and hosts monthly storytelling events along with parallel events such as storytelling workshops and performances. Cliffhangers is a non-profit initiative that aims to give a platform for marginalized voices and serves as a safe space for people to share their stories. Her first play, “This is not a memorized script, this is a well-rehearsed story,” an autobiographical play on queerness and her relationship with the city toured in London, New York, and Belfast, and premiered in Beirut in February 2020. She is currently working on her second play.

Kate McDonough is a performing artist, writer, storyteller and community organizer. Kate’s work explores generational cycles violence, healing and transformation through the documentation of family members personal stories. Kate is also currently working on sci fi series about cats.
Kate has been organizing in New York City and state for over a decade and they are currently the Director of Dignity in Schools Campaign-NY, a citywide multi stakeholder education justice coalition. Kate grew up in the Bronx and currently lives in Brooklyn.

Zo Tipp (they/them) is a jewish-japanese-american queer actor/singer. NY: INTAR: Bundle of Sticks, CSC/Oregon Shakes: Play On! festival, Rattlestick: Pride Plays. Upcoming screenings at NewFest 2020: Top and Bottom (Angela Cheng), Sideways Smile (Hang Nguyen), Dissonance (Kim Garcia). IG: @zotipp www.zotipp.com

Compassion Is Worth More! Online Book Launch with Edafe Okporo and Guest Eric Cervini
2020-10-16 18:00 - 19:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Join us for an evening of inspiration, wisdom, and empowerment with Edafe Okporo to celebrate the release of his new book Compassion Is Worth More! Using Your Civil Power to Create Change. Edafe will be joined in conversation by Eric Cervini, author of The Deviant’s War.
Our modern-day polarized world requires civil leaders who care deeply about understanding the people they serve. If you are worried about the state of the world, you have surely wondered how we might solve today’s biggest problems, such as climate change, or the global refugee crisis. Imagine leaving your house this morning and driving to work. Your route usually takes you over a bridge, but when you get to that spot, you discover the bridge has collapsed! What would you do? Bridges are meant to connect us, to help us surmount obstacles. Great leaders use their civil power to create change by serving as bridges for others. It takes courage to do this, and I want to share with you the experiences I have had in my years of being a bridge for others to empower you to be a better civil leader.
This is a free event, but donations of any amount to support the Bureau’s work are very much appreciated! You can make a donation when you register for the event. Thank you for your support!
Registration is required. Click on the link below to register:
Click here to register

Purchase Edafe Okporo’s Compassion Is Worth More! (Xlibris, 2020, hardcover, $24.99) from the Bureau

Purchase Eric Cervini’s The Deviant’s War (FSG, 2020, hardcover, $35) from the Bureau
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from our online store!

Edafe Okporo has always been a leader in times of difficulty, migrating from Nigeria to the United States as a refugee, overcoming great obstacles, and now leading a movement of building a compassionate society. Okporo is a luminary and an advocate for the rights of marginalized people. He is passionate about building bridges and extending a hand to communities in need.

Eric Cervini is an award-winning historian of LGBTQ+ history. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College and received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Cambridge, where he was a Gates Scholar. The Deviant’s War is his first book.

Jarboe, Purnell, and Pratt Read New Work
2020-10-01 18:00 - 19:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Readings of new work by Julian K. Jarboe (Everyone on the Moon is Essential Personnel), Brontez Purnell (100 Boyfriends) and David Pratt (Two Plays: The Snow Queen, November Door).
Registration is required. Click on the link below to register:
https://tinyurl.com/y2zqq62o

This event is free, but donations to support the Bureau’s work are very much appreciated. You can make a donation when you register on Eventbrite. Thank you for your support!

Both Everyone on the Moon is Essential Personnel (Lethe Press, 2020, paperback, $15) and Two Plays: The Snow Queen, November Door (Hosta Press, 2020, paperback, $15) are available for purchase from the Bureau. Click on either title to purchase. (And if you’d like David to sign the book, please let us know in the order comments section when you check out. Just be sure to include the name you’d like him to use for the inscription.)
100 Boyfriends (MCD x FSG, paperback, $15) will be released February 2, 2021. To pre-order the book from the Bureau click here.

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

Julian K. Jarboe is the author of the collection Everyone on the Moon is Essential Personnel. More of their work can be found at juliankjarboe.com and on Twitter @JulianKJarboe. They live in Salem, Massachusetts.
David Pratt is the author of four novels (including a Lammy Award winner), a book of short stories, and several theater pieces. He has performed at Dixon Place, HERE and other venues in NYC, and at The Forge in Detroit. He is currently collaborating with Michigan artist Niki Williams on a series of 16 zines collectively titled The Book of Humiliation.
Brontez Purnell is a writer, musician, dancer, filmmaker, and performance artist. He is the author of a graphic novel, a novella, a children’s book, and the novel Since I Laid My Burden Down. The recipient of a 2018 Whiting Writers’ Award for Fiction, he was named one of the thirty-two Black Male Writers of Our Time by T: The New York Times Style Magazine in 2018. Purnell is also the frontman for the band the Younger Lovers, a cofounder of the experimental dance group the Brontez Purnell Dance Company, the creator of the renowned cult zine Fag School, and the director of several short films, music videos, and the documentary Unstoppable Feat: The Dances of Ed Mock. Born in Triana, Alabama, he’s lived in Oakland, California, for more than a decade.

Voices of LGBTQ+: Let’s Start a Positive Conversation
2020-09-26 18:00 - 19:00 | NY
Why do so many people reject those who are different?
Though the mainstream acceptance of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, and Queer community has made great improvements over the past few years, many groups within our society still respond to the LGBTQ+ community with an overwhelming reaction of “us” vs. “them.” Despite the progress that has been made, hatred, misunderstanding, aggression, animosity, and violence still affect this community on a deep level. A strong ally, Lynda Wolters knows firsthand: she has come to have a deep respect for the community through her son, who is gay.
Including highly personal anecdotes, Voices of LGBTQ+: A Conversation Starter for Understanding, Supporting, and Protecting Gay, Bi, Trans, and Queer People outlines some of the most critical challenges the community faces today, with insights into:
• Homelessness
• Hate crimes
• Suicide
• Economic challenges
• Discrimination and lack of equality
• Religious and biblical conflicts
Though judgment and divisiveness still run deep, Wolters highlights the first key distinction that will help eradicate bigotry: those who are different are not choosing to be, they simply are, and it’s our differences that make us stronger. Voices of LGBTQ+ helps educate, dispel fears, and start positive conversations about what knowing, loving, or simply peacefully and positively coexisting with someone in the LGBTQ+ community truly means.
This is a free event, but the authors encourage attendees to make a donation of any amount to support the Bureau’s work. You can make a donation when you register for the event. Thank you for your support!
Registration for this event is required.
Click here to register
On the day of the event, Saturday, September 26, the Bureau will send an email to all who have registered with the link to the event on Zoom.
Paintings featured in the event flyer and on the book cover by Chris Taylor.
@artistchris on Instagram

Purchase Voices of LGBTQ+ from the Bureau!
Mascot Books, 2020, Hardcover, $24.95

Participants:
Lynda was born and raised in a tiny farming community of four hundred in northern Idaho, where she worked on the family farm. After high school, she traveled to New York to be a nanny for a few months before moving to Las Vegas to further her education. She moved back home to Idaho to raise her three sons while working in the legal field, a career that spanned over thirty years.
Watching her gay son navigate the LGBTQ+ community and the world in general, Lynda recognized a need to educate through a parent’s eye, what LGBTQ+ people endure that others are immune or ignorant to simply because of gender identity or sexual orientation.
Lynda lives in Boise, Idaho, with her husband and long-haired dachshund, Tucker “Bug,” where she spends her days writing and volunteering.
Voices of LGBTQ+ is the second in the Voices Book Series, following the successful, Voices of Cancer.

Shannon grew up in a very conservative sector of Eastern Idaho where it was not encouraged or allowed to live an authentic life if that life were different than outwardly perceived.
Shannon attended the University of Idaho where she graduated Summa Cum Laude with a bachelors degree in electrical engineering and has worked in the STEM field for twenty years. She is a Senior Member of Technical Staff managing a team of software developers for an international company.
As a transgender woman, Shannon proudly represents her community and strives to be a positive example for other women and girls like her.

When asked to describe himself, Hunter’s initial comment is, “I am kind.” Finishing up his bachelors in molecular biology, Hunter has worked his way through school as a server and barista, working most recently as a regional trainer for a large, national coffee chain.
When not studying or working, Hunter enjoys all things outdoors and has a newfound interest in ballet, recently being cast as Beast in a Beauty and the Beast production.
Hunter is a gay man who lives comfortably out to the world. He shares his time and space with his two fur-babies.

TELL 65: Money
2020-09-19 18:00 - 19:15 | NY
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.
Money is the theme of the 65th TELL, on Saturday, September 19, 2020, 6 to 7:15 PM (EST). Featuring Nina Ki, E. Leifer, and TL Thompson.
The event will take place on Zoom.
This is a free event, but you must register on the Eventbrite page in advance of the event in order to receive the Zoom meeting link.
Donations for the performers and the Bureau are much appreciated!
Make a donation when you register on the Eventbrite page.
https://tinyurl.com/y35upour

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

Nina Ki is a Queerean (Queer + Korean) American playwright who uses fantasy and magical realism to give voice to the communities that she belongs to. Originally from California, she now lives with her partner and three dogs in Brooklyn. She likes her dogs better than most people.

Coming from a background in the arts, E. Leifer started their career as a painter and scenic artist, transitioning into film production and creative direction. They expanded their skill sets by learning about marketing and business, and held positions as Product Styling Manager for Net-A-Porter, Mr. Porter and Director of Creative Production at Intermix. As a non-binary member of the trans community and veteran in the fashion industry, E. utilizes the culmination of all her experiences to learn and grow with the industry, as a brand consultant, photographer and the CDO/ Co- Owner of Play Out Apparel, a gender equal, social good enterprise that promotes diversity, inclusion and body positive marketing.

TL Thompson credits include: Broadway: Straight White Men(Person In Charge u/s),Second Stage Theater. Theater: Is This A Room?(Agent Taylor), Vineyard Theater. Waafrika 123(Aweeno), Criminal Queerness Festival. NERVOUS/SYSTEM(Pollster), BAM Next Wave. AFTER (Company)Public Theater Podcasts: Meet Cute Podcast. Adventures in New America. Welcome to Nightvale. Webseries: THESE/THEMS (TI), Dir. Jett Garrison. THE HUNTED(Nic), Dir. Crystal Arnette. Films: Flu$h (Wrex), Dir. Heather Acs. Friday Afternoon Dir. Paige Campbell. TL is also NY Neo Futurist, who performs frequently in The Infinite Wrench, an ongoing attempt to perform 30 plays in one hour. TLThompsonactor.com.

Bodies and Barriers: Editor Adrian Shanker in Conversation with Contributors
2020-09-17 19:00 - 20:30 | NY
Named by NBC News as one of “10 LGBTQ Books to watch out for in 2020” and by Book Riot as one of the “six best books addressing healthcare system inequities,” Bodies and Barriers: Queer Activists on Health is the first book written by LGBT healthcare consumers to inform the healthcare system and make it work more equitably for all of us. The critically-acclaimed book is structured chronologically to take the reader on a journey through the major stages of life for LGBT people. At this special virtual event hosted by the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, book editor Adrian Shanker and contributing authors Dr. Imani Woody, Atticus Ranck, Liz Margolies, and Laura Jacobs will speak about the importance of LGBTQ people sharing our healthcare experiences and advocating for health equity for the LGBTQ patient population.
Check out this article at Gay City News about Bodies and Barriers, which includes an interview with Adrian Shanker! “A Diverse, Collaborative Look at LGBTQ Health,” by Sharon Papo, posted on September 9, 2020.
This event is free, but donations to support the Bureau’s work are always welcome!
If you’d like to donate to the Bureau, you can do so when you register for the event on Eventbrite. Thank you for your support!
Registration for this event is required.
Click here to register

Participants:
Adrian Shanker is editor of Bodies and Barriers: Queer Activists on Health and executive director of Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center in Allentown, PA. A specialist in LGBT health policy, he developed leading-edge health promotion campaigns to advance health equity through behavioral, clinical, and policy changes. Adrian administered data collection for the 2015, 2018, and 2020 Pennsylvania LGBT Health Needs Assessments. Adrian serves as Commissioner and health committee co-chair on the Pennsylvania Commission on LGBTQ Affairs.

Atticus Ranck is the Health Program Education Coordinator with the New York State Department of Health AIDS Institute. He previously worked as the Health Programs and Supportive Services Manager at Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania and as director of Transgender Services for SunServe, an LGBT nonprofit mental health center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Atticus has trained over one thousand individuals on various aspects LGBT cultural competency over dozens of trainings across the country. Atticus earned his MA in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Florida Atlantic University and a BA in Creative Writing from Slippery Rock University. In his free time, Atticus enjoys building and restoring furniture and is a huge Harry Potter nerd.

Dr. Imani Woody is the founding director and CEO of Mary’s House for Older Adults, Inc. She has a PhD in Human Services, specializing in nonprofit management. Her thesis is titled Lift Every Voice: A Qualitative Exploration of Ageism and Heterosexism as Experienced by Older African American Lesbian Women and Gay Males When Addressing Social Services Needs. She holds an MA in Human Services from Lincoln University and is a graduate of Georgetown University’s paralegal program. Dr. Woody has been an advocate of women, people of color, and LGBT/SGL issues for more than twenty years and is a member of the National LGBT Elder Housing Initiative and the DC Mayor’s World Health Organization Age-Friendly Cities Commission. She is also the program officer for the Older Adults Advisory Council for Metropolitan Community Churches and a board member of the LGBT Technology Partnership. She lives with her wife of seventeen years in Brookland, Washington, DC.

Laura A. Jacobs, LCSW-R, is a trans- and genderqueer-identified psychotherapist, activist, author, and public speaker in the New York City area working with transgender and gender-nonbinary, LGBT, and alternate lifestyle communities of BDSM, non-monogamy, and sex work. They serve as chair of the board of directors for the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center in New York City, have been featured in television, radio, and print media, and have presented at countless community and healthcare conferences, professional associations, medical schools, and other organizations. Laura is the recipient of a 2018 Gay City News Impact Award, as well as the 2017 Dorothy Kartashovich Award from the Community Health Center Association of New York State. They are coauthor, with Laura Erickson-Schroth, of “You’re in the Wrong Bathroom!” and 20 Other Myths and Misconceptions about Transgender and Gender Nonconforming People. As Lawrence Jacobs, they worked as a musician, composer, photographer, and in less glamorous corporate middle management.

Liz Margolies, LCSW, founder and former executive director of the National LGBT Cancer Network, has served the LGBT community for over 40 years as a psychotherapist and political activist. Liz is a psychotherapist in private practice, specializing in trauma, loss, health disparities and sexuality. Margolies is a co-author on multiple peer-reviewed articles and chapters, several based on the Network’s original research on LGBT cancer survivors. As a result of her work for this underserved community, Margolies was chosen as one of the OUT100 in 2014.

Shani Mootoo in Conversation with John Elizabeth Stintzi
2020-09-15 19:00 - 20:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Shani Mootoo presents her latest novel Polar Vortex, in conversation with John Elizabeth Stintzi (Vanishing Monuments, Arsenal Pulp Press) in this virtual event hosted by the Bureau.
This is a free event, but the authors encourage attendees to make a donation of any amount to the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division.
Registration for this event is required.
Click here to register
On the day of the event, Tuesday, September 15, the Bureau will send an email to all who have registered with the link to the event on Zoom.
Purchase Polar Vortex from the Bureau!

Akashic Books, 2020, paperback, $16.95

Purchase Vanishing Monuments from the Bureau!Arsenal Pulp Press, 2020, paperback, $17.95

John Elizabeth Stintzi is a non-binary novelist and poet. They were the recipient of the 2019 RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers, and their work has appeared in Kenyon Review, The Malahat Review, and Ploughshares. They are the author of the novel Vanishing Monuments as well as the poetry collection Junebat.
Shani Mootoo is a novelist, poet, and visual artist. Her novels include Moving Forward Sideways Like a Crab, long-listed for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and short-listed for a Lambda Literary Award; Valmiki’s Daughter, long-listed for the Scotiabank Giller Prize; He Drown She in the Sea, long-listed for the Dublin Impac Award; and Cereus Blooms at Night, short-listed for several prizes including the Giller Prize, and long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. She is also a recipient of a Chalmers Arts Fellowship, and the Dr. James Duggins Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize.

TELL 64: My Queerantine
2020-08-15 18:00 - 19:15 | NY
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.
My Queerantine is the theme of the 64th TELL, on Saturday, August 15, 2020, 6 to 7:15 PM (EST). Featuring Mariel Reyes, Substantia Jones, and Bianca Dagga.
The event will take place on Zoom.
This is a free event, but you must register on the Eventbrite page in advance of the event in order to receive the Zoom meeting link.
Donations for the performers are much appreciated!
Make a donation when you register on the Eventbrite page.
https://tinyurl.com/yyqak6op

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

An art photographer since the ’80s, and a radio producer and host for the better part of 25 years, Substantia Jones became a photo-activist in 2007, launching the Body Politics campaign the Adipositivity Project, featuring her photos of those with non-conforming bodies (fat people, disabled folks, trans and genderqueer), always with the overwhelming focus on fat people. The website, adipositivity.com, hosts approximately 800 of her photographs of unapologetic naked fat people, and has been visited over 11 million times. She describes the project as “equal parts feminism, fuckyouism, and fat.” Her photography has been featured internationally in books, magazines, and news outlets, and has been exhibited in galleries and museums across the globe. She lectures about her Fat Liberation work in schools, universities, museums, and conferences, but storytelling kind of scares her, so please be gentle.

Mariel Reyes is an Queer Afrolatinx performance artist & producer, with works based out of some of your favorite experimental theater spaces in NYC (Dixon Place, Brooklyn Arts Exchange) She has also appeared on screen in the film “Appropriate Behaviour” which premiered at Sundance in 2014 and the award winning web series “The Feels” currently in its third season.

Bianca Dagga is a fierce, queer multi-cultural burlesque performer based in NYC. Since stepping into the spotlight in 2009, Bianca has toured the country gracing stages all over the U.S. map. In February 2016 she made her international debut in Macau, China with Brown Girls Burlesque. In September 2019 Bianca was featured in the Taormina Burlesque Festival, in Taormina, Italy. In 2014 she was crowned Princess Of Latin Burlesque at the inaugural Latin Burlesque Festival in Dallas, TX. She was awarded “sexiest burlesque performer”at GO! magazine’s lesbian nightlife awards in 2010.
All of Bianca’s acts speak true to who she is at her core. The Nuyorican Warrior Woman comes out in every hip roll, thrust, and twirl! When she is not on the burlesque stage, she is also a gogo and pole dancer. Aside from dance, Bianca is a professional art model, and a fine jeweler. Bianca stripteases for the sake of humanity, because at the end of the day when we take off our clothes, what is left is our minds, hearts, and souls.

Genevieve Hudson & Alden Jones: A Virtual Reading with the Bureau
2020-07-25 18:00 - 19:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Join the Bureau online for a reading with Genevieve Hudson (Boys of Alabama) and Alden Jones (The Wanting Was a Wilderness: Cheryl Strayed’s Wild and the Art of Memoir) on Saturday, July 25th, 6 to 7 PM EST.
Registration on Eventbrite is required. Register below:
https://tinyurl.com/y9k2ty4f
Genevieve Hudson will read from her new novel, Boys of Alabama. Melissa Febos says of Boys of Alabama: “This novel is a love song to outsiders of all kinds, a queer love story about the ways we find to heal ourselves and each other, and proof that there can be magic amid the burdens of masculinity. Hudson’s prose is perfect and I will remember her Boys of Alabama for a long, long time.”

Genevieve Hudson’s previous books are the critical memoir A Little in Love with Everyone, and Pretend We Live Here: Stories, which was a 2019 Lambda Literary Award finalist. She has received fellowships from the Fulbright Program, The MacDowell Colony, Caldera Arts, and The Vermont Studio Center. She lives in Portland, OR. genevievehudsonwriter.com
Alden Jones will read from her new bibliomemoir, The Wanting Was a Wilderness: Cheryl Strayed’s Wild and the Art of Memoir. Alex Marzano-Lesnevich says of The Wanting Was a Wilderness: “Alden Jones intended to write a reckoning with a contemporary literary classic — but she has written far more than that. To carefully dissect Wild, she finds she must consider her own quests: her own time in the wild; her self-discoveries as a queer woman; and how she can both live and tell an authentic story. This is a beautiful, lyric, unexpected book about the power of memoir and how desire both leads us into the wilderness and makes for us a map. The Wanting Was a Wilderness is a book for readers, true readers, to treasure.”

Alden Jones’s previous books are The Blind Masseuse, a finalist for the PEN Diamonstein-Spielvogal Award, and Unaccompanied Minors, winner of the New American Fiction Prize and a finalist for a Lambda and a Publishing Triangle Award. She teaches at Emerson College and is core faculty in the Newport MFA. aldenjones.com

This event is free, but the authors and the Bureau ask attendees to make a donation of $10 or more to NYC’s LGBT Community Center if you have the means to do so.
RSVP on Eventbrite in order to receive the link to the Zoom meeting (required).
Order Hudson’s Boys of Alabama (Liveright Publishing, May 19, 2020, hardcover, $26.95) from the Bureau. Send us an email with “Order Hudson’s Boys of Alabama” in the subject line at contact@bgsqd.com. Please include:
Name:
Ship-to address:
Phone number:
Venmo or PayPal handle:
(or we can take your credit card info over the phone)

Order Jones’s The Wanting Was a Wilderness (Fiction Advocate, May 12, 2020, paperback, $19.95) directly from the publisher:
https://fictionadvocate.com/afterwords/the-wanting-was-a-wilderness/

Author Matthew Burgess Discusses Drawing on Walls: A Story of Keith Haring
2020-07-24 18:00 - 19:00 | NY
Join the Bureau online for a conversation about Keith Haring’s life, art, and lasting cultural influence with author of Drawing on Walls: A Story of Keith Haring, Matthew Burgess, and special guest, author Tom Eubanks (Ghosts of St. Vincent’s).
This event is free, but registration on Eventbrite is required. We will send out the link to the event on the day of the event.
Registration link: https://tinyurl.com/yc5zcdxk

About the book:
Drawing on Walls: A Story of Keith Haring
Matthew Burgess, Author
Josh Cochran, Illustrator
Enchanted Lion Books, May 19, 2020, Hardcover, $18.95
Target Age Group: 5 to 13
Purchase Drawing on Walls: A Story of Keith Haring from Enchanted Lion Books

From the publisher:
“Truly devoted to the idea of public art, Haring created murals wherever he went.
“From Matthew Burgess, the much-acclaimed author of Enormous Smallness, comes Drawing on Walls: A Story of Keith Haring. Often seen drawing in white chalk on the matte black paper of unused advertising space in the subway, Haring’s iconic pop art and graffiti-like style transformed the New York City underground in the 1980s. A member of the LGBTQ community, Haring died tragically at the age of thirty-one from AIDS-related complications. Illustrated in paint by Josh Cochran, himself a specialist in bright, dense, conceptual drawings, this honest, celebratory book honors Haring’s life and art, along with his very special connection with kids.”

“Thirty years after Keith Haring’s death of AIDS-related complications, this vibrant picture book brings the iconic pop artist’s work and story to the hearts of a new generation. Often featuring a bold black line, Cochran’s painterly illustrations drive the narrative–bursting with movement and color–utilizing a wide variety of perspectives and both spot and full-bleed illustrations to dance around the text in a suitably neo-expressionist tribute to the subject. Stylized and simplified figures fill the pages with smiling faces in a broad spectrum of skin tones and body types, opening the door on Haring’s passionately held belief that ‘Art is for everybody.’ Without erasing or dwelling on any particular aspect of Haring’s personal life, author Burgess outlines Haring’s relationships with art, with children, and with his partner, Juan DuBose, in straightforward, accessible language–from his childhood in Pennsylvania to his ‘final mark’ in Pisa, Italy (five months before his death)–with the same bold honesty and vibrance visible in his subject’s art career. Biographical, author’s, and illustrator’s notes back up the book, supplementing the broad strokes of the text with finer detail and more individual perspectives on Haring’s personal, political, and artistic legacies. An inspired, and inspiring, continuation of Haring’s intention.” –Kirkus

Matthew Burgess is an Assistant Professor at Brooklyn College. He is the author of a poetry collection, Slippers for Elsewhere (UpSet Press, 2014), and three children’s books: Enormous Smallness: A Story of E. E. Cummings (Enchanted Lion Books, 2015), The Unbudgeable Curmudgeon (Knopf, 2019), and the newly released Drawing on Walls: A Story of Keith Haring (ELB, 2020). He has edited an anthology of visual art and writing titled Dream Closet: Meditations on Childhood Space (Secretary Press, 2016), as well as a recent collection titled Spellbound: The Art of Teaching Poetry (Teachers & Writers Collaborative, 2019). More books are forthcoming, including The Bear and The Moon (Chronicle, 2020), Make Meatballs Sing: The Life & Art of Corita Kent (ELB, 2021), and Bird Boy (Knopf, 2021). A poet-in-residence in New York City public schools since 2001, Matthew also serves as a contributing editor of Teachers & Writers Magazine.
